A.N. This chapter is dedicated to Tadariada and No Reply who both helped me come up with ideas for this chapter! Thank you guys so much for helping me when I had Writer's Block!!!!! Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter!!!!!!
Malena
"I'm going to be working here," Celeste replied.
"You? Working here. No friggin' wa-" Harry started, but at that second Victoria's voice appeared in Harry's ear.
"Merry Belated Christmas," Victoria said. "Guess what Mom and Dad got me for Christmas."
"Hold on Vic," Harry said. He put his hand on his microphone and covered it so Victoria wouldn't hear what he was saying.
"You'd better be glad that my little sister is talking to me, or else I would-" Harry said.
"Harry? Are you there?" Victoria's voice said.
"Yeah, I'm here. What did Mom and Dad get you for Christmas?" Victoria started going on and on and on about her many Christmas presents. At the end she heard the tiny voice of Olivia in the background.
"Hold on Harry, Olivia wants to talk to you," Harry waited for a moment before Olivia, now three years old, said, "Hi Hawwy!"
"Hi Olivia! How're you?" Harry asked.
"I'm good. Guess what?"
"What?"
"Mommy and Daddy got me a kitten for Cwistmas," Olivia squealed happily. "It's pure white, except it has a lellow (yellow) star on its head."
"What did you name it Olivia?" Harry asked, buttering some toast.
"I named it Sparkler," Olivia said. "Guess what else."
"What?"
"Mommy got Jimmy a… um… caw."
"Do you mean a car?"
"Yeah! That's it! I think it's weird looking, it doesn't have a roof!"
"Mom got Jimmy a convertible!" Harry exclaimed.
"I tink (think) so. But she got you something else too… but it's a secwet (secret)."
"That's great," Harry said. "Well, I'd better go Olivia. I love you."
"Wuv you too." Harry said goodbye.
At that second Ivy came into the room, spotted Celeste, gave a squeal, and ran up to her. Celeste squealed too and they both hugged.
"I haven't seen you for ages!" Ivy said.
"I know! It's been…what? Two months? Three? I don't care, it's just been far to long!" Celeste replied. Harry rolled his eyes at Celeste's sugary-sweet voice that he had heard too often in his life.
"Oh my god! We have so much to talk about," Ivy said, conjuring up a chair and making Celeste sit down.
"Now, do you have a new boyfriend?" Harry sort of blocked out Celeste and Ivy's voice after that.
Harry watched from the corner of the Gryffindor Common Room as Ivy and Celeste talked by the fire. He had felt strangely alone since Celeste had arrived. She had begged and pleaded with Anna to spend one night in the Gryffindor Common room so she and Ivy could catch up. Harry heard Ivy give a giggle and glance in Harry's direction. Harry quickly turned away and looked at the book that he was "reading". Harry looked up as Ron, Hermione, Dean, Neville, and Seamus nervously approached him.
"Um… Stealth?" Said Ron. This was the first time that Ron had talked to him since the Christmas incident. Of course, it was only the day-after-Christmas, so it wasn't that long… Hermione gave him a cold look.
"Yes Ron?" Harry replied.
"We just wanted to-to know who that girl is. The one who is a replacement for Will or Brian."
"That's Celeste Rodriq," Harry said shortly.
"Okay… but, who is she?"
"Is she single?" Seamus asked eagerly.
"She works at the Order of the Phoenix, she works in the same department that I do, and she's best friends with Ivy," Harry continued.
"So can she survive the Killing Curse too?" Hermione asked coldly. Harry looked up at her.
"Everyone in the Order of the Phoenix can survive the Killing Curse, Miss Granger," Harry replied. "We learned at a very young age, we were introduced to small portions of Avada Kedavra until we could throw off the curse entirely."
"Then why doesn't the Order of the Phoenix give this option to the public, more people would've lived that way," Hermione hissed. The four boys that were standing around her stared at her as though they had never seen anything quite like her.
"Because, it causes a lot of pain to the people who are trying to survive, and more people die than live," Harry lied. "Hell, my own childhood friend died that way. He had an overdose of Avada Kedavra when he wasn't ready and now he's six feet under the ground. The public wouldn't be able to handle that sort of power. We have been specially trained to."
Hermione was silent, and then she just turned around and ran to the seventh-year girl's dormitory.
"Um… Sorry," Harry said after her.
"Don't worry," Ron said softly. "She's just mad that… well, you can survive Avada Kedavra, but our best friend didn't."
"Oh yes… Potter," Harry said. "Sorry about that. I-er-forgot."
"It's not your fault," Ron said, looking after her.
