"Come on Usagi, you can't honestly say you're not looking forward to it a little bit?"

"Hmm?"

"She's pining again."

"Pinch her."

"Ow!"

"See, I knew that would work!" Minako cackled gleefully as Usagi rubbed her arm where Rei had pinched it.

"That hurt," she scowled at them.

"It was supposed to," Rei replied as she leant back against the wall, "you weren't listening again."

"You really should listen, Usagi," Ami joined in, "you could miss something important."

"Like what? There haven't been any phages since Galaxia left, and we can't even transform anymore! To be honest I'm looking forward to some peace and quiet more than a little."

"Usagi, that's what we were all talking about," Makoto giggled as she flicked the pages of her magazine – since they weren't fighting all the time she had found more opportunity to pursue her hobbies. The magazine in question was about flower arrangement.

"Oh, right…"

"Spill Usagi, you just miss Mamoru." A red tinge began to creep up Usagi's face, but she was spared any further question by a knock on the door. Rei pushed herself to her feet and opened it, revealing four people the girls had not expected to see for a few years at the very least.

Setsuna did not wait to be invited, but lead Hotaru straight into the room, shortly followed by Haruka and Michiru. "We're sorry if we're interrupting anything," Setsuna looked gravely around the room.

"No, nothing much," Usagi said a little too quickly. Setsuna's lips quirked up a little, but her smile did not reach her eyes.

"I'm afraid you won't much like my news."

"What?" Makoto's eyes had snapped to the red ones of the senshi before her. "Galaxia?"

"No… not her…"

"But there's something, isn't there?" Minako felt her heart beat quicken – they couldn't even transform, how on earth were they meant to fight?

"Yes and no…"

"Oh just get on with it Setsuna," Haruka said, "or I'll tell them."

"Very well – have you girls ever heard of Hogwarts?"

"Umm… What now?" Usagi reached over to the table and picked up a small cake, eating it in a single bite.

"It's a school – a school of magic."

"Uh huh…"

"And there are things happening there this year that threaten the future we have striven for so long to protect – they threaten the creation of Crystal Tokyo itself!"

"So it's serious then?" Ami had bookmarked her textbook and was looking at Setsuna with narrowed eyes.

"I'd most definitely say so.

"So what are we gonna do about it? Walk up to the gate and ask 'em to let us in?" Usagi was more than a little confused.

"Oh no, that won't be necessary – we've already got places."

"What? How?"

"This year Britain, which is where the school is located, is having a huge drive for international magical cooperation – we're going as transfer students."

"But I don't speak English!" Usagi's face was a mask of terror, "how will I understand anything!"

"There's no need to worry about that – one of the many powers your broach grants you is one that will help you to fit in. You will merely hear them in Japanese, and they will hear you in English."

"Umm.. I have a question?" Ami nearly raised her hand before she thought better of it. "What happens to our education here? And wont our parents ask questions?"

"We've sorted that," Michiru chipped in, "letters detailing the fantastic scholarships you've all earned are on their way to your parents right now."

"Huh… But won't we be a bit behind at this school? What sort of magic do they have – is it like ours, or different? And how can we fit in if our powers are dormant?"

Setsuna sighed, "I think it might be easier to show you."

"As if the sailor teleport still works!" Minako squealed as they appeared in what seemed to be the back yard of a grotty pub.

"From now on, refer to it as apparition," Setsuna reprimanded, "and it works only because some of us can still perform the Henshin."

"What? Who!"

"I can," Hotaru's voice was quiet.

"As can I," Setsuna said, "Now come." She faced the wall at the back of the yard, and the girls exchanged glances, meaning they missed what she did next. When they looked back, however, there was a large arch forming out of the bricks of the wall.

"Ok, that's more than a little cool." Usagi decided.

"Follow me," Setsuna told them, "we should stick close." The alley they moved into next was full of life, people in strange clothes moving from ice cream parlours to bookshops to what looked like an apothecary. Usagi could only hear brief snatches of their conversations, but what they were saying seemed more than a little intriguing.

"That dark mark! At the quiddich world cup no less!"

"You don't think... not you know who?"

"No... just some deatheaters... right?"

"We need to do some shopping to equip all of us," she glanced at Haruka and Michiru, "for your year at Hogwarts."

"What sort of stuff do we need?" Ami was looking around, her blue eyes eager to take in as much of the bizarre street as possible.

"Well, first things first we'll need wands."

"Wands? They actually use wands?" Rei's shout attracted more than a few odd looks.

"Yes, they do. Please warn us next time you plan on making us so conspicuous." Setsuna reprimanded her.

"Sorry," Rei had the sense to look ashamed.

"Right, now follow me." Setsuna lead them to the most dilapidated shop on the street. They wouldn't all fit inside, so Setsuna sent the inner senshi in first while she and the others waited outside.

"This should be enough gold to buy each of you the required wand," she said, handing Makoto a weighty bag. "Good luck."

"Good luck?" Makoto gulped, and headed inside the dusty shop.

It was silent, and very dusty inside the shop. Even Usagi, who had admittedly been unusually quiet since they reached the magical alley, did not break the stillness of the place.

"Usually, when students enter my shop, they aren't looking for anything specific. You ladies, however, are something new… or maybe something old…"

"Erm… are you Mr Ollivander?" Ami asked tentatively, remembering the name on the front of the shop.

"Yes, that I am. You have come here looking for something… curious…"

"Well I don't know what you mean, but… we wanted wands…" Makoto tried to see where the voice was coming from, but the shadows in the shop were preventing her from seeing him.

Then, very suddenly, an old man loomed out of the shadows. In his arms he carried a wooden box which he set upon the counter. Tentatively, he clicked the lock open, as though he were afraid of the contents.

"These are not wands I made myself," he told them. "They have been sitting in the back of the shop for many hundreds of years, since the time of the fabled silver millennium," Usagi shot a nervous glance at the others.

"The wands themselves are full of mystery, each on containing the ability to channel the power of the planets themselves. In the wrong hands," he shuddered, "deadly."

He reached into the box and pulled out the first box, plainly carved from wood. "They do not have, as most wands should, a core of magical property. Instead the wands themselves are the core, for each is carved out of a different enchanted material. The first is of a metal I have never quite been able to identify." He took the lid from the box and held the wand up for them to see. "This, I do believe, is for you." He replaced it into its box and handed it to Minako, who nodded.

"This next one seems to be made of ice, and yet it has not ever shown the slightest sign of melting. For you." He held the box out to Ami."

"And here we move closer to a realm I am familiar to, a wand made from the wood of an oak tree, although no tree I have ever seen has produced wood of such an auspicious quality." He passed the box to Makoto.

"This wand is made from the embers of a great fire, smouldering still and yet they do not burn." He passed the box to Rei.

Then there are four more of similar properties, I imagine for the companions you arrived with – one supposedly carved from the mythical 'space/time door', another containing the howling seas. One is hardly there at all, but seemingly made of wind made solid and one… a black wand created from the silence that ends all things."

"Erm… Mr Olivander," Usagi stuttered, "I still need a wand."

"Aah, the final and most mysterious wand of the lot." Carefully, Olivander reached into the box and drew out a final box. "My father once told me that this wand was made of many things. Of moonlight and shadow, the remnants of the moon palace and of love itself. Fanciful tales of course, but curious nonetheless."

Usagi reached forward and took the wand. It shimmered slightly silver even in the dim light of the shop. She barely registered as Makoto paid him with the large gold coins Setsuna had given her, which seemed to cover the wands for the outer senshi too. Her eyes were fixed upon the solidified moonlight under her fingers, and the potential held within.