That was Then, This is Now
Disclaimer: I plead the fifth.
Kristin: I never know what to say in these things.
***
Chapter Twelve
The Slytherin's seventh year boys' dorm room was quiet and peaceful, the only sound being the gentle breathing of its sleeping occupants. A wispy voice that seemed to float through the air broke the silence, and plunged Draco onto an unwelcome consciousness. "Draco." Draco tensed as the voice sounded again. He climbed out of his bed, and pulled a robe over his pajamas. "Draco." He followed the voice out to the common room. Standing in the middle of the room was Chibi Chibi. Her bright red hair had been let down from its buns, falling in gentle waves around her hips, and the long, white nightgown that she wore, made her smiling face seem to glow.
"What the bloody hell do you think your doing in here?" Chibi Chibi smiled slyly and crossed over towards Draco. One slender, white arm snaked around his neck while the other rested lightly on his chest.
"I'm not doing anything, because, I'm not really even here. I am a figment of your imagination. A mere conjuring of your subconscious. You know, the part of you that has to try and tell you things through dreams, vision, and the such, because you're too ignorant or stubborn to listen to it during the day. As your subconscious, I know things about you, that even you don't know. I want you to answer me one question Draco, and I want you to answer it truthfully. Are you in love with me?"
"I, I don't know." Chibi Chibi laughed quietly and shook her head.
"You do know, Draco. You just don't want to except what you know. Very well then, have it your way." Chibi Chibi turned from a confused Draco and knelt before the dying fire. "It's time to go, Draco. Just think about what I asked you."
Draco closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them again, he was lying in his bed.
*
Chibi Chibi paced nervously in her dorm room as she brushed her hair. The room was empty, except for her and Ginny. "Chibi Chibi, your wearing a hole through the floor. Stop before the house elves come in and yell at you. So, you're really going to go through with this?" Chibi Chibi quit pacing, and fell down on her bed, where Ginny was sitting.
"Yes, I'm going through with it. Why wouldn't I? Don't answer that. Should I wear my hair up or down? Should I wear earrings? What would be a good opener for a conversation? Why in Selene's name am I so nervous?" Chibi Chibi looked at Ginny with large, scared eyes. Ginny pulled her friend to her feet, pried the hairbrush from her hand, and began to brush the snarls out of Chibi Chibi's hair.
"Down, yes, the big game between Gryffindor and Slytherin next week, and I have no earthly idea. I thought you said that this wasn't even a real date."
"I did, and it isn't. I'm just so nervous. I mean, it's Draco. He's such a prat, but sometimes he can be so sweet." Ginny laughed.
"Obviously, you see something that I don't; although, I will admit that he is pretty cute. Well, if he hurts you at all toady, then I'm sure that Ron will be more than willing to make him pay." Chibi Chibi let out a loud laugh.
"As thankful as I am for the offer, I'm sure that I won't need it. Oh no, I'm going to be late!" She grabbed the brush out of Ginny's hand, pulled it through her hair for a few more strokes, and ran out the door with a small wave towards Ginny. Chibi Chibi stopped outside of the seventh year girls' dorm room, and poked her head around the door. "Hotaru?"
Hotaru looked up from where she was reclining on a stack of pillows on her bed. "What do you want?" Chibi Chibi smiled hopefully.
"Can I borrow your earrings," she asked.
"Which ones?"
"The ones that you're wearing?" Hotaru rolled her eyes, but unfastened the earrings and stood to give them to her younger sister.
"Be careful with them." Chibi Chibi grinned widely.
"I will be. Thanks." She calmly walked out the door, but as soon as she was out of sight, she broke into a run.
*
Draco waited by the doors to the Great Hall for Chibi Chibi. She was late. Five minutes. Ten minutes. Fifteen minutes. He was just about ready to give up and leave when she ran into sight, panting heavily and completely oblivious to the fact that he was standing right in front of her. Her hair was out of its usual buns, painfully reminding Draco of his dream from the night before. She would have run straight past him if he hadn't reached out and grabbed her around the waist. She jerked to a stop and twisted around, practically molding his arm to her body. Her face was close enough to his that he could feel her warm breath against it. It would have been the perfect romantic moment if her foot hadn't gotten caught on the bottom of Draco's robe, sending them both sprawling to the floor.