"Now, about Celeste…" Seamus said. "I tried to talk to her earlier, but she just looked past me as though I wasn't there. Do you know why?"
Harry sighed, "She only looks at people unless they are a possibility. You know, if they're a possibility of being her boyfriend. Don't even bother asking her out if she hasn't noticed you."
"How do you know that?" Dean asked.
"Well, I'm an ex," Harry said, feeling his face getting red. Their mouths dropped open.
"You went out with her?" Neville asked.
"Yes," Harry said, looking away.
"She's like an angel," Seamus said dreamily. "How old is she?"
"18," Harry replied.
"*sigh* that's how old I am."
"Dream on Finnigan," Dean said. "If I girl that gorgeous would go out with you she would have to be blind." Seamus punched Dean in the shoulder.
"Shut up!"
"Why'd she break up with you Stealth?" Ron asked.
"Er-I'm going to go check up on Hermione," Harry said. He got out of his chair and started walking toward the girl's dorms. He walked up some stairs until he reached the seventh year girl's dorm and knocked on the door.
"Hermione," He called. There was no reply, but Harry could hear a faint noise coming from the room. Harry knocked again, and pushed open the door. Hermione was sitting on her bed with her head in her arms. She was shaking and sobbing.
"Hermione! What's the matter?" Harry asked, rushing over and sitting next to her.
"Just go away Stealth," Hermione managed to sob.
"No, I want to know what's wrong with you," Harry said stubbornly.
"Just…" Hermione started sobbing again. "Go!"
"I'm sorry Hermione, but I'm worried about you, and I'm not leaving until you tell me what's wrong."
Hermione pulled her tear streaked face up so it was level with Harry's or rather, Stealth's.
"It's… It's just that you are so…" Hermione started to cry again.
"Is it because we can survive Avada Kedavra?" Harry whispered. Hermione slowly nodded.
"Listen, if we could, we would have everyone in the world able to survive Avada Kedavra. But the truth is, we can't. Too many people would die by just trying, Hermione."
"But… why couldn't you just have taught… Harry," Hermione sobbed. Harry sucked in a deep breath and prepared to tell some major lies.
"Because if we were going to do that people would start asking 'why didn't we do that for his parents?' And to tell you the truth, we did give people the option to survive the Killing Curse 500 years ago. But no one wanted to, so we stopped. But now…"
"Now you need to, but you can't," Hermione finished. She gave a watery sigh, "I just wish that he was alive so much." She put her head back in her hands and started to sob
"Oh Hermione," Harry said. "Please don't cry."
"I-sob-can't help it," Hermione cried.
"From what I've heard, Harry sounds like he was a really nice guy. He sounds like he always put his friends first. He wouldn't want you to be crying over him two years after he died!"
"Stay out of it!" Hermione snapped.
"It's true!" Harry exclaimed. "Harry sounds like the kind of person who would want you to-"
"-Forget about him?" Hermione finished. She had lifted her head out of her hands again and was looking at Harry with a mixture of anger and sadness. "Don't even say that. There is now way in hell that I am going to forget about him!"
"I wasn't going to say that," Harry said. "I was going to say that Harry sounded like the kind of person who would want you to move on with your life. He would want you to follow your dreams and move on, no matter how stupid that sounds to you."
Hermione was silent.
"Hermione, you shouldn't regret all of the times that you could've been with him, but you weren't," Harry continued. "You should be happy about all of the fun times you had with him."
Hermione gave a small smile. Harry timidly put his arm around her and gave a small hug. Then he stood up and started to walk down to the Common Room.
"Hey Stealth," Hermione called.
"Yes Hermione?" Harry replied.
"Thanks." Harry smiled in return and went back down.
~*~
"Hey people," Sphinx said the next morning at breakfast. "Guess who's coming to Hogwarts in tomorrow?"
"Superman?!" Ivy exclaimed. Celeste gave a small smile.
"Sadly, no," said Eric sarcastically. Eric was the other replacement. He was about 20 years old and he was always sarcastic and mean. Harry had a feeling that he was somehow related to Severus Snape, but he didn't say anything.
"No," Sphinx said. "It's the Minister." The remaining nine of them groaned.
"Didn't he learn his lesson the last time he came here?" Angelina asked.
"Apparently not," Celeste said with a twisted smile. Eric was gazing at her in rapture.
"Once again, we have to be on our best behavior, blah, blah, blah…" Sphinx said while reading off a list that Sarge had sent over with the potions.
"This sucks, why does he have to barge in on the Order of the Phoenix's business?" Ivy complained.
