A/N: Okay... I can just imagine all of this happening. Harry was so adorable as a little first year, and Astra was adorable as well, but she also kicks major ass when it comes to Draco. It's that no tolerance thing... I was hyper active as a child, hell I am still, but I was also like Harry being more of the observing type until one of my friends was being hurt. Then, I go straight to work.
Chapter Seventeen
Harry woke up the next morning. He looked around him as he put on his glasses. He saw Ron's bed next to his and smiled. He had not been dreaming after all. Everything was as he remembered it.
He crawled out of bed and walked over to Ron's. Harry thought he saw something strange. He saw Ron was older than a first year. He looked about seventeen. Harry slapped his forehead. IT had not been a dream.
He slumped against Ron's bed to the floor. "What is going on here..." he groaned as he rubbed his forehead.
The door opened and Harry saw a small girl with bright brown eyes peer through the crack. She wore a pajama shirt and large socks that didn't fit her. She walked in and Harry saw that her long red hair was pulled into two braids. It was Ginny, Ron's little sister.
She bit her lip as she entered and walked across the floor toward Harry. He guessed that she didn't realize that he was there. She reached the foot of Ron's bed and crawled up onto it.
Harry looked up as he heard a small gasp. "Hi..." he said with a smile.
"Um... I'm sorry.... I didn't mean to intrude..." Ginny said as she bit her lip in a worried manner.
Harry got to his knees and turned around so he could talk to her. She blushed crimson as she fussed with the buttons on the over sized pajama shirt. "M-M-Miss Granger lent me this....." she stammered without looking at Harry.
"What about those socks you're wearing.... they look too big for you to be yours." Harry said as he pointed to her small feet.
"Th-th-they're Ron's... They're really comfortable and warm.... I like to steal his socks sometimes...." she said as she went a brighter shade of red. She continued to fuss with her buttons. "I-I'm sorry if I'm bothering you, H-Harry...." she said softly.
"You aren't.... I was just now wondering if I was in a dream..." Harry said. He sniggered as she went a deeper shade of crimson. "That's not what I meant..." he said quickly. "I woke up thinking that I would see Ron and he would be eleven...."
"Oh..." she said softly, barely above a whisper. Harry felt something inside him like remembrance. He felt he actually knew her. Not as Ron's little sister, but something else. He smiled at Ginny and she made a squeak when she looked up at him.
"I feel like I know you...." Harry blurted out. He suddenly realized how weird he sounded. "Er...."
"That's okay.... I feel like I know you as well... like maybe we've done something similar to this before...." she said with a smile.
Astra woke up as she heard someone giggling. She was wearing a borrowed pajama shirt from Ron. She rubbed her eyes and yawned. She reached for her glasses and put them on. He looked down beside her bed and screamed. There was someone grinning madly at her. "What the HELL!" she screamed.
The person came out of the shadows and she grumbled. It was the pale kid named Draco. "Aw... is the ickle mudblood halvsie afwaid?" he smirked at her.
She grabbed the nearest thing to her and threw it at his head. He fell down from the force of the book. "Oh my God... are you alright?" she said as she leaned over the edge of the bed to peer down at him.
Her long silver hair fell down and hit the floor. His head was bleeding. Her hair surrounded his head. His grey eyes fluttered open and she leaned forward a little more. She touched his forehead with her fingers as he stared up at her. "Are you alright?" she said again.
He blushed furiously and slipped out from under her hair. She was surprised at him. "I asked if you were alright!" she huffed indignantly.
"I'm fine, no thanks to you! I'll tell my father about this!" Draco growled at her.
Astra was suddenly aware of part of her shirt falling off one of her shoulders. She reached to pulled it up when the pale boy stood up and stopped her hand. She stared at him. "What the hell are you doin', ya little perv!" she growled.
"I know these marks...." he said suddenly. He sat on her bed and turned her to face him. He slipped the shirt a little further down and brushed her hair off of her shoulder. She couldn't see what he was looking at.
"What marks are you looking at, pal..." she growled again. She felt the heat rise in her cheeks.
He touched her collar bone and she felt a cool finger trace two lines that went across her skin. "Those marks are from my father's cane... he must have done it to you..." Draco said. He gazed up at Astra and she felt her cheeks grow warmer.
She gulped. "I-I don't know your father..." she stammered.
