A/N: Phew! Am I exhausted or what! I have loads of work to do- they're piling it on for the exams- but finally I have completed it and turned my powers to writing! Go me!
Disclaimer: NEWS FLASH! NOT MINE! Didn't expect that, huh?
Dedication: To my auntie.
Harry Potter and the Crystal of Dreams.
Avalon House sat picturesquely in the snow covering the lawns as if it were just another home in the small Kentish town. The new inhabitants were quite well known. The father worked for some London firm (or so they thought), the beautiful mother had a very strong accent, the younger daughter attended the local primary school and the elder studied at boarding school. But a few people were sure that there was probably more to Joe Parks, his young Italian wife and their two daughters than met the eye, but of course they were far too polite to suggest anything.
Their suspicions were correct, although they would never know that. And inside the large home on Christmas Day, the daughters were in the living room.
Shannon was aiding Hannah with one of her favourite presents- a dragon puzzle- and more than occasionally dipping into a bag of chocolate frogs. She sighed, tossing aside her Agrippa card as the little girl slotted the pieces in. She had dressed up in white today to appear quite the angel she wasn't- she'd even fashioned a halo out of flashing gold tinsel. It was starting to get a little lonely. She'd been awoken at daybreak by Hannah leaping about on her bed, yelling that Father Christmas had come, and then had to let in the school owl carrying her presents from her friends. Even just reading the cards made her feel a little sad.
Here...well, it was more than fantastic to see her family (especially Hannah) again, but it just didn't seem like home. She'd been away for so long, whereas she'd not been a boarder at the Carnia Academy. Earlier on, Shannon had received a phone call from her Irish muggle friends, who sounded like they were having a great time. Elsie Doherty, her best friend, had asked loads of questions about how she was getting on at her new school and Roxy O'Rourke had wanted to hear all about the boys. Sarah Custer and Tess Sullivan had filled her in on all the latest gossip from their school, and basically any of the latest happenings and events that they hadn't detailed in their long letters to her.
Shannon sighed again, taking out two chocolate frogs and giving one to Hannah. If her dad wasn't washing up the dinner plates with Julianna, he'd tell her once more that she'd make herself sick on them. She pulled a face and handed her sweet onto Hannah. She had seen the day she thought would never come. The day Shannon Jade Parks got fed up of chocolate.
Just as she was sure the CD playing in the backround (Hannah's allSTARS album that she'd gotten for Christmas) was about the drive her mad (or at least more insane than she already was), a necessary distraction occurred.
The fire in the grate glowed green and Harry Potter rolled out onto the carpet, spreading the ash and soot he was covered in onto the floor and coughing violently. Hannah squealed and Shannon laughed as she stood up.
"Hey Harry," she said. "That was some entrance!"
Hannah ran from the room, shrieking, "Daddy! Daddy! Somebody just came in by Floo!"
"Hey Shannon." Harry eventually managed to reply, taking the hand she offered him and used it to pull himself up. "Sorry about scaring Hannah."
"Ah, that's alright. She won't mind." Shannon looked at his grimy clothes and began to giggle. "Look at you."
Harry looked down at himself, then behind him at the blackened trail across the pale carpet, and finally back at Shannon as she collapsed in near hysterics onto the sofa.
"Somebody should really sweep those chimneys." he said. "Sorry."
"Ah, s'okay." Shannon calmed herself as she dug down the back of the sofa and pulled out her wand. With a wave of it, it was all cleared up. She smiled sweetly and shoved the magical stick back down the sofa. "Dad won't ever know."
"Dad won't ever know what?" came a man's accented voice from the doorway. They looked around to see Mr. Parks standing in the doorway, arms folded and expression torn between amusement and sterness. Hannah stood half behind him, eyes widened in sorry guilt.
Shannon jumped straight to the rescue. "That I want to go skating if I don't ask him." She shot him a winning grin. "And take my friend Harry with me."
Mr.Parks finally let his smile show. "Hello Harry." He turned his gaze back to his daughter, who had decided to start the puppy dog eyes. "Shannon, it's Christmas Day! The ice rink won't be open today!"
"Thought of that already, old man." Shannon hopped up, a cheeky twinkle in her eyes. "Christmas Special, like a party sorta thing. Starts in about fifteen minutes." She turned to Harry. "C'mon, let's go."
She half dragged him out into the hall where she grabbed a jacket and then pulled him from the house with a "Hnnah, you can have my sweets. See ya later!"
As the door banged shut, Joe Parks just realised the full extent of what his daughter had said and his face creased in mock-annoyance.
"Old man?" he asked. "I'm only thirty-seven!"
