Gajeel tried to pry her off for a moment but Juvia's grip seemed to be more iron than his own in his case, obscurely. So he just breathed heavily through his nose and muttered, "Yeah… it's good to see you too, I guess, rain woman."
...
Juvia smiled into Gajeel's chest - as her only friend from before she met Fairy Tail, Gajeel was the only one who could call her a rain woman without upsetting her. Well, of course Gray could do it too if he wanted. Gray could call her anything. And despite Gajeel's aversion to anyone showing him affection, she knew how to read him and could tell he was actually greatly relieved she was okay.
And then Lisanna bounded out of the fireplace with considerably more grace than the other two, but she still almost knocked Gray over again because the Ice Mage had only just finished getting back to his feet. "Whoops. Sorry, Gray," she chuckled as she helped steady him. "Didn't mean to hit you. I…" She paused when she suddenly realised who was in the room. "Huh…?"
"Lisanna-san, thank goodness your okay," Wendy clapped her hands together before suddenly Happy whooshed over her shoulder with a cry of:-
"LISAAAANNNAAAAAAAA!"
"Everyone! Happy!" Lisanna exulted as she seized the blue Exceed and held him close, rubbing her cheek against the top of his head as Happy bawled his eyes out. "Thank the heavens, you're okay."
"Wonder what else is going to be thanked before the night is up," Aberforth muttered to himself, but fortunately neither Lisanna nor Happy heard him.
"Lisanna, you're back! You're safe. I was worried that we might lose you for another two years!" Happy cried. "Just after we got you back!"
"I know the feeling Happy," Lisanna smiled as she rubbed between the cat's ears affectionately. "I was having similar thoughts. But it's alright. We're together again now and we can make sure that it doesn't happen again, right?"
"Aye…" Happy sniffled, looking up at her with earnest eyes. "And you can help us find Natsu right? We need to get him back. Him and Lucy and Erza and all the others."
"Natsu's not here then?" Lisanna asked, her face falling slightly as she looked up at the room. All three Exceed were present and Gajeel and Wendy were both clearly here so she'd been hoping the third Dragon Slayer would also be around.
"No. We don't know where he is," Happy whimpered. "We don't know where any of the others are."
"Is this all from your group?" Gajeel asked.
"This is all, yes," Gray nodded. "Professor Dumbledore here told us that Wendy would be here when we came. We weren't expecting the rest of you though. There's nobody else here from the guild?"
"None," Pantherlily confirmed. "All we know is that they're somewhere in this universe."
"Yeah, we know that too, Lily-san," Juvia nodded.
Lisanna smiled sadly and looked down at Happy, holding him closer than even before. "Don't worry, Happy. We'll find him again. I promise. In fact, I'll more than promise. I'll make sure of it."
"Aye… me too," Happy nodded, as Lisanna stood up, still holding him in her arms.
"Well, with all of us here that makes eight Fairy Tail members," Gray noted. "Not even half of the ones that were on Tenroujima accounted for."
"How many of us were there again?" Wendy tried to count on her fingers.
"Twenty-one," Mavis replied instantly. "Twenty-two if you include me."
"Oh, that's right. We haven't introduced you yet," Charla noted.
"Introduced who?" Aberforth asked grumpily. "Is there some reason you're staring into thin air, White Cat?"
Dumbledore chuckled. "Unless I am very much mistaken, there is an ghost that you and I, brother, can neither see nor hear hovering right there. And I believe her name would be Mavis Vermilion, would it not?"
"Indeed it would," Charla nodded.
"So, its true," Gray murmured, a look of awe crossing his face. "It really was you who saved us from Acnologia."
"Not merely me," Mavis shook her head. "I activated the spell certainly but I have very little magical power in this form. Certainly not enough to cast a Fairy Sphere big enough to contain the island. I used the bonds of friendship between you and drew on your own shared magical power to activate it."
"Well, regardless, your actions saved our lives," Lisanna smiled. "Who would have thought that even after all this time you'd still be watching Fairy Tail's back?"
"Juvia agrees. And Juvia wants to thank First Mavis for creating Fairy Tail. Without it, Juvia's life might still be miserable."
"More than my pleasure," Mavis said. "But let's see if I can work up what limited magic I do possess so that people besides those with the mark can see me." She extended her hands to the sides, closed her eyes and glowed briefly and suddenly, with a smoky *foof* noise she became visible to both the Dumbledore brothers.
"Ah, there you are," Albus smiled. "The pleasure is all mine, Master Mavis."
"Just how much more crowded is my bar going to get?" Aberforth moaned.
Mavis ignored the younger brother's protest and curtsied in mid-air. "Good evening."
"You are certainly not like any ghost I have ever encountered," Dumbledore noted. "All the ghosts at my school, and indeed every other ghost in this world, are utterly intangible, transparent and colourless."
"You have a school?" Mavis' eyes brightened slightly. "Oh wow. Would that be that castle back across the lake?"
"Indeed it would," Dumbledore nodded, and he didn't fail to notice that Gajeel was suddenly looking rather awkward.
Mavis, on the other hand, immediately beamed and said, "Oh wow, a place of learning. You must have a lot of books there. I like books. I used to read a lot of them when I was a child. I didn't really have much else to do for quite a while. Hey wait… do you have fairies in this world?"
