Harry Potter and the Princesses for Magic

by Princess-Perfect

Two new students come to Hogwarts after the summer, Voldemort dies but it was not Harry who killed him, but if he's dead, who's continuing his work? A different sixth year for Harry. Now a complete story. BEWARE OF MARY SUE!

12. The Surprising Duel

Chapter 12

A Surprising Duel

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, JK Rowling does, which means she owns all the money, the fame..... Sorry about that! Anyway, I also don't own the PC Game of Harry Potter of the Chamber of Secrets, which I used some spells and creatures from, like Diffindo and Venomous Tentacula (at least, I think that's how you spell Venomous). I also don't own Lord of the Rings, War and Peace, Heidi, Pollyana, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" and "Cinderella, which are some of the books I mention in the story. There will be another disclaimer at the end, basically because I don't want to ruin any surprises.

Author's Note: Hey, people! Sorry it took me so long to put this chapter up, but it's really long. I could have divided it into two chapters, but I didn't want to renumber all my other chapters, and I noticed that JK Rowling writes some things that can be put into other chapters. Don't worry, it's worth the read (i hope)! I won't do anymore re-caps, because there are summaries and hints from the other chapters. I will do a few recaps at the last author's note, but that's it. HOpe you enjoy!

As Harry had asked Glory before, the second duel between both Harry and Glory was that Saturday. Harry had read the dueling manual Glory had given him at least 8 times, and was absolutely ready for today's match, or at least he thought he was.

Because the Quidditch pitch had been burnt to an ashy crisp, they had to do the duel in the Great Hall. There was a platform set up, just like when Harry had first dueled during Professor Lockhart's lesson (which was absolutely horrible). The gigantic, lit score board was put up high on the wall, baring the names of Harry Potter and Princess Glory. Harry was told before that since they were in the Great Hall, charms had to be cast, which would create a kind of screen that would keep all spells on the platform so it wouldn't escape to the crowd.

Everyone in Hogwarts was there, as usual, and it all went just like it did last time, except that a lot more people were rooting for Glory. All the students and staff members knew Glory was a tough player, and she could have done way worse things to Harry during the last duel if she wanted to.

The group cheering for Harry was on the right side of the platform, and Glory's crowd was on the left. Below the score board, there were stalls where the staff members and Lee Jordan were seated.

When the duel was about to begin, Harry, with his wand in hand, walked to the middle of the dueling platform, with cheers and boos buzzing in the year. Princess Glory, as well, walked to the middle of the platform, holding her precious wand.

"Are you sure you're okay with this battle?" asked Glory, thinking that Harry would probably be pulverized by the end of the duel.

"Of course I am!" responded Harry.

"You're starting first, right?"

"Yep!"

"Good luck, Harry!" said a small voice.

Wondering where that small voice came from, Harry looked to his right. It was Colin Creevey and his brother, Dennis, both holding their cameras.

"Hi, Harry!" said Dennis, with a camera in front of his face, just like Colin. "We hope you'll win the match!"

"Of course he'll win the match!" assured Colin. "Well, he got squished the last time, but I know he's going to win this duel! I'll take a bunch of pictures for you during the match!"

"Thanks," muttered Harry sarcastically.

"And I'll take pictures of you too, Your Royal Highness!"

"Why thank you," said Glory with a polite nod.

"Hope you have a good time, Dennis," said Harry.

"Oh, I will!"

From the side door of the Great Hall, Mme. Hooche walked into the Great Hall and then hopped onto the platform with her referee robes and whistle. Once she was in between them, she blew her whistle to gather the crowd's attention and to start the game.

"Salute!" she called out to both of them, and both Harry and Glory did the salute signal and went into position.

"On your mark," called out Mme. Hooche, as she backed off the platform. "Get set....Go!!"

Harry, who was the first to start, aimed his wand at Princess Glory and made a spell.

"Sliporio!" he shouted, which made a glossy, slippery, clear liquid come out of his wand and spread in front of Glory.

"Is this supposed to make me slip?" questioned Glory with a chuckle. "Come on, Harry! You know I'd ignore it!"

What Glory didn't know was that the slimy liquid was spreading and flowing behind her at that moment. When she took a what thought to be a harmless step back, she slipped and knocked her head.

"Ow, that wasn't called for!" she yelped, holding her hand on the back of her head and trying to get up.

"Princess Glory has slipped onto the liquid behind her, thinking that she could ignore it," announced Lee Jordan. "Smart move, Harry!"

"-5 points to Princess Glory!" shouted Mme. Hooche

A small bit of the light in Glory's bar had disappeared. Harry smiled with a small sense of victory.

"Smart move, eh Harry?" said Glory as she stood up. "Not bad. Dizzilio!"

Once Glory whipped up the spell, a faint, purple mist came out of the golden wand. Harry could see the missed floating passed the barrier around the platform and straight onto him. He wasn't sure what was happening, though he felt as if he couldn't keep his balance.

"Her Royal Highness has performed a dizzy-making charm," said Lee Jordan, "so Harry won't be able to focus on his next move."

"-5 for Harry Potter!" shouted Mme. Hooche.

So that was what the charm was for, thought Harry as he realized it. He could feel the dizziness come over him already. He thought he was going to fall flat on his face, for he was swaying and he felt he could barely stand up.

Harry, making very much effort to concentrate, was trying to figure out what spell to do next.

"Explodorius!" he said as he stretched out the arm holding his wand, swaying back and forth.

Unfortunately, he was so dizzy the spell had backfired, and instead, it blew up right in his face! Glory laughed out loud very hard (as did the Slytherins), but most of those in the Great Hall shrieked and gave sympathetic expressions. Because of the backfire, Harry's hair was standing on end and he was full of soot. However, he didn't feel dizzy anymore.

"Thought you'd try the blow-up charm again, didn't you?" snickered Glory with a hearty laugh.

"The 'explodorius' spell has blown up in Harry's face," sighed Lee. "It appears to be that Princess Glory is laughing hysterically."

"-15 points for Harry Potter!" called out Mme. Hooche.

"Shovitimbi!" shouted Princess Glory.

'Shovitimbi' was a spell which gave the opponent a powerful thrust, and some- times could have made a weaker player unconscious. A green-coloured, gust-looking thrust shot towards Harry powerfully.

"Reversio!" said Harry quickly.

The thrust, which was speeding towards Harry very forcefully, suddenly reversed and went back to Glory. After she made a loud screech of surprise, she was pushed with the thrust of force and fell down hard. Harry could tell she was getting a bit annoyed by the look on her face.

"-15 points for Princess Glory!"

"Princess Glory has been pushed and fallen to the floor from Harry's reverse charm," said Jordan. "Very good, Harry!"

Harry thought up another charm as quickly as he could. Rapidly, he held out his wand and said a spell.

"Wavi-havo!" he shouted.

A giant wave of gushing water had formed near Harry and swept into Glory's directions. It splashed against the barrier screen, and as it rushed towards her, the wave swept Glory off her feet and went over her. Once the water was down, she picked herself up, soaked to the skin. She did a spell to dry herself off, but not even that powerful wave could have swept away that awful frustrated look on her face.

"-20 points for the Princess!"

"You really think you're going to win this?" growled Glory. "Bladacius!"

At that moment, sharp, spinning blades shot out of her wand and went straight to Harry. As he watched the blades speed at him, he started to panick; he didn't know where to go. He tried to duck and avoid the blades. He ended up avoiding some of the blades, but unfortunately he suffered 5 of them. The deep cuts were crimson red with blood, and they stung with immense pain. Strangely the one thing that caught his mind was: Whoever said that a paper cut is the most painful wound never dueled with Princess Glory.

And yet, Glory still didn't seem too happy about the spell either. She had a certain look, the expression where one does something wrong on purpose and loving it while one does harm, but suddenly feel absolute guilt afterwards. She hadn't meant to harm Harry that way; she only wanted to win the duel.

"Five of the spinning blades have sliced Harry Potter with bad wounds," exclaimed Lee. "Ouch! He'll have to see Madame Pomfrey after this, folks! It seems like Princess Glory isn't happy about the spell either."

"-15 points for Harry Potter."

"Mimble-wimble!" he shouted.

It was the only thing he could really do at the moment. The spell wasn't a powerful one, but he didn't have the strength to do a very powerful one anyway. Mimble-wimble was the dueling spell which miscasts the opponent's spell. It was a small spell which could protect him, hopefully.

"-5 points for Princess Glory!"

"Harry Potter has done 'mimble-wimble', used to screw up the other player's spell."

"Could you use better language, Mr. Jordan?" asked Professor McGonagoll.

"Sure thing, Professor McGonagoll! The spell is used to miscast the other player's spell."

"Wirim electro!" shouted Glory.

The spell was supposed to shoot electric wires at Harry, but it didn't work. The electric wires shot out of the ground, heading towards Harry, but instead, were pulled back. The electric wires became all tangled up and blasted in Glory's face.

"It seems that the electric wire spell didn't work for Her Royal Highness."

"-15 points for Glory!" shouted Mme. Hooche.

Princess Glory looked a bit like Harry did when his exploding charm blew up in his face, except that she got rid of that awful look very quickly.

"I look like a wreck!" she said as she cleaned herself up.

Harry didn't know what to do after that. It seemed to him like almost all of the information from the manual was disappearing from his memory. He picked out a simple spell, since his wounds were still throbbing.

"Rictusempra!" he shouted.

The spell knocked Glory backwards very hard, and she almost flipped too. She picked herself up though, just a bit dizzy.

"-5 points for the Princess!"

Glory stood there thinking for a few seconds, thinking what else to do (actually, it was taking her longer to think because of the dizziness she was enduring). She waved her wand and cast the spell.

"Venemouso tentaculaso!"

A gigantic plant-looking creature appeared on the platform and crawled towards Harry. It looked like a venous fly-trap, one of those man-eating ones, with more than one head and more than plenty of arms and limbs. It crawled towards Harry, nipping at him, its arms staying behind the barrier. It nipped, swiped and bit Harry, giving him even more wounds. Those bites swelled up, and they stung even more than 15 of those blade gashes. He became very worried if he might have been poisoned.

