Hey, people! Welcome back to BRFTGW! This took forever, I know (Ironically, just after I got the email from Alex-if you've forgotten for whatever reason who he is, Alex is Ethan's alter-ego, so to speak-I recieved a review telling me to update. So, here's to "Someone Harharhar" for their epic timing!).

So to make up for the amount of time it took to write, I'd like to let you all know that this chapter is the longest chapter yet, with five pages on my word document, and 3009 words! !

Also, a warning: This chapter contains temporary character death, and...um, nothing else potentially scary, unless you count mentions of ghosts, I s'pose.

I gaped. There was another Weasley? How many of them were there? I looked towards Ethan. He looked curious, but excited. I had the feeling that he knew a lot more about the family than I did, growing up with a wizarding family himself. I vaguely remembered hearing the name before-something about the family helping in the big war-but whenever a Weasley was mentioned, they either talked about Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, or the guy with the scar in the middle of his forehead...I think his name is Harold or something. Harold Potter. I frowned...that didn't sound right...

We were introduced, after George told the other Weasley that neither of the pots was of coffee (apparently one was Butterbeer, and George got an evil look on his face when asked about the other). This one's name was Charlie. He shook each of our hands-Ethan didn't just stare dumbly at it this time-and told us to stay away from the chocolate that George was bound to give us.

"Hey!" said George, "you just spoiled my fun!"

"And if you do, for whatever reason, eat the chocolate," continued Charlie, "the side effects aren't permanent."

Ethan nodded, still looking like he was meeting a celebrity for the first time. I wondered what would happen if we did eat the chocolate.

Charlie turned back to his older-or was he younger?-brother. "Well, I'm off to that Reservation that I heard about. I'd like to see the dragons."

"Aw, all you do is work, work, work, Charlie. Take a break, for once! This was supposed to be a vacation, but if you're ungrateful..." George trailed off, looking sad and pitiful, but the effect was ruined by the smile threatening to break out.

"You seem to have forgotten that the main reason why we're even here is because you opened a store here. That's work, isn't it?"

George blinked, looking somewhat surprised. "This is work? I was under the impression that this was simply a very fun hobby that happens to make me money."

Charlie rolled his eyes, and disapparated-something which I hated that I couldn't do. Turning, and then reappearing in a completely different place? I mean, for somebody that grew up thinking that the best way to get somewhere was by car or airplane (again, I couldn't do either...and don't even ask about bicycles), and discovering that you could just turn around...!

I snapped out of my thoughts, just in time to see Ethan ducking out of the way of a fanged Frisbee. I then reached up and caught said Frisbee...you'd be surprised how fast my reflexes are when I'm not prepared for whatever it is that's about to hit me. Half the time, I'd catch it...the other half, I get hit by Peeves II.

Placing the Frisbee back on a random shelf, I turned to George. "Hey, can I have some of that chocolate?"

George blinked at me, surprised. "You still want some? After what Charlie told you?"

I grinned a familiar grin...and saw Ethan cringe. "Are you kidding me? That is exactly why I wanna try."

George grinned back at me. He disappeared into a back room of sorts, and came back with a chocolate bar. He handed it to me, and I unwrapped it. Yum...

"Robyn, are you sure you want to eat that?" I looked up from my chocolate bar to see Ethan's worried face, and nodded.

"It's chocolate, Ethan, what's the worst that could happen?"

He rolled his eyes. "Yes, but it's Weasley chocolate. They make things that make Chaos look tame."

"I resent that."

I scoffed. "Doubt it.", I said to Ethan, and without another word, I took a big chunk out of the chocolate with my teeth, chewed it, and swallowed.

...and then it all went black...

My head felt heavy, and my eyes certainly didn't want to open. It felt like my whole brain was a mass of fog; particularly near my forehead.

I hadn't finished eating the chocolate. That was the first thing that came to mind, before I remembered that the chocolate was most likely why my head felt funny. If I could grin (my mouth felt numb), I would. George Weasley was an awesome guy, to pull a prank like this.

I felt a warm hand on my neck, and by instinct, I slapped it away. Opening my eyes, I saw George and Ethan standing over me, George looking thrilled, and Ethan looking immensely relieved.

"How do you feel?" George's voice sounded like it was coming from a far away tunnel; however, I couldn't help but be reminded of how cool his accent was. I lifted myself onto my elbows; my head felt more like it was lifting into the sky at fifty miles per hour, with my stomach trailing behind it. I blinked, trying to clear away the spots that suddenly filled my vision.

I think I said something, but I'm not sure. If I did, I'm sure it wasn't anything coherent.

George and Ethan looked at each other. I don't think Ethan was too happy, but I wasn't focussing on that, because I was distracted by a ringing sound in my ears, not to mention that my elbows weren't going to support me for very long. I slowly laid my head down on the floor again.

I stayed like that until I could focus on things again, and the pain in my head had turned into a small headache. As I did, I noticed that I wasn't in the bright, warm, organized chaos of the room that I'd passed out in. Instead I saw a white ceiling, walls that were a soothing shade of green, and kitchen appliances. I turned my head, and saw that the floor was tiled black and white, like a checkerboard. I also noticed how cold it was...

