~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Staring in confusion at Link, Zelda flipped off of Gannondorf's shoulders and at ran towards him. "You actually have them with you?"
"Yep." Link pulled out the three objects of magic.
"Princess," Gannondorf laughed. "You know as well as I that you need three people to use the Triforce against me."
"Shut it, Gannondorf. I'm trying to think here." Zelda turned towards Link. "So I'm Wisdom, you're Courage, and. . .who's power?"
"Dumbledore, get over here!" Link called out. "We need your help!"
"You don't think I'm just going to stand here and let you do this to me, do you?" Gannondorf snickered. "There's such a thing as fighting back."
Leaving Harry and the others to deal with Voldemort, Dumbledore strided over towards Link and Zelda. "You have my undivided attention. What is it that you so desperately need my help with?"
"You won't have time to teach him what he needs to know!" Gannondorf shouted in anxiety. "I'm not going to let you do it, Zelda!"
"Yes, you will!" shouted someone. Link and Zelda watched in shock as the tip of a sword showed through Gannondorf's chest. Slowly, it withdrew, giving the evil king as much pain as possible. Somebody had stabbed him in the back.
"SNAPE?!" Zelda and Link cried in unison.
"Teach Albus what he needs to know to destroy this man," Snape said calmly, dropping Link's sword. "I hope I've bought you enough time."
"I'm afraid you haven't!" Gannondorf choked, blood coming out from his throat. "But I'm not fool enough to just wait around here to die!" He reached out his hand, and a blue portal appeared. He started to crawl into it.
"Don't let him get away!" Zelda cried, running towards it.
But before anyone could grab him, someone had appeared to start pulling Gannondorf through the other side of the portal. In about two seconds, he was gone.
"Well, that takes care of that for now," Link sighed, pocketing the Triforce. "But we've got another man to deal with right now.
"Don't try it, Voldemort," Harry said, pointing his wand at the wizard. "You know what'll happen if you do!"
Leering darkly at Harry, Voldemort turned his hands into fists inside his robes. He had threatened to kill all of the teachers surrounding him. But if he did so, Harry said, he'd have to deal with Harry and his wand.
But Link didn't really feel that that made a difference. After all, he had Voldemort's wand in his pocket.
"Shadows of ghosts can make an awful distraction," Harry said. "You'd better be careful, Voldemort."
"You can't just leave me like this all night," Voldemort hissed, his teeth clenched tightly together.
"He's right," whispered one of the teachers from behind Harry.
Suddenly and unexpectedly, the doors burst open. Everyone turned to face them, full of suprise. And who should come dashing into the room but--
"Ron?!" Harry shouted. "Ginny?!"
"Weasley?!" the teachers cried.
But they couldn't hear them. Ron was wearing a large pair of green earmuffs, and Ginny had on red ones. They both produced a similar group of the items.
"What on earth are these for?!" several of the Professor asked, as Ron handed them each a pair of earmuffs.
"DON'T ASK QUESTIONS, JUST PUT THEM ON!" Ron said rather loudly, not remembering that they could all hear him perfectly fine. He continued to distribute the earmuffs to the teachers (and of course to Harry).
"What're you doing here?" Zelda asked, putting on the blue earmuffs Ginny handed her. "How did you--"
"JUST PUT ON THE EARMUFFS," Ron interrupted, thinking that she was inquiring about them. He walked back to the main doorway with Ginny, and began to address the whole room. "WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T TAKE OFF THE EARMUFFS!" He slammed the door.
"What was that all about?" McGonagall mouthed to Flitwick.
"What?" he mimed back.
"What?"
"Never mind," they both said silently.
All of a sudden, Hermione burst into the room. She donned large, yellow ear muffs. In her left hand was a crying shrieking Mandrake.
"GRANGER!" Link and Zelda shouted (even though no one could hear them). But by now, they were prepared to expect anything.
Hermione edged as close to Voldemort as she dared. "I SEE YOU AREN'T WEARING ANY PROTECTION!" she yelled. She waved the plant she held in front of her. "IN CASE YOU DIDN'T KNOW, THE CRY OF THE MANDRAKE IS FATAL TO ANYONE WHO HEARS IT!!"
If he hadn't known it before, Voldemort certainly knew it now. He fell to the floor, screaming and trying to cover his ears.
"YOU CAN'T KILL ME!" he roared.
"SORRY, DIDN'T CATCH THAT!" Hermione screamed in a sing-song voice. "I MAY NOT BE HARRY POTTER, BUT I KNOW WHAT IT TAKES TO DEFEAT A DARK WIZARD!!"
