Chapter Four: Harry's Tiring Sunday
Author's Note: I hope the previous chapters haven't been too confusing. I put Harry's thoughts in italics, but now I see that they don't work -_-" Thoughts will be like 'this' and things italicized and bolded for effect will be like _this_.
Regarding Ijuin_kun's review:
I am trying to keep things like those out of the story, but it is very difficult to follow the plot if I do so. Since we don't know a lot about Cho (yet) she _could_ have a big appetite, but I doubt it. I am keeping it though.
I will try to make Hermione a little bit less enthusiastic, but she does take her job as editor very seriously, and tends to over do it. I hope the next chapters are better (and that Harry isn't too cheerful)…
_______
Harry woke up on Sunday with a song in his heart. He had woken up last, as usual, but didn't seem to mind. He opened the window and took a loud, deep breath of fresh air.
"Hey, hey? What's this about?" Kero asked him. Harry just smiled and took hold of Kero's paws, swinging him around.
"I am going to have a picnic with Ron and Hermione today! You can come too, if you pretend to be a toy until we get there. No one will see you!" he informed Kero happily, and let go. 'It isn't often that I get a whole day to spend with my friends!' Harry reminded himself.
Kero flew across the room and walked around dizzily.
Ron poked his head in the door. "Mr Sleep in, your breakfast is going to get cold."
Harry smiled at Ron and told him he would be down in a moment. He got dressed and left Kero in his room.
"Harry! You sure are in a good mood!" Lavender commented as she saw the happy bounce in Harry's step. He grinned at her and Parvati.
"I am going to have a picnic with Hermione and Ron today!" he informed her. Parvati frowned, she was still a bit annoyed with him from the Yule Ball the year before.
Seamus tapped Harry on the shoulder. "I couldn't help but overhear your plans for today Harry," Harry nodded, "but you have dorm duty today…"
Harry gasped, his face falling. He had forgotten all about it! That year, Dumbledore had sent most of the house-elves away to learn to use their magic freely, and the boys of his dorm had had a large fight about who's messes where who's. They had ended up agreeing on a cleaning system. Each weekend one of them would clean the dorm. They would rotate weekends so it would stay fair.
The weekend before, Harry had had quidditch practise and couldn't clean the room. He had begged Seamus to switch with him, and he agreed.
"Oh…" Harry sighed and started on his way to the Great Hall for breakfast. While he was eating, he explained the situation to Hermione (who seemed the most disappointed) and Ron. They agreed that he had to do his share, and that they would try to find another day.
Harry went back to his dorm with Ron, who told him that he was going to go watch the Hufflepuffs at their quidditch practise. He knew that they had a very strong keeper, and he wanted to see what things he could work on.
He bid Ron goodbye, and started to work on the room. The remaining house-elves had done the laundry, but they hadn't folded it. Harry put Kero in charge of folding the clothes and putting them away. He also told him to clean the bathroom.
While Harry was wiping up some blue slime from under Dean's bed he saw a strange looking piece of paper, covered in dust. He picked it up and blew it off, revealing a Clow Card with the name WOOD on it. There was one beside it covered in ink, so he couldn't see the name. Two Clow Cards in one day! He thought to himself excitedly, wait until I tell Kero! He tried to slowly slide out from under Dean's bed. He suddenly heard Ron calling him, from inside his mouth. It surprised him so much; he hit his head on Dean's bed-frame. He had forgotten to take off the COMT that Hermione had given him! He got up and put the Clow Cards in his trunk and listened for his name again.
"Harry? Are you there?" Ron asked. Harry shook his head and cleared his throat.
"Y-yes Ron. I am here. You frightened me!" he could hear Ron laughing.
Ron continued. "Harry, I need you to get me the Firebolt you gave me out from my trunk, it isn't locked. The Hufflepuffs are done practising, and their keeper, Florencia O'Séal, says she can give me a few pointers! She is a great keeper too!" he sounded very excited. Harry had given Ron his old Firebolt after he had won the newer model, Silver Pheonix, in the summer.
"Yeah, I can do that Ron. Kero is working on the bathroom right now. I will just check on him and then give him some chocolate frogs for working so hard." Kero, who was eavesdropping, gave a toothy smile and continued to work, extra hard.
