A/N: Sorry about the minor delay in the updating of this chapter, I was away on holiday. I am itching to draw this story to a close, however, as I am devising a new ficcy in my spare time. ^_^
Keep your eyes peeled, it will be added to my FFN account sometime soon, since this fic is almost over. I think there will be… three more chapters. Give or take.
Thank you for all the wonderfully long reviews I have received on this story, I love you all! I know I have quite a bit of reviews, so please don't think your review will get looked over and taken for granted! I love and cherish them all!
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The rest of the evening was rather unsuccessful, as the students were granted the rest of the night off from training. Dumbledore had just decided to give the whole lot an easy day.
Blaise and Harry were back to not speaking to one another, after their momentary spark of friendship during the flying task. Ginny was tired of trying to coax Blaise out of her frequent bad moods, and finally just left her alone in their room to mope. She and Draco were in the boys' room, instructing Harry on how to use the chat feature on the computer. Despite his loathing of Muggle-devices due to his cousin Dudley, the laptop he had snuck on prior to the evening had sparked his interest.
Ginny left out the fact that this wasn't the first time Harry had been on Draco's laptop as he begrudgingly let the boy who lived dink around on his prized possession.
Even though Harry had infuriated Ginny by posing as Draco, his confession of liking Blaise had made her forget how much of a git he had been only moments before.
And now that Draco, too, knew that Harry was interested in Blaise, the icy Slytherin had even warmed up to him a bit.
"Ok, Potter, click on the cauldron and then pick what kind of chat you prefer." Draco instructed, after they set him up with a screen name of his own, one Draco had insisted upon creating himself, grinning slyly all the while.
Harry clicked on the teenager chat, much like Ginny and Draco had both done upon receiving their laptops. He then found himself in a chat with eight other people, and unsurely, typed a greeting.
ScarFace: Er… hello?
A few various people said hello back, some rather excitedly, all assuming it was indeed the famous Harry Potter they were talking to. However, one response stood out among the rest.
CameraShy: Harry! I didn't know you had a computer!
A private chat was enabled immediately, and Harry seemed to become even more confused.
"That's Colin, Harry. Now it's just you two in the chat, no one else can see what you are saying." Ginny explained, laughing at seeing Harry so disoriented.
Harry nodded, slightly confused by Colin's screen name, as most were.
ScarFace: I'm borrowing Draco Malfoy's laptop for a little while.
Harry was surprisingly slow at typing, and the messages took forever for him to form. He used the hunt and peck strategy, finding each key in it's own due time.
Colin, on the other hand, had obviously spent a lot of time online and his replies zipped back to Harry only seconds after his own.
CameraShy: What??? You mean to tell me that you and Draco- get along? Wait… did you steal his laptop Harry?
Blushing slightly at the memory, and hearing Ginny smother a quiet giggle; he started typing out his next sentence.
"What's so funny?" Draco pressed, curious about the seemingly secret joke between Ginny and Harry.
"Nothing, nothing dear." Ginny silenced him by kissing him tauntingly on the corner of his mouth.
Draco looked indignant for a moment, then sighed and gave up.
What seemed like five minutes later, Harry pressed the 'enter' key, delivering his message to Colin.
ScarFace: Colin! I did not steal Draco's laptop! He and I are merely on speaking terms do to his and Ginny's new… friendship.
"Don't worry about it Potter, he knows already." Draco said, reading the screen over Harry's shoulder.
Harry turned to face him for a moment. "No, he doesn't. I-" he cut himself off, suddenly looking very embarrassed.
Ginny couldn't help it; she let out a loud laugh. "You sent him looking for information on me, and he came back and told you he knew nothing, right?"
Blushing, Harry nodded. "How did you know about that?"
"You aren't the only one who is friends with Colin! He knew all along, funny how you're losing your fan club members by the dozen. He lied to you, Potter." Draco seemed thrilled to put Harry down, even if it was in a friendly manner.
CameraShy: Ah, they told you, huh? Sorry about lying to you before, Harry.
Harry's eyes nearly bugged out, as Colin admitted to what he was just about to assume were lies from Draco. He pounded on the keys to type a response.
ScarFace: Yes well, that's the last time I send you on a favor.
CameraShy: So now can I ask you for a favor?
ScarFace: Depends on what it is. Does it involve lying?
CameraShy: Aw… Come on Harry, get over it.
ScarFace: …
CameraShy: Can you give me an update on Blaise?
Harry had to read the screen twice, to make sure he was seeing what he though he was seeing. Why was Colin interested in Blaise?
ScarFace: What sort of update?
CameraShy: Well… she has been sort of ignoring me I think.
ScarFace: Oh. You too?