"-25 for Harry Potter!"

Harry knew he had to get rid of the creature. He remembered a charm he learnt in Herbology, which could have been useful.

"Diffindo explodis!"

The Venemous Tentacula exploded before their very eyes, covering Princess Glory head to toe in strange, green, plant goop. As she looked down at herself, she was positively disgusted.

"-10 points for Glory!"

"It seems that Her Royal Highness has got herself in a sticky mess. Maybe she might have to go to the hospital wing too, or even take a long shower! Yuck..."

She cleaned herself up quickly with a spell, extremely thankful the goop was gone. When she finished cleaning herself, she concentrated on the next spell.

"Tornadium!" she shouted.

A twirl of wind blew right before her. The swirl of wind grew larger, and larger, and larger, until it became tube-like. It had formed a small twister, a powerful one, which was aimed at Harry.

"Mimbus back!" said Harry, before the twister got to him. The twister spun backwards, right into Glory. She was tossed aside, spinning. The twister vanished afterwards.

"-20 for Her Royal Highness!"

Princess Glory had gotten herself up many times in the match, and was getting fed up with it. She tucked her robes (her tie and uniform were untidy because of the blow of the twister) and got herself ready for another spell.

"Vinus minus!" she shouted, and vines shot out of the ground, grabbing Harry. They pulled Harry to the ground with great force, bashing his head to the ground, up and down. He had a headache afterwards; it wasn't pleasant. The vines vanished a few minutes after.

"-15 points for Harry Potter!"

Harry looked up at the scoreboard. He was winning! Only 5 more points and Glory would be defeated. He was so excited!

"Rictusempra!" said Harry as he cast the spell happily.

She was knocked back, once more, and then got herself back up. A giant amount of cheering was heard in the Great Hall, and Glory was looking around wondering what was happening.

"Her Royal Highness has lost all her points!" shouted Lee Jordan in shock. "Princess Glory 0, Harry Potter 25! Harry Potter has won! It's a new record!"

"Harry Potter is the winner!" shouted Mme Hooche in declaration.

Glory sank to her knees, her hands clutched together. She looked confused; she had lost. How could this be? Harry was more than overwhelmed to win, but his happiness seemed to vanish once he saw Princess Glory. She looked as if she was going to cry.

She looked up at Harry, with sorrow, but in a split second, her lip had curled, her eyebrows raised, her nose snarling, and her hands were clutched into a fist. She was raging mad. SHE was the champion. She had owned the world of dueling. And now, Harry Potter had ripped that away from her!!

It was so strange, what happened then as well. Harry knew his scar burned whenever evil was near, and it happened a few times that year and he understood that. But that same burn came to him again at that moment.

Harry was almost scared. He felt as if Glory was going to leap at him and tear him to shreds. His fear had drowned out all the boos and cheers. Glory angrily stomped off the platform. Students tried to crowd around her, some of them wanting to take pictures, but she pushed them away forcefully. Harry wished he hadn't won. It wasn't worth it. He had turned Glory into a raging, sorrowful monster.

He turned away from the angry Princess and his ears were immediately swallowed in cheers. His friends ran up to him, hugging him and giving him compliments.

"You won, Harry! You won!" shouted Ron. "It's incredible, except that Glory doesn't seem too happy."

"She's not at all," added Harry.

"Harry, congratulations!" congratulated Joy. "I'm so happy for you. I've never seen- Oh my goodness! Look at those wounds!"

Joy pointed at all the swollen spots, cuts and such all over Harry.

"We've got to get you to the Hospital Wing!" said Hermione.

Harry agreed, so they quickly went to the Infirmary. Madame Pomfrey shrieked when she saw Harry, and put him in one of the beds straight away. She put anti-biotics, creams, lotions and bandages on his wounds, which stung even more than when he actually got the wounds! She handed him some medicine tablets, and told him he'd have to stay there for a day. He lay there, trying to get some rest, while he talked with his friends.

"That was amazing, Harry!" complimented Joy. "Not many people can do that. Actually, I don't think anyone could have done what you've done!"

"Hasn't this happened before?" asked Ron.

"No, it hasn't! Not even when she first started dueling did she ever lose. This is her first time."

"Wow, I guess she must be a really good dueler!" implied Ron.

"She's the best, I say. She has won the International Dueling Championships 5 times in a row!"

"She must be crushed," thought Hermione.

"You bet!"

Just then, Glory rushed into the room, but this time, she absolutely ignored Harry and his friends. She approached Madame Pomfrey with a sorrowful look, yet trying to pretend she wasn't.

"Hello, Madame Pomfrey," greeted Glory in a low voice. "May I have some healing tablets?"

"Why of course, Your Royal Highness," said Madame Pomfrey, going through the medicine cabinet. "I heard you suffered a loss at the game."

"Unfortunately, yes. It was my first," she sighed in a gloomy tone, glaring at the window, still not looking at Harry or the others in the room.

"Poor dear. But don't worry sweetheart, it's not the end of the world."

"No, it isn't," admitted Glory. "It's just the end of my dueling career."

"Now wait a minute, Glory!" interrupted Joy. "Just because you lost one small battle, you're going to give up dueling?"

"Why not?" questioned Glory frustratingly to Joy.

"Why? You're so good at it!"

"Really, am I?" questioned Glory to her sister. "Was I really good? Or maybe it was all the others making sure I won because of my title."

"That's not true, Glory! They tried their very hardest to win those battles, and yet you still won. Let's face it, you're the best!"

"Not any more. Obviously, someone's better than I am, better than I will ever be."

"Listen, Harry just tried to do his best, that's it. Even so, he learned from experience from dueling you the other time, plus he did get tips from you. It all makes sense!"

"Does it?"

"Glory, did you even think that maybe you wanted him to win?"

"What?" questioned Glory confusingly.

"You were so sad that you hurt him so badly last time. I remember last night you were worried stiff if you critically injured him. You were scared, it's obvious."

"Is it that obvious? You know I need to win. I didn't want to hurt him, that's true, but that doesn't mean I didn't want to win!"

"Just don't quit dueling, all right?"

Madame Pomfrey handed Glory a glass of water and a couple of pills. Glory popped all the pills in her mouth and swallowed everything in one gulp.

"I should be leaving now. I hope you get better, Harry," she said sternly. She walked slowly to the door with her head down.

"Are you going to see Professor Fliwtick maybe?" asked Joy. "For a duel practice?"

Glory turned back to Joy, with an 'I-give-up' look on her face.

"What's the point?" sighed Glory.

Glory rushed out of the Hospital Wing, leaving the others sad to see a champion give up everything over one small loss.

"Maybe she'll get over it," said Ron.

"I'm not too sure about that," implied Joy. "She can hold a grudge for a pretty long time. But I think she'll get over it some time. She's a smart girl. She'll recognize how silly she's being. Plus, she loves dueling too much to give it up so quickly."

"Maybe it's time you three let Harry have some rest," suggested Madame Pomfrey.

The three of them left the Infirmary, saying goodbye to Harry and wishing him a good recovery. A few minutes after they were gone, Cho came in with a basket filled with packs of Chocolate Frogs and Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans.

"Hello, Harry!"

"Hi, Cho!" greeted Harry happily. "Thanks for coming. It was very sweet of you."

"Harry, what kind of girlfriend would I be if I didn't visit you in the Hospital Wing?"

Harry smiled. Cho was one of the sweetest girls in the world to him, and he cherished every moment he had with her.

"I can see you have a lot of candy there," remarked Harry.

"It's for you," she said as she laid them on the table beside him. "It's kind of my get-well present.

"I'm really sorry about all those injuries. I heard Glory saying in the common room about how scared she was if she would injure you, but it turns out she hurt you more than before. She looked very upset after you won. I saw her stomping to her dormitory on the way here."

"I know. I somewhat feel like I wish I never won. She says she's going to quick dueling."

"Oh Harry, you should be proud you won! Don't let Glory's anger get in the way of that. Besides, she loves dueling so much. She likes it even more than how much we both like Quidditch. She'll get better, but she can get carried away with her anger sometimes."

"I can tell you don't really like her."

"It's not just that I don't like her. She's really nice if you get to know her, but we're two separate people who just don't agree with each other. She has her views, I have mine. Plus, she's a bit stubborn, and she has a tendency to always want it her way."

"Just try and get to know her. She's a really nice person, despite the aches she gave me."

"I'll think about it. I guess I'll go, Harry. Hope you get better. By the way, the trip to Hogsmeade is coming soon. Maybe we can make it another date?"

"Of course!"

"Great. I'll seen you soon."

"Bye!"

Harry stared at Cho as she went out of the room. That whole entire day he thought of her, while eating all the entire contents of the basket of sweets.

**************

The day after, a big article on the front page on The Daily Prophet explained every crumb of detail of what happened during the duel the previous day. Joy was very disappointed with The Daily Prophet of how big of a deal the writers made it seem. She knew it would only make her sister even angrier (and it did!).

Everyone in Hogwarts, either student or staff member, was reading the article and talking about Glory's loss. But even more, they cheered Harry on and congratulated him on his victory. He kind of liked it, if only he didn't feel so sorry for Glory. Even so, he was happy that at least his wounds were all healed.

In the middle of breakfast in the Great Hall a few days after the duel, Glory had burst into the room, panicking. She rushed straight away to the head table to speak to Professor Dumbledore.

"Nono! Nono!" called out Glory as she approached the head table. "I really need more anger pills. I'm all out, and I need some quick!"

"Calm down, Glory," said Professor Dumbledore. "Relax, relax. Take this as an opportunity to try and overcome your anger without the pills."

"But I can't!" she admitted in urgency. "I NEED THOSE PILLS!"

"Well, if you need them so urgently," said Professor Dumbledore calmly, "I will go get some for you. It will only be a minute. Please, try to stay relaxed while I'm gone."

While Professor Dumbledore headed out of the Great Hall, Princess Glory tried to take deep breaths, although to Harry she looked more like she was hyperventilating. Malfoy, chatting with his Slytherin friends at his table, noticed Glory looking anxious. He stood up from his seat at the Slytherin table and rushed to Glory.