Hannah giggled almost as wickedly as her sister as she ran over to the abandoned bag of sweets, chanting, "Old man! Old man!"
*****
Outside, Shannon noticed that Harry was watching her as they walked down the drive. She raised her eyebrows and asked, "What?"
"Since when were you an angel?" he asked, shaking his head with a grin.
Shannon looked confused for a moment before she realised what he meant and patted her flashing halo. "Are you saying I'm not a perfectly sweet little cherub anyway?" she questioned in mock-offence.
Harry took one look at her standing there, dressed in snow-white clothes with a golden tinsel wreath in her hair and an artificial saintly expression with her hands pressed together in prayer, he cracked up. She sniggered as well and together they strolled along into the street.
"Can you ice skate?" Shannon queried.
"Not a chance." The Dursleys had never gone skating, and even if they had, Harry wouldn't have been taken with them. Harry was suddenly struck with a mental picture of Dudley wobbling dangerously across a frozen pond of ridiculously tiny skates and snorted with laughter.
"What is it?"
"Just think of my cousin attempting to skate." Harry laughed helplessly now, as did Shannon when she too saw the spectacle in her mind's eye.
"Don't worry if you can't skate," Shannon said. "I'm not all that great myself. I practiced a lot when I first came to England back in August." She rolled her eyes. "It's just about the only thing they have here. You even have to go to the next town to go swimming. So anyways, what's happening back at school?"
"Hermione's reading, Ron's playing chess against Ginny, and I think Fred and George are planning to blow something up."
"Aw, without me?" Shannon's look became disenchanted. "How rude is that?"
"That's not all."
"Why?" Her eyes now sparkled hopefully as her expression brightened. "Tell me!"
Harry began to snigger for the second time in a few minutes. "This is after they jinxed Hagrid's beard scarlet and managed to curse a huge green boil on the end of Professor Sprout's nose."
Shannon shook her head happily. "Man, those guys have a death wish! McGonagall is gonna murder them!"
During their walk, they talked over school matters and shared a whole lot more laughter. Within twenty minutes, they had reached a huge building set slightly apart from the others. It looked a bit like a warehouse, but the sign proclaimed it as their destination and they went in.
As they joined the dwindling que from the counter, Harry realised something. "Shan, I haven't got any money."
"That's OK." she said, pulling out some money from her pocket. "My treat."
By this time, the group in front of them had moved away. Shannon payed and then led Harry over the reception area to a large staircase by an enormous window that showed them an oval rink of perfect white ice, glinting in the different colours of the disco lights above and reverbrating with the loud music. Shannon beamed.
"Let's go." she said, and led him down to the next counter. Here they traded their shoes for ice skates and strapped their feet in. Shannon was the first done, and didn't find walking over to the ice as awkward as Harry did. He tottered on the blades of the skates, convinced he was about to fall over.
Shannon stepped through the gate in the wall and onto the ice. She glided out three perfect steps before turning back with an excited laugh. "C'mon Harry!"
"I'm going to fall if I step out onto that." he warned, uncertainly letting a young mother with her two children pass first.
"No you won't. I'm right here." She held out her hands towards him and cocked her head. "Please? Just try."
With a sigh, he moved towards the rink and slowly moved out onto it, clinging to the wall. Shannon still held out her hands and slowly he eased himself away from the barrier and moved shakily towards her. She moved closer to shorten the gap and he quickly clutched her hands to stop himself from tripping.
Shannon laughed. "Very good. Now try standing there for a second on your own and skate to me." With that, she turned and glided across the ice almost expertly.
Harry shook his head. "You're just doing this to torture me, aren't you Shannon?"
Her head shook, although the permanent smile remained of course. "Nope. I just like seeing you fail at something for once." she joked.
As she coaxed him on, he slowly made himself start to slide wobbily over to her. Everything was going great; he seemed to be moving smother and smother as he went along. He grinned at Shannon as he came closer-
Just before he slipped and fell straight on his backside.
Shannon laughed so hard that she too toppled over and ended up with wet jeans. They helped each other up and she went back to coaching him until he could skate a short way on his own almost as well as she could. Eventually, she managed to convince him to increase on the speed. He wasn't so sure- falling over at least five times when there were skaters there half his age and twice his skill was not good for his confidence.
"Shannon, why don't you try something for once?" he asked.
She shrugged. "OK." Then went zooming straight off to the other end of the rink and skidded to a halt, catching the blockade. She turned and called over the chatter and music, "Come on, Potter!"