"Don't ask me," Harry replied. He turned to Sphinx and asked, "What are our shifts today?"…
****
The next day Harry was getting really fed up. Everywhere he went he was asked more questions about Celeste. All of the boys were in love with her, and she didn't give them a glance. Every morning Harry had to sit at the table and watch as Celeste opened love letters from her many admirers. From what Harry had heard, Celeste hadn't gotten a new boy friend a.k.a. a new victim. On Harry's day off, which was also the day that the Minister was going to arrive, Harry was awoken by an owl pecking at him in the forehead. He shooed the owl away after he had gotten his letter. It was from Seamus Finnigan, asking if he knew what kind of flowers Celeste preferred. Harry crumpled up the letter and got out of his bed in the Mission Room. He angrily went up to the door and tried to pull it open. It wouldn't budge. Harry pulled as hard as he could, and rattled the knob. Someone had locked him in.
He gave an angry sigh and pulled harder on the door. Harry heard Ivy's annoying giggle.
"Push, dip-shit!" She yelled. Harry pushed the door and it opened easily. Celeste and Ivy were both smirking at him as he sat down, and Angelina had her hand over her mouth so he couldn't see her laughing. Harry looked at the teachers table and saw that none of the teachers were there.
"I think that the teachers are off greeting Fudge," Angelina said.
"And I think all that gel has permanently affected your brain," Ivy giggled. Harry picked up his spoon with scrambled eggs in it and shot it at Ivy. She ducked, and it hit Celeste in the back of the head.
"Ach!" Celeste exclaimed, feeling the mushy goop in her hair. She picked up a slice of banana and flung it at Harry. He ducked too and it hit Sphinx on the side of the face. All of the students were watching them in interest.
Sphinx turned her head and glared at Celeste. Ivy started giggling as the color drained from Celeste's face.
"This means war," Sphinx said. She picked up some oatmeal and flung it at Celeste. It hit her in the forehead. Angelina picked up a spoonful of scrambled eggs and flung it at Eric. He gave an angry yell, jumped up, and flung his toast at Angelina, but she shrunk down in her chair and it hit Anna. Anna retaliated by throwing several Cherrios at Eric, but it missed and they bounced onto the Slytherin table. Food started to splatter the walls around the Agent's table. A piece of toast went flying onto Draco Malfoy's plate, and it splattered his oatmeal onto his robes. He frowned as some eggs went flying past and hit Goyle in the face.
The Agents were getting covered in food. The people at the Slytherin table had started throwing food back at the agents, although several students started throwing food at each other. Finally Ivy stood up and shouted, "FOOD FIGHT!" Only two words could describe what happened next. Absolute mayhem. Food was flying everywhere. The walls were splattered with orange juice, scrambled eggs, and pancakes. Through the crowd Harry saw Ron dump a platter of pancake syrup on Malfoy's head. Several people were cowering under the tables.
"Oh Stealth," said Ivy behind him in a singsong voice. Harry noticed that she was holding a bowl of oatmeal, and she dumped it on Harry's head. It trickled down onto Harry's face and on his shirt. Ivy was laughing her head off. Harry reached down and picked up a plate of scrambled eggs. He lifted it up.
"Oh no…Stealth, you wouldn't do that to me, would you?" Ivy asked sweetly. Harry smiled and dumped the plate onto her hair. She closed her eyes as they went off her hair and onto her shirt.
"That is so not funny," she said. Harry grinned. Ivy reached up to Harry's gelled and oatmealed hair and pulled off some of the goop. She smashed it into Harry's face instead. The both of them were laughing so hard that they could hardly breath. Harry was hit in the back of the head with a flying pancake, but before he could move Sphinx yelled out, "Everyone! Be quiet!" The room went deathly quiet, and a few people froze in the middle of throwing their food. From outside the Great Hall the voices of Cornelius Fudge and the other teachers could be heard.
"Oh shit!" whispered Ivy.
"Everyone, in your seats!" Sphinx exclaimed. Everyone rushed to their tables as Sphinx and the rest of the agents waved their wands, making the food disappear from the walls and floor.
"Yes Cornelius, we are very aware of their power to-er-survive the-" Professor Snape was saying. He pushed open the door and looked around the room that was still deathly silent. He looked suspiciously around the room at all of the students.
"What's going on?" Asked the Professor McGonnagal. "Has something happened?"
"No!" Said all of the students. McGonnagal glared around the room, looking at everyone suspiciously.
"Now, now, Minerva," said Professor Dumbledore with a twinkle in his eye. "They are just showing respect for the Minister of Magic."
The students nodded in agreement.
"Now, I suggest that we continue our walk of the grounds and discuss some school matters," Professor Dumbledore said. McGonnagal took one last look around the room and closed the doors to the Great Hall.
