AN: Sorry for the delay. In addition to the usual excuses of life, the universe and everything, this chapter got a little carried away. It is MUCH longer than I initially planned, manly because this chapter includes the description of Group 2's adventure in the Virtual Magical Reality. I had originally planned to simply summarise what they did, but it ended up becoming much more detailed. Hopefully you all enjoy it. It is very different from the adventure the original six had. The story moves on beyond that, but this particular adventure expanded itself as I began to write it out.

We will be dealing with our main six characters throughout this chapter, as you will soon read. Thanks again for reading and reviewing. The story line has become MUCH more complicated than I originally envisioned with the brief outline I created, but that is a good thing (I hope). The next chapters are also becoming longer than I initially planned, unless I end up splitting them. This chapter, however, I did not feel would work as well if it was cut up.

Neville and Harry and several other students were enjoying breakfast in the Great Hall. He was wondering out loud to Harry about where Daphne and Tracey might be as they had not shown up for breakfast. An owl then swooped in and landed in front of Neville.

Harry raised an eyebrow, "It seems to have something for you there, Nev."

Neville reached out and took the letter from the owl and gave it a piece of his sausage.

Ron then joined them for breakfast and started piling food onto his plate.

"So, is everyone leaving?" asked Harry.

"No, just the purebloods," commented Ron as he started to shovel food in his face. "I guess they have a way to come and go easily and won't be back until it is there turn to go into the virtual magical reality thing."

"Malfoy is still here," observed Hermione who was already at the table.

"Probably just waiting for mommy to take him back to Voldemort," snapped Ron while chewing.

"I'm not so sure about that," mused Hermione as she glanced over to where Draco was sitting at the far end of the table from them, the only Slytherin still at the school.

After the remaining students had all arrived for breakfast, Professor Dumbledore stood up from where he was sitting to address the group.

"I would like to take a moment to make some announcements," he began. "The first is that the students in Group 2 will be starting their adventure in two days. The format has been changed and they will b exploring a castle environment with a specific task. The exit beacon is located at the entrance to the virtual magical reality so we will avoid any problems such as what happened to the first group. It is with great pride in their efforts of working together and their ingenuity that they accomplished their mission without their wands and without any serious injuries."

Neville shook his head slightly at the last comment as he muttered under his breath, "What he doesn't know won't hurt him."

The headmaster continued, "The students who have returned home will be invited back shortly. Also, there will be some new rules put into place. At the beginning of the mission, only the six students in the group will be brought into the room with the MagiWorld machine. This should help prevent a repeat of the events that occurred just prior to the first group entered the machine."

Several eyes turned towards Ron and glared at him, as many of the students who were there blamed him for his part in the altercation that sent the students into the virtual magical reality without their wands.

Dumbledore then concluded, "Now that you have all been updated on our current plans, feel free to enjoy yourselves on the castle grounds throughout the day and again tomorrow. Remember, curfew is still at nine PM."

Later that afternoon Narcissa Malfoy returned to the castle.

Upon arriving at the main entrance, Albus Dumbledore greeted her. "What can I do for you this fine day, Lady Malfoy? It is a beautiful day is it not?"

Narcissa smiled thinly at the man. "I have a need to speak with my son. I have been hearing rumours about what has transpired. Perhaps he should return home with me at this point," she said tersely.

Albus raised an eyebrow at her clearly less than friendly manner. "I will have him sent for immediately, Narcissa."

Narcissa winced at his slipping into familiarity and using her first name. Although she decides to let it pass as she was accommodating for making sure Draco was enrolled in the summer program.

Draco arrives a few minutes later, accompanied by a house elf. "Why is this thing dragging me down here?" He pauses as he sees his mother and the headmaster. "Oh, hello mother, headmaster."

Narcissa's face showed no response. "Good day, Draco, it is time for us to leave. We have important errands to run."

Draco was about to protest as he saw the headmaster's eyes twinkling at him. He decided to stop his rant and shrugged his shoulders. "Do I need to get my things?"

"I think not," she replied, "you have plenty of clothes at home, and you will be returning here shortly."

Draco remained impassive to her comments as he then turned to nod at the headmaster before following his mother out the front door of the castle. They remained silent until they had exited the Hogwarts gates.

"What is all this about, mother?" wondered Draco, having waited until they were well past al of the Hogwarts wards.

"We need to return to the manor, even if only for a short period of time," explained Narcissa.

Draco tilted his head, "Why is that?"

She hesitated a moment before responding. "The Dark Lord has requested to meet with you as soon as possible. You have to go back home, even if it is only briefly."

They made their way to the Three Broomsticks, then they made use of the floo system and returned directly to Malfoy Manor. Upon arriving in their entry hall, Narcissa turned to Draco once more. "He is waiting on you to show yourself in the main hall."

Draco nodded silently and slowly made his way to the room that was designated as the formal ballroom. He slowly opened the large ornate door and stepped through. The Dark Lord himself was seated on a large chair or throne in the middle of the room. A few of his lieutenants were standing to the sides in a semicircle. Everyone turned to look at who had entered the room.

As Draco started to walk towards the raised dais, Voldemort raised a finger at him as he began to speak. "Welcome home, young Draco. The young lord of the house has decided to join us here in his place," he added with a sneer.

Draco knew better than to respond to the taunting.

"Even though Lucius, your father," he stated, his voice dripping with venom," is still in prison there are still things that I expect from my host. But, alas, you seem to have been to busy to attend to us."

Draco bowed his head and did not look up at the Dark Lord. "I was called to school for a special assignment, a special project."

Voldemort taunts him. "So I have been informed. But what news do you bring me today? What did you accomplish during your time there? I expect my followers to be diligent in helping our goals be reached."

Draco is unsure how to respond. He fidgets for a moment and then he raises his head slightly without making direct eye contact. "It was a school project, we had to work together in teams. We needed to get through a task as a group."

Voldemort sneered at him. "That is all that you had to do? Of what good is that to me?"

Draco then added, "After this project, the Gryffindors think they can trust me, however."

"Use that to your advantage then," replied Voldemort. "Perhaps some good can come from this. Find out what Harry Potter is up to, what he is doing, and report back to me. Also, you must remember, Nott has a special project this year. He must not fail in his assignment. You are to provide any assistance he requires."

"Understood, my Lord," replied Draco without raising his eyes.

"It is clear that the Ministry knows I am back after the events of this past June," continued Voldemort without acknowledging Draco's answer. "Potter and Dumbledore may be a problem, so we need to keep things quiet for now. Do not give them any idea of what our plans may be. They will, however, focus on you, not on Nott. We must use that to our advantage."

The room was quiet for a moment, and then Voldemort spoke again. "Do not fail me like your father has. Now, Draco, you are dismissed."

Draco nodded, "Yes, milord." Then he turned and made his way out of the room.

The students in Group 2 gathered in the room with the Virtual Magical Reality device. On their way into the room, Moody collected the wands from all of the students.

"We won't be having any of that foolishness this time, now will we," he barked at the six.

Mandy Brocklehurst and Lisa Turpin sat down in the front row of seats. Ron Weasley joined them, and the second row was quickly filled by Gregory Goyle, Pansy Parkinson, and Blaise Zabini. Ron shifted uncomfortably in his chair with the three Slytherin students sitting behind him.

Mr. Jennings walked in front of the students. "Now, we expect that things should go much more smoothly today. No shenanigans today, please." He looked all of them in the eye and his face was stern.

"Due to the safety concerns that were raised after the first group inadvertently entered the MagiWorld environment unprepared and without their wands, we have taken steps to make sure this mission goes much more smoothly and with less problems," he continued patiently. "You will not be heading to the island that the others had to cross. Your mission will be much simpler. When you arrive within the MagiWorld matrix, you will appear in front of an old castle. A very large castle, I might add. Within this castle you may very well encounter all manners of creatures. Your exit beacon will conveniently be located right where you enter. All you need to do is go into the castle, find the missing crystal ball and return to the entrance of the castle and then leave via the exit beacon."

"How will we find this crystal ball?" asked Lisa Turpin.

"There will be clues that you shall find along the way," explained Jennings. "You may have some challenges and some creatures or individuals who may help you or they may hinder you. Working as a team will help you accomplish this mission quickly and safely. Any petty squabbling and distractions could get you injured and will most likely delay your return to us."

