*sticks her head out from her giant box and waves* Hi, Nikki! *deep breath* Okay, let's answer reviews! Woohoo!

Smiley Face3: As per your request… more!

sierradogbaby and morning sunrise:  Ditz's are the best, yes! Yey, you didn't expect it! Wanna know something? Neither did we!

The Black Cat: Hee hee J Thank you!

Lanfear1: But you don't know our whole plot yet!! LOL! *exchanges a look with Nikki* Yup, it's rained on us like that too. *sigh*

esteledhel: Lol. Yes, PotC was GREAT! I've only seen it twice… *sigh* Btw, I now have an away message that says, "Everyone is entitled to my opinion." Thanks for that idea!

Francesca Octavia Isherwood: Yey, more peoples agree with us about Snape/Harry! WOOHOO! *throws glittering confetti into Snape's face* Aw, sorry… no MSN. L And that's okay! I talk to *counts* uh… Nikki, Autumn Darkness, and one other person regularly. *sigh*

Ash/Ha: Thank you. We think so too!

Autumn Darkness: You did review it with morning sunrise, remember? Hee hee *Grin*

A/N: The end of Portal to China… surprise! HA!

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Chapter Fourteen – Yellow Ground and Floating Heads

"Follow the yellow brick road, follow the yellow brick road. Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow the yellow brick roaaaaaaad!" Ginny was often believed to be as brain-dead as a marshmallow. She didn't mind. She got through school each year without studying, and kids loved her, which made getting babysitting jobs a piece of cake. Mmm... cake.

Ginny had always had an active imagination, able to almost see the things that she thought up. Which is why she was having a ball in Harry Potter Land. She didn't just have to pretend she saw what she wanted to... things just popped up. Like the Draco-poem, pink Snape, and now, a yellow brick road.

Ginny had spent the night on the Gryffindor couch, sucking on her lollipop and contemplating her friend's misfortune (A/N: My French tape is sooooo annoying!). Well... she started out thinking about Nikki. But by the time Nikki and Hermione and the boys trooped downstairs (which was early, since they didn't think the other Gryffindors would appreciate finding a Slytherin in their common room), it had turned into...

"I want a blue horse with buttons." Don't ask.

"What?" Nikki asked, looking from Ginny to the lollipop, and back again. "Have you been up all night?"

"Uh huh." Ginny nodded and scrambled off the couch. "Are we going to see Dumbledore now?"

"Uh huh," Ron said mockingly. Ginny frowned at him. What was wrong with him? Was it the turkey comment?

But the point was, they'd left the common room and the sugar from the lollipop finally hit home. The floor started looking a bit on the yellow side, thus: "Follow the yellow brick road, follow the yellow brick road. Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow the yellow brick roaaaaaaad!"

"Will you shut up?" Ron exclaimed suddenly.

Ginny halted abruptly and stared at him. "You want me to stop singing?" she asked incredulously.

"Just sing something else, Gin," Nikki suggested quietly. Ginny looked at her friend and, noting her thoughtful mood, decided to follow her advice.

"Weasley cannot save a thing,

He cannot block a single ring,

That's why Slytherins all sing:

Weasley is our King.

"Weasley was born in a bin,

He always lets the Quaffle in,

Weasley will make sure we win,

Weasley is our King.

"Weasley is our King,

Weasley is our King,

He always lets the Quaffle in,

Weasley is our Kiiiiiing."

Needless to say, this didn't make the Golden Trio too happy (although Hermione had to laugh when Ron's robes disappeared and were replaced with gold and scarlet royalty garb and a crown appeared on his head), but before they had time to get properly angry, they had reached the gargoyle and Ginny was running circles around it.

"Where're the stairs?" she yelled at the gargoyle once she realized that the stairs weren't there.

Ron rolled his eyes and Harry gave her an odd look before glancing at Nikki.

Nikki gave an exasperated sigh and opened her mouth, but Harry waved it off and said, "She's smart. I know, I know."

Ginny laughed loudly. "Hey, Nik, that's like what you said to him that other time!"

"We know," Ron snapped. "It's called irony."

Ginny blinked, looking at him in awe. "You just said something smart without Hermione's help." Hermione blushed, and Ginny motioned at her. "Kiss her," she demanded, as if it were the most obvious thing to do. "She's worked long and hard to get something into that pea-brained head of yours, you should thank her. Kiss her!" Hermione and Ron were both cherry red, not daring to do more than glance at each other out of the corner of their eyes. "Come on. It's like sugar. Trick or treat, give me something sweet to eat!" And with that, the gargoyle starting spinning upwards, taking along with it Ginny, who was shrieking in alarm and hugging the statue's feet.

The second the gargoyle reached the top, however, Ginny was simply looking fascinated and going, "Ooo…." She rolled off the stairs and popped up like nothing had happened that was worth the brain cells used to make a memory. Without so much as a knock, she walked into Dumbledore's office and let out a startled yelp, jumping behind Nikki and pointing at the fireplace, next to which was a very amused Dumbledore, and inside which was a floating head.

Both Nikki and the head blinked in surprise, staring at each other in shock. The head's eyes darted form Nikki to Dumbledore to Nikki to Dumbledore to Nikki to Dumbledore….

Ginny suddenly sprang out from behind Nikki, pointing an accusing finger at the head. "How come Lupin isn't all here? I wanna meet him!" she demanded.

Lupin's eyes widened and he gave a surprised gasp, disappearing from view before stepping completely out of the fire. He didn't bother brushing the ash off his robes; he simply stood, uncharacteristically gaping like a fish at Ginny. Ginny looked awkwardly between Lupin and Nikki before raising a finger and hesitantly pointing at Ron. "It was him," she said nervously.