"Are you okay?" he asked Glory.

"No, not really," admitted Glory. "I'm not too happy today and I have no way to control my anger."

"What about that trick Professor Dumbledore taught you?" suggested Malfoy. "About the sweets?"

"No, I can't stand sweets in the morning."

While Glory and Malfoy were talking and trying to figure out ways to calm her down, Cho Chang rose from the Ravenclaw table after noticing what was going on, and walked over to the two. When she was there, she cleared her throat to get both of their attention.

"What do you want, Cho?" demanded Glory in a frustrated tone.

"I just wanted to tell you," informed Cho, "that a great way to relax yourself is tai chi. My dad's cousin gives tai chi lessons, and..."

"Listen, I don't have time to learn tai chi right now, okay?" yelled Glory. "Just go away!"

"But you should really try it," continued Cho.

"Cho, will you please back off?"

"Why won't you listen to-"

"I SAID BACK OFF, CHOPSTICKS!!!"

At this utter (well, it was more like a shout), every single person in the Great Hall gasped and stood in surprise at Glory. The whole entire school knew she was very angry with Cho now.

Harry glared at the magnificent and giant painting of Princesses Joy and Glory hung at the head of the Great Hall. The figure of Princess Joy looked incredibly embarrassed and was shaking her head, and the figure of Princess Glory's jaw dropped. Even the paintings knew that what was going to happen next wasn't going to be good.

"How dare you say that to me!" spoke Cho angrily. "You didn't just offend me, you offended my culture! You should have more respect for others!"

"You should learn to back off when someone doesn't want to be disturbed," said Glory back.

"And speaking of respect," added Malfoy, "you shouldn't talk that way to your Princess!"

"My 'Princess?'" questioned Cho. "You know, Glory is sure rude for one! I truly think your title spoils you rotten!"

"Excuse me?" questioned Glory.

"Yeah, it spoils you!" continued Cho. "You always think you're the boss and that you always have to be obeyed. I'm sick and tired of it! You should take respect lessons from your sister."

"Can we please not get me into this?" asked Joy at the Gryffindor table.

"Princess Glory has a right be obeyed," stated Malfoy. "In two years, she will be ruler of all the Magic Empire, and if you keep up that bad attitude towards her, she can have you arrested!"

"You mean 'maybe' in two years," implied Cho.

"What?"

"Don't you remember? All the Ministers for Magic are getting together to plan if they should keep the monarchy. According to my opinion, they should eliminate royalty."

"HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT!?!?!" shouted Glory.

"It's true! It's not fair that just any random person can get unlimited power like you. Besides, we should have democracy. How can we trust you with so much power? You can wipe out a whole entire nation with that much power, and the fact that there's two of you is even more frightening."

"Which means she can wipe you out too!" interrupted Malfoy.

"Hey, I can do great things with this power, okay?" said Glory. "I destroyed Lord Voldemort if you remember. If it wasn't for my sister and I, the whole world would still be unsafe! And I'm an excellent politician, by the way. Ask anybody."

"You-Know-Who would have been destroyed sooner or later. It's not right that you get to be worshipped like a god and get all the riches of the world, when some people are starving."

"I work very hard to earn that money! And I am trying to help those less fortunate. My sister and I have donated to many charities and have founded a few charities as well! And I'm not worshipped as a god, and even so, that's 'goddess' to you!"

"So? It still doesn't change the fact that you have unquestionable power that you received randomly."

"You better apologize to the Princess!" demanded Malfoy.

"No! Why should I? She's got everything else except for my apology. Maybe she should apologize to me for being such a stubborn, power-thirsty brat!"

Once that name was spoken, Glory transformed into the raging beast she had turned into at the duel. She was absolutely furious.

"MAYBE THIS WILL TEACH YOU SOME RESPECT!!!!!" Glory shouted, as she punched Cho extremely hard with a massive strike in the ribs. Her punch was so hard that Cho flew to the wall from the punch. Once she landed on the floor, she screamed in pain.

"CHO!" shouted Harry, running to Cho. "Are you okay, Cho?"

"Not too well," she gasped as she held her chest. "I think - I need - some ice - from Madame..."

"I'll bring you there," he said. After he said this, he turned to Glory with a stern and fuming look. "Why'd you do this? You're a monster!"

Glory was with no doubt offended from the remark, as was Malfoy. Just then, the doors shot open and there stood Professor Dumbledore, looking angry and disappointed.

"Glory, come here!" shouted Professor Dumbledore.

Glory, glaring around the crowd of students and staff watching the scene, slowly approached guiltily to Dumbledore. Glory quietly spoke to him, looking a bit scared. Professor Dumbledore and her left the Great Hall and were gone for an hour or so. It turned out that Professor Dumbledore had a talk with Glory and signed her up for anger management lessons.

Once Glory and Dumbledore left, Harry helped Cho to the Infirmary to get some ice.

That week was a strange week concerning Glory. The once kindred and witty sister of Joy had become shrewd, mean and ruthless, and of course Malfoy was at her side. His new sense of good manners had vanished. He became a bully again, and so was Glory.

However, the strange thing about the Princess' behaviour was that she wasn't always so awful. It was only half the time that she was ruthless, but for the other half, she was mostly sweet, kind and the normal characteristics she possessed before she was a monster. It was what Harry thought had seemed like 'schizophrenia'.

Harry observed Glory and her behaviour, wondering if it had anything to do with Malfoy and his plans to became ruler beside Glory and to bring back Lord Voldemort. No one ever told the professors what was happening, neither did they want to know. It seemed like almost a crime to get the Princess Glory in trouble.

There was one particular day when Harry and his friends really became witnesses, even victims, of Malfoy and Glory's bullying. It was the first day after Christmas holidays, and Harry, Hermione, Ron and Joy were talking to one another in the halls on the way to Herbology, when they spotted Malfoy, Glory and their gang knocking the books of a Hufflepuff 2nd year girl out of her hands. After the girl had run away to class crying, Malfoy and Glory turned to the four Gryffindors.

"Look who we have here!" pointed out Malfoy. "Potter, Weasley and Granger. Freaks of a feather flock together, you know. That's probably why they're such good friends!"

"Don't you dare make fun of my friends!" shouted Joy.

"And of course, my perky, freakish, goody-goody, too-sweet-for-her-own-good sister!" said Glory, as Malfoy, Goyle and Crabbe laughed. Glory's four friends forced a laugh, even though Harry could tell that they weren't comfortable with Glory picking at others with Malfoy. "How are you doing today, Sis?" she asked sarcastically with a giggle.

"Why have you suddenly become so evil, Glory?" asked Joy. "Can't you just be the nice person you were before?"

"Why should I?" questioned Glory. "I like it like this. Striking fear and pain is candy to me now."

"No, it's not candy. It's just purely wrong! Do you really think Dumbledore would agree to this?"

"Do you think I care?"

"You will once I tell him."

"You know, I don't think you should tell Dumbledore," said Glory, leaning closely to Joy, not letting anyone else hear their conversation except the two Princesses, Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"Why not?"

"Because....Let's just say, I have another thing to tell Dumbledore about all you four... What was it? Uhm....You, in that forest- "

"You wouldn't dare!"

"Believe me, I would."

Joy's usually enormous smile vanished as she got angry and scowled at Glory.

"I cannot believe you!" spat out Joy.

"Yeah, Glory!" interrupted Ron. "You should stop picking on innocent students."

"You of all people, Weasley!" said Malfoy. "I have no idea what Princess Joy sees in you. She makes more money in a single week than your father makes in a lifetime! If your parents are so cheap, why did they have so many kids?"

"Hey, if they didn't have so many kids, Ron wouldn't have been born!" shouted Hermione.

"I'm sure a lot of kids would have been born if you just keep on going," added Glory, with another laugh from the evil gang. "And if you do want that many kids, you should at least be able to feed them all."

"My parents do feed us!" argued Ron.

"Sure, that's what they all say."

"It's not how much money that counts, it's the love that counts!" stated Joy. "And I don't know what Glory sees in you, Malfoy! You're a slimy, mean snob!"

"So?" questioned Malfoy, which made Joy get even angrier. "As a matter of fact, I am very loving to Glory, and we have a wonderful time together. Unlike you, Weasley, I can afford to be with her. She deserves the best, and the only thing you can give Joy is anything that was a free sample!"

Malfoy, Glory and their friends burst out laughing. Ron had gotten beet-red from the insults; he was so offended.

"Glory, how can you let this happen?" asked Harry. "You're a really nice person inside. Don't let this cruelty overcome you!"

Glory tried to ignore this comment, but obviously it hurt her in some way. Harry guessed she really was a nice person, but she didn't want to show it.

"Why don't you go ask your sushi-seeker girlfriend about me, Harry? She probably won't think I'm such a nice person!"

Harry couldn't deny that. Yes, it's true Cho didn't like Glory too much, but why did she have to bring it up? The fact that she called her a 'sushi-seeker' got him quite angry too.

"Why can't you stop bullying?" cried Hermione. "What good is it going to do tormenting others?"

"It gives us pleasure," said Glory.

"Power, too!" stated Malfoy. "Of course, Glory will have all the power she wants in less than two years, and she'll have the greatest reign of all time!"

"Yes, and I'll make sure you, Draco, are ruling by my side!" said Glory with a playful giggle.

"Of course. We'll have a wonderful reign together," he said, as he gave an evil smile to the rest of them.

Harry was shocked to hear this. It seemed as if Malfoy was proving to everyone that he would want to take over with Glory. Maybe their theory was right; Malfoy was after her power. Or did he love her just like he said?

Malfoy kissed Glory on the cheek, which made Harry want to puke, and just like many times during his years at Hogwarts, his scar burned. It could have been another clue...another clue about what Malfoy was proving....

Joy got very angry, considering it wasn't just Glory who would become Queen. Harry could tell that Joy knew that Malfoy and Glory were mistreating their privileges. Hermione seemed very frustrated and grabbed Harry and lead him to the boys' washroom.

"Thanks, Hermione," said Harry. "I felt like I was really going to hurl out there, looking at Malfoy....kiss....Glory... Yuck! - Wait a minute, this is the boys' washroom!" noticed Harry. "You're not supposed to be here, Hermione!"