"I will see you in a few minutes! Bye!" Harry heard a click and the conversation was over. He glanced in the bathroom to see Kero, who was trying not to be sucked down the sink. Harry pulled him out and told him he could have any of his chocolate frogs and that he was going to step out for a moment.
"O-okay!" Kero said groggily as Harry left with the broomstick.
Harry decided to speed things up a bit by using the Invisible Skates' spell. It was against the rules to ride broomsticks inside Hogwarts castle, but he had never heard anything about practising a harmless charm to help him help a friend in need.
He arrived at the quidditch field and found a very grateful Ron.
"Oh! Thank you Harry!" and with that he was up in the air being hit with quaffles.
"Harry, did you come all this way to deliver Ron his broomstick?" Cho's voice surprised Harry. He turned around to face her and blushed.
"Yes, he had left it in the dorm." He said quietly.
She smiled. "You went through all that trouble, you are such a good friend." Harry blushed more, and shook his head.
"It wasn't really any trouble, I was in the dorm anyway!"
Cho showed Harry a large basket of food. "I was going to watch Ron practise and eat my lunch at the same time. Since you never got your snow-cones yesterday, would you like to eat with me now?" she asked him. Harry nodded and sat down beside her.
Halfway through, Ron took a break and flew down beside them. "Harry! You stayed to watch… oh." Ron glanced at Cho, and back to Harry and grinned evilly. Harry blushed and took a bite of the muffin he was eating. He looked at Cho and nearly choked. She was practically shovelling food into her mouth with no problem at all. As if feeling his gaze she stopped and grinned sheepishly.
"She eats twice as much as I do." Ron explained.
Harry stared. "R-really? Twice?" Cho nodded. "Well y-you know, it is very healthy to have such a big appetite!" he assured her. She laughed.
"Healthy for me, hard on my pocket-money!"
Florencia called Ron and he flew up to her. She bombarded him with quaffles again.
Cho put down her plate. "Would you like dessert?" she asked, gesturing to a pile of pastries in the basket. Harry, who felt his stomach would burst, reluctantly declined.
"No thank you Cho, I should get back, I have dorm duty. And Kero is probably wondering where I—" he stopped in mid sentence as Cho looked at him questioningly.
"Kero…?"
Harry smiled innocently. "Oh, nothing! But I really need to go now. Thanks for the food!" Cho said goodbye to him and he ran away.
Harry checked his watch. He had been gone for too long, Kero was probably wondering what had happened to him. He couldn't help grinning goofily as he slid into his room. Because of Ron, he had been able to see Cho!
He looked around. All of the clothes were folded neatly and placed atop (magically locked) trunks. He took a glance at the bathroom and saw it sparkling. Kero was asleep on his pillow. He smiled happily and sat beside him (throwing the chocolate frog wrappers into a wastebasket). He thanked him quietly.
As he was getting ready to finish cleaning Dean's slime, he heard a rumbling. It stopped, and then started again, and stopped. He whispered for Kero to wake up. No reaction. He shook him and he opened his eyes.
"Wha-?" Harry motioned for him to be quiet. The rumbling started again, this time louder. It shook the floor and Harry fell over.
"What is that?!" he asked Kero as he stood up.
"I don't know, but I think it is coming from your trunk!" Kero said, pointing to the end of his bed.
Slowly, they crept over to investigate. Harry opened the trunk and saw a twig with a leaf through the darkness. He opened it farther and saw a whole tree. They screamed and held the lid shut.
"Why are you growing trees in there?!" Kero asked him. Harry shook his head.
"I'm not!" he said, and remembered something. He told Kero about the WOOD card he had found earlier.
Kero stared at him. "You left a Clow Card without signing your name?!"
"It was already a card, I didn't know I had to write my name on it!" Harry whined. The lid of the trunk had more and more pressure on it, and he increased his hold. Kero let go, deep in thought.
Harry screamed. "Don't let go!" but Kero didn't listen.
"But, WOOD is a gentle card. I can't see her being up to something mischievous as this…" Harry felt the lid give a huge push, and he was knocked onto the floor. The branches quickly spread, filling the room. As the tree started to move towards the other end of the room where the door was, one branch managed to pick Harry up by his ankle. A smaller branch wrapped itself around Kero. They felt themselves being tossed about like rag dolls.
