A/N: I'm sorry. Really, I am. But I do have some excuses! Good ones, even! Well, kind of. Anyway, what happened over the summer was that I had tons and tons of inspiration to work on my original fantasy novel, Both Sun and Moon, so I spent all of my time working on that instead of this. School finally started up again, and I started having very little free time. What little free time I did have was still spent working on Both Sun and Moon. I'm also involved in tons of extracurricular activities this year, so at that point in time, I was involved in Sci-Fi Club, Literary Magazine, Poetry Club, Bonsai Club, Bibliophiles Club, my church choir (which is right now busy getting ready for a mission trip we're going on next summer to Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic), the community choir around here, voice lessons, and volunteering at a local animal shelter. And, you see, there's this guy. I've liked him for nearly two and a half years now. However, for various reasons, we have not been able to get together. This autumn marked the first time that he wasn't taken, though. So that meant I could make my move. But it was delayed because of various reasons having to do with a certain evil bitch from his past. I'm just not even going to get into it because I'll start ranting and never stop. But so anyway, time was spent on the phone with him and trying to get him to realize, "Hey… This Allee girl who was the first girl from her school that I met is actually really cool! I should ask her out." Then, there were play auditions for a really awesome play, Dark of the Moon. I ended up getting one of the biggest parts. So that meant that I ended up living in the school auditorium and having practices all the time. Then, I finally was able to ask that one guy to homecoming, and he said yes. A week afterwards, he asked me out. That made me happy. But there were some problems (once again due to the evil bitch from his past). So worrying about that took up time. Also around that time, I started getting an idea for a new story… I'll probably be posting the first two chapters to that pretty soon. It's an original romance/fantasy type-thing. It should be pretty cool. An original approach at telling the story, at least. Then I had a concert with my community choir, and since the play was coming up soon, I was at school until eight every night rehearsing. Then I had the play weekend, and right after that was Thanksgiving. We were running around a ton then, and when I did work, it was either on Both Sun and Moon, the new romance I'm starting, or the tiniest bit on "The Unbeatable". We got back and all the teachers started deciding to murder us with projects and tests and stuff before finals. I'm dead serious when I say that over one period from a Thursday evening to Monday evening, I got fifteen hours of sleep total. Anyway, then we had finals. Those finished today. So now I'm on Christmas break!!!!!!!!! I'm so happy! I don't have to think about physics anymore! I can write! The only problem is that I have four stories to write for… Grr. I just don't have enough time for anything. So I really am sorry that I haven't updated very much, but I just have not had enough time to even think. And from what I can tell, next semester won't be any better. I'm going to be in Man of la Mancha, and though my part isn't nearly as big as it was in Dark of the Moon, there will be four months of practices. So yeah. I'll update when I can, but it's hard. I hate school.
Chapter 4 – Fate of the Animorphs Universe
There was another pop, and as the smoke cleared away, lots of giggling was heard. The Animorphs-universe characters and Harry Potter-universe characters looked at each other in confusion.
"I thought that you said that the game was going to start!" complained Ron.
"I did. But I changed my mind. I wanted some more people to show up," Allee replied.
Marco smacked his hand to his forehead and shook his head sadly.
The smoke drifted away, and two girls walked out. The older one almost looked like a Weasley with her wavy red hair and freckles. She was taller than Shawna, Allee, and the other new girl, but only by a couple inches. Her blue eyes sparkled with excitement as she looked around the room. The second girl had light brown hair with bright green streaks, turquoise eyes, and black wire rim glasses. The two new girls grinned and walked up to Shawna, giggling.
Nagini hissed and uncoiled, her eyes glittering as she eyed the three girls.
"She says she's hungry," Harry translated uncertainly.
"She's not eating my friends!" Allee shrieked.
"Yeah!" the one with green in her hair said. "She's not eating us!"
"May I ask what your names are?" Ginny asked warily.
"You can call me Lenny," the redhead responded.
"And I'm Cassi," the other new girl said.
"Speaking of which," Allee added, "having two Cassies is confusing. True, they spell their names differently, but it's confusing nonetheless. Therefore…" She affixed a dramatic pause before continuing, "from this point forth, Cassie will be known as Zsa-Zsa Billy Bob."
The four girls exploded into bouts of evil laughter, and Cassie – that is, Zsa-Zsa Billy Bob – gaped at them in horror. The other Animorphs, Ellimist, the Gryffindors, and Hagrid gave her looks of pity, but the Slytherins and Wormtail snickered. Crayak began chanting, "The killer with a conscience is now the loser with a weird name! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!"
