Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all associated names, things, spells, places etc. belong to J.K. Rowling, Raincoast Books, Bloomsbury, Scholastics Inc. Warner Bros., and her publishers, I guess. The name O'Keefe and the name Calvin were borrowed from The A Wrinkle in Time books, by Madeleine L'Engle, which are awesome books. The name Carlton was borrowed from Vanessa Carlton. And, the name Ella is borrowed from a book I adore, Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. They're making a movie out of the book, with Mia from Princess Diaries (Anne Hathaway). I own Amethyst Carlton, Emmie/Emerald Carlton O'Keefe, Victoria Carlton O'Keefe, Jonathan Carlton O'Keefe Calvin O'Keefe and Lila Malfoy (but not the name O'Keefe, Calvin or Malfoy!). Erolish is just something I made up. Er, Christina Aguilera owns herself and "Reflection". I own some of the plot, me thinks.

Enjoy!

The Real Me

Last time..

Hermione looked into his eyes, not sure off what to say or what to feel. She decided on anger, "Of course I'm not okay, you idiot! Does it look like I'm okay?" she screamed through tears, surprising everyone, even herself. She wanted to apologize, but anger over took her and she pushed the team aside and ran as fast as she could in the direction of the beautiful lake on the Hogwart's grounds.

Chapter 15 Thoughts and Getting Ready

Hermione ran as fast as she could away from The Quidditch Pitch. Tears blinded her, and she stumbled and fell. Hermione glanced around and she glad to find herself at the lake. She was near Hagrid's cabin. She hadn't seen him in ages. Hermione pushed those thoughts out of her head, and thought back to her muggle parents. She was so upset and very angry. She was steamed at Voldemort, so much that she felt like killing someone. Hermione didn't realize she was having another "tantrum", that the Carlton females were famous for. Hermione started screaming at the top of her lungs, and kicking everything in sight. Suddenly, she stopped. Hermione found herself face to face with a unicorn.

It had come out of the Forbidden Forest, and was pure white. Hermione felt herself enchanted by it, and no longer felt angry, and completely forgot about her parents. Her mind went blank and her body took over. She climbed on the unicorn, who did not protest. Instead it galloped up to the castle and let her down there. Hermione's mind returned in she thanked the unicorn, still amazed. The unicorn understood, for Hermione had spoken Erolish, the language of the unicorns. It turned and took to the forest at an amazing speed.

As Hermione's mind came back to her, she remembered that the people who had raised her her whole life were now dead. After the ride on the unicorn, she seemed to accept it better. Hermione calmly turned and opened the doors to her wizardry school that had been her home for 5 years. Classes were still cancelled and most people were at Hogesmade, so Hermione didn't encounter anyone on her way to the beautiful portrait of Gryffindor's daughter, Ella. Hermione somehow knew that this girl sacrificed a lot during her life. Hermione whispered her name and her own name, and the portrait swung open to reveal an elegant room. Hermione ignored her surroundings and went in the direction of her room. Right now she longed to been in her dorm in Gryffindor Tower, for once in her life.

Hermione soon found herself in her room. She sat down, getting ready for a long session of thought,

"Okay, today is Thursday. It's almost over actually. This whole mess started last Friday, with the contest. Stupid me, wanting to change my image, well I certainly did that, and even my name is different now. Ella. Will I ever get used to being called that? Maybe I could.. Maybe I couldn't.. " Hermione thought helplessly, "I'd do anything to fall in a hole and disappear right now. I mean, the people who raised me as their own daughter for all my life that I can remember are dead! And now I have a father who I was terrified of for 4 years and a mother who I met yesterday! And then Harry and Draco. And of course, Voldemort. Well, isn't my life perfect. Perfect, perfect, perfect. Perfect Hermione, no, beg your pardon", Hermione giggled at begging her own pardon, "Ella." Hermione dissolved into giggles. She was slightly hysterical. You couldn't blame her though. The only parents she had ever known, up till yesterday, just died.

Hermione got up, still giggling and sat down on the chair in front of a beautiful ornament mirror. It reminded her of a song, looking at her reflection, so she began to sing the song softly, through laughs and many tears,

"Look at me

You may think you see

Who I really am

But you'll never know me

Every day

It's as if I play a part

Now I see

If I wear a mask

I can fool the world

But I cannot fool my heart

Who is that girl I see

Staring straight back at me?