There was a loud knock at the door. "Just a second!!" Harry called, and covered his mouth as soon as the words had left him.
"Why are you answering?!" Kero asked him in a low voice. Harry shook his head.
"It was a reflex!"
The tree grew closer to the door and the knocking sounded again. Harry kept his mouth shut, but he knew it was too late. He turned to Kero.
"You had better not talk! If they find out about you they might sell you off to a muggle circus somewhere as the amazing talking toy! Even in the regular modern wizarding world you are an oddity." He told him. Kero stopped struggling and held still, until he looked just like a regular plush-toy. "You gotta help me!" Harry pleaded.
Kero opened his mouth just enough to speak. "Stuffed toys don't talk, remember?" and he closed his mouth.
The person knocked at the door again, waited, and then started to open the door. Harry covered his eyes and prepared for a scream or a yell.
"I can't look…" he mumbled to himself. The door opened and he dared to peek through his fingers.
"Hermione!!" he exclaimed. She was standing at the door with a picnic basket and a surprised look on her face. She released Kero from the branch and he stretched gratefully.
She started to untie Harry's foot. "Are you holding the Whomping Willow hostage?" she asked him. Harry got up and shook his head.
"No, this is a Clow Card. It's a good thing you came here…" He explained the situation to her.
Hermione smiled. "I thought you might need a bit of help. I also wanted you to try this on to see if it fits…" she brought a ocean-blue outfit out of her basket. On the ends of the sleeves, collar, waist, and cuffs, there was a silver tube. It gave it a very futuristic look, Kero had commented.
"I like the colours—" Harry said dreamily after he had changed. Kero took a doughnut out of the basket.
"I figured you would want something other than red, black, and gold all the time. And then I remembered your other favourite colour combination." She winked at him and he blushed. "I was going to get you to wear it today at the picnic. I wanted to film a mini-movie about Harry's Adventure's in the Forbidden Forest, but this is much better."
Kero rummaged around for another pastry. "And that is why you had all of this food with you?" Hermione nodded and brought out her camera. "Harry, seal the card now." Kero ordered.
Harry nodded and brought out the Seal Key. "Key that hides the forces of darkness, reveal your true form to me! I, Harry, command you under our contract! RELEASE!" there was a blinding light, and Harry felt himself holding the Sealing Staff. Hermione couldn't get over how cool the footage was.
"WOOD! I command you to return to the guise you were meant to be in! Clow Card!" The branches all disappeared. Harry held out his hand, waiting for the card, but nothing happened. He frowned.
"What is it?" Hermione asked anxiously.
Harry looked around his feet. "The card is supposed to be here…" Kero pointed to Harry's trunk.
"Maybe it is there?" he asked. Harry nodded. The moment he started to walk towards it, however, the ground started to shake again and the branches came back faster than ever. Their ends reminded Harry of daggers as they headed straight for him and his friends.
Kero opened the door. "Come on! Out here!!" they followed him out through a hall and to a large balcony that Harry had never known existed. As soon as the branches it the sunlight they slowed down and wrapped themselves around the walls. They came to a complete stop and grew thick green foliage.
Hermione and Harry could only stare. "W-what happened?" Harry asked at last.
Kero grinned. "WOOD is satisfied with the sunlight." He said. Hermione showed the whole balcony to her camera.
"It doesn't remind me of the Whomping Willow quite as much, now!" said Hermione. Harry nodded.
They heard a loud rumbling sound from inside. "What is that? It sounds like an elephant walking around!" Hermione said worriedly. Kero was worried too.
"It is WOOD!" he said at last, "The rest of it is trying to find the sunlight!"
Harry couldn't believe it. He had thought it was finally done destroying the dorm! "What do we do?" he asked, feeling helpless.
Kero clenched his fists together with a mixture of anger and determination. "We go in there and seal it off for good!" and so Hermione, Harry, and Kero set out to find Harry's room. As they entered the mess of branches and occasional leaves Kero flew ahead of them and reported back to tell them where they could fit through. He repeated this until they were finally back in the dorm room. The floor was flooded.
A strange cloud flew over Harry's head and giggled. 'Giggled?' Harry looked up and saw a small girl in a jester's (blue) clothing on the cloud.