With her right on top of him, Draco couldn't keep from realizing how thin Chibi Chibi was. Her flowing robes hid it well enough, but the girl was almost literally skin and bones. He glanced at her suspiciously out of the corner of his eye while he helped her back up to her feet. Neither said anything about it, but it was implied that the event that had just occurred would only be known about by the two of them. The two didn't say anything during the trip to Hogsmeade. They walked around the village for nearly thirty minutes in stony silence until Chibi Chibi groaned loudly and exclaimed, "This is ridiculous! We decided to do this so that we could get to know each other at least a little bit. Now, are we going to talk, or are we just going to stand here wallowing in an uncomfortable silence?" Draco smirked.
"I actually kind of like wallowing in the uncomfortable silence." She rolled her eyes and slapped Draco's arm.
"Would you please take this seriously?" He stared at her for a long moment.
"Okay, I will. Maybe it would be better if we just started over," he suggested. She smiled, and held out her hand.
"Hi, I'm Chibi Chibi Black. It's nice to meet you." Draco grinned in a very unDraco like fashion and shook her hand.
"Hello, I'm Draco Malfoy. Would you care to accompany me for a butterbeer?" Chibi Chibi laughed lightly and hooked her arm through his.
"I would love to."
*
The first thing that Harry, Ron, and Hermione saw when they stepped out of Zonko's was Draco and Chibi Chibi walking down the street. Arm in arm. Laughing. After about four double takes apiece, they all seemed to realize that the sight in front of them was in fact real.
"What does she think she's doing?" Harry asked angrily. "He could hurt her!"
Ron was unable to do anything but sputter as he attempted to at first talk, and then charge at Draco. Hermione grabbed the back of his robe, and easily avoided the argument that definitely would have happened had she not. She studied the two with a calculating eye for a long moment before finally asking, "Do you think that Hotaru knows?"
"Knows what?" The three startled teens jumped about a foot into the air, and then slowly turned around to face Hotaru. Harry numbly pointed over his shoulder at the backs of objects of their conversation. "Oh, that. Of course I know."
Ron's jaw dropped, but he finally managed to get his voice back. "And you let her go out with him? Even after everything that he's done to you? No to mention the fact that he's a Malfoy." To add to their surprise, Hotaru began to laugh.
"If there is only one thing that you should know about Chibi Chibi, then it's that you never tell her what to do. You make a rule, she ignores it. You set up a barrier, she finds a way around it. You lock her in her room, she will climb out the window. She actually did that last one. Besides, I haven't seen her that happy in a long time. She deserves to have fun, especially with all the crap going on in her life right now, what with the test results coming back positive and all."
"What test results?" Hermione asked, always interested in tests. Hotaru's eyes widened and her already pale face lost what little color it had.
"Um, I'm not really supposed to talk about it. It's kind of private. I should go now. Bye." Hotaru ran away from the trio and immediately got lost in the crowd.
*
Draco and Chibi Chibi sat in the back corner of 'The Three Broomsticks' talking. Empty butterbeer bottles littered the top of their table. They had mostly spoken about school and their teachers, carefully avoiding any mention of Chibi Chibi's mother and uncle. The subject slowly turned from the safe topic of school to the more dangerous topic of fears and hopes. Draco drained the last of his bottle of butterbeer and leaned across the table toward Chibi Chibi. "So, what is the one thing that you are the most afraid of."
"I'm afraid to die. I'm not afraid of death, but I terrified of dying. I think it's because I have no control over it. I'm scared that after I die, somebody will look at my life and say that I didn't live it to its fullest potential. I'm sorry. That probably didn't make any sense at all." She stared down at her lap, her face burning in embarrassment.
"Actually it made perfect sense." Chibi Chibi laughed nervously and slowly lifted her gaze up to meet Draco's. He allowed his facade of coldness slip completely and grinned at her. She smiled back at him.
"Let's go do something else." Draco cocked his head to the side and furrowed his eyebrows together in mock hurt.
"Don't you want to know what I'm scared of?" She reached across the table and took one of Draco's hands in her own.