Ivy was the first person to start laughing, but a second later everyone in the room had joined in.
~*~
The next weekend there was a trip to Hogsmeade. The Minister had decided to stay at Hogwarts so he could watch the Order of the Phoenix in action. Harry, Ivy, Celeste, Angelina, Eric, and Anna were going to the village to watch the students.
Harry was walking down the icy path to Hogsmeade when he was hit in the back of the head with a snowball.
"Hey Stealth!" Ivy yelled, scooping up another handful of snow. "Come here." Harry rolled his eyes when he saw Celeste walking beside Ivy.
"Do you two go everywhere together?" Harry replied while blocking another snowball.
"Yes, that's what friends do," Celeste replied scathingly. Harry rolled his eyes again.
"So Stealth, whatcha' doing?" Ivy asked.
"Walking to Hogsmeade, obviously," Harry replied, turning around.
"Walk with us," Ivy commanded. Harry didn't object, but he didn't exactly feel like hearing the two of them having "girl talk".
"Guess who Celeste has her eye on," Ivy said slyly.
"I don't give a shit," Harry replied.
"No, that is incorrect," Ivy said in an announcer voice. "The correct answer is Draco Malfoy."
Harry made a look of disgust.
"Don't give me that look, he is dreamy," Celeste said.
"The only thing that matches his "beauty" is his stupidity," Harry said. "Trust me, I know."
"Hmph," Celeste said. "Well, there's only one problem."
"And what's that?" Harry asked coldly.
"He has a girlfriend," Ivy finished. "That Pansy girl, or whatever her name is…"
"And now we're trying to work up a plan that will make Draco fall madly in love with Celeste," Ivy said. She put her arm around Harry's shoulder and said, "Care to help?" Harry burst out laughing. When he was finally able to talk again he gasped, "I'm sorry, what was the question?"
Celeste frowned at him and said, "Will you help us try and get Malfoy to fall madly in love with me?"
"I don't think so."
"Oh come on!" Celeste said, putting her arm around Harry too. "Don't make us beg."
"No, no, and no," Harry said, shrugging them off of his shoulders. "You're on your own."
"Fine! We'll just have to get him ourselves!"
"You do that," Harry muttered under his breath. He continued to walk down the path until he reached the village of Hogsmeade.
Harry pushed the door of the small pub open and walked inside, it was crowded with Hogwarts students. In the back of the room he could see Angelina sitting alone at a table. He walked over.
"Any news about Will yet?" He asked softly.
"Nope, the last thing I heard was that his legs still weren't moving." Angelina replied, sipping on her Butterbeer.
"Well, I'm sure that they'll call sometime soon," Harry said, patting Angelina on the arm.
"Yeah…"
At that moment Ivy and Celeste came into the pub and walked up to Harry and Angelina's table.
"Are you two going to ask Angelina if she wants to help you seduce Draco Malfoy?" Harry asked. Angelina looked confused.
"No Stealth," Celeste said icily. "We're coming to invite you to play Truth or Dare, but if you're going to be mean…"
"I haven't played that for ages!" Angelina said. "Let's go!" She got up from the table and followed Celeste outside, but Harry remained in his seat.
"Come on Stealth," Ivy said, pulling Harry up out of his chair. "Let's go."
"I'm-not-going-to-play!" Harry said, trying to pull out of Ivy's grasp. She dragged Harry outside into the cold air and into an ally by the pub.
Harry looked around and saw that Hermione, Ron, Seamus, Pansy Parkinson and Draco Malfoy were already there.
"All right Jaleesa," Ivy said. "Truth or dare."
"Truth."
"Hmm…" Ivy said thoughtfully. "Was Will the first person you ever dated? You know, like, seriously dated."
Angelina arched her eyebrow and said, "No."
"Who was the first?"
"One question," Harry interrupted, knowing that Angelina wasn't allowed to say that she had gone out with Fred. "One question only."
"Yeah, yeah," Ivy said. "Okay Jaleesa, your turn to ask the perhaps fatal question. It could jeopardize the future of-"
"Stealth, truth or dare?" Angelina said before Ivy could continue.
"Dare," Harry said, rolling his eyes. Angelina gave an evil looking grin and said. "I dare you to go jump in that lake." She was pointing to a lake that was in a park barely visible from where they were sitting.
"You can always say, "Chicken" if you're too scared," Celeste said.
"I'm not scared," Harry said. He stood up and pulled off his cloak and handed it to Angelina. He was only wearing a dark blue tee shirt with the Nike sign on it and a pair of black pants.