"Hey, I let you in the girls' washrooms once," said Hermione. "Even so, I wanted to talk to you in private."

"And?"

"I wanted to talk about what Malfoy said," explained Hermione. "Doesn't it seem obvious that he's so excited when Glory will be crowned Queen, and how he was gloating when Glory mentioned he'll be ruling beside him? He wants to be crowned with her! That's probably why he's in the relationship. And when he becomes king...."

"They'll have a reign of fear and bring Lord Voldemort back to power," continued Harry. "Do you think Malfoy really loves her?"

"They sure do look like a couple, but I'm not too sure about that. I'm still a bit confused about Voldemort gaining power, too. Wouldn't Malfoy want all the power, instead of sharing it with You-Know-Who?"

"That really is a bit strange. Maybe it's because Lord Voldemort is helping Malfoy get what he wants. Maybe he has the same views as Voldemort, but doesn't know how to fulfill them. Why is Lucius Malfoy in this?"

"Lucius Malfoy's the ex-supporter of Voldemort, or more like he still is. He was always supporting him. Now he'll have a chance to support him again. Besides, a lot of people will do anything to get power, even if it's just a little bit of it."

"You're right. We should tell Joy and Ron about this."

"Shouldn't Glory know about this too?" asked Hermione. "She probably doesn't even know what's going on!"

"What if she does know, and wants to follow with it?"

Harry and Hermione stood silent for a moment in thought. Could Glory really be in this because she wanted to?

"I don't think so," responded Hermione. "She couldn't do this on her own free will. I know she's mean right now, but I think it's because something evil has overcome her. Something like Malfoy, that's what. But if someone's going to tell her, it should be Joy. Glory would never want to hear it from us. She wouldn't believe us. Come on, let's tell them."

They both walked out of the washroom, being careful no one would see them, and caught up with Ron and Joy in the grounds heading to Herbology.

"Where were you two?" questioned Joy. "We're going to be late for Herbology!"

"We both have to tell you something when we get there," said Hermione, "and it concerns your sister."

All four of them scurried to the greenhouse, where Professor Sprout was getting ready for the class. She was wearing her usual cloak and gloves, looking very messy from working in the dirt. Harry and his friends seated themselves quickly, noticing that everybody else was already seated. Professor Sprout looked up at the class and smiled.

"Good morning, class!" greeted Professor Sprout in a friendly tone.

"Good morning, Professor Sprout!" greeted the 6th year Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs in unison.

"Welcome back to the greenhouse after the Christmas holidays! As I told you last class before the Christmas break, we have finished our unit on Orientolips. You also had been assigned a project about the Orientolips. As I remember, the project is due today, am I right? You will hand me your assignments at the end of the class.

"Now, for our new unit. For the month of January, we will be officially starting the unit on extremely dangerous weeds and plants used for medicines. Yes, we did write notes on this the previous 4 months, but this month our whole entire unit will be dedicated to this specific category. You won't have to put on your working cloaks today, just take out your notes and Herbology manual. We will be discussing and noting about 2 specific plants today."

The students took out their books while Professor Sprout looked for her Herbology manual. While she was looking for it, Harry and Hermione got to tell Joy and Ron about their ideas on Malfoy and Glory.

"What was that thing you wanted to tell us?" asked Ron, who was rummaging through his bag looking for his notes.

"It was about what Glory and Malfoy said," answered Hermione. "Remember what we said about the conversation in the For-?" Hermione looked around to check if anybody was listening. "Forbidden Forest?" she whispered.

"Yes of course," replied Joy.

"Hermione and I," said Harry, "were talking about when we heard how Glory was talking about Malfoy and her in power, and how much Malfoy was gloating about Glory's future reign."

"Yes, I absolutely understand how much Malfoy boasts about Glory and her powers," agreed Joy. "It disgusts me! It makes both of us seem corrupt, absolutely powerful and like show-offs. That's not how we're like! At least, that's not how I'm like. All those details and reign-talk sickens me."

"Don't you want to be Queen?" asked Harry.

"Of course I want to be Queen! Just think of all the good things I can do for the world. I'm absolutely excited! But how everyone talks about it... It just seems funny. For once, I wish everyone would treat me like a normal person. That's why I love being with you three. You make me feel comfortable."

"I think we got off topic here," remarked Hermione. She continued on about what Harry and her discussed. "We recognized today that Malfoy was really looking forward to Glory being Queen. It really seems like Malfoy is dating Glory to become ruler beside her, and to bring You-Know-Who back. What Harry and I think is that Malfoy is trying to bring Voldemort back to power, with the help of his father, who is one of his supporters, and Glory's power."

"And those figures in the Forbidden Forest," added Harry. "We think the teenage male was Malfoy, the adult was Lucius Malfoy and somehow, I have no idea how, the strange figure could have been Voldemort."

"Wow," said Ron. "This is really serious."

"Of course it is, honey!" said Joy. "It's my sister we're talking about! She's being used. Oh, poor Glory!"

"Wait, is anyone listening to us?" enquired Harry.

They all looked around them. No one seemed to be listening to them. By the time they were sure no one was listening to them, Professor Sprout had already found her Herbology manual (finally!).

"For the first 2 weeks," continued Sprout, "we'll be learning about a variety of dangerous weeds and the plants that heal the victim's of the weeds' affects. The two plants we'll be studying today are the Venimi Monstro and the Timplewimp.

"The Venimi Monstro is located at the heart of the most dangerous and most magical jungles. Who knows where these jungles are?"

Automatically, Hermione's hand shot up.

"Yes, Hermione?"

"The jungles where the Venimi Monstro are found are the Amazon in Brazil, the Bandundu Jungle in the Congo, the Great Forest in Southern China, the Nile Jungle in Egypt and the Binston Jungle of Cape Wessel, Australia."

"Very good, Hermione! You've earned 5 points for Gryffindor. Now, the Venimi Monstro is an extremely dangerous and venomous weed. The weed can reach 10 feet, and its appearance resembles a cross between a Venomous Tentacula, a giant squid and a tropical tree.

"All the leaves on this weed are purple, and can give a human being a terrible rash if that person even touches the weed's leaf. If bitten by this abominable weed, a deadly poison will be injected into the living creature's body. The only way to get rid of the poison is by extracting the poison using specific magic leeches called Pin-pint leeches.

"The Venimi Monstro can also suck the blood, fat and even some of the magic powers out of a creature. The fact that it can suck up some magic powers is why it is feared by all magical creatures, including witches and wizards. It can suck up to half the amount of magic powers a creature has. There is only one plant that can heal you from this horrible weed. What is it?"

Hermione and Joy quickly raised their hands.

"Yes, Joy?"

"The plant is the Timplewimp, Professor Sprout, as you told us before," answered Joy, smiling.

"Yes, the Timplewimp is the only plant known to cure the wounds of a Venimi Monstro and restore the victim to perfect health. Another 5 points to Gryffindor. It can help restore the blood, fat and magic powers of a person, victim or non-victim of the Venimi Monstro."

Hermione raised her hand.

"Yes, Hermione?" asked Professor Sprout.

"Professor Sprout, what do you mean by 'victim or non-victim'?" asked Hermione.

"That means that even someone who has lost blood, fat or some of their powers, but wasn't attacked by the Venimi Monstro, can still be cured by the Timplewimp. And don't you all start thinking that the Timplewimp can give you more powers, because it doesn't!

"To continue... The Timplewimp can grow as big as the Venimi Monstro. The Timplewimp looks very much like a giant, multi-headed, blue sunflower. The plant, which can also be called a flower, has a mind of it's own, as does the Venimi Monstro, and the Timplewimp is a very friendly plant.

"Tomorrow we will be planting Timplewimps. You must get into groups of 4-6 people. For homework, you must write a 100-word essay on the history of the Venimi Monstro attacks and a 150-word essay on the Timplewimp and modern medicines made with it, due on Thursday. You may put your projects on the Orientolips on my desk before you go."

The students packed up their things and laid their projects on Professor Sprout's desk. A few minutes later, the bell rang and off they went to their next class.

After lunch, the Gryffindors had their Charms class. Harry had to admit, him and his friends were a bit early for class, but they all wanted to see how Glory was acting to check if she was in her good mood or bad mood, and to see if they could get some more clues in the Malfoy-Glory-Voldemort problem.

When they got to their Charms class, they found out that the door was locked. They looked around to find Professor Flitwick, and down the hall they saw a little old man with shredded clothes, bandages and an ice pack on his head heading to the door.

"Hello, Mr. Potter, Ms. Granger, Mr. Weasley and Ms. Princess Joy!" said Professor Flitwick as he unlocked the door with his free hand (the other hand holding the ice pack).

"Hello, Professor Flitwick!" said the four of them together.

"I'm surprised you all got here early," said the little professor.

"We...wanted to... start nice and early for your class," lied Ron Weasley.

"Well that's nice," said Professor Flitwick.

Harry looked at the bad condition Professor Flitwick was in and wondered why he was like that.

"Professor Flitwick, why are you in bandages and torn clothes?" asked Harry.

"Oh dear me," said Professor Flitwick as he realized his appearance. "I do look horrible, don't I? It's because I had a small duel with Princess Glory in the beginning of lunch. It's our first duel since her loss. Now she's become even rougher than before. I tell you, Mr. Potter, don't do another duel with Princess Glory ever again! I can tell she's disappointed about that loss. Who knows how rough she'll be the next time you duel!"

Professor Flitwick opened the door and let them all in the classroom. The Gryffindors entered and they all took their seats.

"I guess she went back to dueling quicker than I thought!" said Joy.

A few minutes later, Glory and her four friends came in the class. Glory, at that moment, looked a lot more nicer than before.

"Sorry, Professor Flitwick, about that duel," apologized Glory.

"Oh don't worry about it, Princess Glory!" said Flitwick. "I'll be fine."

Glory put her things on a seat and walked over to Harry, Hermione, Ron and Joy.