"Of course I want to know, but I don't think that you really want to tell me, or for that matter that you're ready to tell me. You've shut yourself off from people for so long, that after you have gotten over your initial suspicion of a person, when they show you the faintest glimmer of friendship or compassion you're willing to spill your heart out to them. This has been the first time that I have really talked to you, a real conversation, not just an argument, and already I want to know your hopes, dreams, everything, but not until you're ready. And if you look inside of yourself, then I think that you will see that you aren't." Draco's jaw literally dropped.
"Don't look so shocked," she said with a light laugh. "You're kind of like a good book with a really difficult lock. Once you figure out how to open the look, all you have to do is read the words, or in this case, the small things about your facial expressions that most people would miss. Like the way that you get a really small tick in your left cheek when you get upset. Kind of like the one you have right now." She laughed loudly when Draco reached up and touched his cheek. He shook his head, and placed some money on the table for the drinks.
"If you will allow me to quote you, 'let's go do something else'."
Doing something else consisted of walking languidly down the street in a comfortable silence, peering into shop windows. Somewhere over the course of about twenty minutes, Chibi Chibi latched her hand onto Draco's to pull him over to look at a window display, and had seemingly forgotten to let go. She suddenly tightened her grip on his hand, and pulled him into a store called 'Mystical Melody'. She released his hand, and quickly moved towards the back of the store. When he caught up with her, she was tenderly lifting a violin off of its stand. After a moment's hesitation, she positioned the violin appropriately, placed her fingers on the strings, and slowly drew the bow across the strings. She lowered the bow for a moment, before raising it again, and beginning to play a slow, mournful song.
Suddenly, the question from his dream popped into his mind. Could he possibly be in love with her? He stared into her eyes, no longer seeing the overly confident prankster, but an exhilarated young woman. Her cheeks were flushed in excitement. Her eyes shone with a spirit that Draco had never seen before. In those eyes he could see a soul that he would do anything to protect, even if she never loved him. In that instant he knew. He was in love with Chibi Chibi Black.
Excitement and terror fought for control over his emotions. Terror won. It felt as though ice water had replaced his blood and was running through his veins when he realized what had happened. He couldn't be in love with her. His father would kill him! Not mention her mother and uncle. And then there was her father. It would be a disaster! He quickly regained control of his emotions. If he were to stop spending time with the little minx that most people called human, he knew that he would slowly, but surely, be inwardly killing himself. He wouldn't tell her. Her friendship was quickly becoming one of the most important things in the world to him. He had never had a real friend before. His father had always told him what to do, who to associate with, everything. He wasn't going to ruin this now. Not when he was finally happy. He was jolted out of his thoughts when the song ended.
Clapping sounded behind them. Chibi Chibi lowered the violin, and they both turned around. A plump, elderly witch stood, applauding her. "Hello, dear. You may call me Emily. I own this shop. Do you like that violin?" Chibi Chibi smiled, and placed the violin back on its stand.
"Yes, I love it. It sounds as beautiful as it looks." Emily smiled.
"It's a soul violin. It reflects the passion that the player feels for the music they are playing. I don't believe I have ever heard anyone play it as beautifully as you do. Are you interested in purchasing it?" Chibi Chibi looked wistfully at the violin before shaking her head no.
"I already have a violin. As much as I want that one, I don't need it," she said softly, her lips twitching into a smile for the briefest of moments. "Thank you for letting me play it, even though I didn't exactly ask if I could. Come on Draco. We should get going." Draco nodded his head at the shop owner and followed Chibi Chibi out the door. Once they were out the door, Chibi Chibi let out a long sigh.
"Something wrong?" She glanced at Draco, and shook her head no.
"I just really liked that violin."
"Then ask your mum if you can get it." She rolled her eyes and let out a short laugh.
"You don't get it, do you? Like I told Emily, I already have one. My mum isn't going to buy me a new one when I already have a perfectly good one. Especially one as expensive as that one was. Let's just drop the subject and head back towards the castle, okay? Oh, and while it's still on my mind, will you please help me with a potion and not tell Uncle Severus about it?" Draco blinked at the sudden change in the conversation.
"I guess I could. Would you mind going back to the school by yourself? I have something that I need to do."