"We should go with him to see if he does it," Ron said. "For all we know he could just dump a bucket of water on his head and say that he jumped in the lake."
"Yeah," Pansy said. "Lets go."
The eight people followed Harry to the edge of the lake, where he pulled off his shoes and socks. He put his foot in the freezing cold snow and walked slowly to an icy rock that jutted over the lake.
"Jump! Jump! Jump!" Seamus yelled, pumping his fist in the air. Harry did a cannon ball into the lake. He swam back to the rock and climbed out of the icy cold lake into the freezing cold snow.
Ivy was laughing her head off. Harry wrapped his arms around himself and tried to warm himself up.
"J-J-Jaleesa, where's m-my cloak?" Harry asked, his teeth starting to chatter. Jaleesa, who was hiding a smile, handed Harry the cloak. He was immediately warmed, for the cloak had a special heating device.
"Okay Stealth," Ivy said. "Your turn."
"Stealth," said a quiet voice in Harry's ear. He recognized it to be Celeste's. "Please dare Draco to kiss me." Harry frowned. "I'll give you 20 Galleons."
"Malfoy," Harry said. "Truth or Dare."
"Dare," Malfoy sneered.
"All right, I dare you too…" Harry glanced at Celeste and she raised her perfectly plucked eyebrows at harry. "Kiss Celeste."
"Is that it?" Draco said.
"You should have done that for me," Seamus said, leaning over to whisper to Harry.
"Fine." Draco leaned over to Celeste and kissed her on the lips. Ivy covered her mouth to keep from laughing aloud. Pansy gave Draco a cold look when he had pulled away from the kiss. Celeste looked a little giddy.
"Okay…" Draco said, "Moving on. Granger, truth or dare?"…
~*~
An hour later the game had expanded to almost 20 people. So far, Harry had kissed Ginny Weasley, dared Ivy to flash a group of old men in a house, and been dared to turn invisible and knock Snape off of his feet. When Hermione's turn to ask the question came around she turned to Harry.
"Stealth, truth or dare?"
"Truth," Harry replied.
"Hmmm…" Hermione said, putting her chin in her hand. "What is… your real name?"
Harry felt the color drain from his face. "What?"
"Come on, you don't really expect us to believe that your first name is Stealth, do you?" Ron asked. "Spill."
"My name…" Harry said, searching around in his mind for the name that he had chosen.
"Is Stealthy-wealthy scaredy-wardy to admit that his name is…" Ivy said. "Corwin."
"Corwin?" said everyone incredulously.
"Corwin." Harry said. "Ivy, I can't believe that you told them that." Secretly, he was thanking her.
"Your name is Corwin?" Hermione said.
"Corwin Wilson," Harry said. "Everyone used to call me Cory, then I got the nickname Stealth."
"Corwin," Ron snorted.
"But if anyone calls me that I swear I'll-"
"Your turn to ask!" Celeste said quickly.
A few more turns later it was Ivy who was asking the questions. With a wicked grin on her face and a mischievous glint in her eye, she said, "Corwin-er- I mean, Stealth Truth or Dare?"
Harry had been avoiding Truth whenever Ivy asked a question, so he said, "Dare."
Ivy's smile got wider. "I dare you to tell us why Celeste broke up with you." Harry arched an eyebrow.
"He's not going to," Celeste cut it. "I can tell you that-"
"Now, now," Harry said. "It's not your decision Celeste."
"Come on! Tell us why Celeste broke up with you?" Ivy said impatiently.
"She didn't," Harry said simply. Ivy frowned, and Celeste got a murderous look in her eye.
"What do you mean, "she didn't"?" Ron asked.
"One question!" Celeste interrupted.
"She didn't break up with me," Harry said. "I broke up with her."
Ivy's mouth dropped open. Ron raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"No way!" Ivy said. "Celeste wouldn't lie to me, she's my best friend! She wouldn't…" Ivy turned to look at Celeste. "Would you?"
"You have no idea what it's like to be me!" Celeste cried in her defense. "I have a reputation to-"
"You lied to me! And you told everyone else that you had broken up with him and you made him stick to your story?!"
"Ivy-"
"That is so stupid of you!" Ivy burst out. "Who cares if someone breaks up with you!"
"I care!" Celeste exclaimed. "You know what Ivy, our friendship is over! If you don't-"
"I don't care! Just go!" Ivy yelled. Without a glance back, Celeste turned around and stomped off.
Suddenly, Draco Malfoy turned to Pansy and said, "I think we should see other people." Pansy gave a shocked squeal as Draco stood up and ran after Celeste.
"Well, at least she got what she wanted," Ivy grumbled.
"Yeah…" Harry replied.