Episode III
The Little Rival
"That American Christopher boy is getting so annoying!" Ginny Weasley groaned as she stormed into the Gryffindor Common Room.
Pandora looked up from her first Divination assignment which Ron and Harry were helping to make completely bogus. "But I thought you liked him?" Ron asked, very confused once again at the way the female mind worked.
Fred and George were coming in at this same time. "Of course she likes the Yank! That's why she's mad. The Yank was flirting with some other girl!" George said.
Ginny's face turned bright red with anger. "I don't like him at all! And why are you following me around? Go away! Leave me alone! I'm going upstairs! Hmph!" She stomped upstairs.
The twins sniggered and then started speaking in conspiratory voices in a corner as usual. Pandora tried to return to her work, but felt all too distracted. She leaned back in the chair as Harry grinned over at her. "I guess you don't get as much amusement as we do out of this."
"No, I'm just tired," she answered, smiling and blushing just a bit.
Hermione was in the middle of lecturing Ron on how horrible it was to completely make up information for you homework when Chris Phillips, the American boy, walked in looking very upset about something. Pandora watched as he scanned around the room, then asked a second year girl that had just walked down from her room, "Have you seen my sister Lauren anywhere?" The little girl shook her head, grabbed a book from where she had forgotten it earlier, and scampered back upstairs.
"She's not in yet?" Pandora asked.
"No, and I'm getting worried... It's nearly ten. I hope she's not in some sort of trouble. She would have told me if she'd gotten a detention or something that she had to take care of."
"Don't worry, she'll probably be in later."
"I hope so," he sighed. "We... kind of got in a fight earlier..." He rubbed a hand nervously through his light brown hair. "She told me that she'd been having some sort of dream about two men fighting with swords, but it was too dark to be able to see who they were. Then suddenly the two men turned into her and another girl. That's where she says she always wakes up."
"Oh? So how did that make you two get in a fight?"
"Because... she was asking me what I thought it meant... if I was hiding something from her. And I told her a secret that my parents will kill me for if they find out I've told her."
"Can you tell us?" Ron asked.
Chris blinked at them and said, "I really shouldn't be spreading this around, it will embarrass her." He sighed and continued, "Just don't tell her I told you this... When I was very young, about seven years old, I was an only child, living in America. One night my parents were out, and they came home with this little girl in their arms. She was probably about five, had wild black hair, and beautiful brown eyes with a slight tint of fiery red. When she woke up she didn't remember much of anything, and my parents told her that she had run into some bad people that had messed with her memory, and then told her that she was their daughter. They did a few little tests to see if she had magic, which she did, and they called her Lauren. I was never supposed to tell her the truth, even though it is a bit obvious since no one in my family has black hair except for her. And when she had that dream... and asked me about it... I felt like she had a right to know. Anyhow, she got really upset and ran off somewhere. I had hoped she'd be here, but no..." He sighed again, staring around him as if in hopes to see something he hadn't before. "Do you think I did the right thing?"
Pandora nodded. "She needed to know. So do your parents have any idea who her real family is?"
"No, they...." the painting swung aside and he turned around, disappointed to only see Colin crawl in. He shook his head. "I'm going on upstairs." He turned to Harry and Ron and said, "If she comes in before you two go to bed, would you mind coming and telling me?"
They nodded and he went away.
"Poor girl," Pandora sighed. "Probably feels very out-of-place now. I wish I could do something."
Harry glanced over at Ron who had once again begun a debate with Hermione, then whispered to Pandora, "Do you want to go look for her?"
"How can we? If we're caught out this late we're bound to get a detention!"
"I'll be right back," Harry said, hopping up and running upstairs, leaving Pandora to stare behind him, very confused. A few minutes later he returned carrying something very strange looking with him. "This is an invisibility cloak. We can wear it together and go look for her, so that way no one will know we're out."
Pandora took it in her hands and inspected it. "That's so cool! Let's go!"
Harry and Pandora left the Common Room, unknown to anyone, underneath the cloak. Little did they know they had another guest under it with them.
"Hey-hey-hoo! This'll be fun!" Rangi squealed.
"SSHHHHHHH!" Pandora and Harry both commanded in unison.
"Gee... sorry... Lookin' for a Hogwarts Card, Cardcaptor?"
"No, I'm looking for a lost little girl."
Rangi looked confused. "You mean you don't feel it out there? It's really strong right now..."
Pandora stopped, and Harry with her. "You feel one?"
"Yes. And so should you."
She closed her eyes, the gem on her forehead shimmering slightly. "Yes... I think I sense something... It feels dark... and cold..."
"A Slytherin, most likely."
"How do I follow it? It seems far away... but still very strong."
"Just follow your senses, that's all you can do."
Pandora nodded and began forward, turning down so many different corridors they didn't know where they would end up. They were sure they passed the same places multiple times, some familiar and some not. Eventually they made it down to one of the dungeons not used for a classroom. They stood just outside of the door, because inside they swore they heard the voice of a young girl... mixed with a male voice. The three peeked around the corner and were relieved to find little Lauren curled up in a corner unharmed.... but a little shocked when they saw a little man on her knee dressed in a scarlet robe with black hair.