"Hm? Oh yeah, sure. Why not? See you tomorrow for my tutoring." Draco waved good-bye to Chibi Chibi and walked back into the crowd.
***
Kristin: I am so sorry that this took so long. I had a lot of things going on in my life. First I had writers block. Then I got sick. Then on Monday this week one of our horses died. I know that a lot of you won't see this a big deal, but it is to our family. We had only had Lynx, our mare, for a few weeks, my horse Sweetgirl died a couple of months ago, and after Lynx died we found out that she had been pregnant. If any of you care, she broke her leg, and we had to put her to sleep. We gave her three shots. One to make her drowsy, one to make her fall asleep, and one to stop her heart. Even if we had let her live, we would never have been able to ride her again.
Special Thanks to:
Sele: You didn't miss anything. Everything about the tests will be revealed in chapter thirteen.
Solarmistress17: Mamo-baka is just kinda floating around. I mentioned him once, but I'm not sure if he will ever actually appear. She won't become queen for a while.
The Queen of all who say Moo: Hi Emily. I know that you won't be reading this since you aren't reading my story anymore, but thanks for reviewing what you did read. You gave me my first flame on this story by the way.
Silver Moon Goddess
PallaPalla-chan: I feel incredibly honored. Sorry that this took so long.
Em
Lady Light
Alexz: I haven't checked, but I think that you have reviewed every chapter of this story so far. For your loyalty I dedicate this chapter to you.
Sailor Bree
Kolinshar Jackie-chan Benito: Haruka isn't at Hogwarts. She will appear briefly in an upcoming chapter, but she won't have a big role for at least a few more chapters.
Mary Bachiu
Ami: If I can't get rid of you, then can I tell my parents that you followed me home and keep you as a pet? Seriously though, I don't want to get rid of you or any of my luffly reviewers. I love them all. (but I love the ones that put me on their favorite lists more)
Lyndzi
Silver: She was born to Usagi simply because I chose to do so with my special fanfic author powers.privileges.thingys.anyway she just was. You will find out what is wrong with Chibi Chibi next chapter.
Disclaimer: I plead the fifth.
Kristin: I never know what to say in these things.
***
Chapter Twelve
The Slytherin's seventh year boys' dorm room was quiet and peaceful, the only sound being the gentle breathing of its sleeping occupants. A wispy voice that seemed to float through the air broke the silence, and plunged Draco onto an unwelcome consciousness. "Draco." Draco tensed as the voice sounded again. He climbed out of his bed, and pulled a robe over his pajamas. "Draco." He followed the voice out to the common room. Standing in the middle of the room was Chibi Chibi. Her bright red hair had been let down from its buns, falling in gentle waves around her hips, and the long, white nightgown that she wore, made her smiling face seem to glow.
"What the bloody hell do you think your doing in here?" Chibi Chibi smiled slyly and crossed over towards Draco. One slender, white arm snaked around his neck while the other rested lightly on his chest.
"I'm not doing anything, because, I'm not really even here. I am a figment of your imagination. A mere conjuring of your subconscious. You know, the part of you that has to try and tell you things through dreams, vision, and the such, because you're too ignorant or stubborn to listen to it during the day. As your subconscious, I know things about you, that even you don't know. I want you to answer me one question Draco, and I want you to answer it truthfully. Are you in love with me?"
"I, I don't know." Chibi Chibi laughed quietly and shook her head.
"You do know, Draco. You just don't want to except what you know. Very well then, have it your way." Chibi Chibi turned from a confused Draco and knelt before the dying fire. "It's time to go, Draco. Just think about what I asked you."
Draco closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them again, he was lying in his bed.
*
Chibi Chibi paced nervously in her dorm room as she brushed her hair. The room was empty, except for her and Ginny. "Chibi Chibi, your wearing a hole through the floor. Stop before the house elves come in and yell at you. So, you're really going to go through with this?" Chibi Chibi quit pacing, and fell down on her bed, where Ginny was sitting.