Emitting high-pitched, eerie screams, Voldemort's body started to twitch violently. Harry got an idea. He took out his wand and pointed it at the Dark Lord. Everyone seemed to catch on to the plan.
Every (good) wizard in the room raised their wands. Ron and Ginny had now joined them from the hallway. In unison, they pointed their weapons at Voldemort and shouted "AVADA KEDAVRA!"
Voldemort's body exploded. From the mangled skin, a wisp of a black shadow flew into the air. "Had that coward not abandoned me here, I'd have gotten you, Harry Potter! That's the last time I ever work with him!" And with that, what remained of Voldemort seeped through a wall and into the sky.
Hermione ran over to the window in threw the shrieking Mandrake to its death. Everyone took off their earmuffs.
There was silence. Then the small room exploded with cheers of the teachers. Ron and Hermione smiled modestly.
"How did yuh two know?" Hagrid laughed, patting Ron sharply on the back.
"Well, we were kind of lagging behind the other Gryffindors on the way to our common room," Ron began to explain. "And suddenly we smelled something terrible. And, needless to say, curiousity got the better of us. We followed it up a long stairway. At first, we thought the stench might've been Crabbe and Goyle."
"Mr. Weasley," Snape said. "Kindly leave insults about any other students out of your little story."
"All right," Ginny said. "He was just telling the truth. But anyway, we saw this stubby little mate sitting on the ground rubbing his head. Hermione thought it was a house-elf, so she ran forward."
"We heard it muttering something," Hermione added. "He was saying 'Harry Potter and Link, the rotten. . .' then it got kind of hard to understand. Then we realized that he wasn't a house-elf, and we asked if he knew where Harry had gone. He pointed us to the door behind him. Then we inquired about who else was in the room."
"So all he said was 'The Dark Lord and the Dark King,'" Ron continued, in a rather good impersonation of Ozzy. "So we ran back to the common room, thinking of what it was we could do. Then Hermione thought of the Mandrakes."
"Where'd you get them?" Professor Sprout asked.
"Well," Hermione said, blushing a bit. "I had to use the Alohamora spell to open the Greenhouse and get them. But after careful consideration, I thought you'd forgive me for breaking into the room if it meant saving you all."
"Of course it's all right!" McGonagall sighed, conjuring up a handkercheif out of no where. She started dabbing her skin with it, getting rid of the sweat. "Seventy points for the three of you!"
"Great job, you guys," Harry congratulated. "I hate to think what might've happened to us if you hadn't shown up. . ."
"Are you guys all right?" Hermione asked.
"Well, I think Zelda might've had to withstand a bit of abuse," Link said. "But I'm not sure if she really--"
"I'll be fine," Zelda cut him off hastily. "We should all just be grateful that we got away with our lives!"
At that point, a small barn owl flew into the room. It dropped a letter into Ron's hands. He opened it.
"It's from mum," he said. "Wow. . .this whole letter is filled with thank yous for you, Hermione and Cho. . .she says that the gnome population is decreasing, I guess that's good news 'cause now we won't have to get rid of them anymore. . ."
Ginny took the letter and turned it over. "There's a post script." She read it, and her eyes widened. "That's interesting. She says that this year is Hogwart's 400th anniversary. . . and she's written all this stuff about the parties they used to hold when she was at school. . . nothing we haven't heard, I'm sure."
"Good heavens," Dumbledore said, as they all started to walk out the door. "With all of this battling going on, I forgot that this was our school's 400th year! Professor McGonagall, we must plan a celebration at once!"
"Erm, all right," McGonagall said. "I suppose that 400 years IS a long time. . ."
"Of course it is!" Zelda cried. "Four hundred is an awful long period of time! I think that's about how old Impa is. . ."
"Har, har, Zelda," Link laughed.
Harry quickened his pace, and told Ginny, Ron and Hermione to do so as well. A few moments later, they were ahead of the group, walking back to the Gryffindor common room. Ginny leaned forward and kissed Harry's cheek.
"Well, what is it?" she asked.
"I found something out about Harkinian," Harry told them. "She's REALLY a princess, just like I thought! She's actually heir to a throne in some place really far away called Hyrule."
"Hyrule?" Hermione repeated. "I've never even heard of it!"
"Then it MUST be far away!" Ginny laughed. "Wow. . .just exactly where is it, Harry? I'm dying to know."
"Well actually, before I tell you that, I've got something else to say," Harry said, grinning widely. "Koke and Harkinian are both. . .well, they're, uh, neither of them are. . . that is to say, they're both not human."
"Then what are they?" Ron laughed. "Dragons?"
"Elves."
"Elves?!" Hermione asked incredulously. "How on earth could they actually be elves? They're not near short enough!"