"That's the RAIN Card!" Kero told them.
"RAIN?" Hermione asked.
Harry blushed from embarrassment. He couldn't believe that he had forgotten about the other card! "I kinda forgot to tell you that there were two cards, Kero. Sorry!" he said.
Kero frowned, "RAIN must be the one behind this! Capture RAIN first, and then WOOD will be easy!" he said. Harry nodded and chased after RAIN, who was flying in circles around his head. It stopped directly over Harry and released a light shower of rain. Harry held his hand up and caught a few drops.
"Hey, this isn't so bad…" he said, almost laughing. RAIN let out a giggle and the light shower became a steady flow of water. Harry wiped his hear out of his eyes, and sighed. He tried to move out of RAIN's path, but it followed him everywhere he went. With the tree braches covering the room, there weren't many places he could run.
"Stop running around like that and seal it!" Kero said, exasperated.
Harry looked over his shoulder at him. "What do I do?!" he asked.
"WATERY should do the trick!" said Kero. Harry nodded and brought out the card. Throwing it up into the air, he called out his command for it.
"WATERY, become a binding chain and trap RAIN! WATERY!!" he tapped WATERY with the end of his Staff and it circled around him once, and moved onto RAIN. It circled around RAIN so fast that in almost no time at all, RAIN was caught in what looked like a giant bubble.
Harry lifted up his Staff, "RAIN! I command you to return to the guise you were meant to be in! Clow Card!!" and with that a large wind came and began to blow RAIN into card-form. She struggled, but the power was too much, and Harry picked up two cards that landed at his feet (RAIN and WATERY). 'One down, one to go…' he thought to himself.
He turned around determinedly and raised his Staff, ready to seal WOOD.
"WOOD! I—" Kero cut him off. "Er- Kero?"
"Just wait." Kero told him with a smile. WOOD's branches glowed brightly, and started to shrink and recede. They disappeared before Harry's eyes and were replaced a very small, beautiful, and green woman. She looked at Harry and nodded her head. In an instant, she transformed herself back into card-form.
Harry stood in front of the Card, dazed. It had just sealed itself, without him saying anything! Hermione picked up WOOD and handed it to Harry, along with a quill.
"I think you know what to do." She said. He nodded and wrote his name on WOOD and RAIN and did his peace-sign for the camera. Hermione turned it off, and congratulated Harry.
"Thank you Hermione, I couldn't have done it without you and Kero. Speaking of Kero," he glanced at the yellow teddy-bear who was looking very depressed, "why is he so quiet all of a sudden?" Harry asked. Harry followed Kero's gaze and found himself staring at the mess WOOD had made; all of the folded laundry was scattered across the room, the beds were un-made, books and boxes were knocked over, and the bathroom looked worse than when they started!
His excitement diminished, Harry's face fell. He had to re- clean all of it up in less than an hour! And it had taken him and Kero most of the day!
Hermione, guessing the source of Harry and Kero's sudden enthusiasm loss, tried to cheer them up. "I could help, if that is okay?" she asked. Harry and Kero nodded their heads and wiped their tearful eyes.
"That would be great Hermione!" said Harry. They got to work cleaning the room. They didn't stop until every inch was spotless. Hermione left before Dean, Neville, and Seamus got back.
Harry was so tired that he decided to take a small nap before dinner. He fell asleep right when his head hit the pillow.
Dean, Seamus, Neville, and Ron came to see if Harry was done cleaning. They were surprised at what a good job he did. They reminded Ron that it was his turn the next weekend.
"I hope you are as good as Harry!" Dean told Ron.
Seamus glanced at Harry and laughed. "He still sleeps with a stuffed animal?"
Ron rolled his eyes, "I guess so, but don't bug him about it."
"Well he had better wake up soon, or else I will eat his share of dessert!" Neville said quickly, changing the subject. He didn't want the others to find out about his plush dragon, Sammy.
Harry stirred and opened his eyes slightly. "The cake is mine."
"Your name isn't on it! First come-first serve Harry!" Neville said childishly. They left Harry to go see what Fred and George were selling. Seamus had heard a rumour that they were developing something spectacular (thought they wouldn't say more than that)
Harry reached over clumsily and picked up the cards he had captured that day. "But I wrote my name down…" he said groggily, and fell back asleep.