Harry sighed and shook his head, wondering how he had let her drag him into this. He began to move in the direction of his friend, unconciously picking up speed as he did so. He dodged a couple of really fast professionals and eventually crashed next to Shannon.
"Well done!" she said encouragingly, "But come with me."
"What?" he asked, as she grabbed his hands and began to skate backwards towards the centre of the ice, pulling him with her.
She just laughed as they moved into the emptier middle, under the speakers attatched to the ceiling that were pouring out full-blast pop music. It was so noisy that Harry could feel the ice vibrating gently under his skates.
"It's so cool here," she said loudly, staring up at the high ceiling almost in wonderment. Then she glanced down at Harry and, with a chuckle, released his hands from hers. Before he could do anything, Shannon had speed-skated to the end where they had just come from. He turned and watched her looking at him for a moment.
"Hey!" he yelled indignantly. She just shook with pent-up giggles and beckoned him over. Knowing he had no other option, he did as she bade, and concentrated on her as he glided unsteadily on the blades of his skates. Within a moment, he struck the barrier and Shannon let her laughter fit out into the open.
"Well done, mate, you've just skated half the rink unaided!" she told him.
He turned his emerald eyes back the way he had come and realised the feat he had overcome. He looked back at Shannon, and started to laugh as well.
"Come on," she said. "We can get an ice blaster in the café before we head back. Dad'll freak if I'm too late, you saw what he was like when I was out in Diagon Alley."
They stopped by in the café as she had suggested, discussing Quidditch (in low voices of course), pranks, and various ways in which to get Malfoy expelled. Shannon also had a big vendetta against Crabbe, still not forgetting how he had barged into Hannah. She was very amused to her the tale of the white ferret, and considered aloud about getting it recorded on a dictaphone.
Unfortunately, the ice rink seemed to be closing all too soon, and in what seemed like no time at all, they were back at Avalon House. Harry took a pinch of Floo powder from a jar on the mantlepiece and threw it into the fire. It glowed green as he said goodbye.
Just as he put his foot into the flames, he heard Shannon calling, "Hey Harry!"
He turned to see her sitting watching him from the sofa. "Merry Christmas."
He grinned. "Merry Christmas Shan." With a wave, he stepped into the fire.
"Gryffindor Tower! Guardian Angel!"
Shannon shook her head as Harry departed. "What a password."
*****
Heehee...I love ice skating. Haven't been in a while though...anyways, going off track here. Now you've read, plz review! Luv reviews!
Disclaimer: NEWS FLASH! NOT MINE! Didn't expect that, huh?
Dedication: To my auntie.
Harry Potter and the Crystal of Dreams.
Avalon House sat picturesquely in the snow covering the lawns as if it were just another home in the small Kentish town. The new inhabitants were quite well known. The father worked for some London firm (or so they thought), the beautiful mother had a very strong accent, the younger daughter attended the local primary school and the elder studied at boarding school. But a few people were sure that there was probably more to Joe Parks, his young Italian wife and their two daughters than met the eye, but of course they were far too polite to suggest anything.
Their suspicions were correct, although they would never know that. And inside the large home on Christmas Day, the daughters were in the living room.
Shannon was aiding Hannah with one of her favourite presents- a dragon puzzle- and more than occasionally dipping into a bag of chocolate frogs. She sighed, tossing aside her Agrippa card as the little girl slotted the pieces in. She had dressed up in white today to appear quite the angel she wasn't- she'd even fashioned a halo out of flashing gold tinsel. It was starting to get a little lonely. She'd been awoken at daybreak by Hannah leaping about on her bed, yelling that Father Christmas had come, and then had to let in the school owl carrying her presents from her friends. Even just reading the cards made her feel a little sad.
Here...well, it was more than fantastic to see her family (especially Hannah) again, but it just didn't seem like home. She'd been away for so long, whereas she'd not been a boarder at the Carnia Academy. Earlier on, Shannon had received a phone call from her Irish muggle friends, who sounded like they were having a great time. Elsie Doherty, her best friend, had asked loads of questions about how she was getting on at her new school and Roxy O'Rourke had wanted to hear all about the boys. Sarah Custer and Tess Sullivan had filled her in on all the latest gossip from their school, and basically any of the latest happenings and events that they hadn't detailed in their long letters to her.
Shannon sighed again, taking out two chocolate frogs and giving one to Hannah. If her dad wasn't washing up the dinner plates with Julianna, he'd tell her once more that she'd make herself sick on them. She pulled a face and handed her sweet onto Hannah. She had seen the day she thought would never come. The day Shannon Jade Parks got fed up of chocolate.