"Yes, I'm going through with it. Why wouldn't I? Don't answer that. Should I wear my hair up or down? Should I wear earrings? What would be a good opener for a conversation? Why in Selene's name am I so nervous?" Chibi Chibi looked at Ginny with large, scared eyes. Ginny pulled her friend to her feet, pried the hairbrush from her hand, and began to brush the snarls out of Chibi Chibi's hair.
"Down, yes, the big game between Gryffindor and Slytherin next week, and I have no earthly idea. I thought you said that this wasn't even a real date."
"I did, and it isn't. I'm just so nervous. I mean, it's Draco. He's such a prat, but sometimes he can be so sweet." Ginny laughed.
"Obviously, you see something that I don't; although, I will admit that he is pretty cute. Well, if he hurts you at all toady, then I'm sure that Ron will be more than willing to make him pay." Chibi Chibi let out a loud laugh.
"As thankful as I am for the offer, I'm sure that I won't need it. Oh no, I'm going to be late!" She grabbed the brush out of Ginny's hand, pulled it through her hair for a few more strokes, and ran out the door with a small wave towards Ginny. Chibi Chibi stopped outside of the seventh year girls' dorm room, and poked her head around the door. "Hotaru?"
Hotaru looked up from where she was reclining on a stack of pillows on her bed. "What do you want?" Chibi Chibi smiled hopefully.
"Can I borrow your earrings," she asked.
"Which ones?"
"The ones that you're wearing?" Hotaru rolled her eyes, but unfastened the earrings and stood to give them to her younger sister.
"Be careful with them." Chibi Chibi grinned widely.
"I will be. Thanks." She calmly walked out the door, but as soon as she was out of sight, she broke into a run.
*
Draco waited by the doors to the Great Hall for Chibi Chibi. She was late. Five minutes. Ten minutes. Fifteen minutes. He was just about ready to give up and leave when she ran into sight, panting heavily and completely oblivious to the fact that he was standing right in front of her. Her hair was out of its usual buns, painfully reminding Draco of his dream from the night before. She would have run straight past him if he hadn't reached out and grabbed her around the waist. She jerked to a stop and twisted around, practically molding his arm to her body. Her face was close enough to his that he could feel her warm breath against it. It would have been the perfect romantic moment if her foot hadn't gotten caught on the bottom of Draco's robe, sending them both sprawling to the floor.
With her right on top of him, Draco couldn't keep from realizing how thin Chibi Chibi was. Her flowing robes hid it well enough, but the girl was almost literally skin and bones. He glanced at her suspiciously out of the corner of his eye while he helped her back up to her feet. Neither said anything about it, but it was implied that the event that had just occurred would only be known about by the two of them. The two didn't say anything during the trip to Hogsmeade. They walked around the village for nearly thirty minutes in stony silence until Chibi Chibi groaned loudly and exclaimed, "This is ridiculous! We decided to do this so that we could get to know each other at least a little bit. Now, are we going to talk, or are we just going to stand here wallowing in an uncomfortable silence?" Draco smirked.
"I actually kind of like wallowing in the uncomfortable silence." She rolled her eyes and slapped Draco's arm.
"Would you please take this seriously?" He stared at her for a long moment.
"Okay, I will. Maybe it would be better if we just started over," he suggested. She smiled, and held out her hand.
"Hi, I'm Chibi Chibi Black. It's nice to meet you." Draco grinned in a very unDraco like fashion and shook her hand.
"Hello, I'm Draco Malfoy. Would you care to accompany me for a butterbeer?" Chibi Chibi laughed lightly and hooked her arm through his.
"I would love to."
*
The first thing that Harry, Ron, and Hermione saw when they stepped out of Zonko's was Draco and Chibi Chibi walking down the street. Arm in arm. Laughing. After about four double takes apiece, they all seemed to realize that the sight in front of them was in fact real.
"What does she think she's doing?" Harry asked angrily. "He could hurt her!"
Ron was unable to do anything but sputter as he attempted to at first talk, and then charge at Draco. Hermione grabbed the back of his robe, and easily avoided the argument that definitely would have happened had she not. She studied the two with a calculating eye for a long moment before finally asking, "Do you think that Hotaru knows?"
"Knows what?" The three startled teens jumped about a foot into the air, and then slowly turned around to face Hotaru. Harry numbly pointed over his shoulder at the backs of objects of their conversation. "Oh, that. Of course I know."