He released her shoulders and she pulled the shirt back up onto the exposed shoulder. He poked her waist and pain shot though her. "Urrrg..." she said as she doubled over in pain.
"Interesting... how did I know to do that..." he said mildly.
When the pain subsided, Astra huffed as she sat up. She lifted the area of shirt that he had poked her through. There was a large, ugly bruise there on her waist in the shape of a large, human hand. "What the--!!"
Astra caught Draco making a move with his hand toward her waist and she slapped it away. "Mind yerself!" she growled.
Harry watched the scene with Ginny and sniggered. "I think he likes her...." Ginny said to him as she giggled.
"Me too...." Harry said.
"Shut it! I do not like her!" Draco growled as he rubbed his hand. "She bloody evil!"
Astra growled at Draco. "Thanks for that compliment, Draco...." She punched him on his jaw. He fell to the ground in a clump.
When they all got dressed, Harry walked with Ginny down to the common room. It seemed that everyone had already left for breakfast. "Well... if we're supposed to stay here, how're we supposed to eat!" said a voice from behind Harry. He turned and saw the brunette named Nev.
"Good question, Nev... what ARE we supposed to do...." Astra said. A loud grumbling sound came from her stomach. "Eh-heh... sorry about that..." she said sheepishly.
"What day is today..." said the black eyed girl. She yawned and rubbed her eyes.
"Monday, Vee..." Nev said with a confirming nod.
Vee nodded solemnly and turned wearily to the top of the stairs. "What's wrong, Vee?" said Harry.
She turned back quickly and stared at him with those black eyes of hers. "Nothing...."
Just then, Harry heard something come into the common room. "Dobby will do whatever Harry Potter asks!" Harry heard a squeaky, yet cheerful voice.
Harry walked into the common room and saw a table set up. There were numerous little creatures running around putting food on the table. "Harry Potter and his friends are welcome to eat now..." The one called Dobby said.
Harry shrugged at the others and sat down. Ginny sat down next to him on his right, Astra sat on his left. Nev sat across from Harry, Draco sat down in front of Astra and Vee sat down across from Ginny.
They ate happily. "This is great! I like this food...." said Astra through a mouthful of eggs.
"Yeah... it's better'n the rock rolls and the water eggs...." Nev said gleefully.
"Huh? Water eggs.... rock rolls?" Harry asked.
"Water eggs are what we call the extremely runny eggs they like to serve us in the eating hall at Firestrom....." Nev explained.
"You need to use a spoon when eating them...." Astra stated.
"Rock rolls are... well..." Nev started. Astra made a motion of dropping something rather heavy onto the table with her hand and made a sound like something crashing through the table. "Just like that... you could kill people with them..."
"Oo-oo! What about the fried steak!" Nev started.
"Throwing disks.... You could cut off someone's head with those..." Astra finished.
"And the pizza...."
"Poisoned.... never touch that stuff..." Astra finished as she ate a muffin.
"I do enjoy this poisoned food talk, but I would really like to eat breakfast without hearing you blither away...." Draco drawled in an irritated fashion.
"It's better than listening to you complain the entire time..." Astra growled as she stabbed a sausage with her fork.
"It think it's dead, halvsie... you don't need to butcher it anymore.." Draco drawled again.
She pointed her knife at Draco. "Now listen, you... I'm tired of listening to you talk... shut up before I decide to take your heart out with a spoon!" She growled at Draco.
"So testy... I'm surprised that you don't qualify as an animal with the ministry...." Draco said with a smile. Astra's face didn't even twitch. She stared at him with a steel like gaze. Suddenly, she took her fork and stabbed Draco's hand. He jerked back, no blood was visible. "Ow! That bleeding hurt!"
"Yep... he's human...." Astra said with a cruel smile. "Now I'll have to use Chlorox to sanitize this fork...."
"Why you...." Draco jumped up and growled Angrily at Astra. "You did that on purpose!"
Astra stood up and smiled. "Very good, Draco... You get a gold star...."
"I'll show you a gold star!" Draco leaped over the table and pounced on Astra. They rolled together on the floor. Astra felt him punching her on her arms as she blocked him.
She was bigger than him, but she felt like she couldn't really hurt him. For some reason she felt like he could crush her if he so chose. She started losing her blocking ability. He wasn't aiming for her face anymore, though. He was aiming for her stomach.