"That's because Hyrule isn't. . .well, it's not on our planet."
"Not on earth?" Ginny inquired. "Bubbling Butterbeer."
"How's that possible?" Ron questioned, as the Fat Lady swung open. The four of them stepped into the common room. "Are you saying that Koke and Harkinian are some kind of alien-like elves?"
"No, they're not aliens," Harry explained, laughing at his friends' confusion (even though he had been quite confused when he'd first heard it too). "But you see, it's kind of like they're not exactly--"
"We're gonna be up all night listening to explain this one," Hermione sighed.
"Not me," Ginny yawned, stretching her arms. "It's already two-thirty in the morning. I am very curious about this whole situation, but I'm also feeling extremely restless. Handing out earmuffs can be very tiring."
"All right," Harry agreed. "Besides, Dumbledore'll probably announce the whole thing to the school tomorrow."
"I doubt it," Hermione said. "You think he wants students to treat Koke and Harkinian like they're aliens or something?"
"Well they ARE," Ron pointed out. "Technically speaking, anyway. Besides, the year's almost over, Hermione. There aren't many days left for students to gawk and goggle at those two, you know."
"Whatever," Harry said. "I'll just tell you all tomorrow, if Dumbledore doesn't."
"That works for me," Ginny said. "Night, guys." She and Hermione wearily climbed the steps that led to the girls' dormitories. Harry and Ron walked up the other staircase that would lead them to their beds.
"Night, Harry," Ron whispered, collapsing onto his bed and drawing the curtains closed.
"Night," Harry yawned. But sleep didn't come as easily to him as it did for Ron. He couldn't stop thinking about Zelda being the ruler of some distant land. It didn't seem at all probable. And Link had admitted to not being royalty, so how would things work between them? It was like one of those bad soap operas that Aunt Petunia liked to watch.
He tried to keep the image of Zelda in his head. Whenever he didn't, his mind drifted towards Voldemort and Gannondorf. Harry turned over in his sleep. It was going to be tough to get a good night's sleep.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
yay 4 the weasleys and hermione!!! have u noticed that both of the baddies have annoyingly long names? it gets so exasperating to write all the time. that's y i like spelling gannondorf as just ganon sometimes, but 1 of my reviewers didn't like it. so o well!
dont 4get 2 review!!
Staring in confusion at Link, Zelda flipped off of Gannondorf's shoulders and at ran towards him. "You actually have them with you?"
"Yep." Link pulled out the three objects of magic.
"Princess," Gannondorf laughed. "You know as well as I that you need three people to use the Triforce against me."
"Shut it, Gannondorf. I'm trying to think here." Zelda turned towards Link. "So I'm Wisdom, you're Courage, and. . .who's power?"
"Dumbledore, get over here!" Link called out. "We need your help!"
"You don't think I'm just going to stand here and let you do this to me, do you?" Gannondorf snickered. "There's such a thing as fighting back."
Leaving Harry and the others to deal with Voldemort, Dumbledore strided over towards Link and Zelda. "You have my undivided attention. What is it that you so desperately need my help with?"
"You won't have time to teach him what he needs to know!" Gannondorf shouted in anxiety. "I'm not going to let you do it, Zelda!"
"Yes, you will!" shouted someone. Link and Zelda watched in shock as the tip of a sword showed through Gannondorf's chest. Slowly, it withdrew, giving the evil king as much pain as possible. Somebody had stabbed him in the back.
"SNAPE?!" Zelda and Link cried in unison.
"Teach Albus what he needs to know to destroy this man," Snape said calmly, dropping Link's sword. "I hope I've bought you enough time."
"I'm afraid you haven't!" Gannondorf choked, blood coming out from his throat. "But I'm not fool enough to just wait around here to die!" He reached out his hand, and a blue portal appeared. He started to crawl into it.
"Don't let him get away!" Zelda cried, running towards it.
But before anyone could grab him, someone had appeared to start pulling Gannondorf through the other side of the portal. In about two seconds, he was gone.
"Well, that takes care of that for now," Link sighed, pocketing the Triforce. "But we've got another man to deal with right now.
"Don't try it, Voldemort," Harry said, pointing his wand at the wizard. "You know what'll happen if you do!"
Leering darkly at Harry, Voldemort turned his hands into fists inside his robes. He had threatened to kill all of the teachers surrounding him. But if he did so, Harry said, he'd have to deal with Harry and his wand.
But Link didn't really feel that that made a difference. After all, he had Voldemort's wand in his pocket.
"Shadows of ghosts can make an awful distraction," Harry said. "You'd better be careful, Voldemort."