Blaise smirked as he spoke up, "Maybe if we just bind Weasley at the entrance and leave him there until we're done we will all be better off."

"We will be monitoring all of you, and if one person is left behind, the program will then make it much more difficult to find the hidden lantern," stated Jennings. "So I wouldn't recommend such an action."

Ron turned and glared at Zabini. "See, you can't do this without me, you slimy snake."

"Snakes aren't slimy," commented Mandy, "they're dry and scaly. Don't you know anything about animals, Weasley?"

"No one asked you, Brocklehurst," snapped Ron.

"You're not helping things, Weasel," commented Pansy, and her tone indicated just how irritated she was with the Gryffindor.

Goyle simply added, "Yeah. Not helping."

The others all stared at Goyle who then sat back in his chair and sulked once he realised that everyone else was glaring at him.

Moody walked in front of the group and came to a stop with a loud clomp of his wooden leg. "Now listen up, you kiddies. You need to stop this bickering and fighting. You will need to work together as a team, something which the students in Group 1 learned quickly, but you all need to learn right now. Just because your wands are now keyed into the safety mechanisms of the system does not mean you can't get hurt. Oh, you'll survive all right, but you may not enjoy what happens if your virtual self get injured or dies." He glared at them all one at a time with his magical eye. "Do you understand me laddies and lassies?"

The group all mumbled that they did.

"I can't hear you through your mumbling, you children," he roared at them. "Stop talking like little babies! Do you understand me?"

There was a loud and distinct chorus of "Yes Sir" from all of six students.

"Thank you, Mr. Moody," added Jennings as he walked back in front of the students. "Minerva McGonagall will check that you have appropriate gear with you. Professor Snape will hand each of you a clue. Once you have your clue in hand and you have been checked over by Professor McGonagall, I would like you all to line up in front of the entrance, side by side. And Mr. Frazelli will make sure you're in the right places and then explain the new entry process."

Snape walked up to the group and handed each one of them a small piece of parchment. Then one of the other MagiTech workers stood up from the console and made sure they were standing in the proper locations.

"Get ready everyone," stated Steve Frazelli, a thin dark haired wizard with a goatee. "You will all need to line up right here. Once the professor checks to be sure you are all ready then my friend Saresh will start the process to have you enter the MagiWorld. We're not taking any chances for another mistake to happen like last time, so we added a new secure step to this process. Instead of there being a simple doorway, there will appear a magical bubble that will be programmed for who it will bring into the MagiWorld. No more, no less, only those keyed into the program will be brought inside." He smiled at them once he was sure that they were all lined up properly.

Once they had lined up as they were told, with only a slight amount of jostling between Blaise and Ron as they ended up next to each other in the middle of the line, Professor McGonagall double checked that they were appropriately prepared for the upcoming magical journey.

Jennings then turned and spoke with Saresh. They exchanged a few comments about some technical information and then Jennings turned to face the six students. "Saresh here is keeping the entrance closed until you all have your wands. We're not taking chances this time." Moody then handed the wands back to each of the students in the group. "You may want to put them somewhere safe, just in case you stumble when you land in the MagiWorld environment."

Most of the students had wand holsters on the wrists, whereas Ron simply stuck his wand into his pocket. Moody shook his head in disappointment when he noticed the lanky red head mistreat his wand.

"On my mark on three," stated Jennings. He then counted out, "One…Two…Three!"

As he called out the last number Saresh turned a couple of dials. The entrance to the Virtual Magical Reality opened up and the group noted a translucent bubble emerge from the machine. Once the bubble had come in contact with all six of the students, they suddenly felt a pressure like a wind sucking them into the entrance.

Harry Spent the afternoon wandering around the grounds of Hogwarts. Hermione had caught up to him as he was walking around the Black Lake.

"I wondered where you had gone off to," she called out as she managed to get Harry's attention.

"Hey there, Hermione," Harry called back as he waited for her to catch up to where he was. "Just decided to take a bit of a stroll, enjoy the nice day."

"You're worried about Ron being in the MagiWorld, aren't you," stated Hermione.

Harry made a crooked face and then shook his head. "No, actually I'm not," he started pensively. "The MagiTechs seemed to put in some more safe guards, and they completely changed the encounter from what we had experienced. Overall it sounds like they will have an easier time of dealing with the virtual magical reality matrix. It's just their group that I'm worried about. Ron, and three Slytherins. I don't think that the two girls from Ravenclaw will be able to run interference for Ron and his mouth."

Hermione was now walking next to Harry, leaning against his arm as they meandered around the lake. "You may have a point there," she added with a slight laugh. "But at least if the safe guards are truly working, Ron won't be able to stupidly hurt anyone too bad."

"Or get himself hurt bad either," continued Harry.

After they continued on in silence, Harry spoke up again. "So, are you missing him yet?"

Hermione stopped walking and turned to stare at Harry. "What are you talking about?"

Harry smirked, "Just about the guy you seemed to get so close to while we were stuck in the MagiWorld."

Hermione narrowed her eyes at her best friend. "I was stuck with him, and not of my own choosing," she snapped. "We managed to put aside our differences and work together." She took in a deep breath to calm herself from her initial reaction to Harry's words before she continued, "Besides, I don't see you hanging out with your friend."

Harry turned away from Hermione for a moment. "If I even had any idea what you're talking about," said Harry as he still avoided eye contact with Hermione, "I would point out that neither Daphne or Tracey are still on the grounds of the school." Then he turned to look her in the eyes once again, "Besides, you know just as well as I do what Draco said before we left the MagiWorld."

Hermione huffed at him, "And when did you start listening to Malfoy?"

— — HP VMI 14 — —

The six students found themselves standing outside of a large castle. They quickly turned around to get a bearing on where they were and they also spread out from the line they were positioned in just before being sucked into the virtual magical reality.

Lisa Turpin spoke up first, "So, what does everyone's clue state?"

Ron was about to snap about the Ravenclaw girl taking charge when he realised that he would rather listen to her than to any of the three Slytherins. Silently they all opened the small piece of parchment that Snape had handed to them.

Each note began: "To complete this task, you must, as a group, find all 6 keys within the castle — each key will lead you to another, and the final key will allow you to retrieve the crystal ball."

The notes were not numbered, so there was no clear indication which key they needed to retrieve first.

"Mine says we need to look in the library," commented Mandy, "where do we find the library?"

"I suppose we just have to go in and look for it," stated Blaise. "Mine says to look behind some statues."

"This is stupid," moaned Ron.

"Stupid or not," snapped Pansy, "it is our assignment. My clue mentions an observatory, by the way."

Blaise spoke up again, "So, I suggest we make our way into the castle and just see what happens."

The others eventually agreed and followed the Slytherin in through the main entrance. The doors were large and reminded them all of the entrance to Hogwarts.

Mandy spoke up as they crossed into the large entryway, "My clue mentions something about a dining room. I would suppose we'll find that somewhere on this floor. Anybody have any ideas about which way we should go?"

"Maybe we should split up and look for it in groups," suggested Ron.

"Bad idea," stated Lisa Turpin. "This is a group mission, and we need to stay as a group. What would happen if we get separated and one group gets attacked and the others can't come and help? Or what if someone gets lost?"

Ron shrugged his shoulders in response. "It was just an idea," he added meekly.

Greg Goyle spoke up next, "Maybe we should just look down the hall to our right."

"Why go to the right?" asked Ron.

"Its as good a choice as any," answered Pansy.

The six students headed down the right hallway, and they soon found a pair of large doors.

"This looks promising," commented Blaise as he opened the doors. Inside they saw a large dining table, with only two place settings. These were arranged at opposite ends of the long table. "I guess we found your dining room, Brocklehurst. Now where do we find the key?"

Greg quickly made his way around the table, looking into the bowls to see if there was any food. When he got to the far side of the room, he started waving his arms in excitement. "I did it, I found the key," he exclaimed. He then pulled an ornate key out of the otherwise empty soup bowl.

"Well, this doesn't seem too hard," commented Pansy.