"Hey, guys!" she greeted them cheerfully. "Listen, I am so sorry about what happened this morning. I absolutely didn't mean the things I said, and what Draco said. I guess something came over me. For some reason, I become a bit mean time to time, and so does Malfoy. Can you please forgive me?"

The four of them looked at each other, thinking if they should forgive her or not.

"We forgive you," forgave Joy, as everyone else nodded in agreement.

"Great!" said Glory. "Thank you so much!"

Glory smiled that she had received forgiveness, and afterwards, she went to her friends and took her seat in the Charms classroom.

"'A bit mean?'" murmured Ron to Harry, talking about what Glory said. "It seemed a bit more like extremely savage behaviour and cold-heartedness if you ask me!"

*****

It was the evening of the same day, and Harry was just about to finish his Herbology essay on Venimi Monstro attacks. Harry took out a book about the subject from the library, and it turned out that there were more attacks than anyone could describe in just 100 words. Harry read the contexts, and learned of the gruesome stories about the monstrous weed. Once he was done, he put his things away, stretched out his legs and lied down on the sofa in the Gryffindor common room.

Harry was thinking about the discussions his friends and him were having on their new 'mystery', as though it seemed. Even if they talked openly about every subject, Harry never mentioned one thing: his scar. It had burned so many times that year, and Harry knew what it meant when his scar throbbed. It usually meant evil was around, and most often, Lord Voldemort.

There were sweets laid out in the Great Hall that evening, which was why so many people weren't in their common rooms. Ron was at the sweet-feast of course, probably trying to find more Wizard Cards for his collection. Hermione was in the library doing research, for fun (that always made Harry think she was a bit crazy). Joy, though, was in the common room, with Parvarti, Lavender, Dean Thomas and a few other students from other grades. Harry thought this could be his moment to tell Joy about his scar problem. He didn't know how she would react, but he thought he'd give it a try.

"Uh, Joy?" spoke Harry to Joy.

"Yes, Harry?" she responded, peering her head out of a teen-witch magazine.

"I need to tell you something."

"What is it, Harry?"

"It's about... my scar..."

"What about it, Harry? Oh no, has Malfoy been teasing you about it?"

"No, of course not! It's just.... you see...." Harry didn't know how to explain to Joy about his scar. Could she understand?

"It's my scar," he said. "It burns."

Joy's star eyes widened very much in shock.

"Oh dear," uttered Joy. "I've heard about when you got a burning scar."

"What?" questioned Harry. "How? Who told you?"

"Oh, I read it in Hogwarts, a History Volume II and The Boy Who Lived: The Harry Potter Biography."

"They have my biography?" questioned Harry in complete awe.

"Of course! It was my sister who showed them to me. I decided to read them after she introduced them."

"She reads those books?"

"Harry, we're talking about my sister. She'll read anything!"

Harry, as he heard this, nodded in agreement.

"What did the books say?" asked Harry.

"As I recall, they said that time-to-time your scar burns, which means that trouble or evil is near."

"Then it probably didn't mention that it burned when Lord Voldemort was near."

"Oh dear! Does that mean- ?"

"That means it's a sure thing that something around this school concerns Lord Voldemort!"

"Oh no! That doesn't sound good. Harry, I think we should go to my dorm to discuss this. Anyone can eavesdrop on us if we talk in public."

"In your... dorm?"

Harry was a bit uncomfortable about the idea. That was the girls' dormitory she was talking about. He'd been in a girls' bathroom (embarrassingly speaking), but a girls' dormitory?

"Are you sure?" asked Harry.

"Don't worry, Harry! I just need to hear what you need to say. Besides, I get bored of being in the common room all the time. Come on!"

She lifted herself off the couch, dropped the magazine and lead Harry to the girls' dormitory, and to her rooms. The door to her rooms was large, wooden and old-fashioned. Harry saw a strange little screen with buttons around it right beside the entrance.

"What's that?" he asked Joy, pointing to the screen.

"Oh, it's a telecom," explained Joy. "It's like an intercom. Just push the big red button in the middle and the person inside will open the doors for you."

She unlocked the door with a big strange key she took out of her robe pocket. When she opened the door, it revealed behind it another door. There was a little speaker near that entrance.

"Password, please," spoke a voice from the little speaker.

"You won't tell anybody about the password, will you?" asked Joy.

"Of course not!" said Harry.

"Good. Her Royal Highness Princess Joyous Mary Anastasia Matilda Cleopatra

Dumbledore-Illiermo. Chocolate frogs, puppy dogs, kittens and ice cream logs."

"Password accepted. You may come in."

The door opened, which revealed another entrance! The door was metal, and there was a little screen with buttons at the side of the metal door. Joy put a card in the slot, which operated the screen.

"Eye and hand scan, please!" said the screen.

A hand scan came out of the wall, and so did a small black ball. Joy put her eye to the ball, and put her hand on the scan. There was a little beep afterwards.

"Scan accepted. You may proceed."

The metal doors suddenly opened, and Joy and Harry went into the room.

"See what I have to go through every time I want to go to my rooms?"

Harry looked around to see a colourful, interior-decorated room with a Moroccan theme; it seemed very chique. There were many more doors around the room, which probably lead to other rooms. At Harry's left, there was a long, spiral staircase.

"Nice rooms!" complimented Harry.

"Thanks! Why don't you have a seat?"

Harry sat on the comfortable red sofa as Joy sat across from him on the next sofa.

"Sofia!" called out Joy. "Can you come here for a moment?"

At that moment, something strange came from one of the doors. It looked a bit like a dwarf, maybe even a gnome, or even a house-elf. It resembled the house-elf Dobby, yet it was a lot more chubbier (a lot more!), with a big circular nose, tangled hair in a small bun and the little elf wore a small, stained maid-uniform robe. It seemed to be a female.

"At yo' service, Yo' Royal 'Ighnessa!" said the little creature in its broken English.

"Yes, can you bring some party mix and two butterbeers here for Harry and I?"

"Of coursa! Right awaya!"

The little creature scurried off into one of the doors as Joy turned to Harry.

"Was that one of your house-elves?" asked Harry, remembering what Dobby said about him becoming one of their house-elves.

"Oh yes. That's one of my personal house-elves I brought to Hogwarts. By the way, I heard you know Dobby."

"Yeah, I do. He already told me about you gave him a job at the castle after you graduate."

"Yes, and I am very excited about it."

Just then, Sofia the house-elf came in with a tray of party mix in a bowl and two glasses of Butterbeer. It laid it down quickly and scurried off.

"Tell me about this burning scar issue you wanted to tell me," said Joy.

"Oh that! Well, I've been getting throbbing pains and burns in my scar many times this year. As I told you before, I usually get it when Lord Voldemort's around."

"When did these moments occur?"

"It happened twice in the summer, once at the ball, once in the Forbidden Forest, at the match... and today when we were talking with Malfoy and Glory."

"Hmm.... Tell me about the ones you had in the summer," she said, taking a pretzel from the bowl.

"The first one was around the time of my birthday, probably a day after it. My birthday's the 23rd of July," he told her, taking a sip of his Butterbeer.

"Really?"

"Yes. It was the best one, I think. It was strange because at the time I saw a people from Hogwarts parade down Privet Drive. Privet Drive's where I live with the Dursleys. There was Ron, Hermione, Hagrid, everyone! It was so strange. Then I had the throbbing pain, and I fainted. The strangest thing was that I woke up and found out that I had been unconscious for four days!"

"Oh, that is serious. When did you get this burn?"

"It was soon after my birthday, which is July 23rd."

"Let me think. What happened around that time?" she thought, as she took a sip of her butterbeer. "We were having the war at that time. I think Voldemort might have been losing by then... because... That's it!"

"What? What is it?"

"What happened during the time of when you got that scar! I remember: the other side was losing badly for many reasons. There was one reason, though, why the other side was losing. Lord Voldemort was getting very weak, and I remember he collapsed around the time you fainted. He didn't wake up for 4 days as well!"

Harry was shocked. Voldemort had fainted and woke up exactly like he had! "Professor Dumbledore told me that when Lord Voldemort gave me that scar, he put a little bit of himself in me."

"Wow, I never knew that! So you're saying that some of the things Lord Voldemort feels, or felt, or maybe even feels at this situation, you feel? And the talents he has....you have?"

"Yes, exactly! That's why they say that I would have been good in Slytherin, and that's why I'm a Parselmouth! You know I'm a Parselmouth, right?"

"Of course I do!"

"Okay."

"Tell me about the next time your scar burned."

"It was when I was visiting Remus for a while. It was a couple of days before the school year started. It was near breakfast, and I had this horrible pain in my scar, which was for about 10 minutes. It burned more than it ever burned before, and I'll never forget that at the last second of that pain, I felt like someone slashed my neck."

"A couple of days before the school year started? Of course! We destroyed Voldemort that time! What was the next time it happened?"

"At your birthday ball, when everything was shaking."

"That's easy! Voldemort's followers, and maybe even Voldemort himself, attacked the ball. I'm still mad about that. It could have been perfect, but they ruined it!"

Joy looked like she was going to cry buckets at that moment.

"Don't worry, Joy. It wasn't your fault. Besides, it was a great party."

"Really? Thank you! Now," she said, getting back their conversation, "the next time."

"The next time? Oh, it was when we were in the Forbidden Forest, when Hermione and I were listening to the conversation of those dark figures."

"That's simple to understand! Lord Voldemort was that very strange figure who was taking part in that conversation. At least, you and Hermione think it's Voldemort, but I guess your scar proves it. What was the next time you had a burning scar?"

"At the duel, when I won. Glory was giving me an awful look, and I got a throbbing pain in my head."

"Uhm... I have no clue about that one. We'll get back to that. Next?"

"When it seemed that Malfoy was revealing his plan about Glory."

"Let me think.... I guess because Malfoy is Voldemort's new accomplice, and.... maybe not that. Or maybe it burned because he revealed his and Voldemort's plan. It probably has something to do with that. Are there any others?"

"No, I don't think so."

"Okay, now let's focus on the time after the duel. What was happening?"

"The duel had just ended, and Lee Jordan had announced the winner. Glory got down to her knees and was looking terribly sad. Then she suddenly had this look of absolute rage on her face, and she looked at me with that horrible expression. Then I got the pain."

