so sorry that it took me long to finish chapter 10! But enjoy anyways! and thank u for reading my story! please R&R

Chapter 10

Harry was in the edge of the cliff, with hot lava pouring freely seventy feet from where they were standing. In Harry's hand, which were held up high, was a terrified Hermione who's eyes were unfocused. Harry just stared straight ahead, not knowing what to do. And then a whisper suddenly filled his ears,"Kill! I want to see in my own eyes how good you are in obeying...".Then the voice dissappeared.

Harry stood there, rigid. Then, Hermione spoke, with choked tears, "Please...You have to remember..."

'Remember...'

Harry was about to throw her, when she whispered her last words..."You have a choice... you can change the future...you can ch...choose..."

And Harry found himself staring at the ceiling of his four-poster bed. He slowly got up, and twitched in pain, when his forehead twinged in pain. Then suddenly, Ron and Hermione bolted in, with worried looks on their faces.

"Oh, Harry! What happened? Are you okay?" Hermione asked, with tears breaming in her eyes. She held his left hand, and continued, "We shouldn't have left so suddenly! Oh I'm so sorry!"

"Yo! No hard feelings man, "Ron said, beginning to turn red. "It was just that I was kind of a little mad at Herms, that's all. Please don't get mad!"

Before Ron could say another word, Harry cut him off. "Before you say anything, I have something to say." They both looked at him, and Harry told them about the dream, where he was in a place, that was hot and full with hot lave, and that he was about to throw Hermione on the cliff. But he didn't say anything what Hermione said in his dreams. Hermione looked worried and asked, "How many times have you been dreaming about it Harry?"

Harry shrugged. "A couple of times."

Hermione continued looking at him with worried eyes, "You're just obviously upset about us. We're really, really sorry."

Harry stared blankly at them, and then smiled, "Hey! No hard feelings, k? We've always been friends!"

Hermione beamed, "Yeah, That's one thing Crystal couldn't take!"

They all laughed, but they didn't know that they were being watched. By two pairs, of cold, evil, angry, green eyes.
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Wednesday came, and there was an intense feeling on the golden trio. They still haven't solved the riddle yet, and time was running out.

"Oh! This is crazy!" Ron groaned, slamming his book shut. The three best friends have been up all night everyday trying to figure out what the hell the answer was. They recieved five detentions from Snape(two from him. Don't ask me why), Mcgonagall, and Trelawney cause they've fallen behind their work. And they recieved a lot of projects from all the teachers for not listening to their lessons. Now they were in the library, all doing their projects and finding the answers all at the same time. Hermione's eyes were puffy, and Harry was snoring his head off, while Ron was browsing some answers in a book that was unrelated to anything they were doing. Suddenly, they heard laughter from behind some of the shelves, and didn't have to guess who it was. They whirled around and saw Crystal grinning at them. Hermione tried to stand up but Ron grabbed hold of her.

"You pathetic little coward!" Hermione hissed, through gritted teeth.

Crystal laughed again, and held up three fingers, "Three more days, and the time's up my little cherry blossoms."

Harry woked up so suddenly, he thought he was still dreaming. He looked up, saw Crystal, and glared at her. Crystal just sneered wickedly. Then, she turned to Hermione. "So, 'think you're still good enough for the boy who lived?"

"What?" Hermione snapped, irritated.

Crystal sneered again, and walked towards her. Hermione backed up, her hands in her robes. "Oh, you're so ready for everything mud-blood!" She gave a wicked grin, and took Hermione's chin by two fingers. "Why don't we make this game a little interesting?" Hermione just glared, so Crystal continued. "If I lose, I'll cut Harry's strings..."She whispered."Permanently."

Hermione looked at her. "And if you win?"

Crystal let go, walked over to Harry and closed in on him. "If I win..." She held his chin up, and gave him a light kiss on the lips. People gasped all around them. Hermione stood up and tried to pounce on her, but Ron kept holding her. Harry looked shock as Crystal let go. "...I get to keep him and use him as my own little play toy." And without another word, she walked away.

Hermione stomped her foot so hard, they all thought that she put a hole through it. She tried to run after her, but Ron didn't let go. "I don't care! I don't need a wand! I'm gonna kill her with my bare hands!"