Just then a swarm of pixies seemed to appear out of nowhere and started to attack the group. The six students started casting stunning spells to try and stop the little creatures from harassing them. Greg was becoming frustrated by the small flying menaces getting into his hair and pulling that he started to cast blasting hexes at them. His first attempt missed wide and knocked over a vase on a table next to the wall. His next curse went wide as well and blew up a chair on the other side of the room. His third attempt was directed at a pixie that was flying overhead. His spell missed but it blasted a hole in the ceiling right where the large chandelier was hanging. The crystal chandelier fell onto the middle of the table with a loud crash as it shattered and broke the table in half. At the sight of such destruction going on around them, the pixies then regrouped and flew off, making their escape through a grating near the floor in the far corner of the room.

The group stared at the rubble that was the chandelier and the table. "I suppose that we don't have to worry about surprising anything or anyone in the castle. That crash would have woken the dead," commented Lisa.

"Be careful what you wish for around here," warned Blaise.

They then set off in search of more keys and made their way down the hall. They followed a twisting passage through what they thought would have been the middle of the castle when they came upon a locked door.

"Might as well try that key in there, Greg," commented Pansy. "Perhaps this is one of the places we're looking for."

Greg Goyle was used to being a follower, now he was leading this small group, even if it was only so much as unlocking a door. Greg smiled to himself as he inserted the key into the lock and slowly twisted it to open the door. The door swung open slowly and Greg tentatively looked in to the room and saw that it had a couple of bookshelves in addition to a desk and a large table.

"It looks like a small library," he stated as he walked into the room.

The others followed behind him, and Mandy Brocklehurst spoke up as she came in behind. "It's a study, Goyle, kind of like a private library, a place to do some work, or to be alone."

Greg turned and glared at her, "I know what a study is. It's a small personal library."

Mandy rolled her eyes and stepped further into the room.

"Where will we find the key?" wondered Pansy out loud.

Suddenly there came a loud moaning as a ghost swooped down from the ceiling heading straight towards the group of students. The ghost was shaking a translucent chain which rattled as well. The students all dove to the ground out of the way of the ghost that was dive bombing at them.

Blaise jumped up first and cast a blasting hex at the ghost, but his spell simply blew some tiles off of the ceiling.

Ron saw what was going on and he too began to cast spells at the ghost, only to cause a bunch of books on one of the shelves to burst into flames.

The ghost had turned around and was now flying directly at Ron and Blaise, and the two dove back onto the floor out of the way of the howling spectre.

Greg stood up and looked around the room and at the others in his group who were hiding under the table. Then he looked at the ghost that had once again turned around and was staring at him. Goyle turned his head from side to side and raised his wand as the ghost started to fly towards him. He then cast a series of freezing spells at the creature which caused a patch of ice to appear on the ceiling and the wall behind the ghost. The ghost howled even louder as it prepared to crash into Greg, but Goyle stood his ground. He shuddered as he felt the odd and cold sensation as the ghost flew right through him.

"Merlin, that was weird," commented Goyle lazily as he turned and looked at the ghost. The ghost turned around and stared at the large boy who did not even flinch from his attack. Boyle noticed the puzzled look on the ghost and then he started to laugh.

"You can't do anything to me, or to us, can you? You're nothing to be afraid of!" exclaimed Greg as he realised that the ghost had no physical manifestation.

The others slowly got up from under the table and watched as the ghost continued to fly at Greg, but the large boy continued to ignore the chilling sensation.

"No, it doesn't hurt," he said in response to an odd look from Lisa Turpin. Then he began searching the room for another key and finally found one in a drawer in the desk. After several more passes through the large and uninterested boy, the ghost finally gave up in frustration and flew away through the ceiling and left the room.

"How do you feel after all of that?" asked Mandy tentatively.

Greg tilted his head slightly as he considered what had just transpired. "I guess I could stand using a warming charm, but otherwise, I'm fine."

Lisa quickly cast the requested warming charm on the large teen.

Greg smiled at her, "Um, thanks, that helps."

"So, you found our next key," commented Pansy.

"Oh, yeah," he said as he handed it to the girl who shared his house.

"What's the next clue?" asked Blaise.

"Not sure which is next, but mine says something about a baby's place," added Ron.

"You mean a nursery?" wondered Lisa.

"Yeah, maybe," commented Ron. "It says something about where a baby sleeps."

Mandy looked pensive for a moment, and then added, "We probably need to head upstairs from here, find some bedrooms. They wouldn't be on the ground floor."

The group set off and soon found a series of bedrooms. The doors were unlocked, so they didn't take much time looking through them. On the fourth room they checked, the door was locked.

"Perhaps this is it," said Ron, "might as well give the key a try."

Pansy took the key that Goyle had given to her and tried it in the lock, and sure enough it opened the door. Pansy pushed the door open and stood to the side as she anticipated some sort of attack. Nothing happened. Slowly she peered around the corner and saw that it was a large bedroom, and it appeared to have a separate dressing room off to the side.

"Looks safe enough," she said as she proceeded to walk into the room.

"But why would a baby sleep in here?" asked Goyle.

"Maybe there was a crib in here or something," suggested Mandy.

The group looked around the room and spied some furniture covered with sheets. The members of the group eyed the covered furniture suspiciously.

"It could be under the sheets," commented Lisa, "whatever it is that we are looking for."

"Then lets just remove the sheets," said Goyle as he pulled one of the sheets off an oddly shaped piece of furniture.

As the dust that had collected on the sheet settled after he removed it from a dome like shape it was revealed that it had been covering a table with what appeared to be a bird cage. Greg walked up to the cage and opened the door and looked inside. "I don't see any key in here," he stated.

"You wouldn't put a baby in a bird cage," sneered Ron.

Greg spun around and looked taken aback by Ron's comments. "You would if it was a baby bird," he protested.

Ron just shook his head and walked over to another covered piece of furniture. He rolled back the sheet slowly so as not to create another cloud of dust, and he revealed an old sofa. "Not helpful," he announced as he tossed the sheet back onto the couch.

Blaise walked up to another piece of furniture, which he assumed was a large bed. The covering was large as the it appeared to be a four-poster bed. He carefully tugged on the giant sheet to pull it off of the top of the posts. It came slowly until he had it most of the way off and then it came crashing down around him, again creating a cloud of dust. As the dust was beginning to settle he heard some screams come from the girls. Blaise then noticed that a small group of pixies had appeared again, and he presumed that they had been hiding under the large sheet he had removed. The pixies for their part were flying around and biting and kicking the others, particularly the girls. Once again the students started to cast spells at the pixies, but they were flying fast and dodging the hexes being shot at them.

"Blasted blighters," snapped Ron.

"Can't we do something about these horrid things?" called out Pansy.

"Maybe banish them somewhere," replied Mandy.

"Banish them where?" wondered Lisa as she was still trying to blast the little creatures with hexes.

"The bird cage!" shouted Ron. Then he cast a large area banishing charm at the pixies and directed it towards the cage. The small flying nuisances were sent crashing into the bird cage on the table. Some of them flew in through the open door, others collapsed onto the table from the force of the banishment.

Blaise saw an opening as the remaining pixies were stunned momentarily and he grabbed them and tossed them into the cage with the others. Then he quickly closed the cage and cast a locking charm onto the door.

Pansy and Lisa looked back and forth between the two boys and smiled. Mandy finally spoke up as she stated, "Great team work guys, especially for a Slytherin and a Gryff."

They then set about looking for the key without the harassment by the pixies. The remaining furniture in the room was not helpful. Mandy then made her way over to the dressing room, where she found an old cradle.

"I suppose this is what we are looking for," she said as she walked up to the small wooden bed. She started to look through the blankets that had been left there and quickly found the missing key. Holding it up for the others to see, she waved it around as she exclaimed, "Found it!"

Goyle smiled at the rest of the group, then asked, "So, now where do we go?"

"An observatory would probably be on the top floor," commented Lisa, "and we also have a clue about a key behind statues, so we might need to find a room with art."

"Plus we still need to find the library," added Blaise.

"I thought this was supposed to be easy," commented Ron.

The others stared at him incredulously.

"Did you not even talk to Potter about what happened to them when they were in here?" asked a frustrated Blaise.

"Yeah, but that was different," replied Ron, "we're not trying to cross an island in three days without wands. We just have to deal with this castle in one day."

Lisa shook her head and let out a loud sigh. "No one ever said any of this will be easy."

Ron shrugged his shoulders and turned away before making any further comments.

"Lets get moving," stated Blaise.