She rolled him over and punched him on the jaw. He put a hand on her face and forced her away. He rolled her over and he straddled her on her stomach, his hand still forcing her head down on the ground. She felt her raised hand touch skin. She scratched her nails across the skin and he yelped in pain. She then threw him off of her.
"That is ENOUGH!"
Astra sat up and looked to the shriek of anger. She could taste blood in her mouth and her hair was tossed around her head. She had blood on her nails. She saw what damage she did. Draco's left cheek was bleeding from a few scratches.
Hermione knelt down next to Draco and took out her wand. She started mending his scratches immediately. Astra stuck a finger in her mouth. She had forgotten about the blood on it. It tasted salty, metallic.
"Can someone PLEASE tell me what was going on here?" said Hermione.
"Draco started a fight with Astra..." said Harry.
"Is this true?" she said to the others. They all nodded in agreement. "Twenty points will be taken from Slytherin for fighting!" she growled at Draco. Draco rolled his eyes at her.
"Now I want you all to behave yourselves and NO MORE FIGHTING!" Hermione growled as she stood up. Draco's face was all healed now, no scratch was visible. Hermione then stalked through the common room door and out of the portrait hole.
Astra stood up and brushed off her skirt. Draco stood up and glared at Astra. There was the undecipherable expression again. He flushed suddenly and then turned on his heel to go up the boy's staircase.
"That was fun... a catfight for breakfast entertainment!" Nev said cheerfully. Then, she leaned over to Harry and smirked. "Lovers' quarrel.. You know..." she said with a wink. Harry stared at her incredulously.
"What?"
"You heard me...! He likes her...!" Nev said. Vee rolled her eyes as she finished her meal.
"How can you tell! He just tried to kill her!" Harry said.
"Nevermind... you will figure it out eventually..." Then, Nev stood up and walked up the girls' staircase. Vee followed her.
"What do you make of that, Ginny?" Harry said to the little red haired girl.
She bit her bottom lip. Harry thought she looked rather adorable like that. Then, he slapped himself for thinking that. Ginny stared at him a little worried. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah... I'm fine... I think I need to go upstairs now..." Harry said quickly. He then, ran up the boys' staircase. When he reached his dorm room, he saw Draco sitting on Harry's bed staring out the window. "Sulking again?" Harry smirked.
"I am out numbered, therefore I will not acknowledge you...." Draco mumbled.
"Excuse me?"
"Like I said...."
Harry didn't know quite how to take this. He went into his trunk and searched around. He saw an old piece of parchment inside. He found his invisibility cloak beside it. He saw that a couple of his socks were missing as well. He guessed who might have taken them. He found a broom cleaning kit. He found a strange ring with two lions holding a brilliant red stone. He tried to put it on, but his fingers were all to small. He put the ring back in it's place and closed the trunk.
Astra came in and laid across her bed on her stomach, her feet were rocking back and forth in the air. "I am sooo bored...." she said. "It's going to be a long day..."
"You could say that again...." said Harry as he stood up and sat on her bed. Then, he laid down next to her on his back. He put his hands behind his head and sighed.
"If you two love birds would like a room together, please do tell me, I don't think I would want to witness that..." said Draco in his usual drawling voice.
"Love birds!" growled Astra. She was blushing almost as much as Harry.
"What the blazes are you talking about, Draco... I'm just laying down... AWAY from YOU!" Harry growled he sat up and turned to face Draco.
There was a sudden smile that sprang across Astra's face. Draco paled. Then, she turned to Harry and pressed her lips to his. If he wasn't blushing furiously before, he certainly was now. He just sat there, leaning on his hands, as she held his face to hers. He didn't exactly know what to do. He closed his eyes as tightly as he could.
Then, he felt her lips come away from his. He felt her hands leave his face. He didn't dare open his eyes. Then, she spoke. "You are very sweet.... did you know that?" she said softly to him. His eyes snapped open. His body trembled involuntarily.
"This makes me sick! I'm getting out of here before I have to witness anymore!" Draco growled as he jumped off of Harry's bed and stalked out of the room.
Harry still trembled as he sat stiffly on Astra's bed. His mind was racing. He couldn't remember what was up or down anymore. His heart pounded furiously. "You know.. You look an awful lot like a statue...." Astra said with a smile. Harry relaxed some.