Harry wiped his mouth with his right sleeve. "Crap! Totally crap!" He gave a small spit.

Hermione snarled, and Ron said, "Let's get out of here!"

For the rest of the day, Hermione was in a very, very bad mood. Malfoy kept pissing her off, and when Proffesor Binns wasn't looking, she slapped him hard in the face, with a 4 rolled up long piece of parchment. Harry, and the rest of the Gryffindors, snickered. Malfoy touched his cheeks, which were red raw, shock of what just happened.

"Nice move Hermione!" Ron decalred, gleefully.

"Shut up!" Hermione snapped. Ron looked taken aback, and Hermione continued looking into space.

Harry and Ron both looked at each other, and Harry whispered, "Man! I've never seen her stress like this before!"

"Ditto!"
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Walking silently towards the library, a cloaked figure hurried as Mdm. Pince , the librarian, was about to close it. She blendid in in the darkness, and without the librarian suspecting a thing, she slipped inside.

She went to the restricted area, took out her wand, and whispered, "Alohamora!" Then, like a snake's movement, she slithered inside the locked door.

When, she was inside, she took off her hood, and Crystal's raven black hair swayed gently, as a whoosh of air, greeted her warm face by the window. Then, her eyes turned shades of light green. She held her hands high above, and began to chant words. Then in the night sky, The stars began to connect, each turning green when they did.They turned in to a huge star with ten triangular sides(a/n: I am so sorry! I don't know how to explain it, k?). The middle of the star suddenly turned bright green, and a shapeless form started to go down Crystal's outstreched arm. Then, when it was close enough, it landed on her shoulders(a/n:sowi!), and the form turned into a black coloured phoenix. It looked a lot like Fawkes but it was much smaller than he is(a/n: you know how big he is!), though looks can be decieving. It's beady eyes stared at its master waiting for instructions. Crystal smiled, and gently place her at the top on one of the shelves. The bird gave a little chirp, and watched as her master rummaged into one of the shelves.

"Let's see here," she whispered. She turned to the magnificent bird and said, "Help me out here Luba!"

As if understanding what she said, the bird stretched his wings and began to soar, glowing blood red. It's eyes turned to red as it soared towards the shelves. Crystal continued rummaging towards the high shelves of hundreds of hundreds of books. Then, she found it. "Here we go!" she hissed, smiling wickedly. The bird then cam back to her, and landed on her shoulders. It stared as Crystal openned the book, flipping page to page. "Yep! This is what Hermione was talking about." In her arms held the book intitled 'Puppeteer Lock Spell'. Looking at Luba, she whispered, "She doesn't know who she's gonna be messing with."
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Saturday came, and there was tension in the Gryffindor common room. Harry, Hermione, and Ron just looked at each other, wearing worried looks on their faces. They were sorrounded by hundreds of hundreds of books. Finally, Ron slammed the one he was holding in his hands, which he was trying to read. "It's hopeless. It's over."

"No, it's not..." Hermione muttered, staring at Ron slowly, her eyes telling him to back off.

"Yes, it is," Ron ignored her. "It's over, I give up." He started to stand up.

"No," Hermione's voice rose up, "You come back hear Ronald Weasley!"

"There's no hope Hermione, we only have, "He estimated. "About six hours to figure the bloody riddle."

Hermione fummed, and then stood up. "Why can't you have a little faith Ron!"

Ron glared at her, and replied,"There's no hope, don't you understand?" He walked out the Gryffindor common room. Hermione, without thinking, ran towards him, cursing(a/n: oh what the hell-)

Harry got up, and once he did, his head ached, and as if someone was controlling him, he walked out the door without him knowing.

Ron walked as fast as he could, his big feet stomping on the ground in each step. Hermione was catching up to him. Then, she finally got hold of his skinny arms, and backed him up the wall. Then, she raised one finger, "Do you know what your bloody problem is Ronald Weasley?" she hissed.

Ron whispered, beginning to get pissed off. "No! Why don't you tell me? You're always so good at explaining!"

Hermione slapped him hard. Ron looked tacken aback at first, then glared. "I've always wondered why I'm friends with you." Hermione growled.

"Fighting again, are we?"

