Harry raised the Green Flame Torch to eye-level, and stared past its flickering emerald flames at Voldemort. The green of the torch nearly matched his shining green eyes, now narrowed in determination as he faced his lifetime nemesis.
"You've killed my family. You killed my friends. And you tried to kill me. Now you're going to pay." And with that he raised the torch high above his head. "Potentia viridus ignis, purgo haec locus!" He repeated the words over and over again. Power of the green fire, purify this place.
And with a flash of light brighter than the sun, and a yell of fury from the once all-powerful evil wizard, everything changed.
Harry opened his eyes. "Hermione," he breathed. She was standing in front of him, looking bewildered.
"Harry, what happened? I thought-"
But he cut her off, sweeping her into his arms for a long awaited kiss. The torch fell to the floor, forgotten and no longer needed. Evil was vanquished. Forever. No more Voldemort, no more Death-Eaters or Dementors. And, as a sign of the torch's promise fulfilled, no more lightning-shaped scar.
THE END.
I finished typing, and squealed with delight. Finally, I had reached the end of my first fanfic! Amazing. I could barely stop from jumping up and down in ecstasy. Instead, I opted for saving, connecting to the internet, and posting this last chapter on fanfiction.net.
"Finally!" I said breathlessly. Nothing more to do now than to wait for the reviews to come. A moment later…
"You've got mail!" I double clicked on the mailbox, and a little window sprang out. Ff.net review alert. I opened it and read, "That was good."
What a review! I mean, I've spent the last two months, an hour a day, writing this thing, banging out twelve chapters, and what does this person say? 'That was good.' Sheesh!
I sighed, and decided that my time would be better spent searching for a fun website.
Bring up Yahoo, type in Harry Potter, press Enter, scan the normal list of stupid and professional sites… Nothing. I've been to almost all of these. In fact, the only ones I haven't been to are the ones that either say "My Homepage! See pictures of me doing stuff! See me reading HARRY POTTER! See me -" and ones that say "XXX! Hentai… Harry Potter Pics! XXX" and stuff like that. Stupid moronic stuff. The rest… Well, it gets boring after a while. Reading the same rumors over and over. Playing the same games over and over. Fan fiction is great, but after a while there aren't that many new plots.
And so I try again for a new website. Type in "Harry Potter Games" and press enter. Nope; I've been to all of these.
And then, out of the blue, I typed in "Harry Potter Adventure."
I pressed enter.
And found exactly one match.
"Magic Portal, The: Wanting to see a better website? Bored with all the others? Do you know everything about…. Harry Potter? Then please enter here."
I shrugged to myself, and double-clicked the link.
It was a black screen at first, then a starry background came through. The normal bits of white light, nebulas, black holes, etc. floating across the back of the screen, as rainbow letters appeared stating "The Magic Portal: Adventures of a lifetime."
I noticed a very long list at the side of the screen, which listed a whole bunch of different books and TV shows. I saw Sailor Moon, Animorphs, Final Fantasy, and Gundam were some of the first ones. Then about halfway down the screen, I saw "Harry Potter." I double-clicked it.
Same black screen, but in white letters there were questions. Oh, a quiz! I loved quizzes, but I got all of the answers right.
However, this quiz was a bit different.
"1. Which character has the most easily injured pride?"
There was a space for me to type in a name under the question. I thought about it for a moment, then typed "Ron Weasley."
"2. Which character suppresses his/her feelings the most?"
What kind of questions were these? I knew the answer, Hermione, and typed it in, but still, this was a different sort of quiz.
"3. Which adult at Hogwarts plays favorites the most?"
I started to type "Severus Snape" but decided that the obvious answer may not be the correct answer. After several moments of thought, I typed in "Albus Dumbledore."
The rest of the questions were like that. There were not only questions that needed a lot of thought and understanding of the characters personalities, but there were also questions about the different creatures around Hogwarts, and what basis they had in real mythology. I answered those easily; I love Greek mythology, and that's where most of it came from.