The group made their way back out into the hallway, and decided to make their way towards the other side of the castle. They began to search for other locked doors as they made their way down several corridors. They even wondered out loud if the castle was magically enlarged on the inside as they weren't sure that the castle should have been so big based on what they observed before they entered it.

After turning around another corner they came to a set of ornate doors. Blaise, who had been leading the group at this time, quickly confirmed that the doors were indeed locked.

"Would you like to do the honours, Brocklehurst?" asked Blaise as Mandy was still in possession of the latest key.

"Might as well," she stated as she walked up to the door and tried the key in the lock. The key easily opened the lock and Mandy twisted the large door knob and slowly pushed the large set of double doors open.

They quickly discerned that it was a rather large room. In the middle of the floor was a slightly raised area, that to a knowledgable witch or wizard would have appeared to be a duelling platform. On the far side of the room they also noted an ornate display case. Mandy started to make her way across the room when a wizard appeared on the middle of the platform.

"Oh, they have sent me young children this time," the wizard commented lightly. "Will there never be a proper challenge around here again?"

Mandy gulped at the sight of the wizard who had a grey beard that extended a foot past his chin, a narrow and pointed face, but a strong appearing build. His eyes twinkled slightly, reminding the group of their headmaster, however this wizard appeared younger but more dangerous.

"We don't want to challenge anyone," stated Lisa.

The wizard looked at her and crossed is arms across his chest. "Now, now, my child, why else would you all be here? This is the duelling room, after all."

"We just want to see what's in that cabinet on the back wall," added Pansy.

The wizard turned quickly to face her, and he had a sudden fierceness in his visage. "Oh, such a simple thing you ask."

"Then we can go look at the cabinet?" asked a startled Mandy.

"Sure, you can," replied the wizard with a laugh, "after I have been defeated in a duel. Who shall be first?"

The group looked at each other, and none of them were showing any initial desire to battle an unknown wizard. Ron finally swallowed hard and then stepped forward. "I'll challenge you, if that is what we must do to reach the other side of the room."

"Brave, you think you are," sneered the wizard. "You don't look like much of a challenge to me. However, I will oblige you in your foolishness." He then moved to the end of the duelling platform.

Ron stepped up to the other end and called out to the wizard. "What are the ground rules for this duel?"

"Ground rules," commented the wizard with a laugh, "we don't need no stinking ground rules."

Ron's face turned into a frown and he started to shake slightly with being nervous.

The wizard laughed at him again, "My dear boy, of course there are ground rules. It wouldn't be a proper duel without some basic ground rules. Let's see, the first will be no spells classified as unforgivables. The next rule will be that this duel shall be one on one. If anyone tries to interfere, then I will summon other wizards to join in on the fun. Have I made myself clear?"

"He's just an automaton," Ron said quietly to himself, "he is not real, and I can't get truly hurt." Ron hoped his little mantra would help steady his nerves.

"Very well, I am ready," announced Ron.

"Then, on the count of three," called back the wizard. "One, two," and then he cast a blasting hex at Ron before he even said the number three.

Ron quickly cast a shield spell which buckled slightly under the curse. "That wasn't a count of three!" he yelled.

"No one said I play fair," laughed the wizard as he cast a series of stunner spells.

Ron replied by dodging and blocking the spells. He then managed to get off a couple of his own spells before he had to dodge another blasting spell and tripped onto his feet. A white light flashed from the wizard's wand and caught Ron in the leg, which caused him to scream slightly in pain.

He jumped up and quickly raised another shield charm as the wizard taunted him.

"Is that the best you can do, boy?" he called out. "Maybe I should have allowed you to use an unforgivable or two, it might have made this more fair!"

Ron could feel his face warm as blood flowed to his cheeks in response to his anger. However, he called upon some of the things he had learned the previous year in classes with his mate, Harry Potter, and then he started on a quick series of spells, including stunners, blasting hexes and cutting curses. He was slightly pleased with himself that he at least appeared to be making the other wizard have to work at avoiding the spells.

"So, you do have some skill after all," jeered the wizard. "Very well, then, let's make this much more interesting!"

Suddenly three more wizards appeared at various places around the duelling platform. The two newcomers who arrived the closest to Ron immediately began to cast more spells at Ron who had to duck and cast another shield spell to protect himself.

"Bloody hell," called out Ron.

Seeing their friend now being attacked by the extra wizards, the other five students began to attack the four who had suddenly appeared. One of the wizards closest to Ron who had his back to the other five quickly fell from an overpowered stunner launched by Goyle. The remaining three newcomers now turned to face the other students and took up the fight with them.

Ron stared and watched as the newly arrived wizards left him alone. Turning back to the original wizard, Ron called out to him, "No one else joined in the attack! This doesn't follow your ground rules!"

The wizard laughed at the comment. "Ground rules? They're more like guidelines, anyway!" Then he followed up his comments with a new attack against Ron.

A cutting hex caught Ron on his left upper arm and he winced in pain. Looking to see how bad his current injury was distracted him again from his attacker. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed another bright red curse heading towards him. Ron rolled to the side to avoid the curse.

"The young one has some spunk! But I think it will not be enough!" called out the wizard.

As he was boasting Ron winced as he pushed himself up with his injured arm. He then began to quickly fire off a series of curses at the wizard who he was facing.

Meanwhile, the other five students were currently engaged with the three wizards who had been summoned to join the one who was battling with Ron. The group initially had Blaise fighting one wizard while Greg and Pansy fought the second and Lisa and Mandy fought the third. Blaise was managing to keep himself safe by casting shield charms repeatedly, while the others were able to overpower the wizards they were fighting by having a two on one advantage.

Ron's series of curses came quicker than his opponent expected and he was unable to block them all. Two successive blasting hexes to his chest caused him to stumble and cry out in pain. Deciding he had enough of this he responded with an overpowered blasting hex of his own that landed in front of Ron and created a cloud of debris as the duelling platform could not withstand the magical explosion.

The room shook with the force of the blow and distracted the three wizards who were duelling the other students. However, the three wizards fighting against the other five students were not fazed by this and continued to hold their own.

Ron tried not to cough as he was enveloped in the cloud of dust and smoke from the blast that landed just a few feet in front of him. In desperation he cast another blasting hex blindly through the cloud in the direction of the wizard.

The laughing of the original wizard to start the duel came to an abrupt end as a flash of red light connected with his wand. In horror, the wizard watched as the wand in his hand exploded. The wizard was thrown back against the wall from where he had been standing. As he hit the wall he slid to the floor with a loud thump. From the look of how he was lying, it was clear that the force of the explosion had killed him.

As he landed on the floor in a heap, the other wizards all collapsed. The group quickly moved to kick their wands away, but then it became clear that they had all died when their leader had died.

The others turned and looked at Ron in amazement.

"How the hell did you manage that?" demanded Blaise.

"I have absolutely no idea," commented Ron, who was just as shocked as the others.

"Luckiest damned spell I have ever seen," avowed Mandy.

Goyle simply stated, "Wow," with his jaw hanging open.

Lisa Turpin then noted Ron's injured arm and she moved over to cast a healing charm on the wound. Ron looked at it briefly then he rolled his sleeve back down. He turned and pointed at the display case in the back of the room, "I think we can approach that now."

The others laughed slightly at his comment, but Mandy was the first to actually reach the glass enclosed cabinet. "Hey, there are a couple of small statues in here," she called out to the others. She then found a release on the glass panel to the case and slid it back. She carefully moved one of the statues to the side and find a small velvet pouch on the shelf. As she retrieved the pouch she could feel a key in the bag. She then turned and tossed the pouch to Ron. "Looks like we found the fourth key, now we just need to figure out where we head to next."

As four of the keys had been found on the first two floors, the group decided to make their way up to the third floor of the castle. They knew from one of the clues they still had to find a library. The large stairwell led to an open area that had several hallways leading off in different directions.

"I think that this puts us right about the middle of the castle," commented Lisa. "There are two hallways heading north, and two heading south. Any thoughts on which way we should go to start?"

No one replied initially, so Lisa continued, "Well then, since everyone is so full of ideas, I suggest we start with this hallway to the left." She then pointed towards the hallway to the north and west of where they were standing. Again she had no comments from the others who seemed to be still catching their breath after the duel with the wizard automatons. "Might as well press on," she added.