Just as she was sure the CD playing in the backround (Hannah's allSTARS album that she'd gotten for Christmas) was about the drive her mad (or at least more insane than she already was), a necessary distraction occurred.
The fire in the grate glowed green and Harry Potter rolled out onto the carpet, spreading the ash and soot he was covered in onto the floor and coughing violently. Hannah squealed and Shannon laughed as she stood up.
"Hey Harry," she said. "That was some entrance!"
Hannah ran from the room, shrieking, "Daddy! Daddy! Somebody just came in by Floo!"
"Hey Shannon." Harry eventually managed to reply, taking the hand she offered him and used it to pull himself up. "Sorry about scaring Hannah."
"Ah, that's alright. She won't mind." Shannon looked at his grimy clothes and began to giggle. "Look at you."
Harry looked down at himself, then behind him at the blackened trail across the pale carpet, and finally back at Shannon as she collapsed in near hysterics onto the sofa.
"Somebody should really sweep those chimneys." he said. "Sorry."
"Ah, s'okay." Shannon calmed herself as she dug down the back of the sofa and pulled out her wand. With a wave of it, it was all cleared up. She smiled sweetly and shoved the magical stick back down the sofa. "Dad won't ever know."
"Dad won't ever know what?" came a man's accented voice from the doorway. They looked around to see Mr. Parks standing in the doorway, arms folded and expression torn between amusement and sterness. Hannah stood half behind him, eyes widened in sorry guilt.
Shannon jumped straight to the rescue. "That I want to go skating if I don't ask him." She shot him a winning grin. "And take my friend Harry with me."
Mr.Parks finally let his smile show. "Hello Harry." He turned his gaze back to his daughter, who had decided to start the puppy dog eyes. "Shannon, it's Christmas Day! The ice rink won't be open today!"
"Thought of that already, old man." Shannon hopped up, a cheeky twinkle in her eyes. "Christmas Special, like a party sorta thing. Starts in about fifteen minutes." She turned to Harry. "C'mon, let's go."
She half dragged him out into the hall where she grabbed a jacket and then pulled him from the house with a "Hnnah, you can have my sweets. See ya later!"
As the door banged shut, Joe Parks just realised the full extent of what his daughter had said and his face creased in mock-annoyance.
"Old man?" he asked. "I'm only thirty-seven!"
Hannah giggled almost as wickedly as her sister as she ran over to the abandoned bag of sweets, chanting, "Old man! Old man!"
*****
Outside, Shannon noticed that Harry was watching her as they walked down the drive. She raised her eyebrows and asked, "What?"
"Since when were you an angel?" he asked, shaking his head with a grin.
Shannon looked confused for a moment before she realised what he meant and patted her flashing halo. "Are you saying I'm not a perfectly sweet little cherub anyway?" she questioned in mock-offence.
Harry took one look at her standing there, dressed in snow-white clothes with a golden tinsel wreath in her hair and an artificial saintly expression with her hands pressed together in prayer, he cracked up. She sniggered as well and together they strolled along into the street.
"Can you ice skate?" Shannon queried.
"Not a chance." The Dursleys had never gone skating, and even if they had, Harry wouldn't have been taken with them. Harry was suddenly struck with a mental picture of Dudley wobbling dangerously across a frozen pond of ridiculously tiny skates and snorted with laughter.
"What is it?"
"Just think of my cousin attempting to skate." Harry laughed helplessly now, as did Shannon when she too saw the spectacle in her mind's eye.
"Don't worry if you can't skate," Shannon said. "I'm not all that great myself. I practiced a lot when I first came to England back in August." She rolled her eyes. "It's just about the only thing they have here. You even have to go to the next town to go swimming. So anyways, what's happening back at school?"
"Hermione's reading, Ron's playing chess against Ginny, and I think Fred and George are planning to blow something up."
"Aw, without me?" Shannon's look became disenchanted. "How rude is that?"
"That's not all."
"Why?" Her eyes now sparkled hopefully as her expression brightened. "Tell me!"
Harry began to snigger for the second time in a few minutes. "This is after they jinxed Hagrid's beard scarlet and managed to curse a huge green boil on the end of Professor Sprout's nose."
Shannon shook her head happily. "Man, those guys have a death wish! McGonagall is gonna murder them!"
During their walk, they talked over school matters and shared a whole lot more laughter. Within twenty minutes, they had reached a huge building set slightly apart from the others. It looked a bit like a warehouse, but the sign proclaimed it as their destination and they went in.
As they joined the dwindling que from the counter, Harry realised something. "Shan, I haven't got any money."
"That's OK." she said, pulling out some money from her pocket. "My treat."