CameraShy: What?
ScarFace: Nothing.
Harry turned to Ginny quizzically. "Well, since you seem to know everything about Colin, what's this about?"
Ginny leaned over his should to read the screen. After a few seconds, she rolled her eyes. "Looks like you've got competition Harry. I thought he liked her, now it's pretty obvious."
"Creevey!? Likes Blaise!?" The look of bewilderment on Harry's face was quite humorous.
ScarFace: Don't flatter yourself, Creevey, she's ignoring everyone. Do you like her or something?
"I don't understand why that poor guy idolizes you. Or well, why he used to. You're positively horrible to him, Harry." Ginny said pointedly.
"I'm not usually like this! I'm just upset… over Blaise." Harry's face turned a few notable shades of red. "Besides, how does Colin even know her?"
CameraShy: I'm feeling rather gutsy. Will you slip it to her that I like her, Harry?
The words appeared on the screen, paralyzing Harry from his questioning.
Draco couldn't help laughing out loud at this one. "Yeah, Harry, how about you tell her that I like her, as well. And I heard something about Snape having his eye on her…" He added tauntingly, and Ginny smacked him on the shoulder.
A strangled growl escaped from Harry's mouth, and he jumped up from behind the computer. Exasperated, he stormed out of the room. "I need a vacation." He muttered.
Ginny giggled again. "That's strange, I though he was on one?"
CameraShy: Harry? Where did you go?
-
"So Ginny, did you ever find out how your necklace fell off?"
Blaise and Ginny were sitting together in their cabin room, as dusk was falling outside. Harry was still walking around outdoors; attempting to cool down. Draco had stayed in his cabin, leaving the girls alone to chat.
Fingering the cool metal, Ginny shook her head. "I've been wearing it ever since Draco gave it to me; the only thing I can think of is that it might have come undone when we were flying… but that seems odd because the clasp is intact."
Turning to face Ginny, Blaise shrugged. "Strange."
"So what's with you?" Ginny said, staring at her intently.
Blaise pretended to look herself up and down. "I don't know, what is with me?"
"Come on, you know what I'm talking about. You. Harry. What gives?" Ginny wasn't going to let her weasel out of this conversation.
"Nothing. That's what." She turned away a moment, but not before Ginny saw her slightly pained features.
"Honestly?" Ginny tempted.
"No."
The answer surprised Ginny.
"But I don't get close to people."
Ginny rolled her eyes. "You're close with me. And Draco." She thought quickly before adding 'And Colin'… better to not press things, especially when she was rooting for Harry in this little battle.
Blaise turned her gaze back to Ginny. "No, that's different. You- you wouldn't understand. Believe me."
"Try me."
Blaise's dark eyes flared. "No, Ginny. Don't meddle in things you don't understand. This doesn't have to do with Harry, or teenage crushes, like you think. I have my reasons, and that's that."
Her red haired friend couldn't hide the look of hurt on her face, and Blaise instantly felt terrible. But if Ginny knew the truth, she would be a lot more upset than she was now.
-
"Good morning everyone, are you ready for a rigorous day of training?"
Dumbledore received a drone of acceptance from his students over breakfast. Smiling, he took a seat at his table.
Draco and Ginny were engaging in cheery conversation at their own table. Harry seemed to be contemplating something over and over in his head, and Blaise was situated at the end of the table, glaring at her oatmeal with her signature pout.
"I wonder what they're having us do today?" Ginny wondered aloud.
"Yesterday was so easy, I'm sure it's probably a difficult task." Commented Draco, as he took a bite of his own oatmeal.
They ceased talking and just ate in silence for the remainder of breakfast. Sunlight was splashing down on their table, and Ginny was already wishing she'd left her cloak in the cabin; its bulky material was making her very uncomfortable.
A while later, the plates vanished and Dumbledore stood again. "I would like to inform you all that we have reached the halfway mark in your training. From here on, it's going to get a little tougher, but I'm sure you all can handle it."
Behind him, Professor McGonagall nodded in agreement, and Snape sat stationary.
Professor Snape didn't seem to be enjoying this field trip very much, as he was only an overseer and not teaching Potions. Plus, Draco noted, he'd been rubbing his arm in pain often, as he used to see his father doing quite frequently when things were getting heavy.
Dumbledore continued speaking. "Today's task is quite different than anything else you've been taught here, and quite challenging as well. I don't expect all of you to be able to do it, in fact I bet only one or two of you will be able to pull it off."
The students were all getting anxious as to what they were about to learn. Across the room, Seamus whispered to Parvati, "What do you bet we're going to learn an Unforgivable?"
She shot him a disapproving look, causing him to redden and shut up immediately.