"You can't do this to… Zsa-Zsa Billy Bob!" Jake cried angrily.
"What did you just call me?" Zsa-Zsa Billy Bob demanded, lunging toward him. Rachel reached out a restraining hand and held her back.
"I'm sorry… I tried to say your real name, but I couldn't!" Jake appealed, taking a few steps forward and to the right to get closer to her. "I was thinking it, but it came out as 'Zsa-Zsa Billy Bob'! I don't know what happened!"
Allee, Shawna, Cassi, and Lenny burst into more peals of laughter. "It's because her name isn't Cassi! That's my name!" Cassi giggled.
"If we had simply told you that you couldn't call Zsa-Zsa Billy Bob by Cassi's name anymore, you wouldn't have listened. So I had to make a few new rules for you. It's now impossible to call Zsa-Zsa Billy Bob by anything other than 'Zsa-Zsa Billy Bob' until I say otherwise. Anyway, Crayak, it's your team's turn now."
"What?" Ron challenged. "In chess, white always goes first!"
"White did go first, though," Lenny said. "Look at Jake."
Sure enough, Jake, who had taken the place of a knight, had moved in the general L-shape that knights move in when he moved to talk to Zsa-Zsa Billy Bob.
"Oh, bloody hell!" Hermione exclaimed. As soon as she realized what she had said, she covered her mouth, her eyes wide.
"Who's the one cursing now?" Ron laughed.
"It seems that the mudblood isn't as good as she appears on the outside," Draco taunted.
"Don't call her a mudblood!" Ron, Harry, Ginny, and Hagrid yelled simultaneously. Ron pushed past the pawns in front of him to leap at Draco.
What is a mudblood? Ax queried.
Your guess is as good as mine, Ax-man, Tobias replied.
"WAIT!" Shawna exclaimed. "RON, THAT IS AN ILLEGAL MOVE! CRAYAK HAS NOT HAD HIS TURN YET!" As if to punctuate her remark, Belle the Dachshund started yapping.
"Go get him, Belle," Lenny said as Shawna put the dog on the ground and Belle began chasing after Ron's feet.
Ron yelped as he ran back to his place, running with his feet going as high as they could to avoid Belle's fangs.
"Oh, leave him alone, you beastly dog!" Hermione called. However, she did not move from her place.
"HE'S NOT BEASTLY!" both Zsa-Zsa Billy Bob and Hagrid yelled. Surprised that they had both been thinking the same thing, they both turned back to each other and grinned.
"Fighting between players on the Ellimist's team, that really cannot be a good sign," Cassi noted.
"Alright, alright," Allee said. "That's enough. Crayak, make your move before I turn everybody on your team into Ketrans!"
Every single bit of color drained from Crayak's rosy little-girl cheeks. "You wouldn't."
"Oh, yes, I would," Allee said.
"And she would enjoy it, too!" Lenny called, sending the four girls into fit of laughter. Again.
"HA! Take that, loser! Loser, loser, double-loser, as if, whatever, get the picture, duh!" Ellimist gloated.
"What are these 'Ketrans' the girl threatens to turn us all into?" Snape asked sarcastically.
The room fell silent, except for Ellimist, who continued to chant the second-grade insult. Crayak glared at the ceiling where Allee's voice seemed to come from, and the three other girls grinned maliciously. When nobody answered, Rachel looked around and raised her hand. "Oh, oh," she said. "I know! I know! Pick me!"
"How does she know, but Hermione doesn't?" Ron whispered to Ginny. In reply, Ginny simply shrugged.
"After I died," Rachel began, but Tobias cut her off.
You're not dead.
"I know I'm not dead anymore. But I was. So there. Anyway, like I was saying, after I died, Ellimist told me the story of his life. He has not always been all-powerful. He was born a mortal."
All of the Animorphs characters gasped and looked at Ellimist. He shrugged nonchalantly. "It's not like it's that big of a deal, you know," he said.
"He belonged to a now-extinct race called the Ketrans," continued Rachel.
"DUDE!" Marco exclaimed. "Yes, let's turn Crayak and all his little helpers into baby Ellimists. That would rock!" All of the Animorphs characters cheered while the Harry Potter characters looked about in confusion.
"NEVER!" Crayak thundered, stamping her feet and flipping her two pigtails. She didn't look very threatening.
Nagini hissed evilly.
Harry sighed before saying, "She says that she will remain a snake because her master loves snakes, not aliens." Harry rolled his eyes, but was unable to say anything else.