"Why did you do that!" Harry stammered.
"Felt like it..." she said with a cheerful smile. "Call it an experiment...."
Chapter Seventeen
Harry woke up the next morning. He looked around him as he put on his glasses. He saw Ron's bed next to his and smiled. He had not been dreaming after all. Everything was as he remembered it.
He crawled out of bed and walked over to Ron's. Harry thought he saw something strange. He saw Ron was older than a first year. He looked about seventeen. Harry slapped his forehead. IT had not been a dream.
He slumped against Ron's bed to the floor. "What is going on here..." he groaned as he rubbed his forehead.
The door opened and Harry saw a small girl with bright brown eyes peer through the crack. She wore a pajama shirt and large socks that didn't fit her. She walked in and Harry saw that her long red hair was pulled into two braids. It was Ginny, Ron's little sister.
She bit her lip as she entered and walked across the floor toward Harry. He guessed that she didn't realize that he was there. She reached the foot of Ron's bed and crawled up onto it.
Harry looked up as he heard a small gasp. "Hi..." he said with a smile.
"Um... I'm sorry.... I didn't mean to intrude..." Ginny said as she bit her lip in a worried manner.
Harry got to his knees and turned around so he could talk to her. She blushed crimson as she fussed with the buttons on the over sized pajama shirt. "M-M-Miss Granger lent me this....." she stammered without looking at Harry.
"What about those socks you're wearing.... they look too big for you to be yours." Harry said as he pointed to her small feet.
"Th-th-they're Ron's... They're really comfortable and warm.... I like to steal his socks sometimes...." she said as she went a brighter shade of red. She continued to fuss with her buttons. "I-I'm sorry if I'm bothering you, H-Harry...." she said softly.
"You aren't.... I was just now wondering if I was in a dream..." Harry said. He sniggered as she went a deeper shade of crimson. "That's not what I meant..." he said quickly. "I woke up thinking that I would see Ron and he would be eleven...."
"Oh..." she said softly, barely above a whisper. Harry felt something inside him like remembrance. He felt he actually knew her. Not as Ron's little sister, but something else. He smiled at Ginny and she made a squeak when she looked up at him.
"I feel like I know you...." Harry blurted out. He suddenly realized how weird he sounded. "Er...."
"That's okay.... I feel like I know you as well... like maybe we've done something similar to this before...." she said with a smile.
Astra woke up as she heard someone giggling. She was wearing a borrowed pajama shirt from Ron. She rubbed her eyes and yawned. She reached for her glasses and put them on. He looked down beside her bed and screamed. There was someone grinning madly at her. "What the HELL!" she screamed.
The person came out of the shadows and she grumbled. It was the pale kid named Draco. "Aw... is the ickle mudblood halvsie afwaid?" he smirked at her.
She grabbed the nearest thing to her and threw it at his head. He fell down from the force of the book. "Oh my God... are you alright?" she said as she leaned over the edge of the bed to peer down at him.
Her long silver hair fell down and hit the floor. His head was bleeding. Her hair surrounded his head. His grey eyes fluttered open and she leaned forward a little more. She touched his forehead with her fingers as he stared up at her. "Are you alright?" she said again.
He blushed furiously and slipped out from under her hair. She was surprised at him. "I asked if you were alright!" she huffed indignantly.
"I'm fine, no thanks to you! I'll tell my father about this!" Draco growled at her.
Astra was suddenly aware of part of her shirt falling off one of her shoulders. She reached to pulled it up when the pale boy stood up and stopped her hand. She stared at him. "What the hell are you doin', ya little perv!" she growled.
"I know these marks...." he said suddenly. He sat on her bed and turned her to face him. He slipped the shirt a little further down and brushed her hair off of her shoulder. She couldn't see what he was looking at.
"What marks are you looking at, pal..." she growled again. She felt the heat rise in her cheeks.
He touched her collar bone and she felt a cool finger trace two lines that went across her skin. "Those marks are from my father's cane... he must have done it to you..." Draco said. He gazed up at Astra and she felt her cheeks grow warmer.
She gulped. "I-I don't know your father..." she stammered.
He released her shoulders and she pulled the shirt back up onto the exposed shoulder. He poked her waist and pain shot though her. "Urrrg..." she said as she doubled over in pain.