"You can't just leave me like this all night," Voldemort hissed, his teeth clenched tightly together.
"He's right," whispered one of the teachers from behind Harry.
Suddenly and unexpectedly, the doors burst open. Everyone turned to face them, full of suprise. And who should come dashing into the room but--
"Ron?!" Harry shouted. "Ginny?!"
"Weasley?!" the teachers cried.
But they couldn't hear them. Ron was wearing a large pair of green earmuffs, and Ginny had on red ones. They both produced a similar group of the items.
"What on earth are these for?!" several of the Professor asked, as Ron handed them each a pair of earmuffs.
"DON'T ASK QUESTIONS, JUST PUT THEM ON!" Ron said rather loudly, not remembering that they could all hear him perfectly fine. He continued to distribute the earmuffs to the teachers (and of course to Harry).
"What're you doing here?" Zelda asked, putting on the blue earmuffs Ginny handed her. "How did you--"
"JUST PUT ON THE EARMUFFS," Ron interrupted, thinking that she was inquiring about them. He walked back to the main doorway with Ginny, and began to address the whole room. "WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T TAKE OFF THE EARMUFFS!" He slammed the door.
"What was that all about?" McGonagall mouthed to Flitwick.
"What?" he mimed back.
"What?"
"Never mind," they both said silently.
All of a sudden, Hermione burst into the room. She donned large, yellow ear muffs. In her left hand was a crying shrieking Mandrake.
"GRANGER!" Link and Zelda shouted (even though no one could hear them). But by now, they were prepared to expect anything.
Hermione edged as close to Voldemort as she dared. "I SEE YOU AREN'T WEARING ANY PROTECTION!" she yelled. She waved the plant she held in front of her. "IN CASE YOU DIDN'T KNOW, THE CRY OF THE MANDRAKE IS FATAL TO ANYONE WHO HEARS IT!!"
If he hadn't known it before, Voldemort certainly knew it now. He fell to the floor, screaming and trying to cover his ears.
"YOU CAN'T KILL ME!" he roared.
"SORRY, DIDN'T CATCH THAT!" Hermione screamed in a sing-song voice. "I MAY NOT BE HARRY POTTER, BUT I KNOW WHAT IT TAKES TO DEFEAT A DARK WIZARD!!"
Emitting high-pitched, eerie screams, Voldemort's body started to twitch violently. Harry got an idea. He took out his wand and pointed it at the Dark Lord. Everyone seemed to catch on to the plan.
Every (good) wizard in the room raised their wands. Ron and Ginny had now joined them from the hallway. In unison, they pointed their weapons at Voldemort and shouted "AVADA KEDAVRA!"
Voldemort's body exploded. From the mangled skin, a wisp of a black shadow flew into the air. "Had that coward not abandoned me here, I'd have gotten you, Harry Potter! That's the last time I ever work with him!" And with that, what remained of Voldemort seeped through a wall and into the sky.
Hermione ran over to the window in threw the shrieking Mandrake to its death. Everyone took off their earmuffs.
There was silence. Then the small room exploded with cheers of the teachers. Ron and Hermione smiled modestly.
"How did yuh two know?" Hagrid laughed, patting Ron sharply on the back.
"Well, we were kind of lagging behind the other Gryffindors on the way to our common room," Ron began to explain. "And suddenly we smelled something terrible. And, needless to say, curiousity got the better of us. We followed it up a long stairway. At first, we thought the stench might've been Crabbe and Goyle."
"Mr. Weasley," Snape said. "Kindly leave insults about any other students out of your little story."
"All right," Ginny said. "He was just telling the truth. But anyway, we saw this stubby little mate sitting on the ground rubbing his head. Hermione thought it was a house-elf, so she ran forward."
"We heard it muttering something," Hermione added. "He was saying 'Harry Potter and Link, the rotten. . .' then it got kind of hard to understand. Then we realized that he wasn't a house-elf, and we asked if he knew where Harry had gone. He pointed us to the door behind him. Then we inquired about who else was in the room."
"So all he said was 'The Dark Lord and the Dark King,'" Ron continued, in a rather good impersonation of Ozzy. "So we ran back to the common room, thinking of what it was we could do. Then Hermione thought of the Mandrakes."
"Where'd you get them?" Professor Sprout asked.
"Well," Hermione said, blushing a bit. "I had to use the Alohamora spell to open the Greenhouse and get them. But after careful consideration, I thought you'd forgive me for breaking into the room if it meant saving you all."
"Of course it's all right!" McGonagall sighed, conjuring up a handkercheif out of no where. She started dabbing her skin with it, getting rid of the sweat. "Seventy points for the three of you!"