Lisa started to walk towards the hallway she had pointed to and the others began to follow her.

As they are rounding the corner towards the hallway from the landing in front of the large stairway there came a rumbling sound from the hallway to their left. The group turned to see two trolls lumbering towards them, each one swinging a club. Once the trolls noticed the group of six students they started to move faster and the floor and walls began to shake.

"Stunners won't do anything against these things," called out Ron as he started to cast bludgeon hexes at the troll closest to him.

This only seemed to anger the creature and he started to bellow and swung his club through a nearby wall. As the troll closed the distance to the group Ron and Pansy had been backing up towards the other hallways. However, Lisa, Mandy, Blaise and Greg ran towards the stairs which were now to their left. The second troll started to chase after them.

Pansy managed to hit the troll chasing her and Ron in the face with a bludgeoning hex which caused its nose to start to bleed. The troll paused for a moment as it was surprised to have been hurt even slightly by the small people it was chasing. Ron noted the troll had stopped and took the opportunity to try something that worked once before.

"Wingardium leviosa," he called out as he pointed his wand at the troll's club.

"What in Merlin's name are you doing, Weasley?" exclaimed Pansy.

"Hey, this worked once before," he said as the magic lifted the club out of the surprised troll's hand and over its head.

— — — —

Blaise was yelling at the three students with him to run down the stairs. Greg Goyle stopped at the landing below where the troll was and turned and screamed at the troll as he cast a tripping hex. The large creature was now at the top of the stairs and lost its balance. The troll began to fall down the stairs, however when its massive body hit the stairs in front of Greg, the stairs gave way beneath it and it crashed through the floor below as well.

Mandy screamed at the sight of the stairs collapsing between where they were on the landing and Pansy and Ron were above them facing a troll on their own. Blaise quickly moved to pull Goyle away from the edge of the now broken staircase, preventing him from falling down where the troll had just passed.

— — — —

The troll facing Ron and Pansy wiped more blood off of its face and then looked up towards the ceiling where its club now floated above him. Ron then quickly sent the club crashing down into the troll's head, which caused it to stumble backwards. The troll grabbed at its face again as it tripped and fell down into the area where its partner had already fallen and destroyed the stairs. There came a loud moan as the beast landed on top of the rubble, and then it was silent.

Pansy turned to face Ron, "I can hardly believe that actually worked, Weasley."

Ron was about to reply to her when she suddenly screamed and pointed behind him. Ron spun around and realised that they were now face to face with a couple of wizards.

"Merlin's beard, I'm not Harry, why does this keep happening," hissed Ron.

The two automatons pulled out their wands and started to fire curses at Pansy and Ron. Ron rolled to his right as he cast a shield. Pansy was a little slower in raising a shield and she let out a scream as she was hit in her left shoulder by a cutting hex.

Ron briefly turned to see what happened and then in his anger over the situation he jumped back to his feet and charged the two wizards. He cast a series of hexes in rapid succession: a cutter, a bludgeon, another bludgeon, a flame whip, and then another cutter. Because of his adrenaline rush from having just faced the troll and then being attacked by the wizards right after being cut off from the other group, Ron put more power into the spells than he had ever done before.

Ron collapsed to the floor after casting the final cutting spell and tried to catch his breath. He tried to raise a shield spell, but he didn't have the strength. He closed his eyes as he anticipated being hit by a multitude of spells, however nothing came. After a few moments he opened his eyes and looked down the hall to see that the two automatons had been destroyed by his barrage of spells.

Ron slowly pulled himself to his feet and he went to go check on Pansy. "Parkinson, you okay there?" he called out as he walked up to her.

Pansy was lying on the floor holding her shoulder, trying to stop the flow of blood.

"I guess not," he answered for her. "Hold on," he said as he raised his wand. "I only know some minor healing charms, but hopefully this can help." Ron then raised his wand as he cast 'episkey,' and then he collapsed to his knees again.

Pansy initially winced as her shoulder started to heal. She then looked up to see Ron stumbling to his knees in front of her. Then she reached out to support his body as he was clearly quite weak. "You took them out to save me," she whispered. "You even tried to heal me," she added.

Ron managed to stay awake but he fell back to a sitting position. "Yeah, just don't tell anybody," he replied in between deep breaths. He then turned to look at the damaged stairwell. "How do you think the others are going to find us now?"

"Why did you do it?" asked Pansy.

"What are you talking about?" asked Ron in response.

"When we were attacked, when I was hurt," she said softly, "I figured you would let them take me out, but you turned on them and destroyed them. Then you even tried to heal me. I thought you'd let me get injured and sent out of the matrix. I thought you hated us snakes. The safety mechanisms in place would have protected me from any real harm."

Ron didn't reply, he just turned and looked away. Pansy continued to stare at Ron in silence. After a minute, she moved next to him and held him in a gentle embrace, a gesture he did nothing to avoid. The two sat in silence for several minutes, when they suddenly heard footsteps coming up the hall from behind them, opposite from where they encountered the two wizards.

Ron moved slowly to raise his wand, and Pansy jumped up, snapping her wand into her hand.

"Hey, put those things down," called out Blaise with his hands held up in front of him. "Don't shoot at us, we're the good guys."

Mandy was right behind him as she asked, "What happened here?"

"A couple of wizard automatons got in the Weasel's way," explained Pansy.

Lisa and Greg now caught up with the others and Lisa noted Pansy's injured shoulder. "Do you need that healed?"

Pansy grimaced slightly before responding, "I foolishly got caught by a cutting hex with my shield low, but Ron healed most of the damage."

Blaise raised an eyebrow at Parkinson's use of Weasley's first name.

Lisa stepped forward, "Everyone knows Weasley doesn't know anything about healing, let me take a look at it and maybe I can help it a little more."

The others all stared at her for making such a bold comment. Lisa realised that the others all seemed to think she was being arrogant, and then she added, "All I meant is that I have done some extra study with Madam Pomfrey. Tracey Davis and I have learned some more advanced healing spells during our time working with her in the infirmary."

Pansy relaxed a little and actually gave Lisa a small smile. "Okay, then. I didn't realise you were doing that with Davis."

Lisa then finished healing the Slytherin girl's shoulder. "Someone actually did a passable job at first aid for you, Pansy," she added as she finished her spell work.

Pansy glanced at the shoulder and started to move her arm around. "Feels great, thanks Turpin."

"Don't mention it," replied Lisa.

"Fine, I won't," stated Pansy with a smirk. "So, how did you guys manage to make it up here?"

Blaise stepped forward, placing himself between Pansy and Ron. "Well, after our two big friends took their final plunge through the stairwell, we had to look for some other way to get up to this floor. We managed to find another stairwell which was in the corner of the castle. It only started on the second floor, and it took us out at the end of that hallway back there, where we came from."

He then pulled a piece of parchment out of his pocket. "My clue states here that we need to get past two wizards and find the library. The key we found in the last room should open up the door to that room. As it looks like you took care of two wizards, I presume we head up that hall."

The others agreed with Blaise's interpretation so they made their way down the hall from where the wizard automatons had come to attack Pansy and Ron. At the end of the hall they found a locked door, and Blaise took the key from Ron and opened the door. Sure enough, the room was a library and there were many shelves filled with books.

"Now to find the next key," stated Blaise as he led the way into the room.

Ron was still weak from his magical exhaustion so he simply sat down at a table in the middle of the room. The other students were searching the bookshelves, and occasionally reading out loud some of the titles of the books on the shelves.

"One Hundred Uses for Frog Eggs," commented Mandy as she looked at one book.

"A Seasonal Parade of Poisons," added Greg. "Are you sure we can't take these with us?"

"Leave it there, Goyle," snapped Blaise.

Lisa then called out to the others, "I found a small chest over here in the corner."

Four of the others ran over to join her and see what she found, however, Ron stayed sitting at the table. That is he remained seated there until he slid onto the floor due to feeling so weak. Ron's body landed on the floor with a soft thud, and the others all turned to see what happened. Pansy was the first one to his side where he was lying under the table.

"Are you okay?" she asked softly.

Ron moaned briefly and then his face lit up with a smile.

Pansy frowned at his reaction.

However, Ron tilted his head to look past her, as looking up at the underneath of the table he saw an envelope taped there, hidden from view. Slowly he reached up to grasp it, but he was unable to get a decent grip and his hand slid off of the envelope. Pansy noticed what he was doing and grabbed the envelope while Blaise and Mandy helped get Ron off of the floor.