"Interesting... how did I know to do that..." he said mildly.
When the pain subsided, Astra huffed as she sat up. She lifted the area of shirt that he had poked her through. There was a large, ugly bruise there on her waist in the shape of a large, human hand. "What the--!!"
Astra caught Draco making a move with his hand toward her waist and she slapped it away. "Mind yerself!" she growled.
Harry watched the scene with Ginny and sniggered. "I think he likes her...." Ginny said to him as she giggled.
"Me too...." Harry said.
"Shut it! I do not like her!" Draco growled as he rubbed his hand. "She bloody evil!"
Astra growled at Draco. "Thanks for that compliment, Draco...." She punched him on his jaw. He fell to the ground in a clump.
When they all got dressed, Harry walked with Ginny down to the common room. It seemed that everyone had already left for breakfast. "Well... if we're supposed to stay here, how're we supposed to eat!" said a voice from behind Harry. He turned and saw the brunette named Nev.
"Good question, Nev... what ARE we supposed to do...." Astra said. A loud grumbling sound came from her stomach. "Eh-heh... sorry about that..." she said sheepishly.
"What day is today..." said the black eyed girl. She yawned and rubbed her eyes.
"Monday, Vee..." Nev said with a confirming nod.
Vee nodded solemnly and turned wearily to the top of the stairs. "What's wrong, Vee?" said Harry.
She turned back quickly and stared at him with those black eyes of hers. "Nothing...."
Just then, Harry heard something come into the common room. "Dobby will do whatever Harry Potter asks!" Harry heard a squeaky, yet cheerful voice.
Harry walked into the common room and saw a table set up. There were numerous little creatures running around putting food on the table. "Harry Potter and his friends are welcome to eat now..." The one called Dobby said.
Harry shrugged at the others and sat down. Ginny sat down next to him on his right, Astra sat on his left. Nev sat across from Harry, Draco sat down in front of Astra and Vee sat down across from Ginny.
They ate happily. "This is great! I like this food...." said Astra through a mouthful of eggs.
"Yeah... it's better'n the rock rolls and the water eggs...." Nev said gleefully.
"Huh? Water eggs.... rock rolls?" Harry asked.
"Water eggs are what we call the extremely runny eggs they like to serve us in the eating hall at Firestrom....." Nev explained.
"You need to use a spoon when eating them...." Astra stated.
"Rock rolls are... well..." Nev started. Astra made a motion of dropping something rather heavy onto the table with her hand and made a sound like something crashing through the table. "Just like that... you could kill people with them..."
"Oo-oo! What about the fried steak!" Nev started.
"Throwing disks.... You could cut off someone's head with those..." Astra finished.
"And the pizza...."
"Poisoned.... never touch that stuff..." Astra finished as she ate a muffin.
"I do enjoy this poisoned food talk, but I would really like to eat breakfast without hearing you blither away...." Draco drawled in an irritated fashion.
"It's better than listening to you complain the entire time..." Astra growled as she stabbed a sausage with her fork.
"It think it's dead, halvsie... you don't need to butcher it anymore.." Draco drawled again.
She pointed her knife at Draco. "Now listen, you... I'm tired of listening to you talk... shut up before I decide to take your heart out with a spoon!" She growled at Draco.
"So testy... I'm surprised that you don't qualify as an animal with the ministry...." Draco said with a smile. Astra's face didn't even twitch. She stared at him with a steel like gaze. Suddenly, she took her fork and stabbed Draco's hand. He jerked back, no blood was visible. "Ow! That bleeding hurt!"
"Yep... he's human...." Astra said with a cruel smile. "Now I'll have to use Chlorox to sanitize this fork...."
"Why you...." Draco jumped up and growled Angrily at Astra. "You did that on purpose!"
Astra stood up and smiled. "Very good, Draco... You get a gold star...."
"I'll show you a gold star!" Draco leaped over the table and pounced on Astra. They rolled together on the floor. Astra felt him punching her on her arms as she blocked him.
She was bigger than him, but she felt like she couldn't really hurt him. For some reason she felt like he could crush her if he so chose. She started losing her blocking ability. He wasn't aiming for her face anymore, though. He was aiming for her stomach.