When will my reflection show

Who I am inside?

I am now

In a world where I

Have to hide my heart

And what I believe in

But somehow

I will show the world

What's inside my heart

And be loved for who I am

Who is that girl I see

Staring straight back at me?

Why is my reflection

Someone I don't know?

Must I pretend that I'm

Someone else for all time?

When will my reflection show

Who I am inside?

There's a heart that must be

Free to fly

That burns with a need to know

The reason why

Why must we all conceal

What we think, how we feel?

Must there be a secret me

I'm forced to hide?

I won't pretend that I'm

Someone else for all time

When will my reflection show

Who I am inside?

When will my reflection show

Who I am inside?"

Hermione sang every word, and she knew every word were exactly how she felt. She was so frustrated she wanted to scream. She was about to, when there was a knock on the door. Hermione managed to croak out, "Who is it?" Her answer came with from a familiar voice, yet not that familiar, "It's Lila." "Come in", Hermione said before her head could stop her. She felt like she needed a friend right now.

Hermione turned as she heard the door creak open. She turned and saw not only Lila, but Victoria too, who looked rather reluctant to come inside. Victoria's face relaxed a bit when she saw Hermione's calm face, but still looked tense. Hermione didn't know it, but Victoria could feel Hermione's tension through a blood bond they shared, and knew her pain and sadness. Lila ignored her friend and said to Hermione, "Are you alright? Do you want to talk about it?" Hermione shook her head, so Lila changed the subject.

"Guess what! You know that masquerade ball tomorrow? Well, we, as in me, Vickie, Em, Ammie, Jon and Sirius, are going. We are all going to be masked anyway, so Dumbledore said we could go! We just got our costumes and the others are getting theirs now. Your still going to go right?" Lila said very fast, and she sounded extremely excited.

Hermione thought and decided it'd be good to go, plus she loved her costume. She nodded, and this made Lila even more excited. In fact, she started to jump up and down, screaming. "Yahoo! So what are you wearing? I'm dressed a bit like a fairy, and Vickie is going Medieval." Lila exclaimed. Hermione refused to tell, much to Lila's disappointment. "You'll see tomorrow", Hermione told both the girls firmly.

The girls unanimously decided to crash, since they were all extremely tired. After some brief planning, they decided they would get up around 10 the next day and start preparing for the dance. Hermione was enjoying herself, being around other girls and being more girlish than usual, and she found that she was excited. She had done a good job of pushing her parent's death out of her mind. As she was drifting off to sleep, she made a promise to herself, she was going to have a good time tomorrow. Hermione was right, she was going to have a good time, but also, a rather confusing one too!

*********

Hermione awoke with a start and turned over in her gigantic bed. Glancing at the clock, she saw she had woken up exactly on time, the clock read 10:00. She rolled over again and fell out of bed. With a grunt, she pulled herself up. She was not a morning person.

Hermione got up and looked out the window. It was a sunny Friday morning. She exited her room, and made her way to the living room, where the girls decided to meet. She found that Victoria and Lila where already there and eating some breakfast. Hermione joined them, and after a nice breakfast, they all went to their rooms and grabbed everything they would need to get ready. They met again about 15 minutes later in the gigantic bathroom they decided to get ready in.

Before they started to get ready, they had a serious talk. Well, as serious as they could get. It was 10:45 right now, and the ball started at 7:00. They arranged for lunch to be brought up to them. Lila was the only one that was worried that they wouldn't have enough time. Victoria and Hermione thought that they had too much time. So they talked for an hour, still in the gigantic bathroom, and then they had lunch, in the bathroom. So it was 12:15, and they had exactly 6 hours and 45 minutes to get ready. Lila was panicking, claiming it wasn't enough time for them to get ready.