They looked 'round, and saw Crystal leaning against the wall, casually flicking her wand, her eyes twinkling maliciously. "What the hell do you want?" Hermion snapped. "We still have six hours okay? So just leave..." then she stopped. Crystal's smile grew wider.

"I'd like you to meet someone that might be quite familiar to you," Crystal announced, and once she stopped talking, footsteps were heard, coming there way. They looked around, and saw that it was Harry. His eyes were glowing dark green. He continued staring into space.

"Wha-" Hermione and Ron were blasted towards an empty classroom, and toppled on a desk. Hermione hit her back on the edge of a teachers table, and she could heard her spine crack. She groaned in dismay as she tried to stand up. Hermione stared angrily at Crystal, and said, "I know everything you're doing."

Crystal laughed. She suddenly glowed, and began to rise up, Harry along with her. "Tell us then Hermione."

Hermion staggered. Then began to explain. "My first clue was the book, 'Puppeteer Lock spell'. When I was explaining it to the others, I began to think to myself 'if Crystal did used this book, why's the book with me?' There was only one copy on each book that came from the Restricted Area. So I checked on it again, and found out only one book was missing aside from this one. 'Puppeteer Lock spell Volume 2'. And Mdm. Pince never knew who took it. And I was too clever to be tricked that way. "She gave a faint smile. "You got me there Raven."

Crystal stared at her, then said, "And what was the other clue?"

Hermione winced in pain but continued, "The other one was so simple. Whenever Harry becomes your puppet, I never see you around...well, a couple of times actually. And then I saw that Harry only becomes a puppet when he's angry with Ron or me. And the riddle that you gave to us gave me another piece of the puzzle. The bomb is Harry and the switch is youself. The one you treasured the most and if you lose this, you will also lose your dignity. The most precious thing to you the most...is yourself!"

And as Hermione said the answer, there was a small hum, like a song, but Crystal's eyes were glowing bright green, and she was very, very angry. "Not this time..."she whispered, glowing even brighter. Crystal then she her hands, and began to chant unfamiliar words to Ron, but Hermione knew what they all mean. And it wasn't a good thing either.

"Ku hu gan wu si rin a su nu mi sa yu ni san wei li kun chi...('By the power of the sun, moon, and star... I stand before here, to give you my gift. Face me now, oh God of the underground, prince of evil, teacher of darkness and hater of light. Hear me DIABLO!)" she chanted, her eyes glinting. Hermione whipped out her wand, and cried, "Chroptus!(a/n:'made that up:)

At once, the spell hit Crystal and her spell backfired. She screamed in rage. Ron, who was looking at them in shock, asked Hermione, "What the hell's going on?"

Hermione glared at the frustrated Crystal. "Simple! She's doing some kind of ancient magic from the dark arts, to gain power. But to do that, she needed to find a candidate that is powerful among the rest. The first person that must have crossed her mind was Harry. So, eventually she used Harry,"Hermione screwed up her face, and continued, "But I don't know why she needed the Puppeteer Lock spell to do it. I mean, she can simply just do it by the Voodoo spell."

Crystal growled, and glowed even brighter. "I'll tell you why!" And then a thick black smoke erupted next to her, and Luba, the phoenix appeared before their very eyes. Without a second thought, the phoenix raised its long tails, and it stretched towards Hermione and Ron and wrapped around them, and raised them from the floor. "I've been trying to use that spell to block out Harry's mind! But to do that, he has to be emotionless, depressed, and always sad. But with you two around, I have to use the Puppeteer Lock Spell volume 2 until I gain enough power to control over him. To use the spell, he has to feel hate, anger, and depression. So whenever you and Ron argue, I make sure that I'm always close to you, but not close enough to be noticed. And then, I say an incantation, when Harry feels nuisance, that means I can control him whenever I want. And now that he's my puppet, there's nothing you can do about it little girl!

She gave a cruel laugh as the truth sank into them. And now, I'm gaining to be more and more powerful than ever! Harry is now my puppet, and I can do anything I want with him! Shall I give you a demonstration?"

Hermione tried to struggle, but it was too strong. "But we musn't do it here... " Crystal tought for a minute, then said, "I know just the place!"

And with a flick of her wand, they disappeared.
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This is getting more and more intense! Best chapter I had so far.
R&R!!!! Please!