Author's Note: I hope the previous chapters haven't been too confusing. I put Harry's thoughts in italics, but now I see that they don't work -_-" Thoughts will be like 'this' and things italicized and bolded for effect will be like _this_.
Regarding Ijuin_kun's review:
I am trying to keep things like those out of the story, but it is very difficult to follow the plot if I do so. Since we don't know a lot about Cho (yet) she _could_ have a big appetite, but I doubt it. I am keeping it though.
I will try to make Hermione a little bit less enthusiastic, but she does take her job as editor very seriously, and tends to over do it. I hope the next chapters are better (and that Harry isn't too cheerful)…
_______
Harry woke up on Sunday with a song in his heart. He had woken up last, as usual, but didn't seem to mind. He opened the window and took a loud, deep breath of fresh air.
"Hey, hey? What's this about?" Kero asked him. Harry just smiled and took hold of Kero's paws, swinging him around.
"I am going to have a picnic with Ron and Hermione today! You can come too, if you pretend to be a toy until we get there. No one will see you!" he informed Kero happily, and let go. 'It isn't often that I get a whole day to spend with my friends!' Harry reminded himself.
Kero flew across the room and walked around dizzily.
Ron poked his head in the door. "Mr Sleep in, your breakfast is going to get cold."
Harry smiled at Ron and told him he would be down in a moment. He got dressed and left Kero in his room.
"Harry! You sure are in a good mood!" Lavender commented as she saw the happy bounce in Harry's step. He grinned at her and Parvati.
"I am going to have a picnic with Hermione and Ron today!" he informed her. Parvati frowned, she was still a bit annoyed with him from the Yule Ball the year before.
Seamus tapped Harry on the shoulder. "I couldn't help but overhear your plans for today Harry," Harry nodded, "but you have dorm duty today…"
Harry gasped, his face falling. He had forgotten all about it! That year, Dumbledore had sent most of the house-elves away to learn to use their magic freely, and the boys of his dorm had had a large fight about who's messes where who's. They had ended up agreeing on a cleaning system. Each weekend one of them would clean the dorm. They would rotate weekends so it would stay fair.
The weekend before, Harry had had quidditch practise and couldn't clean the room. He had begged Seamus to switch with him, and he agreed.
"Oh…" Harry sighed and started on his way to the Great Hall for breakfast. While he was eating, he explained the situation to Hermione (who seemed the most disappointed) and Ron. They agreed that he had to do his share, and that they would try to find another day.
Harry went back to his dorm with Ron, who told him that he was going to go watch the Hufflepuffs at their quidditch practise. He knew that they had a very strong keeper, and he wanted to see what things he could work on.
He bid Ron goodbye, and started to work on the room. The remaining house-elves had done the laundry, but they hadn't folded it. Harry put Kero in charge of folding the clothes and putting them away. He also told him to clean the bathroom.
While Harry was wiping up some blue slime from under Dean's bed he saw a strange looking piece of paper, covered in dust. He picked it up and blew it off, revealing a Clow Card with the name WOOD on it. There was one beside it covered in ink, so he couldn't see the name. Two Clow Cards in one day! He thought to himself excitedly, wait until I tell Kero! He tried to slowly slide out from under Dean's bed. He suddenly heard Ron calling him, from inside his mouth. It surprised him so much; he hit his head on Dean's bed-frame. He had forgotten to take off the COMT that Hermione had given him! He got up and put the Clow Cards in his trunk and listened for his name again.
"Harry? Are you there?" Ron asked. Harry shook his head and cleared his throat.
"Y-yes Ron. I am here. You frightened me!" he could hear Ron laughing.
Ron continued. "Harry, I need you to get me the Firebolt you gave me out from my trunk, it isn't locked. The Hufflepuffs are done practising, and their keeper, Florencia O'Séal, says she can give me a few pointers! She is a great keeper too!" he sounded very excited. Harry had given Ron his old Firebolt after he had won the newer model, Silver Pheonix, in the summer.
"Yeah, I can do that Ron. Kero is working on the bathroom right now. I will just check on him and then give him some chocolate frogs for working so hard." Kero, who was eavesdropping, gave a toothy smile and continued to work, extra hard.