"What you are going to learn to create is called a 'Port-a-Portal'," Dumbledore said finally.
Harry chuckled, thinking momentarily of the muggle counterpart that sounded a lot like that. He assumed they weren't conjuring portable lavatories, however.
Hermione suddenly gasped, most likely remembering reading about them some time or other. "But… Professor, those are very very difficult!" she exclaimed.
The headmaster seemed amused. "Yes, Miss Granger, they are. Which is why I am assuming many of you wont be able to do it."
The rest of the students still didn't know what a Port-a-Portal was, so Dumbledore began explaining. "A Port-a-Portal is a temporary alternate universe one can conjure for themselves to escape mortal peril. The witch or wizard has to be frantic, and under extreme stress to be able to create one."
"What can do in them, once you're there?" asked a Hufflepuff boy.
Dumbledore eyed him carefully. "Well… anything you want!" he said mysteriously
"All you have to do is imagine your life, a good part of your life, and wish for the best!" Dumbledore grinned. "Oh, and of course, say Temporas Portalis!" With a flick of his wand, Dumbledore had disappeared, only to return milliseconds later. It was though the image of his body had flashed before them.
"Strange, how that works? I just waited in my alternate universe for seven minutes, even though it looked like less than a second to you all, right?"
Ginny's jaw dropped respectively. She'd never seen magic like it. She was suddenly curious. "Professor?" she asked timidly.
"Yes, Miss Weasley?"
"You said the wizard has to be under a lot of stress. What's stressing you out?"
A peculiar look came over the old wizard's face, making Ginny almost wish she hadn't asked.
"Well, I guess I could tell you. I couldn't find matching socks this morning, and it's been irking me all morning." With a wink, Dumbledore dismissed them to begin working on their task.
Ginny and Draco stood up from the table, and walked over to an empty corner of the room. Even though the task did not require partners, Ginny and Draco had grown fond of working together and didn't see a reason to stop now.
Blaise, on the other hand, bolted from the table before Harry could even consider asking her to work with him. She took up residence in a spot not too far from Ginny.
Harry was left not sure of where to go, and ended up just staying near the table.
"All right, so all we do is imagine… our life?" Ginny pondered out loud, extracting her wand from deep inside her robes.
Draco nodded. "I've seen my father-" he cut off, a small grin suddenly playing on his face. "Well, he used to use this spell all the time, when he was angry at me or my mother. Yep, he'd just escape off to his alternate universe to cool down. Rarely did any good though, he usually came back just as mad as when he left."
Ginny look at him in interest. "Really?"
"Yeah," Draco replied. "He once stayed in his portal for forty-eight hours, or so he said. That was the time I told him I didn't want to be a Death Eater." He laughed suddenly, then looked thoughtful. "Wonder what he did with all that time to himself…"
Blaise was sitting on the ground, holding her wand out in front of her. Even so often she gave it a little flick, but wasn't expecting much. She doubted she would be able to pull off magic this big, and was in such a foul mood that she couldn't think of a single good thing about her life.
She would even admit it- she'd spent way too much time drowning in self-misery. She'd been doing it her whole life, and now she had good friends like Draco and Ginny, and was ignoring them! But the truth of the matter was, she couldn't freely hang around them anymore if Harry was always around. It was obvious that he had fallen for her, and she couldn't have that.
It wasn't simple like the case with Colin, where she could just log offline. It was a lot harder to ignore a person when they are staying in the same cabin with you and expect to share your friends with you.
She thought about what her life would be like without Harry trying to spark her interest, and mumbled, "Temporas Portalis!"
Nothing happened. She figured as much, because the thought hadn't really made her happy.
She decided to try again. This time she envisioned going back to Hogwarts, where she could easily hide from people again, and have her secret room under the library to spend her time in. "Temporas Portalis!"
Again, Blaise found herself still sitting on the rough cabin floor, holding her wand and a frown on her face.
"I'll give it one last go," Blaise compromised with herself, "And if nothing happens, it's back to moping for me." She cleared her mind of all other thoughts, and focused on her early life. With her parents. She imagined that her parents were kind, cheery people, discussing the latest Daily Prophet article on enchanted muggle contraptions and planning their next outing to Diagon Alley.
She imagined herself, her eight-year-old pigtailed self, eating breakfast happily and begging her mother to enroll her in Hogwarts early, her parents laughing.
Then her mother raised her sleeve, to scratch the skin underneath, and instead of a dark, ugly embellishment, Blaise imagined smooth, clean skin, with nothing tarnishing the happy, though untrue, memory.
"Temporas Portalis…" Blaise whispered. The air around her went black, and suddenly she found herself engulfed in darkness. There was one single light shining down on her, from an unknown point above. Rising to her feet, she wanted to look around, but found there was nothing to see. All that surrounded her was black nothingness.