Rangi nearly shouted out then and there, but contained himself enough to simply whisper, "That's Gryffindor's Card-Copy! I couldn't sense that at all... Which must mean the other card here is capable of hiding it from us, because it didn't want us to find the Gryffindor Card... But that could be a few of them, most of them being Slytherin..."
"I just want to find my way back..." Lauren whimpered with a sniff, shaking her head as she rubbed her eyes, her tight, long braid shaking like a striking snake.
"That's what I'm telling you how to do! You've got to get rid of the card possessing you! And you're capable of it! You're the Heir of Gryffindor!" the card told her.
"I don't know how..."
Pandora took a determined step forward, coming out from underneath the Invisibility Cloak. Both Lauren and Gryffindor looked up surprised, but Gryffindor immediately jumped to the floor and did a rather elegant bow. "The Center! Hello, Master..."
Helga Hufflepuff suddenly burst out of the wrist gem of her own accord and said, "Don't start any of that! You left us! Now I suggest you get back here right now and help Pandora catch the rest of the cards."
"Can you help me get rid of it?" Lauren asked hopefully.
"But you should do it yourself! You're a cardcaptor too!" Gryffindor snapped.
Helga bustled over indignantly and thwapped him on the head. "Don't listen to this fool, Lauren. You may be a cardcaptor, yes. But for this immediate problem you need someone a little more experienced than yourself. Besides, it's always hardest to get a card that has already taken over your own self."
Lauren walked over to Pandora trembling, her reddish brown eyes large and frightened looking. "Will you help me?"
Pandora nodded and closed her eyes as she said, "Hear me and find me, spirits and guardians of the North, South, East, and West.... Here I am, your Center. See me.... Hear me.... Fill me with your magic and power... Create your central point of wisdom, loyalty, courage, and cunning in my outstretched hand.... the staff... Release!"
Pandora grasped the staff in her hand, now donning a flashy outfit of scarlet with a sort of compass hanging from a chain around her neck. "What in the world..."
Rangi nearly fell out of his flight laughing. "I can't believe I didn't see it sooner! It's The Lost! It took over Lauren, thus making it impossible for her to find her way home!" He smiled and fluttered about Lauren. "Have you ever felt this way before?"
"Yes...." she said softly, her eyes filling with tears. "My entire life... for as long as I can remember, which is nothing before my foster parents... who didn't even tell me they weren't my real parents... my brother... or not-brother... told me...."
Rangi perched on her shoulder and rubbed his head against her cheek. "The Lost card is a Slytherin card. Because you are the Heir of Gryffindor she had to do whatever she could to keep you from finding out, so she made you lose your real family. But you still found out, and have great potential. Who knows? Maybe you'll even get a card or two before Pandora by the time it's all over. But for now, stand still and let her do her thing, alright?"
Lauren smiled and nodded, then turned her anxious eyes to Pandora, who stared at Rangi with a confused expression. "Um... I hate to be her only hope... but how exactly do you get a card out of a person?"
Rangi fell to the floor and thwacked his head against it a few times before flying back over. "Okay... first you have to get it to come out by ordering it back to its original form. You have to call it by name, which means you have to identify it first. You already know that this one is The Lost, so just hold your staff in front of Lauren, say some fancy phrase or another to call it out, and then you should be able to capture it. The Lost isn't too aggressive once she is in her own form. She is completely at the mercy of her master, whom right now she recognizes as Slytherin. Once she sees you for herself, she should be quick to obey you."
Pandora nodded, held the staff before her, the beak of the raven resting lightly on Lauren's forehead. "I am your master, the Center.... I demand that you return to the form you were meant to be... Lost Card!"
Lauren fell back onto the floor as a greyish light surrounded her, and a pale woman slowly appeared in midair over her. She soared forward gracefully, tilted her head curiously at Pandora, then landed on her knees before her new master.
Pandora smiled at The Lost. She didn't seem so bad... "Come back to the Center, your master awaits. Hogwarts Card! Return!"
The staff landed gently upon The Lost's bowed head, and she quickly turned into her card form, face down with a green design on her back. Pandora picked it up and turned it over.
Lauren came over and inspected it. "Can I tear it up?"
"No," Pandora said. "It wasn't her fault..." She smiled down at Lauren. "Are you alright now?"
She nodded enthusiastically. "I can't wait to tell Chris I'm a Cardcaptor!"
Rangi looked like he was going to have a heart attack. "NO! It's a secret!!" He gave her a quick rundown of the rules.
She sighed reluctantly but agreed to it. "Whatever you say." She smirked at Pandora. "The next one's mine."
Rangi once again took offense at this. "Who's gonna teach ya, huh Kid?"
She blinked. "I dunno." She looked hopefully over at the mini-Gryffindor, but he was getting a lecture from Hufflepuff still. "I'll figure something out."
Pandora laughed. "I look forward to it!"
Gryffindor was dragged before her by his ear. "Hit him with all you've got to get him back in that card, Pandora. He deserves it," Hufflepuff said.
"Be gentle!" Gryffindor whined.
"You call yourself brave..."
"You're supposed to be the sweet little Hufflepuff! You know, the cute one!"
Hufflepuff grinned up at Pandora. "Make
sure you leave a bump."