Enchanted Essays.

"You may now begin writing." Professor Snape said shortly. "It may be on any topic but it must involve you, and a series of events that take place over the next twenty-four hours. Use any genre you choose but keep it realistic, no mortals discovering wizards or that sort of nonsense and no dirty jokes. I will not read these and they will be torn up at the end of the lesson so feel free to do anything that you like. First, however, let me give some special ink, enchanted against cheating." He moved through the desks, collecting the ink pots and replacing them with test-tubes filled with a bubbly, sparkly blue liquid. Snape cleared his throat. "You may begin." All around the room, quills began scratching at the paper. Harry, Hermione, and Ron hesitated before starting, mainly because the malicious grin on Snape's face worried them. Draco chewed on the end of his quill, wondering why they were doing this during Potions and then decided against asking, reasoning that as Snape's favorite nothing too bad would happen to him.

An hour later, Snape collected in the essays but instead of tearing them up, squirted each one with a pinkish gas, talking as he did so.

"The ink that you used today was composed of the last three potions you made. When it reacts with the gas I am dosing them with –does anybody know what the gas is?" He interrupted himself to ask. Deliberately ignoring Hermione he chose Draco who correctly replied that it was 'Acevra Devavra' for which Snape awarded Slytherin 10 points. "Anyway, when Acevra Devavra combines with Real Ink as the ink is called, it allows whatever was written to become true. However, it only works for 24 hours or one day. After that, anything that happened will be undone and it will be as if it never happened. You will carry the essay around with you and as your story comes true, the ink will change color to become lavender and at the end of the 24 hours, it will start turning white and finally disappear altogether."

 Snape noted with amusement, the many horrified looks in his classroom. Apparently, quite a lot of students were fearful of the consequences of their essays. He continued, watching them intently "The stronger your potions were, the quicker and more realistic the results will appear. But, since I have already sprayed them, it is impossible to alter your stories and tearing them up will only mean that you won't have anything to chart your stories progress." The bell rang. "Class dismissed." They pushed their chairs in and began to wend their way to the door, a lot quieter than usual Snape noticed with satisfaction. Most of them were holding their parchment in front of them so that only the top line was revealed. Each of them were thinking different thoughts, which could, however be classified into two distinct categories,

'Oh my God! This is a dream come true! My fantasy is going to become reality! I can't wait for it to start!' and more on a similar line. The other category was the minority of the class and their thoughts ran something like this... 'This is awful! I hope this doesn't really come true! Is it possible to be sued for writing about an unintentional murder that comes true? Oh, please let me have messed up on the potions, I don't care if I fail, please don't let me have gotten them right!' That minority was quite upset though.

"So..." Harry started and then trailed off into silence when he saw his friends look inquiringly at him. When they realized that he wasn't going to finish his sentence, they dropped their eyes to the ground and walked on, lost in their own thoughts. Trying to distract himself from thinking about what he had written, Harry studied his two friends closely. Hermione kept on sneaking glances at an oblivious Ron and then looking down at the parchment she held in her hands. Ron, on the other was looking at Draco with clear dread on his face as if he thought that Draco was going to kill him or something.

Draco was also walking along with his two goons. They were far luckier than him, Draco thought dismally. Being the almost-illiterate apes that they were, they hadn't written anything on their papers at all and therefore couldn't have anything happen to them. Draco hadn't been as lucky. Given a guarantee that nobody would read what he had written, he had sacrificed one of his favorites fantasies. It wasn't so much the fact that it would come true that he was worried about, but what would happen afterwards, when the potions wore off. He couldn't even console himself by hoping he had made a mistake on the potions for he was the top student in the class, even better than Hermione-the-Know-It-All.

They filed into the Great Hall, still being very morbid and quiet. Suddenly, there was a burst of noise and Voldemort appeared on the Hufflepuff table, dressed in a pink mini-dress with a look of absolute fury on his face. Everybody screamed and ran while the Potions class stopped dead in the doorway, staring at him in horror. Ron tried to drag Harry away but he seemed rooted to the ground. Unwillingly, with a look of almost pain on his face, Voldemort opened his mouth and began to sing 'Feelings', self-hatred and disgust evident on his face. The assembled student body wasn't sure whether to laugh or scream. The problem was soon solved by Dumbledore, who hurried forth and banished him with a quick wave of his wand. Recovering quickly, the entire Potions class began babbling to see who had wanted to watch Voldemort sing 'Stronger'. Suddenly, they stopped talking, and as on, glared at Neville who cowered in a corner, only to be rescued by his partner who bravely spoke up.