I looked back to George and Ethan. Ethan was just standing there, looking awkwardly uncomfortable, and George had his entire upper body inside of a kitchen drawer.

Cool.

George resurfaced from the drawer, and walked over to me, carrying a little vial of a pale yellow liquid."Here," he said, handing it to me, "this will make the headache go away."

I took it from him, and examined it. Shrugging, I took the cork out, and hesitantly took a sip. It tasted how I'd imagined the sky to taste; not quite there, but still had substance anyway. As soon as it hit my throat, the slight pain in my forehead disappeared as if it had disapparated.

They helped me up, and George explained what the chocolate was.

"Death by Chocolate", he told me, "mimics the effects of being dead, well, except for the whole never wake up part. Be careful how you use it, though, or the ministry will be after my tail for killing off dozens upon dozens of people, and then they'll be after me again for having an army of inferi."

Ethan and I exchanged glances. "In...What?" he asked.

"Dead bodies repossessed so that they walk around, blah de blah blah blah..."

"Like zombies!" I asked.

"Yeah, whatever you muggles call it."

I blinked. That meant that there had already been a zombie invasions; maybe more than one! And I hadn't been there with a crowbar, and possibly a flamethrower!

"Anyway," said George, "I should probably open up the store, we're running late for the Grand Opening, and my prat of a brother will probably come downstairs right about-"

"George!" A door was opened, and a new redhead walked in. He closed the door behind him, that lead to a staircase, and walked up to us...well, George. He barely glanced at Ethan and me.

"The crowd's getting restless! Come on, George, what are you waiting for?"

"Gee, Ron, I thought that, considering who you're married to especially, you'd care more for a girl that just had a heart attack!"

"I knew she'd wake up."

George couldn't come up with an argument for that. Eventually, since Ethan and I wanted to avoid crowds, George gave me a couple of Death by Chocolate bars for free (he also gave me another potion so that my heartbeat was brought up, and my temperature went back to normal), and we left.

The next few days passed by slowly. I couldn't help but feel bad for my muggle friends (who assumed I went to a private boarding school that I'd randomly gotten a scholarship for...gullible, eh?) for not having such an awesome school to look forward to.

At last, the day came when my mom drove me to an old warehouse. We weren't the only ones; all the Hildegarde students that lived in the area, like Ethan, came here. Those who lived in other regions went to different places (I've heard that they disguised one meeting place as a comic con-a lot of students used that as an excuse to show up already in their school robes), but they all ended up at the Log Cabin up near Hildegarde. It was a meeting place before we were all transported by bobsled to the castle itself.

The old warehouse was just as I remembered it, except maybe a little more graffiti'd. I could see other students-some classmates, some were older, others were younger, and others were obviously used to living in a wizarding village, the way they dressed-filling in through the worn, brown double doors. I smiled at the thought of how weird this would look to the neighbouring houses and stores. My dad told me that one year after he'd driven me, the guy at the corner store up the street asked why it was only twice a year that the warehouse (that didn't have a specified purpose) that people would come to this place, and then only half of them would come out again. My dad had explained (read: lied) that there was a back exit that half the people would use.

I walked inside, which looked a lot better than its graffiti'd cover, trust me. It was a large, spacious room, with dark wood floors, tall white walls, and a green-ish tinge to it. The green-ish tinge came from the large fireplaces that filled a whole wall, dyed permanently green by all the floo powder used whenever it was lit when students used it to come in to and from Hildegarde. I said goodbye to my mom, told her to keep guard of my room (with an older and a younger brother, you can never be too careful), and watched her leave, before looking around for a familiar face.

I found Ethan near the opposite wall, holding Chaos and waving me over. I gathered up Periscope's cage into my arms, keeping in mind that he was holding Chaos, I'd better be careful for both my owl and myself.

"Hey, Ethan." I said, keeping one eye on the Turkish van cat in his arms.

"Hey, Robyn." he said, "You know, Chaos isn't going to hurt you." So he noticed my stare.

I sighed. "Tell that to my favourite hat." I muttered darkly.

He rolled his eyes. "Robyn, it's a hat. It won't listen. Besides, you've got dozens of hats. What's one less going to do to you?"

"It was my favourite!" I whined. I didn't really mean it, but I was just trying to annoy Ethan a little as we walked towards the fireplace, our suitcases rolling behind us.

Ethan and I joined the line waiting to enter the fireplace. I couldn't help but wonder if this was how the legend of Santa Clause coming down the chimney was born...who knows, maybe, a long, long time ago, there was a guy who used floo powder to give out presents to those who needed it. Must've been a really nice guy...

Valerie Shade, who was right in front of Ethan, stepped into the fireplace, calling out "The Log Cabin!", and vanished.

Ethan gathered up Chaos in his arms, and pulled his suitcase behind him into the fire. He waved at me, and then called out "The Log Cabin!"

