Episode Six

            And then one morning Gwen awoke again in the real world, her chemistry books spilling all over her bed. Again, no time had passed in this world while Hogwarts had moved ahead weeks. Her sense of self was slowly falling away from her and she wasn't sure when she would return to the dream.

            The longer she stayed at Hogwarts the more she wanted to return to college. The longer she stayed at college the more she wanted to return to Hogwarts. But there were three things Hogwarts didn't have: Chris, Gabby and Graves.

            The four of them had a strange friendship. Graves would work on spell-casting with Gwen, which was so entirely different from spell-casting at Hogwarts. They would chant together in Ouranian Barbaric for hours on end. Meanwhile, Gabby would be laughing at them and tickling Chris, who would turn around and pelt them with stale marshmallows that had been sitting in the cupboard at Graves apartment since he had moved in at the beginning of sophomore year, making the marshmallows a mature two years old.

            It had been a while since they'd all hung out together. Chris wanted pizza. Gabs wanted to rent a movie. Graves just wanted to sit close to Gwen and tease her about her dream world which Chris had accidentally told him about one afternoon.

            While Chris went to pick up the pizza and Gabs went to find a movie, Graves began his taunting.

"So you and Harry Potter are all buddy-buddy now?"

            "Shut up."

            "Oh come on, you know you love it."

            "No, I really don't. I'm so confused right now. Weeks will go by in that world and then I'll come back and weeks will go by here. Sometimes it's a day before I switch worlds, sometimes longer. I don't know what to do."

            "Honugic Cugothsa Etheng." Graves said with a rare smile.

            "And how does that help me?" Gwen asked.

            "Strength Never Dying. You need to be strong. You'll get through this."

            She looked at Graves with respect and found a new and deeper appreciation for him. With his words echoing in her head she felt a new strength flowing through her veins. She would get through this. And when next she returned to Hogwarts she found herself repeating his words every morning before classes and every night before bed.