She rolled him over and punched him on the jaw. He put a hand on her face and forced her away. He rolled her over and he straddled her on her stomach, his hand still forcing her head down on the ground. She felt her raised hand touch skin. She scratched her nails across the skin and he yelped in pain. She then threw him off of her.
"That is ENOUGH!"
Astra sat up and looked to the shriek of anger. She could taste blood in her mouth and her hair was tossed around her head. She had blood on her nails. She saw what damage she did. Draco's left cheek was bleeding from a few scratches.
Hermione knelt down next to Draco and took out her wand. She started mending his scratches immediately. Astra stuck a finger in her mouth. She had forgotten about the blood on it. It tasted salty, metallic.
"Can someone PLEASE tell me what was going on here?" said Hermione.
"Draco started a fight with Astra..." said Harry.
"Is this true?" she said to the others. They all nodded in agreement. "Twenty points will be taken from Slytherin for fighting!" she growled at Draco. Draco rolled his eyes at her.
"Now I want you all to behave yourselves and NO MORE FIGHTING!" Hermione growled as she stood up. Draco's face was all healed now, no scratch was visible. Hermione then stalked through the common room door and out of the portrait hole.
Astra stood up and brushed off her skirt. Draco stood up and glared at Astra. There was the undecipherable expression again. He flushed suddenly and then turned on his heel to go up the boy's staircase.
"That was fun... a catfight for breakfast entertainment!" Nev said cheerfully. Then, she leaned over to Harry and smirked. "Lovers' quarrel.. You know..." she said with a wink. Harry stared at her incredulously.
"What?"
"You heard me...! He likes her...!" Nev said. Vee rolled her eyes as she finished her meal.
"How can you tell! He just tried to kill her!" Harry said.
"Nevermind... you will figure it out eventually..." Then, Nev stood up and walked up the girls' staircase. Vee followed her.
"What do you make of that, Ginny?" Harry said to the little red haired girl.
She bit her bottom lip. Harry thought she looked rather adorable like that. Then, he slapped himself for thinking that. Ginny stared at him a little worried. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah... I'm fine... I think I need to go upstairs now..." Harry said quickly. He then, ran up the boys' staircase. When he reached his dorm room, he saw Draco sitting on Harry's bed staring out the window. "Sulking again?" Harry smirked.
"I am out numbered, therefore I will not acknowledge you...." Draco mumbled.
"Excuse me?"
"Like I said...."
Harry didn't know quite how to take this. He went into his trunk and searched around. He saw an old piece of parchment inside. He found his invisibility cloak beside it. He saw that a couple of his socks were missing as well. He guessed who might have taken them. He found a broom cleaning kit. He found a strange ring with two lions holding a brilliant red stone. He tried to put it on, but his fingers were all to small. He put the ring back in it's place and closed the trunk.
Astra came in and laid across her bed on her stomach, her feet were rocking back and forth in the air. "I am sooo bored...." she said. "It's going to be a long day..."
"You could say that again...." said Harry as he stood up and sat on her bed. Then, he laid down next to her on his back. He put his hands behind his head and sighed.
"If you two love birds would like a room together, please do tell me, I don't think I would want to witness that..." said Draco in his usual drawling voice.
"Love birds!" growled Astra. She was blushing almost as much as Harry.
"What the blazes are you talking about, Draco... I'm just laying down... AWAY from YOU!" Harry growled he sat up and turned to face Draco.
There was a sudden smile that sprang across Astra's face. Draco paled. Then, she turned to Harry and pressed her lips to his. If he wasn't blushing furiously before, he certainly was now. He just sat there, leaning on his hands, as she held his face to hers. He didn't exactly know what to do. He closed his eyes as tightly as he could.
Then, he felt her lips come away from his. He felt her hands leave his face. He didn't dare open his eyes. Then, she spoke. "You are very sweet.... did you know that?" she said softly to him. His eyes snapped open. His body trembled involuntarily.
"This makes me sick! I'm getting out of here before I have to witness anymore!" Draco growled as he jumped off of Harry's bed and stalked out of the room.
Harry still trembled as he sat stiffly on Astra's bed. His mind was racing. He couldn't remember what was up or down anymore. His heart pounded furiously. "You know.. You look an awful lot like a statue...." Astra said with a smile. Harry relaxed some.
"Why did you do that!" Harry stammered.
"Felt like it..." she said with a cheerful smile. "Call it an experiment...."