"I will see you in a few minutes! Bye!" Harry heard a click and the conversation was over. He glanced in the bathroom to see Kero, who was trying not to be sucked down the sink. Harry pulled him out and told him he could have any of his chocolate frogs and that he was going to step out for a moment.
"O-okay!" Kero said groggily as Harry left with the broomstick.
Harry decided to speed things up a bit by using the Invisible Skates' spell. It was against the rules to ride broomsticks inside Hogwarts castle, but he had never heard anything about practising a harmless charm to help him help a friend in need.
He arrived at the quidditch field and found a very grateful Ron.
"Oh! Thank you Harry!" and with that he was up in the air being hit with quaffles.
"Harry, did you come all this way to deliver Ron his broomstick?" Cho's voice surprised Harry. He turned around to face her and blushed.
"Yes, he had left it in the dorm." He said quietly.
She smiled. "You went through all that trouble, you are such a good friend." Harry blushed more, and shook his head.
"It wasn't really any trouble, I was in the dorm anyway!"
Cho showed Harry a large basket of food. "I was going to watch Ron practise and eat my lunch at the same time. Since you never got your snow-cones yesterday, would you like to eat with me now?" she asked him. Harry nodded and sat down beside her.
Halfway through, Ron took a break and flew down beside them. "Harry! You stayed to watch… oh." Ron glanced at Cho, and back to Harry and grinned evilly. Harry blushed and took a bite of the muffin he was eating. He looked at Cho and nearly choked. She was practically shovelling food into her mouth with no problem at all. As if feeling his gaze she stopped and grinned sheepishly.
"She eats twice as much as I do." Ron explained.
Harry stared. "R-really? Twice?" Cho nodded. "Well y-you know, it is very healthy to have such a big appetite!" he assured her. She laughed.
"Healthy for me, hard on my pocket-money!"
Florencia called Ron and he flew up to her. She bombarded him with quaffles again.
Cho put down her plate. "Would you like dessert?" she asked, gesturing to a pile of pastries in the basket. Harry, who felt his stomach would burst, reluctantly declined.
"No thank you Cho, I should get back, I have dorm duty. And Kero is probably wondering where I—" he stopped in mid sentence as Cho looked at him questioningly.
"Kero…?"
Harry smiled innocently. "Oh, nothing! But I really need to go now. Thanks for the food!" Cho said goodbye to him and he ran away.
Harry checked his watch. He had been gone for too long, Kero was probably wondering what had happened to him. He couldn't help grinning goofily as he slid into his room. Because of Ron, he had been able to see Cho!
He looked around. All of the clothes were folded neatly and placed atop (magically locked) trunks. He took a glance at the bathroom and saw it sparkling. Kero was asleep on his pillow. He smiled happily and sat beside him (throwing the chocolate frog wrappers into a wastebasket). He thanked him quietly.
As he was getting ready to finish cleaning Dean's slime, he heard a rumbling. It stopped, and then started again, and stopped. He whispered for Kero to wake up. No reaction. He shook him and he opened his eyes.
"Wha-?" Harry motioned for him to be quiet. The rumbling started again, this time louder. It shook the floor and Harry fell over.
"What is that?!" he asked Kero as he stood up.
"I don't know, but I think it is coming from your trunk!" Kero said, pointing to the end of his bed.
Slowly, they crept over to investigate. Harry opened the trunk and saw a twig with a leaf through the darkness. He opened it farther and saw a whole tree. They screamed and held the lid shut.
"Why are you growing trees in there?!" Kero asked him. Harry shook his head.
"I'm not!" he said, and remembered something. He told Kero about the WOOD card he had found earlier.
Kero stared at him. "You left a Clow Card without signing your name?!"
"It was already a card, I didn't know I had to write my name on it!" Harry whined. The lid of the trunk had more and more pressure on it, and he increased his hold. Kero let go, deep in thought.
Harry screamed. "Don't let go!" but Kero didn't listen.
"But, WOOD is a gentle card. I can't see her being up to something mischievous as this…" Harry felt the lid give a huge push, and he was knocked onto the floor. The branches quickly spread, filling the room. As the tree started to move towards the other end of the room where the door was, one branch managed to pick Harry up by his ankle. A smaller branch wrapped itself around Kero. They felt themselves being tossed about like rag dolls.