Ron's jaw dropped, but he finally managed to get his voice back. "And you let her go out with him? Even after everything that he's done to you? No to mention the fact that he's a Malfoy." To add to their surprise, Hotaru began to laugh.
"If there is only one thing that you should know about Chibi Chibi, then it's that you never tell her what to do. You make a rule, she ignores it. You set up a barrier, she finds a way around it. You lock her in her room, she will climb out the window. She actually did that last one. Besides, I haven't seen her that happy in a long time. She deserves to have fun, especially with all the crap going on in her life right now, what with the test results coming back positive and all."
"What test results?" Hermione asked, always interested in tests. Hotaru's eyes widened and her already pale face lost what little color it had.
"Um, I'm not really supposed to talk about it. It's kind of private. I should go now. Bye." Hotaru ran away from the trio and immediately got lost in the crowd.
*
Draco and Chibi Chibi sat in the back corner of 'The Three Broomsticks' talking. Empty butterbeer bottles littered the top of their table. They had mostly spoken about school and their teachers, carefully avoiding any mention of Chibi Chibi's mother and uncle. The subject slowly turned from the safe topic of school to the more dangerous topic of fears and hopes. Draco drained the last of his bottle of butterbeer and leaned across the table toward Chibi Chibi. "So, what is the one thing that you are the most afraid of."
"I'm afraid to die. I'm not afraid of death, but I terrified of dying. I think it's because I have no control over it. I'm scared that after I die, somebody will look at my life and say that I didn't live it to its fullest potential. I'm sorry. That probably didn't make any sense at all." She stared down at her lap, her face burning in embarrassment.
"Actually it made perfect sense." Chibi Chibi laughed nervously and slowly lifted her gaze up to meet Draco's. He allowed his facade of coldness slip completely and grinned at her. She smiled back at him.
"Let's go do something else." Draco cocked his head to the side and furrowed his eyebrows together in mock hurt.
"Don't you want to know what I'm scared of?" She reached across the table and took one of Draco's hands in her own.
"Of course I want to know, but I don't think that you really want to tell me, or for that matter that you're ready to tell me. You've shut yourself off from people for so long, that after you have gotten over your initial suspicion of a person, when they show you the faintest glimmer of friendship or compassion you're willing to spill your heart out to them. This has been the first time that I have really talked to you, a real conversation, not just an argument, and already I want to know your hopes, dreams, everything, but not until you're ready. And if you look inside of yourself, then I think that you will see that you aren't." Draco's jaw literally dropped.
"Don't look so shocked," she said with a light laugh. "You're kind of like a good book with a really difficult lock. Once you figure out how to open the look, all you have to do is read the words, or in this case, the small things about your facial expressions that most people would miss. Like the way that you get a really small tick in your left cheek when you get upset. Kind of like the one you have right now." She laughed loudly when Draco reached up and touched his cheek. He shook his head, and placed some money on the table for the drinks.
"If you will allow me to quote you, 'let's go do something else'."
Doing something else consisted of walking languidly down the street in a comfortable silence, peering into shop windows. Somewhere over the course of about twenty minutes, Chibi Chibi latched her hand onto Draco's to pull him over to look at a window display, and had seemingly forgotten to let go. She suddenly tightened her grip on his hand, and pulled him into a store called 'Mystical Melody'. She released his hand, and quickly moved towards the back of the store. When he caught up with her, she was tenderly lifting a violin off of its stand. After a moment's hesitation, she positioned the violin appropriately, placed her fingers on the strings, and slowly drew the bow across the strings. She lowered the bow for a moment, before raising it again, and beginning to play a slow, mournful song.
Suddenly, the question from his dream popped into his mind. Could he possibly be in love with her? He stared into her eyes, no longer seeing the overly confident prankster, but an exhilarated young woman. Her cheeks were flushed in excitement. Her eyes shone with a spirit that Draco had never seen before. In those eyes he could see a soul that he would do anything to protect, even if she never loved him. In that instant he knew. He was in love with Chibi Chibi Black.