"There are two keys in here," commented Blaise as he emptied the contents onto the table. "One looks like the others we found earlier, and one is smaller."

Greg Goyle placed the chest onto the table that Lisa had found earlier. "Maybe that small key will unlock this chest," he stated.

Lisa looked at Greg, "You know, that's a brilliant idea. Smart thinking Goyle."

Goyle blushed at the complement as he wasn't used to ever getting any. "Just trying to help."

Blaise took the small key and placed it into the lock on the chest. He turned it until he heard a slight click, and then the lock sprung open.

"What if that was cursed?" snapped Mandy. "You could have killed us all!"

Blaise shook his head at Mandy. "Relax, Brocklehurst, we wouldn't have all died, this place isn't all death traps. Besides, I think we were supposed to open the chest, why else would the key be there?"

Mandy crossed her arms over her chest, "The point is you should have warned us before just doing that."

"Whatever," replied Blaise with a roll of his eyes.

He then opened the chest and they looked inside, to see several potion bottles. He looked at Mandy, "I suppose you're going to tell us to leave these alone."

"How do we know what they are?" she demanded.

"Maybe because they are labeled," added Pansy who was inspecting the bottles. "This one says its a pepper up potion," she remarked as she lifted it up.

"But how can you be sure? We should be cautious," protested Mandy.

Lisa took the pepper up potion from Pansy and uncorked the bottle. She took a slight sniff and twirled the liquid around in the flask. "It looks like pepper up potion, is smells like pepper up potion, it even seems to have the right viscosity," she added.

Pansy took it back from Lisa and then knelt down next to Ron. "Here drink this, it should help you get your energy back."

Ron smiled as he took the flask and then drank it quickly before anyone else could protest further. He then let out a large burp and sat himself up. Slowly he pulled himself to a standing position and looked at the others and smiled.

"See I told you it would be fine," stated Lisa.

Pansy then smirked at Mandy as well.

Ron then made a face and started to cough. His eyes screwed up tight and he grabbed his stomach and fell to the floor.

"I told you not to do that!" screamed Mandy. "Now he's probably dead!"

Everyone stared at the motionless body of Ron lying on the floor in front of them.

"Now what?" wondered Goyle.

Ron then jumped back up as he yelled, "Got you! I'm fine, in fact I feel better than fine. That is good stuff! Although it still tastes as foul as any other potion I have ever had."

Mandy glared at him for pranking them all. Lisa shook her head and scoffed and Pansy slapped him on the arm. "That was horrible, Weasel," she snapped.

"Just having you all on for a bit," he whined, "no harm, no foul."

Blaise shook his head, "Not funny, Weasley, not funny at all."

Ron frowned at the negative reactions he received from everyone and brushed some dust off of his robes. "Whatever, but at least I am feeling better."

Blaise ignored Ron's comment as he went back to the table where the larger key was still sitting. "Well, this is the fifth key, and we have one more key to find based on the last clue."

Pansy looked around the group as they headed towards the door of the room they were in. "Any ideas where we go next?"

Greg Goyle spoke up first, "We have most of the keys, and we have found them on the first two floors. We still need one more key and then we need to find the crystal ball. I think we need to keep going up."

Lisa and Mandy both stared at him with their mouths hanging open for a moment before Lisa finally spoke up. "You have a point Greg," she began, feeling odd actually using his first name, "who would have guessed you could be so helpful."

Goyle frowned at the comment. "Just because Malfoy uses Vince and I as his muscle doesn't mean we're stupid."

Mandy raised an eyebrow, "No offense, but it just might help if you two did more than grunt and follow him around."

Greg tilted his head to one side and frowned again, before replying, "Hey, we just do as we're told, and I'm not referring to Malfoy."

Lisa was about to ask what he was talking about and Pansy shook her head and quietly added, "Don't go there, please. Just leave it."

The non Slytherin students looked at Pansy oddly for a moment and then they all decided to leave the issue alone.

They then left the room and found a large stairwell heading up to the fourth floor. As they neared the top of the stairs it was clear that this one also opened into a large landing. As Blaise reached the landing, the group heard a loud clang behind them and they turned to see that a magical barrier now barred their way back down the stairs.

"Not good," muttered Ron.

The six students stood together and looked around to see that several creatures were approaching them. Several large wolves were stalking them slowly from across the landing.

"Werewolves, why did it have to be werewolves," added Ron as he saw the size of the beasts.

"Don't let them but you!" called out Lisa.

One of the werewolves crouched slightly and then lunged through the air towards Blaise. Ron raised a shield in front of them and the werewolf crashed into it. The result was a growl from the creature as the students were pushed back.

"There's only three of them," observed Mandy, "we should work in teams to handle them."

"Anyone have any silver?" asked a worried Pansy.

"No, just be prepared to give them everything we've got," replied Blaise.

The werewolves started to spread out as the leader that had already tried jumping at them cautiously eyed the group. Then he began to charge at them, closely followed by the other two. Flashes of red, blue and white light shot forth from the students' wands as the battle commenced. Mandy was knocked over by a werewolf that ran straight at her despite being hit by a bludgeoning hex. The creature that attacked Greg and Blaise was whimpering as it was bleeding from its side after being caught by a cutting hex.

The third werewolf had circled around and made a leap towards Ron. As it was about to bite him, a blue light slammed into his side knocking him away. Ron spun around to see that Pansy had cast the spell that saved him from being bitten by the large animal.

In a minute the spells stopped as all three creatures had been incapacitated, either through blasting hexes or cutting spells. The floor was a mess, but upon inspection, none of the students had been injured. As they checked each other over they noticed that the stairway was still magically sealed.

Looking down the blocked stairs, Mandy commented, "Well we can't go back down. Hopefully we don't have too much more to do and we'l be done."

Blaise nodded in agreement, "Might as well start searching this floor."

After a few minutes of searching they found a spiral staircase that led up to the observatory on top of the castle. Walking in they found a key just lying on the table in the middle of the room.

"Now, that was easy," remarked Pansy.

Ron rolled his eyes and sneered at her comment, "Great, Merlin knows what we're going to experience now that you said things are easy."

"That's not what I meant," came Pansy's angry retort.

The group then made their way back down the staircase with the final key.

"So, one more room to find," stated Lisa. "Anyone have any ideas where we go next?"

There was some general muttering until Blaise spoke up. "I suppose we make our way around this floor, looking for a locked room. We still can't go down the stairs. There was no further clues about where we are to find the crystal ball."

"Maybe we have to go back down to where we started," suggested Ron.

"The stairwell is still blocked," argued Mandy when they reached the landing and the immobile bodies of the werewolves.

The group then decided to head off in the opposite direction from the observatory. As they turned a corner Pansy was in the lead. She stopped short and screamed as she was startled to be facing down the red eyes of the Dark Lord himself.

"Merlin, run!" she shouted as she screamed again.

The students ran back around the corner and stopped part way down the hall.

"What made you react like that?" asked an out of breath Greg.

"It was him, the Dark Lord," panted the girl. "I never expected he would show up here. We're in the school, in this device."

"Then it couldn't be him really," stated Ron. "Besides, have you ever seen Voldemort?"

The others flinched as Ron mentioned his name. Pansy glared at him as she understood what he was implying. "No, I have never seen The Dark Lord myself, but I have had plenty of people tell me about meeting him. And I'm not saying anything more about that." She crossed her arms over her chest and continued to breath hard.

Lisa then spoke up, "But that makes no sense. Maybe it wasn't really him."

"Of course it wasn't really him, we're in the Virtual Magical reality," added Ron.

"Yes, but what if it was something else," replied Lisa.

"Like a boggart or something," continued Mandy.

"That makes more sense," said Blaise as he nodded in agreement with the Ravenclaws. He then lead the way back down the corridor and around the turn. "If it isn't the Dark Lord we encounter, that would be a pretty good indication that it is a boggart."

As Blaise walked around the turn to where they saw the Dark Lord, he now saw his mother lying on the floor, dying. He hesitated a moment and let out a sudden gasp. Then Lisa stepped past him. The figure lying on the floor fluctuated between Blaise's mother and giant snake. Lisa screamed out of surprise at first and then she realised it was just her fears.