There was a loud knock at the door. "Just a second!!" Harry called, and covered his mouth as soon as the words had left him.
"Why are you answering?!" Kero asked him in a low voice. Harry shook his head.
"It was a reflex!"
The tree grew closer to the door and the knocking sounded again. Harry kept his mouth shut, but he knew it was too late. He turned to Kero.
"You had better not talk! If they find out about you they might sell you off to a muggle circus somewhere as the amazing talking toy! Even in the regular modern wizarding world you are an oddity." He told him. Kero stopped struggling and held still, until he looked just like a regular plush-toy. "You gotta help me!" Harry pleaded.
Kero opened his mouth just enough to speak. "Stuffed toys don't talk, remember?" and he closed his mouth.
The person knocked at the door again, waited, and then started to open the door. Harry covered his eyes and prepared for a scream or a yell.
"I can't look…" he mumbled to himself. The door opened and he dared to peek through his fingers.
"Hermione!!" he exclaimed. She was standing at the door with a picnic basket and a surprised look on her face. She released Kero from the branch and he stretched gratefully.
She started to untie Harry's foot. "Are you holding the Whomping Willow hostage?" she asked him. Harry got up and shook his head.
"No, this is a Clow Card. It's a good thing you came here…" He explained the situation to her.
Hermione smiled. "I thought you might need a bit of help. I also wanted you to try this on to see if it fits…" she brought a ocean-blue outfit out of her basket. On the ends of the sleeves, collar, waist, and cuffs, there was a silver tube. It gave it a very futuristic look, Kero had commented.
"I like the colours—" Harry said dreamily after he had changed. Kero took a doughnut out of the basket.
"I figured you would want something other than red, black, and gold all the time. And then I remembered your other favourite colour combination." She winked at him and he blushed. "I was going to get you to wear it today at the picnic. I wanted to film a mini-movie about Harry's Adventure's in the Forbidden Forest, but this is much better."
Kero rummaged around for another pastry. "And that is why you had all of this food with you?" Hermione nodded and brought out her camera. "Harry, seal the card now." Kero ordered.
Harry nodded and brought out the Seal Key. "Key that hides the forces of darkness, reveal your true form to me! I, Harry, command you under our contract! RELEASE!" there was a blinding light, and Harry felt himself holding the Sealing Staff. Hermione couldn't get over how cool the footage was.
"WOOD! I command you to return to the guise you were meant to be in! Clow Card!" The branches all disappeared. Harry held out his hand, waiting for the card, but nothing happened. He frowned.
"What is it?" Hermione asked anxiously.
Harry looked around his feet. "The card is supposed to be here…" Kero pointed to Harry's trunk.
"Maybe it is there?" he asked. Harry nodded. The moment he started to walk towards it, however, the ground started to shake again and the branches came back faster than ever. Their ends reminded Harry of daggers as they headed straight for him and his friends.
Kero opened the door. "Come on! Out here!!" they followed him out through a hall and to a large balcony that Harry had never known existed. As soon as the branches it the sunlight they slowed down and wrapped themselves around the walls. They came to a complete stop and grew thick green foliage.
Hermione and Harry could only stare. "W-what happened?" Harry asked at last.
Kero grinned. "WOOD is satisfied with the sunlight." He said. Hermione showed the whole balcony to her camera.
"It doesn't remind me of the Whomping Willow quite as much, now!" said Hermione. Harry nodded.
They heard a loud rumbling sound from inside. "What is that? It sounds like an elephant walking around!" Hermione said worriedly. Kero was worried too.
"It is WOOD!" he said at last, "The rest of it is trying to find the sunlight!"
Harry couldn't believe it. He had thought it was finally done destroying the dorm! "What do we do?" he asked, feeling helpless.
Kero clenched his fists together with a mixture of anger and determination. "We go in there and seal it off for good!" and so Hermione, Harry, and Kero set out to find Harry's room. As they entered the mess of branches and occasional leaves Kero flew ahead of them and reported back to tell them where they could fit through. He repeated this until they were finally back in the dorm room. The floor was flooded.
A strange cloud flew over Harry's head and giggled. 'Giggled?' Harry looked up and saw a small girl in a jester's (blue) clothing on the cloud.
"That's the RAIN Card!" Kero told them.