"All right. How does everything, concerning Voldemort that's going on, has to do with Glory?"

"Malfoy is planning Lord Voldemort's return with the help of Glory's powers, and that Malfoy will be ruler with Glory."

"Yuck, I don't like the sound of that!"

"Glory may be the backbone to this whole entire scheme. Without her, or without her immense powers, they couldn't work out their plan-"

"Of course! At the end of the match, Glory lost. It almost seemed as if she was losing her strength. This could have wrecked all of Malfoy and Voldemort's plans! So what you felt was Voldemort and Malfoy thinking that their plans might not be able to be executed!"

"How did Voldemort know about this? How could I've gotten the burn in my forehead, which usually has something to do with Voldemort, if Voldemort didn't know about it? He couldn't have known it that quickly."

"He may have more power than I thought. He could have used some telepathic abilities. You know, like the crystal ball?"

"Yes," said Harry, remembering when he had to learn about them in Divinations.

"Very powerful people can see what's going on somewhere else through crystal balls. Voldemort's a very powerful person. He could have done that."

A chill went down Harry's spine when he heard this. He never liked hearing how powerful Voldemort was, or is. Even so, he was scared stiff that Voldemort could be that powerful one more time, when Harry had thought he was gone for good.

"This seems very serious, Harry," said Joy. "Maybe we should tell this to Glory."

"Why would she want to know? We think Malfoy's using her. Would she believe us?"

"True, very true, but we don't have to tell Glory about anything concerning Malfoy. We should just tell her about Voldemort. We can tell her about those two times during the summer and the attack during the ball. That wonderful ball, which was ruined!"

"Will you stop moping about that? It wasn't your fault! No one knew what was going to happen!"

"Probably Draco and Lucius Malfoy knew. Well, we should go now."

They both stood up from their sofas. Harry looked down at the table in the middle of the couches where the butterbeer and party mix was; almost all the food and drink was gone.

"Sofia?" called out Joy.

"Yesa?" said the little creature, peaking out of the door.

"Can you bring the bowl and the drinks back to the kitchen?"

"Of coursa!" said Sofia, as she took everything away and went back into the door.

Harry and Joy went to the door. This time, it was a lot easier to open the entrances (all she had to do was open the doors!). Once they were out of those entrances,

Harry heard all the doors shut themselves tightly, and off they went through the common room and into the halls.

"Where is Glory, anyway?" asked Harry.

"She's in the Great Hall," stated Joy.

They rushed to the Great Hall, thinking up what they would say to Glory. Once they were there, they opened the doors. Harry saw wonderful things on all the tables; there were cakes, cookies, sweets, chips, pretzels, fritos, cheetos, and any other king of sweets and goodies you could imagine. Harry had some of the sweets before, but he suddenly wanted to continue eating. While Joy was trying to look for Glory, Harry went to the Gryffindor table and stuffed himself with food.

"Harry, I think I see her! Harry?" she said, as she looked at Harry devouring sweets like a pig. "What are you doing? We just ate a snack!"

"They're so good!" whined Harry, who was just finishing a chocolate frog.

"Come on, I found Glory," she said, as she pulled Harry to where Glory had been spotted. Harry was a bit angry that he was taken away from his delicious food. "You see, I've spotted Glory near the Slytherin table over there, unfortunately. Here she is. Glory, I- My goodness!"

Joy stopped talking, and walking, as she saw her sister, Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and a few other Slytherins laughing and socializing. They were all taking part in playing with a despicable creature (well, 'despicable' considering Harry's history with it), which was obvious to Harry that Malfoy would take in liking it sooner or later.

"Glory!" shouted Joy, with disappointment. "What are you doing with that snake?"

Yes, in fact it was a snake they were playing with. Each one of them took turns holding the snake, teasing it and having fun with it. It was very long and green, the exact same shade of green as the Slytherin green, and two purple and yellow stripes going down its back. Its tongue hissed and slithered, as it looked with innocent yet evil tiny, black eyes.

"What, you don't like snakes?" questioned Glory, patting the snake on its small head.

"Not really, but are you sure you should be teasing a snake like that? It's quite big, and it looks dangerous. It could strike at any minute!"

"No, it won't," interrupted Malfoy, with an evil smirk. "It's very tame."

"How would you know that it's tame? No one knows what's going inside its mind!"

"I should know it's tamed. I'm its owner!"

"Besides, I think it's a bit cute, and I'm starting to develop an interest in snakes,"

said Glory, looking at it with adoring eyes. "They're very interesting creatures you know.

Of course, it could never compare to my black unicorns and my dear Tsarina. But still, it seems like a good pet."

"You're nuts!" said Harry, shaking his head. "You're all nuts! I can't believe you would hang around with a snake!"

"You're so mean!" said Glory. "Just because it's not fluffy and cute like your Hedwig, doesn't mean its bad."

"Even so, I still don't want you hanging around snakes!"

"You can't tell me what to do, Joy and Harry," said Glory. "Why can't you go back to the Gryffindor table and eat your treats?"

"That's because I didn't come here to eat those treats!" said Harry.

"So what you're saying, is that you came all the way down here to bug me and criticize the animals I'm interested in?"

"No! It's just," explained Joy, "Harry and I need to speak to you."

"Can't you tell me later? It's my free time right now. Besides, I want to hang around PG a bit longer."

"Who?"

"PG. That's the name Malfoy gave it. He named it after me. You know, Princess Glory, PG. I'm actually very flattered by it."

"But I really want to tell you something!"

"Not now, Joy! Can't you see I'm busy?"

"Never mind!"

Joy got red in the face and stomped off, pulling Harry with her.

"It was a bad idea to come down here," said Joy angrily.

"Can I at least get some stuff to eat?"

"We just ate!"

"Oh come on! Please?"

"Here!" she said, giving Harry a basket of sweets which she pulled off the Gryffindor table. "You can eat these."

"All right," he said agreeingly, looking happily at the basket.

*****

Harry and Joy told Ron and Hermione what had happened about Glory and the Slytherins playing with the snake, and about what Harry and Joy discussed about the scar. Ron didn't see anything about the Slytherins playing with a snake from the Gryffindor table (he was too focused on the sweets, although later he did see that a basket of treats was missing). They really knew now that Glory was under Voldemort and Malfoy's spell. She seemed as if she was getting more like a Slytherin by the minute.

The next day, they noticed something peculiar. Glory, who was usually extremely powerful and strong, didn't have the strength she usually did. Harry observed that throughout the whole entire time he saw her, she seemed tired, and wasn't up to doing too much.

During the classes Harry had with the Ravenclaws, he noticed that Glory didn't do as 100% perfect as she usually did. Glory, who on most occasions got to class early, or at least was always more than on time, was late for Charms. Professor Flitwick excused Glory's lateness, knowing how busy she was. As well in Charms, they practiced the Self-Levitating spell, which enabled one to levitate (of course). Glory regularly did perfectly on the first try, and she should have done excellent on the spell since she already knew it. But today, it took her 5 times to get it right. In Divinations, the class was practicing on receiving a prediction from a month in advance. Strangely, Glory couldn't predict as well as she frequently did. In Potions, she even made the potion wrong.

Harry thought this as extremely strange. Harry told the other three about it, and they noticed it too.

"I know what you mean," said Ron, watching Glory as she screwed up her potion, putting in too much sting-weed.

"I know. She's never like this!" agreed Joy. "She's always so aware of her surroundings, and she's always done good in her classes."

"I don't have a clue what's wrong with Glory," said Hermione. "How could she be acting like this?"

"I have no idea," sighed Harry.

"Oh, why does this have to happen to my poor sister?"

Glory might not have been doing well in her classes as she always did, but Malfoy on the other hand, was doing better in his classes as he usually did. He tranfigured Crabbe and Goyle into turtles wonderfully in Transfiguration, he answered all the questions Professor Luigi asked and did great demonstrations in Defense Against the Dark Arts.

Harry and his friends, as they thought deeply about the situation, were confused about Malfoy's change of performance in class too. Was Malfoy just improving in his school work and was working hard and Glory was starting to slack off? Or was something more happening?

After he had finished his classes for the day, Harry caught up with Cho who was walking with her friends in the hall.

"Hi, Cho!" he said when he greeted his girlfriend with rosy cheeks.

"Hello, Harry! How's it going?" she asked with a cheery smile.

"Great. Do you want to do something this evening? A walk around the halls, relaxing in the library, maybe even a visit to Hagrid?"

"Sure! What about we browse the hallways of the school, and maybe we can both go to the library? A friend recommended a great book that she read, and I'd really like to take it out."

"Absolutely. Where can I meet you?"

"We can meet each other near the statue of 5-year-old Princess Joy. You know, that one when she's carrying those roses in her hands and a lily in her hair, 6 hallways from the Ravenclaw common room?"

"Of course. When do you want me to meet you?"

"7 o'clock, maybe? I'll probably be finished all my homework by then."

"Me too. I'll meet you then."

"See you then too. Bye, Harry!"

"Bye, Cho!"

As Harry said goodbye, he watched Cho walk away with her friends until her and her clique were gone. Harry then caught up with his friends as they went to the Gryffindor common room, where he finished up his homework very quickly.

After they had dinner at the Great Hall, Harry hurried back to his dormitory to get himself ready for their little date. He combed his hair (which didn't do much), put on some of his new cologne, put on his fancy watch from Christmas and straightened up his robes. He probably checked himself over about 20 times before he was satisfied with the way he looked. He glanced at the corner of his eye to see Seamus Finnigan (who had come in while Harry was getting ready) looking through an album.

"What are you looking at?" asked Harry.

"Nothing!" said Seamus as he hid the album behind his back.