Dumbledore chuckled, and the corner of Lupin's mouth quirked upwards. Dumbledore put a hand on Lupin's shoulder and gazed at Ginny, eyes twinkling. "Mr. Lupin was not going to accuse you of anything other than being a long-lost friend, my dear. I am afraid he is mistaken. However, he may be interested to meet this young woman." He motioned to Nikki.

Nikki blinked, before realization donned on her. "Oh, 'cuz I'm supposedly Sirius's daughter, right?"

Lupin gave a startled little jump. "What?" he exclaimed.

Ginny threw her hands in the air, yelling triumphantly, "He speaks! I didn't even have to threaten him with my bracelet!" She waved her right arm around, making sure that everyone became aware of the silver Celtic bracelet winding around her wrist. "We get to meet Moony, we get to see Moony…," Ginny sang, skipping around the room, prancing in circles around the professors. "Ooo!" She stopped suddenly, causing herself to trip over her own feet and smack into a wall. Nikki couldn't help but notice the look of fondness Lupin was watching Ginny with. "Can we go to the Shrieking Shack? I wanna be an Animagus! Animagi? I dunno! And I need to remember to do that thing to Snape that Neville did to the Boggart so he won't be scared of him anymore, and I have to do it in front of everyone so they'll see him humiliated, even if he is on our side. I want a pet Leprechaun."

"Will you shut the bloody hell up?" Ron suddenly snapped.

Before he could go on, Ginny had leapt towards him and pinched his lips together. "Heck, Ron, heck."

At this, Lupin gave an outright burst of laughter. "I am assuming Severus does not like you, then."

Ginny gave him a pained look. "Um… I think he was a little mad at me for making him pink, but other than that, I don't know what he's so uptight about. Besides, pink's a great color. Especially in hair. I'm gonna dye my hair pink someday. What do you think, Remus?"

Lupin smiled. "Is that your only plan for the future, Ginny?"

Ginny grinned. "Nope! I want go skydiving and bungee jumping and I want to work at McDonalds for two days and draw a picture and ride a deer and eat a chocolate-covered cricket and sell a house…. Oh! And when I grow up I want to be an entremanure!"

"What's that? It sounds awful!" Ron said.

Ginny gave him an odd look. "It's a person who organizes, operates, and assumes the risk for a business venture."

Nikki started laughing. "That's an entrepreneur, Gin. Entremanure isn't even a word, but it kind of hints at something that involves cow crap."

Ginny blinked. "Oh… crap, I thought I got the big word right this time." She shrugged and began to wander around Dumbledore's office, waving cheerfully at the portraits and the Sorting Hat.

Nikki watched her for a moment before deciding to actually introduce herself to Lupin. "Hi," she said, sticking out her hand. "I'm Nikki Black." Lupin shook her hand. "Dumbledore over here tells me I'm your best friend's daughter."

Lupin glanced at Dumbledore. "Yes… I suppose it's quite possible. Sirius and Chloe Riddle were very close. Near the end, though," he looked pained, "Sirius and I didn't… he didn't really like to tell me his secrets anymore."

Nikki nodded understandingly, feeling horrible that this was what the best teacher in the world (aside from Dumbledore) remembered of her so-called father. She grimaced. "He really thought it was you, didn't he?" Lupin nodded. Nikki shuffled her feet for a minute, trying to think up something comforting to say. "Well… if I am his daughter, and if I'm anything like him… then he hated that he was suspicious of you…." She had to pause there, because Ginny was standing perfectly still, lollipop hanging from her hair and tongue sticking limply out of her mouth.

Ginny noticed the Nikki was looking at her, and motioned to her mouth, whimpering pathetically. "Ah gah I hungh huh," she said, but obviously that didn't make any sense. Nikki squinted at her, trying to decipher what the heck she said.

"She said she got her tongue stuck," snapped a dark voice from the doorway.

Ginny's face immediately brightened… well, as much as it could when her tongue was still hanging out of her mouth. "Ai ah A-O!"

Apparently that meant 'Snape and Draco', because they were standing just inside Dumbledore's office. Draco, however, was cowering slightly behind Snape. Nikki could only suppose that he was afraid Ginny was going to do something to him… again.

"How'd you know what she said," Nikki asked.

Snape's eyes flickered to Lupin. "I'm a teacher. Did you think that Longbottom is the only bumbling idiot I've had in my classes?" he snapped.

"Oo ouhe-ed or ue!" Ginny exclaimed.

Nikki caught it, because she was thinking it as well. "Yeah, you just complimented a bunch of your students!" Ginny nodded vigorously.

Draco finally emerged from behind Snape. "He was talking about the Slytherins, you idiot. Now where's my wand?"

Nikki frowned. His wand? What was he – uh oh.

Ginny was glancing around innocently, twiddling something behind her back as the lollipop slowly peeled off her hair and shattered on the ground.

"You've got it!" Malfoy shrieked, charging at her. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Nikki jumped to intervene. Lupin, Dumbledore, and Snape waved. Ginny screamed, "Bubye, Albus-Snivelly-Moonyyyy!", they all crashed into the wall, and with a *POOF!*, they had left Harry Potter Land behind.

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A/N: Rather short and pointless, wasn't it? Is it over? *snort* No! We have so many stories to go through!

We couldn't decide which adventure we wanted to tell you about next, so we'll let you decide.

For the moment, our list contains the following: X-Men, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars (boy was THAT a long adventure… every movie and some books!), and – I forgot to remind Nikki about this one – Pirates of the Caribbean! Review, and let us know which one you want to hear about next!

Reasons to review:

You can vote on the next story.

Feedback on Portal to China.

You can request an email when we post the first chapter of the next leg of our story.

We'll feed you to Gimli if you don't (he eats anything)!

Look out for the next chapter of our saga: Wall to Walmart!!!

Signing off for now,

Nikki Black and Ginny Jones