"RAIN?" Hermione asked.
Harry blushed from embarrassment. He couldn't believe that he had forgotten about the other card! "I kinda forgot to tell you that there were two cards, Kero. Sorry!" he said.
Kero frowned, "RAIN must be the one behind this! Capture RAIN first, and then WOOD will be easy!" he said. Harry nodded and chased after RAIN, who was flying in circles around his head. It stopped directly over Harry and released a light shower of rain. Harry held his hand up and caught a few drops.
"Hey, this isn't so bad…" he said, almost laughing. RAIN let out a giggle and the light shower became a steady flow of water. Harry wiped his hear out of his eyes, and sighed. He tried to move out of RAIN's path, but it followed him everywhere he went. With the tree braches covering the room, there weren't many places he could run.
"Stop running around like that and seal it!" Kero said, exasperated.
Harry looked over his shoulder at him. "What do I do?!" he asked.
"WATERY should do the trick!" said Kero. Harry nodded and brought out the card. Throwing it up into the air, he called out his command for it.
"WATERY, become a binding chain and trap RAIN! WATERY!!" he tapped WATERY with the end of his Staff and it circled around him once, and moved onto RAIN. It circled around RAIN so fast that in almost no time at all, RAIN was caught in what looked like a giant bubble.
Harry lifted up his Staff, "RAIN! I command you to return to the guise you were meant to be in! Clow Card!!" and with that a large wind came and began to blow RAIN into card-form. She struggled, but the power was too much, and Harry picked up two cards that landed at his feet (RAIN and WATERY). 'One down, one to go…' he thought to himself.
He turned around determinedly and raised his Staff, ready to seal WOOD.
"WOOD! I—" Kero cut him off. "Er- Kero?"
"Just wait." Kero told him with a smile. WOOD's branches glowed brightly, and started to shrink and recede. They disappeared before Harry's eyes and were replaced a very small, beautiful, and green woman. She looked at Harry and nodded her head. In an instant, she transformed herself back into card-form.
Harry stood in front of the Card, dazed. It had just sealed itself, without him saying anything! Hermione picked up WOOD and handed it to Harry, along with a quill.
"I think you know what to do." She said. He nodded and wrote his name on WOOD and RAIN and did his peace-sign for the camera. Hermione turned it off, and congratulated Harry.
"Thank you Hermione, I couldn't have done it without you and Kero. Speaking of Kero," he glanced at the yellow teddy-bear who was looking very depressed, "why is he so quiet all of a sudden?" Harry asked. Harry followed Kero's gaze and found himself staring at the mess WOOD had made; all of the folded laundry was scattered across the room, the beds were un-made, books and boxes were knocked over, and the bathroom looked worse than when they started!
His excitement diminished, Harry's face fell. He had to re- clean all of it up in less than an hour! And it had taken him and Kero most of the day!
Hermione, guessing the source of Harry and Kero's sudden enthusiasm loss, tried to cheer them up. "I could help, if that is okay?" she asked. Harry and Kero nodded their heads and wiped their tearful eyes.
"That would be great Hermione!" said Harry. They got to work cleaning the room. They didn't stop until every inch was spotless. Hermione left before Dean, Neville, and Seamus got back.
Harry was so tired that he decided to take a small nap before dinner. He fell asleep right when his head hit the pillow.
Dean, Seamus, Neville, and Ron came to see if Harry was done cleaning. They were surprised at what a good job he did. They reminded Ron that it was his turn the next weekend.
"I hope you are as good as Harry!" Dean told Ron.
Seamus glanced at Harry and laughed. "He still sleeps with a stuffed animal?"
Ron rolled his eyes, "I guess so, but don't bug him about it."
"Well he had better wake up soon, or else I will eat his share of dessert!" Neville said quickly, changing the subject. He didn't want the others to find out about his plush dragon, Sammy.
Harry stirred and opened his eyes slightly. "The cake is mine."
"Your name isn't on it! First come-first serve Harry!" Neville said childishly. They left Harry to go see what Fred and George were selling. Seamus had heard a rumour that they were developing something spectacular (thought they wouldn't say more than that)
Harry reached over clumsily and picked up the cards he had captured that day. "But I wrote my name down…" he said groggily, and fell back asleep.