"Yes, indeed we do."
"REALLY!?" Mavis gasped and spun around on the spot several times giddily. "You've seen them?"
"Many times yes."
"Can I see them too? I love fairies."
"Oh I'm sure you'll get the chance. In fact around Christmas time we gather them in the castle and allow them to flit around at their leisure."
"That's amazing! What's Christmas?"
"Oh, you don't have it? Have you perhaps heard of Yule instead?"
"Oh yes, we have that!"
"Well, we also call that time of year Christmas. And if you are still around by then I will ensure that the castle is filled with fairies for the occasion."
"YAY!" Mavis backflipped happily, before then her expression turned much more serious and she asked. "Do they have tails?"
"Ah yes, this was something I gleaned from Wendy - the name of your guild being that nobody knows if fairies in your world have tails because they have never seen them, meaning it is an eternal mystery and adventure. Well, I am sorry to inform you that in our world, they do not have tails. That are very much tailless."
"Oh, how interesting. But then again, magic and dragons between our two worlds are very different so there is no guarantee our fairies are the same as yours."
"Very true. Mister Gajeel, is there something that you want to say?"
"Er… yeah, you own the castle, right? Well… I should mention I think you need to fix your gates. And a wall and some glass. And I reckon one of the people there might need to be treated for shock or something. Heck, I dunno. The point is, I busted in. And then this bird came and brought us here before I started trashing things… more."
"You got in through the wards? Impressive. How did you manage that?"
"I ate through the gates."
"Excuse me, you what?" Aberforth coughed.
"Ah, I see," Dumbledore nodded. "Yes, indeed we didn't have any wards to cover that. Thank you, Gajeel - I will be sure to sort that out. But for now, more explanations may be at hand."
And that was how the the rest of the active Fairy Tail members learned about the existence of Voldemort and about the promise that Gray, Lisanna and Juvia had all made to help in the fight against him for as long as they happened to be in this world.
"That's just typical, isn't it?" Gajeel muttered, rolling his eyes. "You'd think after we got involved in sorting out Edolas we'd at least be able to stick to the problems of our own world but apparently not."
"You don't want to help, Gajeel?" Lily looked up at him.
"I didn't say that. I think it might be fun," Gajeel grinned toothily. "I was just remarking that this guild really does seem to find trouble no matter where the heck we go."
"It certainly seems that way, doesn't it?" Lisanna said wryly.
"Hold on a minute," Charla objected. "We're really considering this? I mean, don't get me wrong I'm extremely grateful for the help of the people of this world, especially in looking after Wendy. But this fight is no business of ours. Why should we put our lives on the line when we should be focusing solely on finding the others and getting home."
"Charla, that's not the way we do it," Wendy knelt down next to her. "After these guys helped us so much how can we not help them in return."
"They're asking us to help them fight a war," Charla shook her head. "If you want to repay a debt there are other things you can do to settle things, rather than throw yourself recklessly into danger."
"But Charla…"
"No buts! I won't have it!" Charla looked up with shimmering eyes. "This isn't the first time I thought I might have lost you, Wendy. And I only just got you back. You're not getting involved in a war. You could be… you could… I won't let it happen. I won't let you put yourself in danger, even for them!"
There was a moment of silence, during which everyone in the room stared at the white cat, who was shaking in barely suppressed fear. But not for herself. Wendy sighed slightly - Charla was never afraid for herself, but was always afraid for Wendy. And she couldn't really blame her. They were in a world they didn't know, facing a threat they didn't yet fully understand and could only rely on strangers to set them on the right course.
It was enough to make anyone worry for those closest to them.
But still…
"Charla… if you want to make sure I never get into any situation where I could maybe get hurt… I think we joined the wrong guild."
"She's right, Charla," Happy murmured. "Fairy Tail looks after its own most of all but we look out for all our other friends too."
"Indeed. And we've made friends here," Lisanna nodded. "To bail out on them now… it would be against everything we stand for."
Charla bit her lip and looked at the floor, saying nothing.
"You know they're right, Charla," Wendy whispered.
"…Yeah… yeah I know…" Charla wiped her eye slightly with a paw. "You're… you're right, I'm sorry. I don't like it but you're right. I guess… there's really nothing else we can do. I guess if we refuse we'll always be looking back, wondering what could have happened if we'd made a different decision."
Mavis smiled. She'd been right. Her guild really had grown into everything she had hoped it would be. Unimaginable levels of pride swelled within her as she looked at these youngsters. Her youngsters. All together because of the dream she'd had when she was younger.
"Well," she said. "It looks like you have yourself a deal, Mister Dumbledore," she smiled. "The Fairies will bring our light down upon these Death Eaters and show them that our world does not take any more kindly to Dark Lords as this one does."
"And it is greatly appreciated," Dumbledore nodded. "Come now though. It seems there are more introductions to be made tonight than I thought. The rest of the Order are waiting for us to return even now. We should probably get back before Miss Tonks falls asleep."
"Oh terrific, we have to go through the fire again," Gray moaned. "Why can't we just use a train or something?"
"We have a train but it would take nine hours to get back on it. And it's currently over there right now so it would take nine hours to get it to us first."
"…The fire it is then."
...
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