"Is that one of my albums?!" shouted Harry as he rushed to Seamus. He tried to take the album out of Seamus' hands. "Because if it's one of mine, I'll-"

Harry ripped the album out of Seamus' hands and took a look at it. Thankfully, it wasn't one of his. This album was a large, thick blue album, and in silver letters it said: "School Memories". Harry flipped through the pages, as he saw moments during all their years there. He saw a picture when Seamus was being sorted by the Sorting Hat, him and his friends (including Harry) at the dueling club, pictures of Hogsmeade, Quidditch games, and more. Each year was divided into sections. He flipped to a different section, which the first page said in silver letters: "6th Year of Hogwarts." It showed pictures of their first day of the 6th year, the Quidditch and duel matches, the Princesses' birthday, etc. Surprisingly in this section, there were many pictures involving Glory.

"How'd you get all these pictures?" asked Harry. "I barely see you with a camera."

"I do have a camera, except that I take them when no one is looking.

It's not as if you've never seen me with a camera, have you?"

"I might have seen you with a camera a few times, when you took a picture of all of us."

"See? Besides, since our 2nd year I've been getting a lot of my pictures from Colin Creevey."

"You get pictures from him?"

"Oh yeah! We're always making deals each week. He makes a bunch of doubles for me, I'll tell a story about you, he gives me a great photo of us and our friends, I give him a bunch of chocolate frogs...."

"Wait, you tell him stuff about me so you can get photos?" questioned Harry.

"It's not what you think, Harry! The kid loves you. Sometimes he'll only give some photos if I tell him something about you."

"It doesn't seem that bad," said Harry, as he gave Seamus back his album. "I've noticed that there are a lot of pictures of Princess Glory from this year."

"So?" shrugged Seamus as he clutched the album close to him.

"You know you'll never have a chance with her."

"A guy can dream, can't he?"

"But they're foolish dreams. It's better to get over her now."

"I don't want to! Plus, you always dreamed about yourself with Cho, and I know you did. I could tell it whenever you looked at Cho those few years."

"You knew?"

"Wasn't it obvious?"

"But that was different!"

"How? She was with Cedric Diggory, and I could tell you still liked her!"

Harry had no choice but to admit that that was true. He remembered how jealous he was when the late Cedric Diggory, the former Hufflepuff seeker, was dating Cho. Even so, he got to know Cedric very well, and was mortified when he was killed by Lord Voldemort during the TriWizard Tournament.

"I know," admitted Harry, "but it wasn't as if I hated Cedric. She wasn't dating him for too long, because he..."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. That Cedric... Poor guy. But you still liked her! And what if you both break up? Will you still be clinging onto those same feelings?"

"I don't know. We might never even break up!"

"Fine, be that way. Just leave me alone with my dream love-life, and I'll leave you alone with yours."

Harry turned away from Seamus and looked at the clock in the room; it was almost 7 o'clock. He checked himself once again in the mirror and headed out the dorm and out the common room. He walked through the hallways, looking for the place Cho told him about. Then finally, 6 hallways away from the Ravenclaw common room, he saw the statue.

It was a bronze statue of Princess Joy when she was 5 years old. The statue was made with roses in its hands and a lily in its curly, shoulder-length hair, just like Cho had told him. The statue had an adorable smile, and she was wearing a very cute little dress. He thought he might have seen a picture when Joy looked like that on their web site which he saw at Hogsmeade last time.

Harry looked down at his watch to check the time; 6:55, which meant he was 5 minutes early. He waited for Cho for a few minutes. After a while, he checked his watch again; it was 7:03. Cho was late. She's probably coming, thought Harry, but Cho still hadn't come a few minutes after that. He was wondering what was taking Cho so long.

"Excuse me, but who are you waiting for?" asked a little voice.

"Who was that?" questioned Harry, looking around.

"It's me!"

The statue of Joy near Harry caught his eye, and as he stared at the statue, he found out it was the statue who had spoken to him. He had forgotten that some of the statues of the Princesses around the school could come to life, just like the paintings and pictures. The sweet, little statue of the 5-year-old curtsied to him with the same smile.

"Who are you waiting for, Harry?" asked the statue in a sweet, innocent voice.

"I'm waiting for Cho, who's my date. She was supposed to meet here a few minutes ago."

"I hope she comes soon. We wouldn't want you to stay out here all night!" she said, laying her hands with flowers on her hips in an adorable way.

"I wouldn't want that to happen either."

"How long have you both been dating each other?" asked the little magic statue, as she sat down on the edge of the elevated platform she was on, swinging her bronze legs.

"Our first date was at Hogsmeade. That was in late September, and now it's late January. So that's about... 4 months."

"Wow! That's pretty long, I guess. Ron has probably dated me, or probably best said, the current, real Princess Joy for that long too, right?"

"I suppose so."

"So... Have you read any good books lately?" asked the little bronze Joy, trying to continue the conversation, still swinging her legs.

"Not really. Just books for school subjects, but I have been reading that dueling manual Glory gave me. It helped me win the duel, although it didn't seem too great for Glory."

"Ignore that. She's always been so rough when it comes to games. Why, I remember when we were 3 years old. She was so mean when we played hop scotch! I won one game, and she pushed me over! I got a bad scrape from that," she said, pouting.

"That wasn't very nice of Glory. I know this seems a bit odd to ask, you being a statue and all, but have you read any good books lately too?"

"Nope, not really. I've seen a lot of students pass by with pretty interesting books. I do remember when I was this age when my daddy read me stories of "Cinderella", "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves", and a whole lot of other fairytales. I even read some fairytales on my own, and I also read Pollyanna and Heidi all by myself!"

"Wow, those are big books for a 5-year-old!"

"I know, but you should have seen the books Glory was reading! She read all the Lord of the Rings books, a lot of law and history books, and War and Peace!"

"My goodness!"

"I know. I don't know why she spent most of her time reading those big books. She could have been eating ice cream and playing with her dollies during all that time!"

"You know, you are just such an adorable, little girl. I think you're the cutest statue I've ever met!" said Harry, considering he hadn't 'met' many statues.

"You think? Do you think others will think I'm cute too?"

"Of course!"

"Even Muggles?"

"I think so."

"Because I haven't met many Muggles, although the few I've met seem pretty nice. Would you think they'd think I'm cute if they saw me?"

"In human form they would, but if they saw a statue like you talking like that, they would all freak out no matter what. They'd probably bring you to a lab and start studying you. I'm not trying to scare you, you know."

"It's okay. I thought they would do that anyway. Muggles these days are so nosy! All I am is a bronze statue with magic! They wouldn't find anything. It's not as if they're going to find a circulatory system or nervous system like most living creatures have. The heart pumps the blood through arteries to give the nutrients to all the parts of the body, and the used blood goes back to the heart through the veins. And the nervous system starts with the brain, which sends messages to the parts of the body through the spinal cord to all the nerves-"

"You know a lot for your age!"

"You learn more than a thing or two when you live with someone like Glory!"

Harry giggled, watching the little Joy smile after making the funny joke. The small statue of 5-year-old Joy really captured the essence, characteristics and personality of the modern-day Joy in a younger version. Being with the statue made him see how great a person Joy was, strange as it sounded. He wondered how a 5-year-old Hermione, Ron or Glory would be like. Or even worse, how Malfoy would be like! He would have probably been a little, spoiled brat at that age (of course, he still was one).

"You know, I-"

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

A sharp, high-pitched loud scream shot through all the corridors, which shocked Harry to the bone, and scared the little statue too. It was a too-familiar voice which had sent a giant chill down Harry's spine.

"Oh my goodness! It sounds like Cho!"

"Save her!" squealed the little bronze statue. "She could be in danger!"

Harry immediately rushed to where the sound of the scream was coming from, almost feeling like crying to think what could have happened to Cho. He looked this way and that way, up and down corridors, until he reached a small corridor about 3 hallways from the Ravenclaw common room.

The little hallway was dark and gloomy, and in the trace of its darkness, he could see a small, dark figure lay on the floor, twisted here and there. Harry slowly approached the figure, absolutely frightened what it was. As he went close to it, he heard wheezing, a very weak and scared-sounding breath. He could barely see anything, so he decided to light up his wand.

"Lumos!" he said, as a ball of light at the tip of his wand lit up the whole small corridor. But that moment, he wished he hadn't cast that spell, and that he had not seen the horrific sight he saw that night.

"OH NO!!!! CHO!!!!!!"

Indeed it was Cho, who was lying sprawled on the cold floor. She was extremely skinny, and she was all blue from a lack of a great amount of blood. She looked wrinkled and pruned, and her face was in total terror.

"Harry....." she wheezed. She tried to hold Harry's hand, but she was too weak.

"What happened?!?! Why are you like this?!?! Who did this?!?"

"I... It... "

Chop fainted, laying absolutely still on the marble floor. Harry tried to find her pulse, and listened to her heartbeat. It was still beating, but only just. As long as she's still alive, he thought. He had no idea whatsoever of what could have caused this. It looked as if something, someone, had sucked the life out of her, even all the blood and fat out of her. She looked almost like a prune, and this wasn't at all a laughing matter to make fun of.

Harry pounded his fists on the floor, with tears pouring out of his eyes. He wished none of this had happened, not at all. He wished he could have looked for her before, and that they could be on their date instead of him now crying right beside the barely-alive Cho.

But nothing could be done. He cried and cried and cried, not knowing was else to do. His girlfriend had been sucked dry, by some evil person. When he was trying to dry his eyes, he spotted some substance around him. He slowly and lightly touched the substance and examined it; they were ashes.

"Why would there be ashes here?" muttered Harry to himself, looking at the ashes in his hands, but it didn't matter. He forgot about the discovery and kept on crying, until he heard a voice.

"Harry?"

Harry turned around to see Joy, Hermione and Ron, looking quite puzzled.

"Harry, what's wro- Oh my goodness!" shouted Joy, holding her hands in front of her mouth in shock, as she stared at Cho. "What happened?"

"I don't know," sobbed Harry, wiping the tears from his eyes. "I found her like this. I wish I knew who did this. And then I'd....."

"There was nothing you could do, Harry," sighed Ron.

"We should tell a teacher about this," suggested Hermione. "We need help with this."

"Is something the matter here? OH DEAR!"

It was Professor McGonagoll who had come into the corridor, looking as shocked as the rest (well, not as shocked and as sad as Harry). She was followed by a few other teachers.

"What has happened here?" questioned Professor Sprout in horror.