I walked into the now empty fireplace. I've always found this strange; having loved fire all my life (but maybe not as much as my older brother), I found it fascinating that I could walk through it and not get hurt, but I also knew the dangers of fire. I'd grown up knowing fire hurts-just because its green doesn't make it any less stupid to walk right into the middle of it.

I quickly tucked my glasses into my pocket, tightened my grip on Periscope's cage and my suitcase, and shouted, "The Log Cabin!"

I started to spin. I grinned like a maniac; I always felt like I was going through one of those tubes in those old sci-fi stories. The tubes that transport you from place to place...yeah, those things. When I told this to Ethan for the first time, I had to go into a very long explanation of science fiction, and what those tubes had to do with it.

I stopped abruptly. I stepped out of the fireplace, into the familiar cabin. The walls were made of (I hope you've already guessed this) logs, the floor was a threadbare carpet that who knew how many feet had walked over, and the portraits-that I couldn't see because there were too many people in the way-were of all the previously graduated students. There were many a large picture frame, with no specified person in each one; they all flitted from picture to picture too much. Once, in the beginning of my second year, I'd gotten to talk to one of them. They told me that originally, they were supposed to stick to the one portrait. I smirked at the thought- right after they'd said that, they'd ran to join a picture party on the opposite side of the room.

"Boo." I calmly turned around to see Ethan standing behind me, attempting to scare me.

"Nice try, Eth." I said.

"Aww, but George scared you!"

"Hey, I was in a dark alleyway, 'kay?" I paused. "Wait, no, I didn't mean that. I meant that that was my battle cry. I could've hexed his butt off, thank you very much."

"Uh huh..." he grinned, and I scowled.

I turned around, towards the doorway, where students were already filing through. "Alright, let's go get a sled before they're all full." I said.

Ethan and I found a sled. True to the cold North American stereotype, the way we got from the Log Cabin into school grounds was by sleds...pulled by arctic foxes. Glad I'd gotten new boots, I hugged my jacket closer as I stepped in and sat down next to Ethan, shaking the snow off my boots as I did so. We were joined by Valerie Shade, an African American girl a little on the short side, but with a build like a firefighter, and then Mike Bobbelle, a scrawny kid with reddish brown hair, freckles, and the biggest glasses you've ever seen. Looking between them, I couldn't help but think that we'd been joined by the two most opposite people ever.

The bench behind us was filled with people I didn't recognize (actually, I think that the one in the middle stumbled into my class by mistake when he was trying to find the potions room...but that's irrelevant) and the arctic foxes, as if by cue, started yipping as they began to run.

Ethan, Valerie, Mike and I talked about random things from pet peeves, to Peeves II, to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, to death by chocolate...

"So you, like, died?"

"For a moment, yeah. Ethan was terrified."

"Was not. I was just worried."

"But you woke up, right?"

"Mike, if she didn't wake up, she wouldn't be sitting here."

"Riiight..."

"Good, cuz I wouldn't want to have to deal with your ghost if you did die." For the strangest reason, Valerie had a problem with ghosts. She didn't like them, thought they were evil, and went out of her way to avoid them at Hildegarde. She was remarkably good at it, considering the fact that they could walk through walls.

"If I died, Val, I'd make sure to bug you for half an hour about how not all ghosts are evil, before going to do...uh, ghost stuff."

"Hey, look, there's the castle!" one girl from the bench behind us yelled, loud enough to turn heads from sleds nearby-ironically, the heads were turned away from the castle and towards the girl, who blushed and slunk down into her seat. I could understand her excitement. She looked to be about twelve, or in other words, only in her second year at Hildegarde. She'd never reached the castle by sled before.

I looked back towards the front, and sure enough, there was the castle. It was a grand building made of such a peculiar white stone that it practically glowed, standing out from its snowy background.

The sleds stopped right at the gates of the school grounds, and we all filed in, walking up to the large brown double doors that contrasted nicely with the rest of the white building.

"D'you think that Professor Yarmie's still teaching?" I asked Ethan. He'd hinted a little last year that he might be off to another school.

"I hope so," he said, grinning.

We made it to the doorway. I checked my ring...err, watch...err...ring that told time. Usually, the doors were opened just as the first student made it. The more competitive students always turned that into a contest.

We all had different ways of keeping warm, and we did so, hoping that the doors would open soon. Why weren't they opened already?

There was a loud banging sound, and slowly, the doors opened to reveal the beautiful (and warm) entrance hall, and a person standing in front of it, breathing heavily...

Heh heh. I suppose you'd call that a cliffhanger, eh? I don't know how exciting it's gonna be (it's a cliffy for me, too, cuz it's Alex's turn to write the chapter!) but I'm sure it'll be just as exciting.

Oh, and he also told me that he'd match my word count on the next chapter so it'll be just as long...I wonder if it's gonna be a competition...

So if you don't like long chapters...well...deal with it!

And I've never addressed this topic before, but I'm in debate club, so if you flame me, I will get out my equivalent of a fire extinguisher and destroy it. If you flame anonymously-cowardly move by the way-I will post your flame in the next chapter and abolish it there. So ha. (BTW, I've never been flamed, but I figured it's good to be prepared just in case.)