"Ridikulus!" she called out as she cast the spell at the boggart that was having trouble maintaining one form with the presence of Blaise and Lisa so close.

The boggart was then quickly defeated and it retreated to the end of the hall, finding an old closet to slide into and out of the way.

The group slowly followed the retreating shadow of the boggart which had fled from the presence of multiple individuals. Just before the closet where it had gone to hide the group found a large door that was locked.

Pansy pulled out the key and tried in the lock, and the door opened. They walked in to the large room which was painted a bright orange color. On a table in the middle of the room was the crystal ball.

"Great, we found it, now what?" wondered Greg.

"Maybe it gives us one final clue or something," suggested Lisa.

Ron looked around at the others who were just standing around the table staring at the crystal ball. Then he stepped forward. "Someone needs to pick it up," he declared as he reached for it.

Lisa and Mandy gasped as he moved to take the ball with his hands, Pansy called out "no!" but he didn't stop. Ron lifted the ball up with one hand and then there was a loud gong, like the ringing of a large bell, and the entire castle seemed to shake.

"Now what have you done?" demanded Pansy.

"Nothing, I just picked up the crystal ball we were instructed to find," replied Ron defensively.

The students turned as they heard the door to the room open behind them. They all drew their wands to be ready for something else coming after them. After a minute of waiting, Blaise let out a deep breath. "Maybe nothings coming," he stated.

"Maybe we're just done," suggested Ron.

The group decided to make their way out into the hall and back towards the landing. When they arrived there they discovered the werewolves were gone and there was no sign of their previous battle. In fact they had noted that all of the doors along the hallway were now open. Mandy looked down the stairwell and noticed that the magical barricade was gone.

"Maybe we can just leave," she said as she pointed at the stairwell.

"Looks that way," agreed Blaise.

The group made their way down and all the way to the entrance. The broken stairways were normal. There was no sign of any fighting or dead creatures anywhere within the castle. Once they arrived at the exit to the castle they found the beacon where they had all arrived.

"We're done," exclaimed Greg with a sigh of relief.

"And we did it as a group," agreed Blaise.

"I'll never live this down," muttered Ron, hoping that no one heard him.

"Okay everyone," called out Lisa, "let's grab the beacon and head back!"

— — HP VMI 14 — —

The students from group 2 had returned after their adventure, everyone was safe and everyone had a story to tell their friends. The students who were still at the school for dinner that evening are discussing the adventures of both the first two groups. Mr. Jennings had announced that they would be taking another few days to reset the Virtual Magical Reality to create a similar scenario for Group 3 compared to what Group 2 had just finished but they would need to reprogram many of the obstacles, and probably use a different floor plan for the castle.

Harry was surprised at first that Ron remained fairly quiet during dinner. He had figured that Ron would regale him with the tales of his bravery and how he lead the group, however he mostly just nodded along with the comments which the other students made.

Eventually they returned to the common room and Harry half expected that Ron might go into more detail but once again the tall red head did not say much about his day. He also, surprisingly headed up to bed early.

Harry had managed to obtain his invisibility cloak without Ron or Neville knowing he had it with him. He made his way down to the common room and slipped out into the castle. Harry had been spending time thinking about the events of his own experience in the virtual magical reality, and Ron's recent experience only brought more of those thoughts to mind. Harry always felt better just walking around the castle, so he decided to stroll aimlessly under his cloak. He quickly felt the castle was quieter than usual, even quieter than during the Christmas breaks in the past. But he considered that there were less students present for this summer program and surmised that must be the main reason why it was so quiet.

As he wandered around the old building, he found himself near the dungeons, and then he overheard some voices. This was unusual compared to his experience earlier on his stroll so he quietly decided to go and investigate. Soon he came upon one of the MagiTech wizards leading Septima Vector down the hall towards the room with the Virtual Magical Reality device.

Mr. Frazelli, the man with the goatee, was actively trying to convince the young woman by his side to come with him into the VMR room.

"The programming is really not all that complex," he explained. "I can show you some of the code. I think you would be fascinated by it, because after all, it is based on arithmancy. That's what makes the while thing work. Arithmancy is what enabled us to link the technology with the magic."

The stunning woman professor eyed the MagiTech employee warily but she did not respond.

"I'm sure you'd like to get a good look at how this version of applied arithmancy is different from how we use it in the creation of spells," he added.

Harry noticed that Professor Vector still seemed to be a little wary. She stepped away from the man for a moment as the tech pulled out a bottle of wine. "We could conjure some glasses and finish this bottle here," he said as he showed her the wine.

"I'm not sure I am in the best condition to look at arithmancy tonight," she stated with a soft smile.

The tech leered at her, "Oh, it will be okay, we'll just have a quick look. And I can show you what else it does."

She narrowed her eyes at his comment. "Tony, I'm not sure that's a good idea."

Steve Frazelli frowned briefly and then he gave her a soft smile as he tried to explain himself more clearly. "No, no, maybe you misunderstood. I can show you the types of places we can create with the machine. Places we could go to if we wanted."

"What kind of places?" she asked.

Tony's grin broadened significantly. "The beach, the mountains, the beach, a tropical island, a really nice beach," he explained. "Any number of places actually."

Harry shook his head at how pathetic the man's attempts to whoo the professor were becoming. Harry also assumed that he had only gotten this far in walking with her from plying her with alcohol earlier in the evening.

Frazelli finally opened the door to the Virtual Magical Reality device and he lead Septima into the room by her arm. He quietly stated the password to open the door to the room, and Harry smiled to himself as he was close enough to overhear it.

Harry followed the couple into the room and watched closely as Frazelli went up to the main console. "All I need to do is get her warmed up once we get her unlocked. Then I can load the program for our special matrix scenario, a bungalow on a tropical beach."

Septima shook her head slightly at the MagiTech wizard's behaviour.

Tony started to type in the password, and then he pointed it out to Septima. "See, everything is secure, including this password to get into the system. No wizard would ever figure this out, despite how simple it is." He then read the password out loud as he typed it in. "MagiWorld1995NeXT!," he stated. "Don't forget the exclamation point at the end of the password."

Septima watched him type in the letters and numbers on the keyboard. "And why couldn't a wizard figure out this password?"

"A wizard would have no idea what a NeXT computer is, so they wouldn't have any idea that the design of the system is based on one of those NeXT cubes. Besides, the exclamation point at the end throws off any hackers."

Harry quickly tries to memorise the password as he watches from behind Professor Vector as the technician punches in the information about selecting the module.

"So, how about a quick trip to paradise?" asked the MagiTech wizard.

Septima stepped back and shook her head. "I don't think so, not tonight." She then turned and went to leave the room.

"But I brought a bottle of wine!" he protested.

Septima stopped a few feet from the door. "That's nice, but I think I've seen enough tonight," she added coolly.

Harry smiled to himself as he now had learned the password for the Virtual Magical Reality device. He wasn't sure when or even if he would have a chance to use it, but he figured the information might come in handy at some time. He slipped out of the door to the room during the growing argument between Professor Vector and Frazelli, the MagiTech wizard, as she was holding the door open. Harry thought he might have slightly grazed Professor Vector's robes as he made his way by, and she did stop speaking and look around wondering what might have happened. Harry stopped walking and slid up against the wall int he corridor, hoping that she wouldn't reach out and try to find what might have touched her.

After a minute of her silently looking around, Frazelli asked her what was wrong.

"Nothing," she mumbled, "I just thought I felt something brush past me, that's all."

Frazelli furrowed his brow before replying, "It's an old castle, lots of drafts and not a few ghosts either. It was probably nothing," he added.

Septima just rolled her eyes at the man whom she had quickly decided was becoming a bore, "Whatever, it doesn't matter. I'm heading back to my quarters, and no, I don't need you to escort me."

Harry waited quietly as he leaned against the wall, and once Frazelli and Vector were well on their way, he started to walk away and made his way back to the Gryffindor common room. Upon arriving at his common room, Harry settled down into one of the sofas near the large fireplace.

Hermione had come by the common room, and upon seeing her best friend sitting there after having been missing all night, she took a seat opposite him.

"Harry, where have you been?" she asked. "What have you been up to?"

Harry looked over at his best friend and his face broke into a large grin. "Oh, I was just wandering around the castle for a while."