Excitement and terror fought for control over his emotions. Terror won. It felt as though ice water had replaced his blood and was running through his veins when he realized what had happened. He couldn't be in love with her. His father would kill him! Not mention her mother and uncle. And then there was her father. It would be a disaster! He quickly regained control of his emotions. If he were to stop spending time with the little minx that most people called human, he knew that he would slowly, but surely, be inwardly killing himself. He wouldn't tell her. Her friendship was quickly becoming one of the most important things in the world to him. He had never had a real friend before. His father had always told him what to do, who to associate with, everything. He wasn't going to ruin this now. Not when he was finally happy. He was jolted out of his thoughts when the song ended.
Clapping sounded behind them. Chibi Chibi lowered the violin, and they both turned around. A plump, elderly witch stood, applauding her. "Hello, dear. You may call me Emily. I own this shop. Do you like that violin?" Chibi Chibi smiled, and placed the violin back on its stand.
"Yes, I love it. It sounds as beautiful as it looks." Emily smiled.
"It's a soul violin. It reflects the passion that the player feels for the music they are playing. I don't believe I have ever heard anyone play it as beautifully as you do. Are you interested in purchasing it?" Chibi Chibi looked wistfully at the violin before shaking her head no.
"I already have a violin. As much as I want that one, I don't need it," she said softly, her lips twitching into a smile for the briefest of moments. "Thank you for letting me play it, even though I didn't exactly ask if I could. Come on Draco. We should get going." Draco nodded his head at the shop owner and followed Chibi Chibi out the door. Once they were out the door, Chibi Chibi let out a long sigh.
"Something wrong?" She glanced at Draco, and shook her head no.
"I just really liked that violin."
"Then ask your mum if you can get it." She rolled her eyes and let out a short laugh.
"You don't get it, do you? Like I told Emily, I already have one. My mum isn't going to buy me a new one when I already have a perfectly good one. Especially one as expensive as that one was. Let's just drop the subject and head back towards the castle, okay? Oh, and while it's still on my mind, will you please help me with a potion and not tell Uncle Severus about it?" Draco blinked at the sudden change in the conversation.
"I guess I could. Would you mind going back to the school by yourself? I have something that I need to do."
"Hm? Oh yeah, sure. Why not? See you tomorrow for my tutoring." Draco waved good-bye to Chibi Chibi and walked back into the crowd.
***
Kristin: I am so sorry that this took so long. I had a lot of things going on in my life. First I had writers block. Then I got sick. Then on Monday this week one of our horses died. I know that a lot of you won't see this a big deal, but it is to our family. We had only had Lynx, our mare, for a few weeks, my horse Sweetgirl died a couple of months ago, and after Lynx died we found out that she had been pregnant. If any of you care, she broke her leg, and we had to put her to sleep. We gave her three shots. One to make her drowsy, one to make her fall asleep, and one to stop her heart. Even if we had let her live, we would never have been able to ride her again.
Special Thanks to:
Sele: You didn't miss anything. Everything about the tests will be revealed in chapter thirteen.
Solarmistress17: Mamo-baka is just kinda floating around. I mentioned him once, but I'm not sure if he will ever actually appear. She won't become queen for a while.
The Queen of all who say Moo: Hi Emily. I know that you won't be reading this since you aren't reading my story anymore, but thanks for reviewing what you did read. You gave me my first flame on this story by the way.
Silver Moon Goddess
PallaPalla-chan: I feel incredibly honored. Sorry that this took so long.
Em
Lady Light
Alexz: I haven't checked, but I think that you have reviewed every chapter of this story so far. For your loyalty I dedicate this chapter to you.
Sailor Bree
Kolinshar Jackie-chan Benito: Haruka isn't at Hogwarts. She will appear briefly in an upcoming chapter, but she won't have a big role for at least a few more chapters.
Mary Bachiu
Ami: If I can't get rid of you, then can I tell my parents that you followed me home and keep you as a pet? Seriously though, I don't want to get rid of you or any of my luffly reviewers. I love them all. (but I love the ones that put me on their favorite lists more)
Lyndzi
Silver: She was born to Usagi simply because I chose to do so with my special fanfic author powers.privileges.thingys.anyway she just was. You will find out what is wrong with Chibi Chibi next chapter.