"17. What city was named after Remus' brother?"
Remus meant Professor Lupin, but in Roman mythology, two brothers, Remus and Romulus, were raised by wolves when they were children. Romulus ended up killing Remus when they fought over who the city of Rome would be named after. I typed in Rome.
"25. What significance has the fact that Ron tried to turn Scabbers yellow?"
An essay question. I remembered reading on some obscure website that Ron Weasley was probably named after a general called "Running Weasel," who was good at chess and was killed by a giant rat that his troops had turned yellow.
There were a hundred questions in all. Usually, I would have quit long ago, but this quiz… For once, something was testing my knowledge. People make jokes about how I love to read. I don't read for the sake of the story, usually. I read so that I can KNOW the story. I want to learn it, be able to tell it to others if I have to, be able to spit it back at people, to know everything there is to know about it. I spend most of my time reading. Also, because I love to read so much, I slaughter people at Trivial Pursuit. It's almost embarrassing, because I can answer every question without hesitation. That might be why I have a limited number of friends.
But this quiz was actually making me think. It wasn't one of those simply easy ones, (4. What color did Harry's portion of the Polyjuice Potion turn?) or the impossible hard ones, (56. What page of what book was the word Voldemort used for the twenty-first time?), but it made me think. I like things that make me think.
But the last question was the hardest of all, even though it required a short answer.
"100. Would you be happier if you were a character in a Harry Potter book than you are now?"
I stared at the screen for a moment. Would I? Would I? Would I?
I love fantasy, I've dreamed of having magical powers. Literally dreamed, by the way, as well as daydreamed. Would I like to have magical powers? Even if it meant living in a dangerous world like Harry's?
Would I give up my family and what few friends I had for magic? Yes, of course. But…
I'd never been a brave person. But for the first time in my life I felt a surge of courage rush through me. Why was I so excited over a stupid quiz? And yet, I felt daring, I felt brave, I felt fearless, as I typed, oh so carefully, "Yes."
I hit the small gray button that read "Finished."
And suddenly I wasn't there anymore.
"You've killed my family. You killed my friends. And you tried to kill me. Now you're going to pay." And with that he raised the torch high above his head. "Potentia viridus ignis, purgo haec locus!" He repeated the words over and over again. Power of the green fire, purify this place.
And with a flash of light brighter than the sun, and a yell of fury from the once all-powerful evil wizard, everything changed.
Harry opened his eyes. "Hermione," he breathed. She was standing in front of him, looking bewildered.
"Harry, what happened? I thought-"
But he cut her off, sweeping her into his arms for a long awaited kiss. The torch fell to the floor, forgotten and no longer needed. Evil was vanquished. Forever. No more Voldemort, no more Death-Eaters or Dementors. And, as a sign of the torch's promise fulfilled, no more lightning-shaped scar.
THE END.
I finished typing, and squealed with delight. Finally, I had reached the end of my first fanfic! Amazing. I could barely stop from jumping up and down in ecstasy. Instead, I opted for saving, connecting to the internet, and posting this last chapter on fanfiction.net.
"Finally!" I said breathlessly. Nothing more to do now than to wait for the reviews to come. A moment later…
"You've got mail!" I double clicked on the mailbox, and a little window sprang out. Ff.net review alert. I opened it and read, "That was good."
What a review! I mean, I've spent the last two months, an hour a day, writing this thing, banging out twelve chapters, and what does this person say? 'That was good.' Sheesh!
I sighed, and decided that my time would be better spent searching for a fun website.
Bring up Yahoo, type in Harry Potter, press Enter, scan the normal list of stupid and professional sites… Nothing. I've been to almost all of these. In fact, the only ones I haven't been to are the ones that either say "My Homepage! See pictures of me doing stuff! See me reading HARRY POTTER! See me -" and ones that say "XXX! Hentai… Harry Potter Pics! XXX" and stuff like that. Stupid moronic stuff. The rest… Well, it gets boring after a while. Reading the same rumors over and over. Playing the same games over and over. Fan fiction is great, but after a while there aren't that many new plots.