"But its past curfew," she admonished.

"I was wearing my cloak," he explained. "And I found out some interesting information." His face was in a broad grin.

Hermione's face expressed her worry. "Oh, no, Harry, what did you do now?"

Harry continued to smile at his best friend. "I was walking around and I ended up down in the dungeons, near the Virtual Magical Reality device. As it turned out, one of the MagiTech wizards was trying to woo one of our professors. Or at least he was trying to show off to her. In any rate, she did turn down the offer for wine, and a trip to what I believe was described as a little bungalow on a romantic beach in the moonlight."

Hermione's face went pale. "You shouldn't have been eavesdropping on them!" she scolded. "They might have been having a private moment."

Harry scoffed, "No, no, no, Professor Vector wasn't falling for any of the yankee's lines. But that wasn't what was important. What IS important is that I overheard the password for getting into the device."

"What password for what device?" asked a now confused Hermione.

"The password for the Virtual Magical Reality device," stated Harry irritably. "Haven't you been paying attention to what I am saying?"

Hermione was shocked to have Harry use one of her lines against her. She shook that thought out of her head and turned back to face Harry.

"But what would you do with that password?" she asked, worried about what his answer might be. "You can't possibly want to go back to that island."

"What, you actually thought I might want to go back there?" he replied, surprised by her comment. "No, I was thinking that we, you and I, could look into this device. Wouldn't you want to know how the machine works, what it can do, where we can program it to go?"

Hermione bit her lip in frustration as she tried to decide what she should do with this information from Harry.

Harry noted her frustration and spoke gently, "It's not like I am suggesting we do anything now. We can go tomorrow night, using my cloak to hide us. Think about it, you would have the chance to learn about this device. It's not like anyone is about to let a student, let alone the brightest witch of our age, go in and learn about the program and the device."

Hermione sighed and finally looked at Harry, "Fine, we can go tomorrow night. But that doesn't mean we're going to enter the device."

"Of course we're not going to enter the device," replied Harry as his smile grew. "We have to learn about how it works before we even consider that."

The next evening the pair of friends snuck out through the portrait hole after Neville and Ron had gone to bed.

"Why are we doing this so late at night again?" wondered Hermione out loud.

"So we don't get caught," replied Harry. "I thought you understood that."

"It was a rhetorical question, Harry," replied Hermione. "I'm just wondering why I let you talk me into this madness."

Harry nodded, but his smile was hidden as they were hiding under the invisibility cloak and couldn't turn to look at each other. Several minutes later they found themselves in front of the room with the Virtual Magical Reality device.

Harry opened the door and they made their way inside. Hermione stared at the large machine, the first time she actually really looked at it since they managed to get themselves out of the device from the fiasco of their group's adventure. Hermione hesitated to approach the machine for a minute, but eventually her curiosity over the device won out.

As she started to examine the console, Hermione smiled as she appreciated her opportunities to learn about using computers during her summers and holidays with her parents. She and Harry sat in front of the main console and she found a small button that resembled the on button for her home computer. She pressed it lightly and the large monitor screen in front of them blinked on and requested a password.

Harry quickly entered the password as he had seen it printed on the screen. Hermione scoffed at that, "Proper security would have the numbers and letters not show up on the screen like that. No wonder you were able to figure it out so easily when Frazelli turned the machine on last night."

In a moment there was a pleasant ding sound as the device had finished its start up routine. Hermione quickly found a menu of options for what to do next on the device, and the screen suddenly showed them a module of the various options.

The display read:

Scenario Category:

Auror Training 1

Auror Training 2

Avalon

Basic Island

Castle 1

Castle 2

Cruise ship

Desert

James Bond 1

Jungle 1

Jungle 2

Las Vegas

Terror Island

MagiWorld Island

Tropical Bungalow

Zelda

"We must have been sent to MagiWorld Island," commented Hermione as she read through the list. "And there are many options that would seem to appeal to muggles, or most definitely Americans. Any idea what they mean by Zelda?"

Harry shook his head, "Not a clue. Apparently they're working on another James Bond simulation. As the one here is numbered."

Hermione nodded in agreement.

Harry then asked, "Are there options for any of these scenarios?"

Hermione quickly found a drop down menu for further options. The screen blinked once and a new list of options appeared next to the first.

Scenario Options:

Climate controls

Dangerous Creatures

Dangerous People - Magical

Dangerous People - Mundane

Environment

Magic levels

Safety

Tracking

Violence

Clicking on a scenario category, she selected the menu for "Cruise Ship." She then clicked on several other options.

The climate controls menu gave her several options: Alaska, Caribbean, Hawaii, Mediterranean, Pacific, Indian Ocean, TransAtlantic, Oceana.

"Where would you like to take a cruise, Harry?"

Harry looked at the choices and quickly stated, "How about the Caribbean?"

Hermione smiled as she made the selection and then she opened the next option.

Dangerous Creatures - she skipped this option, leaving it blank, and then amount later she reopened the category and selected none.

Moving on to the next category, Dangerous People, once again she selected the option of none.

Under the category for Environment there were minimal choices for the cruise ship — level of cabin was only option. "Would you like a state room or a balcony suite? You couldn't possibly want an interior room, Harry."

Harry just smiled quietly as he watched Hermione make the selections. Finally she clicked on the option for Balcony suite.

Under the category of Magic levels there was a five star rating scale. Hermione selected four stars, not sure what that really meant.

Safety was the next category she selected, and once again there was a five star rating scale, and quickly she selected five stars for the highest safety protocols.

The Tracking menu had a simple on/off option. She selected off for the time being.

The Violence menu had a ten star rating scale: 0 stars no violence, 10 stars — not recommended for any participants, were the labels next to the options. Hermione quickly selected 1 star, wondering what that might actually mean.

Hermione turned to Harry, "It is all set up for a fun trip to the Caribbean, little violence, no dangerous creatures or people. Sounds like it should be fun for everyone involved."

"Brilliant!" he exclaimed. "So, when can we leave?"

The sound of footsteps in the hallway prevented Hermione from responding. She began the process of logging out of the machine and Harry was waiting nearby with the invisibility cloak, ready to throw it back over them.

In the hallway they could overhear Frazelli trying to persuade Septima to come look at the machine again. Hermione recalled Harry's story from the night before and wondered just why the woman professor would allow her self to be associating with the man once again.

"No, I really don't have any desire to look at your runic display," she protested.

The conversation in the hallway allowed Hermione to finish logging out of the device. One set of footsteps could be heard heading away down the corridor and then Frazelli stomped into the room.

"How dare she refuse me again," muttered the MagiTech wizard. As he walked into the room he hesitated as he thought he heard a noise. He pulled out his wand and cast a lumos charm on the end of it, and quickly searched the room. He found nothing out of the ordinary until he more closely inspected the Virtual Magical Reality device. His eyes focused on the keyboard drawer which had been pulled out and Hermione had not had a chance to slide back into place.

Frazelli took slow steps towards the device, again searching the room with the light on the end of his wand. Harry moved his hand to cover Hermione's mouth so she wouldn't say anything or make a noise as Frazelli walked past them.

The tech stared at the keyboard for a minute, and then he slowly pushed it back in, stowing it away. "I must have left without putting this back," he muttered.

He slammed the drawer shut, making sure that the keyboard was not going to roll out on its own, and then he started to walk out of the room. "Thought I heard something," he muttered again, "I must be imaging things."

Harry and Hermione waited in silence for several minutes after they heard Frazelli's footsteps fade away. The two friends silently made their way out of the room and into the hallway. They continued under the cloak until they arrived back at the Gryffindor common room.

Harry looked at Hermione, worried she would be mad at him for their nearly getting caught. "I'm sorry Hermione," he pleaded, "I just didn't think they would be back again tonight."

Hermione smiled at Harry and he could see the excitement in her eyes. "Are you kidding? That was so brilliant. It is so easy to select a scenario and create a Virtual Magical environment within their preselected parameters. That was fascinating, absolutely amazing really. When can we go back?"

Harry was shocked by his friend's response, and inside he worried if he had just created a monster. Or at least maybe a Virtual Magical Reality fanatic.

— — — —

AN: So this was a much longer chapter than I originally intended and it was much more detailed and harder to write. I hope you all enjoyed it.

AN: Fixed a couple of continuity errors my son found...