"Precisely!" Wormtail agreed. "And I cannot serve him if I am not a human!"
"I have told you before," Crayak grumbled, "I am your new master. Now obey me when I tell you to move two spaces forward."
Wormtail was a simple pawn on the chessboard, standing in front of the queen. Because it was his team's first turn, the pawn could move two spaces instead of their normal one.
"Fine. Whatever. I don't care." Wormtail grudgingly moved to his new space.
A few moves later, most of the pawns on both sides were out into the open middle, allowing the more powerful pieces in the back to move.
"Alright, Ginny, I want you to move to the edge over there," Ron called out to his sister, a bishop.
The young redhead looked to where her brother was pointing. Nagini was coiled in a pile there. "Sweet!" she exclaimed. She pranced across the board and paused in front of Nagini. The snake hissed.
"She says that you can't do anything to her without her master exacting revenge," Harry translated flatly.
Ginny paused for a second, quiet and brooding over Nagini's announcement. However, she then said, "You know, personally, I don't think that even You-Know-Who could do anything to me if Allee and her friends didn't want him to." With those words, she kicked Nagini out of the way as hard as she could. Nagini hissed as she flew off the ground and toward the side, landing near the Animorphs not playing in the game. She drew back her head, bared her fangs, and struck at Ax.
However, she then disappeared.
"She's annoying, and now she's out of the game, so I sent her back to Voldemort," Allee said simply. "If we need her again, we'll simply bring her back."
"The master will not be pleased when she tells him that she was kicked by the Weasley…" Wormtail muttered.
"Oh, shut up, will you? It's a game of wizard's chess. That's what happens," Ron pointed out.
"Anyway, I am your master now," Crayak said evilly. Everybody else just tried to hide their laughter at the sight of the little girl speaking evilly.
Tobias' sight was drawn to Harry, who was motioning helplessly at his throat. Uh… I think the guy who can talk to snakes is trying to say something.
Everybody turned to look at Harry, who was now making serpentine motions with his hands, then once again pointing at his throat.
"What? I can't tell what you're saying. Speak up, Harry!" Lenny said.
Harry shook his head, obviously frustrated.
"He can't talk, remember, Lenny?" Cassi reminded her.
"Oooh, charades!" Shawna exclaimed. She watched Harry's movements for a second. "Okay, okay. Snake… Throat… Something coming out of your throat. Voice? Yes, okay, snake and voice. Harry, we all already know that you're a Parseltongue."
"This isn't getting us anywhere," Cassi complained.
"I have an idea!" Allee said.
"Why am I getting a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach because she said that?" Rachel asked.
"I can just look through his thoughts! Being an all-powerful fanfic author doesn't just mean that I can force people to do random stuff; it also means that I can see what every single one of you is thinking!"
Everybody in the room froze, looking fearfully at each other.
"Since when did Allee become a Leeran?" Marco joked weakly. The Animorphs-universe people giggled faintly, acknowledging the joke, but too worried to laugh.
"Uh… Allee, old buddy, you're not looking at what we're thinking about, right?" Shawna asked.
"Nope, don't worry. I'm just going to look at what Harry's thinking about… Let's see here."
There was a pregnant pause during which everybody looked pityingly at Harry, who appeared as though he wanted to just disappear like Nagini.
"Okay… Uh… A bunch of random thoughts about how much he misses his parents, a memory of him winning Quidditch, thoughts about the evilness of blast-ended skrewts…"
"My skrewts ehn't evil!" Hagrid exclaimed, glaring at Harry.
"Thoughts about how everybody from the Animorphs universe are idiots…"
All the Animorphs characters eyed Harry with malice. Harry went pale and cowered.
"Many different ideas on how to best torture Snape and not get caught…"
Snape became livid. "Think you can torture me? How dare you! I'll have you expelled for sure, this time."
"EWW!" Allee suddenly exclaimed. "That's just wrong."
"What's wrong?" Lenny asked.
Allee was quiet for a moment. "I found his imaginings on seeing Cho Chang naked."
The room was silent for a moment as Harry went beet-red. "That is wrong…" Cassi said.
Without her artificial clothing? What is wrong with that? Ax questioned.
"HE HAS IMAGINED CHO CHANG NAKED???" Ginny screeched, glowering angrily at Harry.
"Oh, don't worry about it," Allee said, trying to cheer her up. "He also thinks that you have a cute butt."
Now it was Ron's turn to explode. "WHAT??????????? WHAT THE BLOODY HELL DOES THE STUPID PRAT THINK ABOUT MY SISTER???????????????" He lunged toward Harry.