And so I try again for a new website. Type in "Harry Potter Games" and press enter. Nope; I've been to all of these.
And then, out of the blue, I typed in "Harry Potter Adventure."
I pressed enter.
And found exactly one match.
"Magic Portal, The: Wanting to see a better website? Bored with all the others? Do you know everything about…. Harry Potter? Then please enter here."
I shrugged to myself, and double-clicked the link.
It was a black screen at first, then a starry background came through. The normal bits of white light, nebulas, black holes, etc. floating across the back of the screen, as rainbow letters appeared stating "The Magic Portal: Adventures of a lifetime."
I noticed a very long list at the side of the screen, which listed a whole bunch of different books and TV shows. I saw Sailor Moon, Animorphs, Final Fantasy, and Gundam were some of the first ones. Then about halfway down the screen, I saw "Harry Potter." I double-clicked it.
Same black screen, but in white letters there were questions. Oh, a quiz! I loved quizzes, but I got all of the answers right.
However, this quiz was a bit different.
"1. Which character has the most easily injured pride?"
There was a space for me to type in a name under the question. I thought about it for a moment, then typed "Ron Weasley."
"2. Which character suppresses his/her feelings the most?"
What kind of questions were these? I knew the answer, Hermione, and typed it in, but still, this was a different sort of quiz.
"3. Which adult at Hogwarts plays favorites the most?"
I started to type "Severus Snape" but decided that the obvious answer may not be the correct answer. After several moments of thought, I typed in "Albus Dumbledore."
The rest of the questions were like that. There were not only questions that needed a lot of thought and understanding of the characters personalities, but there were also questions about the different creatures around Hogwarts, and what basis they had in real mythology. I answered those easily; I love Greek mythology, and that's where most of it came from.
"17. What city was named after Remus' brother?"
Remus meant Professor Lupin, but in Roman mythology, two brothers, Remus and Romulus, were raised by wolves when they were children. Romulus ended up killing Remus when they fought over who the city of Rome would be named after. I typed in Rome.
"25. What significance has the fact that Ron tried to turn Scabbers yellow?"
An essay question. I remembered reading on some obscure website that Ron Weasley was probably named after a general called "Running Weasel," who was good at chess and was killed by a giant rat that his troops had turned yellow.
There were a hundred questions in all. Usually, I would have quit long ago, but this quiz… For once, something was testing my knowledge. People make jokes about how I love to read. I don't read for the sake of the story, usually. I read so that I can KNOW the story. I want to learn it, be able to tell it to others if I have to, be able to spit it back at people, to know everything there is to know about it. I spend most of my time reading. Also, because I love to read so much, I slaughter people at Trivial Pursuit. It's almost embarrassing, because I can answer every question without hesitation. That might be why I have a limited number of friends.
But this quiz was actually making me think. It wasn't one of those simply easy ones, (4. What color did Harry's portion of the Polyjuice Potion turn?) or the impossible hard ones, (56. What page of what book was the word Voldemort used for the twenty-first time?), but it made me think. I like things that make me think.
But the last question was the hardest of all, even though it required a short answer.
"100. Would you be happier if you were a character in a Harry Potter book than you are now?"
I stared at the screen for a moment. Would I? Would I? Would I?
I love fantasy, I've dreamed of having magical powers. Literally dreamed, by the way, as well as daydreamed. Would I like to have magical powers? Even if it meant living in a dangerous world like Harry's?
Would I give up my family and what few friends I had for magic? Yes, of course. But…
I'd never been a brave person. But for the first time in my life I felt a surge of courage rush through me. Why was I so excited over a stupid quiz? And yet, I felt daring, I felt brave, I felt fearless, as I typed, oh so carefully, "Yes."
I hit the small gray button that read "Finished."
And suddenly I wasn't there anymore.