"Don't blame Neville. I spilt my potion so Neville gave me half of his and I guess that was what messed up my ink. He was the one made the potion but I was the one who wrote the story. And I did NOT want to see Voldemort perform 'Feelings'! Britney Spears was supposed to do a table dance for him and then he was supposed to decide not to kill her or any other Muggles and go off and marry her." Much relieved at this example of how the spells could be flubbed, the potions class entered the Great Hall, talking excitedly.

Suddenly, there was another scream as the Great Hall abruptly disappeared and instead, the astonished Potions class found themselves, and all the other students standing on a stretch of sand, with waves gently lapping at the shore. A figure in a loose white dress could vaguely be seen walking towards them, with deluxe brown hair flowing down her back. From the other end of the beach, a figure in a loose green silk shirt , with green velvet tights and a flowing cloak approached, his flaming hair standing like a beacon. Everybody simultaneously realized what kind of fantasy this was and moved off the sand onto the grass. The figures drew closely and their faces were now distinguishable. To everybody's surprise except Harry's who had realized that they were missing, the two were revealed to be Hermione and Ron! Ron had a half-love-struck, half-horrified expression on his face while Hermione looked both radiant and embarrassed by their audience. Finally, they reached each other and kissed passionately. While they did so, a rainbow suddenly blossomed over their head and the waves crashed against the shore, creating a fine mist that let dewdrops settle in Hermione's hair like pearls. The class, as a single entity went "Awww", just before they were whisked back to the Great Hall with sand in their shoes.

Ron and Hermione broke apart quickly and stood staring at each other, Ron with disgust and anger and Hermione with pleasure and fear.

"Hermione, why did you have to write that?" Ron spat angrily at her. She colored and lifted her chin defiantly.

"Well, if you disliked it so much then why did you kiss me?" She asked just as angrily.

"I didn't have a choice. That dumb spell was forcing me to kiss you. It even made me feel as if I enjoyed it and wanted it!" Ron retorted.

"Well, did it ever occur to you that maybe you did! I did, that much I know and the fact that it took a powerful spell to make you kiss me says a lot about what a cruel, emotionless person you are!" She shouted just before she stormed into the Great Hall, abandoning her usual place by Ron and Harry to sit next to Lavender. Open-mouthed, Ron turned to Harry and then froze, seeing a bee appear out of nowhere next to Draco's head.

"H-Harry. My story is coming true now, DON"T LOOK!" He shouted just before Harry turned his head. The single bee buzzed inefficiently around Draco's head for a while and then fell down dead to the floor.

Ron heaved a sigh of mingled disappointment and relief. Harry looked at him.

"Phew. My story was about how Draco got stung by a swarm of bees and turned into a huge mutant bee and flew around chatting up flowers and stealing all their honey till he was stuck in a zoo." Ron explained to Harry, a look of what surely was not, but seemed quite similar to frustration. Harry looked at him in disbelief.

"You have no idea how lucky you are that you made a mistake. If Draco did get turned into a mutant bee, the first thing he would do is sting you probably." He said incredulously. "What were you thinking?"

"Look, I didn't know that they were going to come true. If had thought that it would come true I would have done something more productive!" Ron defended himself.

"Define productive." Harry said dryly, starting to recover.

"I don't know, I would made myself the best Quidditch Seeker or something! You know, something that I might actually enjoy." Ron snapped and then walked off in a huff.

Worried, Harry made his way out to the three willow trees that leaned over the lake and sat there, waiting for his potions to kick in. He had made them with Hermione so he was fairly sure that it would work whether he wanted it to or not. Looking across the lake, he saw Draco kneeling before Pansy. Their voices carried well so he could clearly hear what Draco was saying.

"Pansy, I love you. You are so beautiful. You are perfect. I am your knight in shining armor. I would die for you. You are a goddess. I love you." He spoke the words in a dull monotone, then stood up and swept her into a passionate embrace that lasted all of a second before the spell ended. Draco looked upon her semi-comatose face with horror and knocked her into the lake.

 Suddenly, Neville swooped down, dressed in red with a big orange 'N' on his chest. Some really irritating theme music began to play. Harry managed to catch the phrase 'faster than a speeding ballet, more powerful than a local motive' gabbled in a voice so deep it made his ears hurt. Neville managed to get Pansy out of the water and then swooped up into the sky, only to lose momentum halfway and fall into the lake with her still clutching him. Pansy splashed up to the surface, seething and looked for Neville. After it became clear that he wouldn't surface, she sighed and then dove down, rising again to the surface with the back of Neville's shirt in one hand. She then swam to the banks, still keeping a firm grip on her 'rescuer'. Draco had stormed off long ago.

Harry sighed wistfully and looked down at the water. Suddenly it rippled and then blurred and it felt as his skeleton was being pulled right out of his skin.

Author's Note : This was written for a challenge which I forgot about until I found this story lurking in my harddrive.