Shawna released Belle, who started yapping and biting at Ron's ankles. "Illegal move!" Shawna bellowed.
During all of this time, Ginny turned deeper and deeper scarlet, but she seemed to be trying to hide a smile. Harry, besides desperately trying to avoid Ron, kept casting worried looks at her as he also turned dark red.
Wormtail, Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle were simply laughing hysterically.
"Oh, get back into place, Ron," Allee commanded. With a popping noise, he flew back to the chess square he had previously been standing in. "Anyway, I found what I was looking for. He was trying to tell us that he wants to talk, but he can't now that Nagini is gone."
"Oooh, that makes sense," Lenny, Shawna, and Cassi said together.
Harry nodded emphatically.
"Fine, you can speak if you want. There. Now you can," Allee sighed.
"Ginny, I am sooooooooooooooooooooooo sorry," Harry said immediately. "And Ron, I'm sorry, but she is a girl, even if she is your sister. On top of that, she is a very amazing, very sweet girl. And I care about her." Harry turned back to Ginny. "Ginny, since you kind of sort of know what I think now, will you please be my girlfriend?"
"I'd love to," she grinned.
"That's adorable!" Rachel exclaimed.
"You two make a good couple," agreed Zsa-Zsa Billy Bob.
"NOW WAIT JUST ONE SECOND!" Ron hollered. "GINNY, HE THINKS YOU HAVE A CUTE BUTT!" "So?" she countered.
"Anyway," Harry said slyly. "It's not like you don't think the same thing about Hermione."
Hermione gasped, and Ron turned scarlet. She looked at him, searching his eyes for confirmation, and, unfortunately, found it.
"I'm ashamed of both of you, Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley!" she yelled. "You two are both so perverted! Both such… guys!"
Zsa-Zsa Billy Bob, Rachel, Ginny, Shawna, Cassi, Lenny, and Allee cracked up.
"So true!" Lenny managed to squeak through peals of laughter.
"Guys are perverts!" Allee giggled.
"Stupid perverts," Rachel agreed.
I resent that remark, Tobias said.
"It's true!" Cassi said.
"And I'm accused of sometimes stereotyping girls…" Marco grumbled.
The bickering continued for a few more minutes until everybody calmed down, until which point Allee finally regained order. "It's time to finish the game," she said. "Crayak! Your turn."
The chess battle raged on. Crabbe, Goyle, and Hagrid were all taken by the opposite side, consequently being zapped back to where they belonged by Allee. Crayak was losing drastically, most of his powerful pieces penned into small spots, and almost all of his pawns taken. At last, when Jake the rook moved in front of Crayak, Ellimist announced, "Check."
The room grew silent as everybody watched intently.
Crayak took a step sideways, out of the line of danger. However, Marco the bishop moved, and Crayak was once again in check. He looked around desperately, but there was no way out of danger. Jake, Marco, and Ron penned him in.
"Checkmate," Ellimist said.
"NO!" Crayak yelled, stamping her foot stubbornly. "I haven't lost! I don't want to lose! I want control of the Animorphs universe!!!!!!!!!!" She started crying loudly and rolling around on the floor, beating her fists against the marble. She was the stereotypical spoiled brat putting up a temper tantrum.
"I have control of the universe, and you don't! Nanny, nanny, boo-boo!" Ellimist mocked.
The Animorphs broke into cheers. No longer did they have to worry about the evil Crayak.
"Well, fine," Crayak pouted. "If I can't control the Animorphs universe, I'll control this one!" She turned to Wormtail. "Take me to your leader," she commanded.
"Sorry," Cassi said from across the room, "but I think Voldemort kind of wants control of this universe for himself."
"DON'T SAY THE NAME!" Ron yelled.
"Bye, Crayak," Allee said. "I'm sending you back to the Animorphs universe now so that you can pack up and leave it."
"Wait!" he said desperately. "Aren't you going to change me back to my normal form first?!?"
Allee was thoughtful for a moment. Lenny, Cassi, and Shawna looked into the ceiling, shaking their heads.
"No, I'm not going to. Bye, Crayak. Enjoy finding a new universe to take over." Allee laughed maniacally and with a pop, Crayak disappeared.
"For whatever reason, I have a feeling that we still haven't seen the last of him," Jake whispered to the other Animorphs. They nodded gravely.
"You can leave, too, Ellimist," said Allee. There was another pop, and he disappeared as well.