"I wish Ginny was here to see this…" Blaise said aloud. She jumped back in fright as Ginny suddenly appeared before her. No, not Ginny, an illusion of Ginny against the black walls of her portal.
Apparently in your own alternate universe, your every wish was granted.
"I wish I had a million chocolate frogs!" Blaise cried, waiting for them to rain down on her.
Ok, so maybe not your every wish.
Then, one chocolate frog suddenly appeared in her hand, hopping off again before she could take a bite.
Laughing, she took off after the frog, chasing it around until her legs grew weary. She wasn't sure how long she'd been in her alternate universe already, but she decided that she definitely liked it better here.
But she was probably being watched by Dumbledore, and because of this she should probably go back soon. It was then that she realized she didn't know how to go back.
"Er… I wish I could… leave?" She wished uncertainly, and seconds later she was sitting back on the hard cabin floor.
No one seemed to notice she'd been gone, which made sense, if her body had only flashed, like Dumbledore's.
Across the room, Dumbledore winked at her. He was very impressed with how much skill Blaise had; he'd never known her to be good at such difficult magic. A powerful girl, that one was. More than she even realized, he presumed.
No one else could figure it out. Dumbledore's eyes grazed the room. He saw Ginny looking indignant as Draco tried to help her, causing him to chuckle. Harry was waving his wand in a bored manner, as if he already decided it wasn't going to work. Seamus and Parvati had snuck off into the back room, and Dumbledore could only imagine that they weren't working on spells. And Hermione stood only meters away from him, looking absolutely murderous.
"Is everything all right, Miss Granger?" Dumbledore's voice was calm and soothing.
However, the young witch replied in an enraged tone. "I can't do it! This isn't normal!"
Hiding his grin, Dumbledore tried to encourage her. "Well, don't give up, Hermione. It's a very difficult spell; some can never even do it. You'll get it, don't you fret. Only one person has done it so far today, anyway."
She let out a strangled sob. "Be- before me?"
He left her to her miseries and went over to congratulate Blaise.
"Well, I have to say, you've done nothing but impress me this whole trip." He said, causing the moody Slytherin to look up.
"Oh! Er… thanks Professor." Blaise seemed embarrassed for some reason or another.
He nodded and walked away.
-
"Draco! Leave me alone! I'm going to get it, and I'm going to get it on my own!"
Ginny was frantically trying to shove Draco away, though she grinned as she did it.
"Besides, I haven't exactly seen you disappear, now have I?"
Faking hurt, Draco cried, "I can too do it! Watch! Temporas Portalis!"
Ginny watched with a smirk as Draco waited for something that wasn't coming.
"Fine," he moped, catching Ginny around the waist and holding her close. "We're both failures."
Though it was an insult, Ginny didn't take it as one. She kissed him softly on the tip of his pointed nose, and whispered with a giggle, "Temporas Portalis!"
Seconds later they were both standing in a black room identical to the one Blaise had been in moments before.
"Wha-?" Ginny was shocked.
"Gin! You did it! Oh wow, but- why am I here?" Draco exclaimed, reaching his arms out into the expanse of black surrounding them.
She shrugged her shoulders, too amazed at actually doing the spell. "Maybe because I was touching you?" she wondering aloud. Then her confusion morphed into an ear to ear grin. "Hey! I did it before you did! Yes!" With that she began dancing around in excitement.
Draco scowled, and muttered, "I wish she wouldn't be able to dance like that."
As if he had cast a spell on her, Ginny's legs vanished and she was stuck, immobile, on the ground. Immediately Draco ran to her side.
"What did you do Draco?!" she said in hysterics.
"I, well, I wished you couldn't dance."
She glared at him. "Well I wish your hair was waist length and pink!" she shouted, hoping it would work.
It did. His perfectly arranged blond hair grew and changed color instantly after she spoke the words.
Instead of getting angry, they both laughed, loud and long, until a few minutes later they wished to return back to the cabin. Thankfully, they were both intact and with the right color hair when they came back.
No one else was able to master the Port-a-Portal, which left many feeling dejected, and Hermione specifically on a warpath. It was, indeed, the first time she had been unsuccessful at something they had learned. Ever.
They were dismissed to another free afternoon, in which Harry, Draco, Ginny, and Blaise spent, once again, back in their cabin.
~*~
A/N: Sorry, no time to do individual thank yous this time. I'm tired from all this writing. Thanks to everyone who has left lengthy reviews, I really appreciate it!
Anyone who is interested, please come join my new forum for HP discussions and such. Email me if you are interested.
Thanks everyone!