Well, thankfully it was. After hours of screaming, laughing, and endlessly fixing each other's hair, they began to do their makeup and put on their costumes. Hermione was rather reluctant to do this, so she made Victoria and Lila go first. As Lila had said the night before, she was going as a fairy. Her costume was a pale blue and the main part resembled at tutu. Her wings were the size of her arms, and were sparkly and pale blue with silver. Her mask was silver, and her shoes. She wore of course blue and silver makeup, and put her almost silver hair up with tiny blue flowers that matched both her eyes and costume perfectly.

Now, Victoria was going in a medieval costume, and she couldn't have looked more different than Lila. She was in an emerald green gown that was the normal medieval style. It had a tight top, and a narrow skirt. It wonderfully contrasted her red hair, which she curled and let sit on her shoulders. Her mask was the same shade of green as her gown. She put on green eye shadow, had the rest of her makeup in red shades.

Hermione spent an hour helping them get dressed and prepared, and then she ushered them out of the bathroom with only an hour for her to get ready. She hadn't let them see her costume, she told them it would be a surprise. She began to get ready as quickly as possible.

After an hour of hard work, it was 7:00, and she was ready. She flew out of the guest suite and arrived at the Great Hall, were the ball was to take place, 5 minutes late. She had told everyone to go on without her. She was late, because the ball had started at 7, and everyone had arrived at 6:45. Hermione looked down at herself, made sure her mask was tightly on, and opened the doors to the Great Hall with a BANG!

End of Chapter 15

A/N: Sorry to leave you there. And sorry for me taking forever to get this up, and when I finally do, its short! Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry!!! I feel so bad! I'd feel better if you would please, please, please, please, please review! But, first, here are my thank yous:

KawaiinessPnay: Thank you! To make you a bit less sad, read the other books in her time quartet, er they are called: A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Titling Planet, and if you want, An Acceptable Time. They might make you a bit happier! No problem about the song, I might have some place to put it, but just to warn you, that won't happen till later in the story if I'm going to put it where I think I should. Anyways, hope you liked!

jaceMia: Thank you for your very nice compliments and the use of superb. I love that word. Do you like this song? I thought it would fit.. Tell me if you do, and if you have any suggestions for songs, please tell me!

Hpz26: Sorry this wasn't very soon. But it got up in the end. Thank you for your review!

Silveretta: You were right, but thanks so much for the review, and beta- ing the chapter! It is so much appreciated by me. I hope this cleared up the time thing, thanks for the advice!

Arime Setta: Thank you for your advice too. I used it, as you can hopefully tell, and I hope its cleared up. And thank you for the review. Next chapter will have more poor Harry, Ron and Draco. Fun it shall be!

Cho Chang: This one wasn't exactly fast, as you can tell, but thanks for the compliments and review! I like laughing, as you probably know, and I'm glad I made someone laugh with my writing, which probably doesn't happen very often.

Crystal Words: Holy Crap! Thank you thank you! You reviewed every single chapter. I read your email, and emailed you back, but as you know, it got messed, so as soon as I'm done this, I'm going to re-write my email to you. It will be an extended thank you, and answer all those questions you asked. Anyways, I'll talk to you then. And huge thanks! And thank you for taking 2 hours and 44 minutes to read and review (if my calculations are correct!).

Wow, I have 119 reviews, thank you to everyone who reviewed! I am walking on air. Anyways, the next chapter will be the Masquerade Ball, I know not very original, but trust me a lot is going to happen during and after that ball. Somethings that were beyond even my wildest dreams, well until I dreamed them! Oh, 2 VERY IMPORTANT THINGS/QUESTIONS! One, I need your opinions on who Herm should end up with, Harry or Draco. But remember even if one of the wins for the poll in reviews, doesn't necessarily mean that will be the pairing. I love surprises, I just want to see what you guess want to happen, so I can build on it. And 2, remember those talent scouts, Ella Reynolds and Peter Tecra? No, I haven't forgotten about them. But, I hadn't changed my fic when I made them up, so the female talent scout has Hermione's real name! I can't have that. So any ideas for what her new name should be? Please answer my 2 questions in a review, it would be so much appreciated. And if you are not to busy, please tell me your favourite chapter and your favourite song I have used. Thank you, a thousand thank yous if you could do that for me!

Thank you for your time!

Hope you enjoyed!

Try to get next chapter up ASAP.

Please review!

Thanks,

-Eliza