"As for the rest of you," Allee said, "We will be taking a short break, during which time I will consult the readers of this fic to figure our what the next contest will be, and what the stakes will be for. I'll bring you back to the charms classroom, and then you guys have free reign of the school until I pull you back to wherever I am again so that we can start the next contest."
"Finally, we can get away from the psychos! Just wait until my father hears about the nutcases Dumbledore has been keeping in the school," Draco muttered.
There was a popping noise, and the group appeared again in the charms classroom. Allee was once again visible in her normal physical self. Snape, Draco, and Wormtail ran out of the room as quickly as they could, giving terrified looks over their shoulders as though they thought that Allee and her three psycho friends would summon them back again. Ginny and Harry slowly walked toward each other, and Harry took her hand. They walked out of the room, seemingly in their own world and ignorant of the evil looks Ron continued to send them. The Animorphs stood there somewhat awkwardly, unsure of what to do and where to go.
"I suppose that if you would like a tour of the castle, I can lead you on one," Hermione offered, avoiding Ron's eyes.
"Yeah, that would be great," Jake said. "Thanks."
"Hermione, I'm sorry!" Ron exclaimed. "The fact that I think you have a cute butt is a compliment!"
"That's what I always tell the girls, yet they never believe me," Marco grumbled.
She opened her mouth as though she were about to start yelling again, but to everyone's surprise, said, "I accept your apology, Ron."
"You do?" he asked, confused.
Allee typed furiously away on her laptop, Lenny, Cassi, and Shawna beaming as they watched what she wrote.
"Yes… Because I love you! I've always loved you!" Her face turned red. "What made me say that???" she asked in horror.
Ron looked at her in surprise. "I love you, too, Hermione," he admitted. He couldn't believe how easily it came out when he said it. However, he had always thought that he would say it at a better time.
"You do?" Hermione asked. "Well then, why didn't you just tell me?!?"
"Why didn't you tell me?" Ron countered.
"Oh, no, Allee," Lenny groaned, "you were supposed to get him to ask her out! Not get them into another fight!"
"Oops."
"You should have told me first!"
"I would have if you weren't so much of a hard-headed git!"
"Not as much as you!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
The two walked out of the room, bickering.
If we follow them, perhaps she'll eventually give us the tour she offered… Tobias suggested.
"Maybe," agreed Zsa-Zsa Billy Bob. The six Animorphs followed Ron and Hermione out of the room.
"NOT SO FAST, MARCO!" Allee, Lenny, and Shawna all said at once. Realizing what the others had said, they all looked at each other and yelled, "HE'S MINE! YOU CAN'T HAVE HIM!"
"What?" Marco asked.
Lenny and Shawna each grabbed an arm, whereas Allee grabbed him around the waist. The three started pulling, each trying to wrest him away from the other two.
"Allee, it's not fair! You have Michael!" Lenny said, mentioning Allee's boyfriend back in the real universe.
Allee paused. "True. But you have Jared. And Shawna, you have Benji!"
The three girls sighed sadly, letting Marco go. He ran quickly away from them, muttering something about psycho chicks.
"I suppose that means I can't go out with George Weasley, either," Allee said sadly.
The three sighed again, long expressions on their faces.
"Ahem. I'm sorry to break this touching moment," Cassi said, "but Allee, I'm still waiting. You promised."
"Oh, right." Allee entered some new text onto her laptop, and with a popping noise, Remus Lupin appeared in the room.
"Remie-kins!" Cassi cried happily, firmly attaching her arms around him.
"What?"
"Hi. My name is Cassi. I'm your new girlfriend from a different galaxy. Want to go down to Hogsmeade and have some butterbeer?" Cassi bubbled.
"Uh… Yes?" Remus answered uncertainly.
"Okay, let's go!" Cassi said, dragging Remus toward the door. Reaching it, she stopped and turned around. "I'll see you guys after the break! Bye!" She once again turned and led Remus down the hall.
"Well, that's that," Allee said. "See you guys in a bit."
"Yeah, bye!" Lenny said.
"Sayonara!" Shawna added. With that, the three disappeared, leaving the charms room empty.
A/N: Okay, you heard me! You guys get to pick the next tournament, and what the tournament will decide. I'm no longer allowed to tell you to vote in your review, but if you suggest it, it's not my fault, is it? Or, you can email me your ideas at MyLittlePony204@hotmail.com. So yeah. I'll try and update soon!
Oh, and just for you guys' information: On FFN, Shawna is Ami of Destiny; Lenny is gwenalyn; and Cassi is Lady Lupin. Read their stuff. It's really good!