THIS SUCKS

A Harry Potter fan fiction story by Anakin McFly. The Harry Potter characters and universe are not mine, for they belong to the awesome J.K. Rowling.

Prologue

Golden leaves crunched beneath the travellers' shoes as they walked from one world to the next, their strains of conversation carried softly on the wind-

"And now for your first lesson, my young protege. Tell me - if you could have anything you wanted, be anyone you wanted - what would you choose? Who would you want to be?"

"Anyone?" the young girl asked, her voice a sprightly contrast to the grave tones of the old man.

The latter's face creased into a smile that held just the slightest hint of menace. "Yes, Yanenn," he said. "Anyone."

"Okay, let's see..."

Her brows furrowed in concentration; then mischievous delight lit up the seven-year-old face. "A princess," she announced proudly. "A magical princess, who's really, really beautiful, the fairest in the land. With long, flowing hair that- oh!" She beamed. "That changes colour! Yeah! When she's angry, it turns red, and when she's sad, it's blue, and..." A pause, savouring the possibilities. "And everyone loves her, even when she's mean to them, because she's so beautiful. All the boys want to marry her. And she's also really smart. Smarter than everyone else. Yeah."

The old man continued smiling. "Anything else?"

The girl was on a roll now. "...And she can talk to animals! When no one else understands her-"

"I thought you said everyone loved her."

Yanenn paused. "Oh. Yeaaahhh... but maybe not all the time, because sometimes maybe they're jealous of her. So she's all alone and sad and only has the animals to talk to. And her hair is blue then. When she's sad." Another pause, then she perks up. "Oh! And she lives in a castle. A magical castle, full of magical people like her. And unicorns! In a forest, outside the castle, and sometimes they come up to her, and they talk to her, because she makes them happy. Yeah."

Yanenn nodded, a faraway look in her eyes. "That would be perfect."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

The old man stopped walking and gently guided Yanenn to a stop. He bent down to meet her eyes. "What if... I decided to let you do someone a favour. I'm going to go out there and find another little girl, and I'm going to give her all those things you just told me."

Yanenn's smile faded a little. "What about me?"

Her mentor chuckled. "Your turn would come in time, little one. But for now, if I found someone else and made her into a magical princess with a castle and unicorns and mood-hair, do you think she'll like that?"

The girl hesitated; then her sense of charity got the better of her, and she nodded firmly. "Yes," she said. Her face softened, the smile returning to her lips. "I'm sure she'll love that."

The old man patted her shoulder. "All right then. There's going to be one very lucky girl tonight."

"Yeah," Yanenn said, as they started walking again. She frowned. "Dem?" she asked.

"Yes?"

"I thought you said this was a lesson."

"Oh, it is," Dem said lightly. He grinned. "It is."

xxx

to be continued.