"Great job, you guys," Harry congratulated. "I hate to think what might've happened to us if you hadn't shown up. . ."
"Are you guys all right?" Hermione asked.
"Well, I think Zelda might've had to withstand a bit of abuse," Link said. "But I'm not sure if she really--"
"I'll be fine," Zelda cut him off hastily. "We should all just be grateful that we got away with our lives!"
At that point, a small barn owl flew into the room. It dropped a letter into Ron's hands. He opened it.
"It's from mum," he said. "Wow. . .this whole letter is filled with thank yous for you, Hermione and Cho. . .she says that the gnome population is decreasing, I guess that's good news 'cause now we won't have to get rid of them anymore. . ."
Ginny took the letter and turned it over. "There's a post script." She read it, and her eyes widened. "That's interesting. She says that this year is Hogwart's 400th anniversary. . . and she's written all this stuff about the parties they used to hold when she was at school. . . nothing we haven't heard, I'm sure."
"Good heavens," Dumbledore said, as they all started to walk out the door. "With all of this battling going on, I forgot that this was our school's 400th year! Professor McGonagall, we must plan a celebration at once!"
"Erm, all right," McGonagall said. "I suppose that 400 years IS a long time. . ."
"Of course it is!" Zelda cried. "Four hundred is an awful long period of time! I think that's about how old Impa is. . ."
"Har, har, Zelda," Link laughed.
Harry quickened his pace, and told Ginny, Ron and Hermione to do so as well. A few moments later, they were ahead of the group, walking back to the Gryffindor common room. Ginny leaned forward and kissed Harry's cheek.
"Well, what is it?" she asked.
"I found something out about Harkinian," Harry told them. "She's REALLY a princess, just like I thought! She's actually heir to a throne in some place really far away called Hyrule."
"Hyrule?" Hermione repeated. "I've never even heard of it!"
"Then it MUST be far away!" Ginny laughed. "Wow. . .just exactly where is it, Harry? I'm dying to know."
"Well actually, before I tell you that, I've got something else to say," Harry said, grinning widely. "Koke and Harkinian are both. . .well, they're, uh, neither of them are. . . that is to say, they're both not human."
"Then what are they?" Ron laughed. "Dragons?"
"Elves."
"Elves?!" Hermione asked incredulously. "How on earth could they actually be elves? They're not near short enough!"
"That's because Hyrule isn't. . .well, it's not on our planet."
"Not on earth?" Ginny inquired. "Bubbling Butterbeer."
"How's that possible?" Ron questioned, as the Fat Lady swung open. The four of them stepped into the common room. "Are you saying that Koke and Harkinian are some kind of alien-like elves?"
"No, they're not aliens," Harry explained, laughing at his friends' confusion (even though he had been quite confused when he'd first heard it too). "But you see, it's kind of like they're not exactly--"
"We're gonna be up all night listening to explain this one," Hermione sighed.
"Not me," Ginny yawned, stretching her arms. "It's already two-thirty in the morning. I am very curious about this whole situation, but I'm also feeling extremely restless. Handing out earmuffs can be very tiring."
"All right," Harry agreed. "Besides, Dumbledore'll probably announce the whole thing to the school tomorrow."
"I doubt it," Hermione said. "You think he wants students to treat Koke and Harkinian like they're aliens or something?"
"Well they ARE," Ron pointed out. "Technically speaking, anyway. Besides, the year's almost over, Hermione. There aren't many days left for students to gawk and goggle at those two, you know."
"Whatever," Harry said. "I'll just tell you all tomorrow, if Dumbledore doesn't."
"That works for me," Ginny said. "Night, guys." She and Hermione wearily climbed the steps that led to the girls' dormitories. Harry and Ron walked up the other staircase that would lead them to their beds.
"Night, Harry," Ron whispered, collapsing onto his bed and drawing the curtains closed.
"Night," Harry yawned. But sleep didn't come as easily to him as it did for Ron. He couldn't stop thinking about Zelda being the ruler of some distant land. It didn't seem at all probable. And Link had admitted to not being royalty, so how would things work between them? It was like one of those bad soap operas that Aunt Petunia liked to watch.
He tried to keep the image of Zelda in his head. Whenever he didn't, his mind drifted towards Voldemort and Gannondorf. Harry turned over in his sleep. It was going to be tough to get a good night's sleep.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
yay 4 the weasleys and hermione!!! have u noticed that both of the baddies have annoyingly long names? it gets so exasperating to write all the time. that's y i like spelling gannondorf as just ganon sometimes, but 1 of my reviewers didn't like it. so o well!
dont 4get 2 review!!