By this time, the group in front of them had moved away. Shannon payed and then led Harry over the reception area to a large staircase by an enormous window that showed them an oval rink of perfect white ice, glinting in the different colours of the disco lights above and reverbrating with the loud music. Shannon beamed.
"Let's go." she said, and led him down to the next counter. Here they traded their shoes for ice skates and strapped their feet in. Shannon was the first done, and didn't find walking over to the ice as awkward as Harry did. He tottered on the blades of the skates, convinced he was about to fall over.
Shannon stepped through the gate in the wall and onto the ice. She glided out three perfect steps before turning back with an excited laugh. "C'mon Harry!"
"I'm going to fall if I step out onto that." he warned, uncertainly letting a young mother with her two children pass first.
"No you won't. I'm right here." She held out her hands towards him and cocked her head. "Please? Just try."
With a sigh, he moved towards the rink and slowly moved out onto it, clinging to the wall. Shannon still held out her hands and slowly he eased himself away from the barrier and moved shakily towards her. She moved closer to shorten the gap and he quickly clutched her hands to stop himself from tripping.
Shannon laughed. "Very good. Now try standing there for a second on your own and skate to me." With that, she turned and glided across the ice almost expertly.
Harry shook his head. "You're just doing this to torture me, aren't you Shannon?"
Her head shook, although the permanent smile remained of course. "Nope. I just like seeing you fail at something for once." she joked.
As she coaxed him on, he slowly made himself start to slide wobbily over to her. Everything was going great; he seemed to be moving smother and smother as he went along. He grinned at Shannon as he came closer-
Just before he slipped and fell straight on his backside.
Shannon laughed so hard that she too toppled over and ended up with wet jeans. They helped each other up and she went back to coaching him until he could skate a short way on his own almost as well as she could. Eventually, she managed to convince him to increase on the speed. He wasn't so sure- falling over at least five times when there were skaters there half his age and twice his skill was not good for his confidence.
"Shannon, why don't you try something for once?" he asked.
She shrugged. "OK." Then went zooming straight off to the other end of the rink and skidded to a halt, catching the blockade. She turned and called over the chatter and music, "Come on, Potter!"
Harry sighed and shook his head, wondering how he had let her drag him into this. He began to move in the direction of his friend, unconciously picking up speed as he did so. He dodged a couple of really fast professionals and eventually crashed next to Shannon.
"Well done!" she said encouragingly, "But come with me."
"What?" he asked, as she grabbed his hands and began to skate backwards towards the centre of the ice, pulling him with her.
She just laughed as they moved into the emptier middle, under the speakers attatched to the ceiling that were pouring out full-blast pop music. It was so noisy that Harry could feel the ice vibrating gently under his skates.
"It's so cool here," she said loudly, staring up at the high ceiling almost in wonderment. Then she glanced down at Harry and, with a chuckle, released his hands from hers. Before he could do anything, Shannon had speed-skated to the end where they had just come from. He turned and watched her looking at him for a moment.
"Hey!" he yelled indignantly. She just shook with pent-up giggles and beckoned him over. Knowing he had no other option, he did as she bade, and concentrated on her as he glided unsteadily on the blades of his skates. Within a moment, he struck the barrier and Shannon let her laughter fit out into the open.
"Well done, mate, you've just skated half the rink unaided!" she told him.
He turned his emerald eyes back the way he had come and realised the feat he had overcome. He looked back at Shannon, and started to laugh as well.
"Come on," she said. "We can get an ice blaster in the café before we head back. Dad'll freak if I'm too late, you saw what he was like when I was out in Diagon Alley."
They stopped by in the café as she had suggested, discussing Quidditch (in low voices of course), pranks, and various ways in which to get Malfoy expelled. Shannon also had a big vendetta against Crabbe, still not forgetting how he had barged into Hannah. She was very amused to her the tale of the white ferret, and considered aloud about getting it recorded on a dictaphone.
Unfortunately, the ice rink seemed to be closing all too soon, and in what seemed like no time at all, they were back at Avalon House. Harry took a pinch of Floo powder from a jar on the mantlepiece and threw it into the fire. It glowed green as he said goodbye.
Just as he put his foot into the flames, he heard Shannon calling, "Hey Harry!"
He turned to see her sitting watching him from the sofa. "Merry Christmas."
He grinned. "Merry Christmas Shan." With a wave, he stepped into the fire.
"Gryffindor Tower! Guardian Angel!"
Shannon shook her head as Harry departed. "What a password."
*****
Heehee...I love ice skating. Haven't been in a while though...anyways, going off track here. Now you've read, plz review! Luv reviews!