"We don't know," sighed Hermione. "When we passed by here, we saw Harry with Cho Chang, on the floor."

"Do you know what happened, Harry?" asked Professor Luigi, looking very concerned, and seeing that the event had hurt Harry and not just Cho.

"No, I just found her here after she screamed," uttered Harry, as he put on a straight face and stopped weeping. "She was trying to tell me something, but she fainted before she could tell me. She's alive though."

"Hermione, please report to Professor Dumbledore about this," ordered Professor McGonagoll. "We need his presence immediately!"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Harry, tell us exactly what happened."

"Well..." he said, trying to clear up his voice from the sobbing. He slowly stood up, realizing it would be a bit silly to sit on the floor in front of teachers.

"I was waiting for Cho for our date," explained Harry. "She was supposed to meet me near the bronze statue of Joy, 6 corridors from the Ravenclaw common room. I waited for her a long time. She was supposed to have come a lot more minutes earlier. "Then I heard a very loud scream. I knew it was Cho's, so I rushed everywhere to find her. I saw a strange figure near the floor, but I couldn't recognize it. When I lit up my wand, I found her lying there, gasping and wheezing. I asked her about what happened and who did that to her, and she was going to tell me, but then she fainted. I checked her pulse and it turns out she was still alive, but hardly. Then I started to...

"After a while, Joy, Hermione and Ron came and found me here. You and the other teachers came soon after."

"Now 'I' am here, Harry, and it seems it's a good thing I'm here indeed!"

It was Professor Dumbledore who had spoken after Harry, and who was walking through the crowd of teachers to Harry. He looked deeply horrified at the sight of Cho Chang in that manner.

Many other students came around the area, and were shocked once they found out what happened. Older students tried to block the younger students' views so they wouldn't be able to see the terrible site.

Dumbledore ordered Madame Pomfrey to come with a stretcher so they could carry Cho to the Hospital Wing. Professors made all the students back away from the incident, although all the students wanted to know more about what happened. The curious students huddled around Harry, asking him loads and loads of questions, but Harry just shooed them away.

As Harry tried to walk a bit further from the small corridor where the scene had taken place and where everyone was being backed away from, he came across Malfoy and his two cronies, Crabbe and Goyle, who were smirking at the incident as if it was funny.

"Potter, I heard you were crying your heart out when you found out about Chang," chuckled Malfoy in a cruel expression. "I never knew you could cry like that. I suppose Mr. Hogwarts Celebrity has a sensitive side. It will no doubt be all over The Daily Prophet and Teen Witch Magazine, won't it?"

"Just stop it, Malfoy," grumbled Harry. "Just stop it! This is not something to be joking about."

"That doesn't mean you should become a cry-baby pouring buckets of tears everywhere. I'm surprised Cho didn't drown from the ocean of tears after being sucked up dry like a prune!"

"Say another word, Malfoy, and I'll-"

"What's this? What happening?" questioned Glory, who had just appeared to the scene of the event. She gasped in horror as Madame Pomfrey (with the help of some older students and teachers) lifted Cho up and brought her to the Hospital Wing. "Why didn't anyone tell me about this?"

"It was best if you didn't see it," said Joy, approaching Glory. "It's horrible, just horrible, and no one knows what happened. By the looks of things, I'm not too sure if anyone is brave enough to hear what happened anyway."

"Maybe if I had come here earlier I could have figured it out. Headmaster," she said as she turned to Professor Dumbledore, "I suggest we have an emergency staff meeting about this."

"Good idea, Glory," said Dumbledore. "Professors, staff and Princesses, follow me into the staff room. May all Prefects and Head Boys and Girls lead their houses to the dormitories."

Harry was about to leave with all the Gryffindors to the common room, but Professor Luigi stopped him.

"Sorry, Harry, for stopping you from bringing your house to the dorms," said Professor Luigi, "but I just wanted to remind you, that if you want to tell someone your feelings and thoughts, you can always tell me. I'm always here to help, you know that."

"Of course, Professor Luigi."

"I'm glad you know that."

Professor Luigi hurried to the staff room, while Harry followed the Gryffindors to the common room. While they were in the hallway where Harry was waiting for Cho, the bronze statue whispered to him.

"Harry, over here!"

Harry noticed it was the Joy statue calling him, and he soon went over. The little statue was moping and pouting, and Harry could tell she was very sad, even though she was just made of bronze.

"I found out what happened," said the little statue. "I'm so sorry. I would cry, but I'd just end up rusting."

"I know," groaned Harry. "I'm sorry too."

"Here," she said, pulling out one of her bronze roses, separating it from the bouquet, and handed it to Harry. "This just might make you feel a teensy weensy bit better. And this too."

The little statue gave Harry a little kiss on the forehead. It felt very cold (the statue being metal and it being January and all), but it made Harry feel a bit warmer inside.

"Thank you. You know, you're not just the cutest statue I've ever met. You're also the sweetest."

The little statue smiled. Harry tucked the rose into one of the pockets in his robe and went back to the Gryffindors. Once everyone was settled in for the night, Harry went to bed. When Harry entered the room, Seamus got out of bed to speak to him.

"Harry, I'm sorry about what I said before."

"It's okay. I forgive you."

"I hope she gets better, and that they find out who did it."

"I do too."

"And Harry?"

"Yes, Seamus?"

"I do think you and Cho will stay together forever. No one can separate you, not even an awful incident like this."

"Thanks."

After their little conversation, Harry put on his pajamas and got into bed. He didn't sleep at all that night. He wept silent tears all through the night, thinking about what had happened. He hoped everything would turn out okay, and everything would be all right.

*****

Cho's attack was all that Harry thought about that week. He wasn't paying too much attention in class, and he didn't care about most things around him either. In a month after repair on the Quidditch field was done, they would be continuing Quidditch. It would be Ravenclaw against Hufflepuff for the first game, although most people doubted Cho would be able to play for that game. They'd lose without Cho as seeker, thought Harry, still sulking and mourning.

Of course, the Hogwarts school days to come were very strange as well. The next day after the attack, Glory had become a lot more stronger and better than the previous day in her classes. However, the fact was that the day before she seemed very distracted, weak, tired and not too great at her classes, and the next day, she had a lot of energy, not at all distracted, extremely strong and was the same A+ student she always was, was quite confusing. What was also strange was that she became even stronger than usual!

"It's strange about what's happening with Glory," remarked Ron. "One day she's tired, the next day she's better than ever!"

"I'm confused too, Ron," agreed Joy. "Something doesn't sound right. What do you think, Hermione?"

"I have no idea what to say," said Hermione. "Maybe we can find out what's going on while we're at the library."

"That sounds good. How about you, Harry?"

When Joy spoke to him, Harry didn't say anything back. He was too wrapped up in his self-pity to talk to any of his friends.

"He's probably too sad to answer that," suggested Joy. "Harry, is there anything you want to say to us?"

Harry was still silent. All that day, he didn't really answer any of their questions. Maybe little things like "yes" and "no", but otherwise he didn't talk to anybody. It wasn't very easy on his friends for him not to speak to them. They wanted to speak to Harry, and they wanted to ask him so many questions about the other night. It was only after classes were done when he finally spoke.

"Harry?" asked Joy, in a shy voice. "Is there anything at all you would like to tell us? You know, if you talked to us about this, we could find out what happened. Please, Harry, tell us what happened, and what you're thinking. It might make you feel better."

"Fine," sighed Harry, thinking where he should begin. "As you all know, I had a date with Cho at 7 o'clock. I went a bit early, so I waited. As I waited, I looked at my watch, and found out she was a few minutes late."

"Was anybody else there?" asked Hermione. "Did you talk to them?"

"No one else was there, at least no one alive. I was talking to that bronze statue of Joy when she was 5-years-old. She kept me company."

"She did?" said Hermione. "That's nice. What did you think of her?"

"She was adorable. You were a cute kid when you were 5 years old, Joy."

"Thank you," said Joy with a shy smile. "How long did you both talk?"

"We talked until I heard Cho's scream. I knew it was Cho automatically. I rushed through the halls, trying to find where she was, until I came to a very small hallway. I saw a figure on the floor, but it was too dark for me to know what it was. I lit up my wand, and there I saw her; Cho, lying on the floor, sucked dry.

"It scared me stiff. She was gasping, with a horrified looked on her face. She tried to grab my hand, but she was too weak. I asked her what had happened. She tried to tell me something, but she fainted before she could tell me. I checked her pulse, and she was still alive. After that, I cried my heart out. Then you and everyone else came to the scene."

"How do you feel now, Harry?" asked Ron. "What's making you feel so sad?"

"I'm sad, very sad. I'm frightened too, and worried for her safety. And lonely, I'm very lonely too. It's just the fact that... that she suffered that experience. The sight of her made me want to cry. Why did someone had to do something like that to her? She was always so kind, she never did anything bad to anyone else! To see her in that state... "I wish I had went looking for her before. I could have found out what happened, and who did that to her. I could have protected her from it! I don't think I would go on if something very bad came of this. And to think if it was worse..."

Small and silent tears of great sadness trickled out of Harry's eyes. He wasn't pouring buckets, but everyone could see he was in great sorrow.

"Is there anything that happened after?" asked Hermione.

"Professor Luigi talked to me. He told me that if I had anything that I wanted to tell, I could always tell him. Afterwards, I followed all the Gryffindors back to the dorms. While we were passing by the hallway that I waited in, the little bronze statue called me. She told me how sad she was and how sorry she was about the incident. Then she gave me one of her bronze flowers from her bouquet, and a little kiss on my forehead. Actually, I still have the rose in my pocket."

Harry pulled out the little, bronze rose that he had put in his pocket after the statue had given it to him, which he had completely forgotten to take out. He examined the little bronze rose, holding it in his hands. A sense of warmth grew inside him, which overcame the coldness and sorrow he felt. He smiled, and looked up at his friends.

"That was very sweet of her!" said Ron, looking at the bronze rose.

"Yeah, it was."

"Harry, did you see anything strange happen during the incident?" asked Hermione.

He thought back to what happened, seeing if there was anything that didn't fit in the picture during that time. The attack was already strange enough, but was there anything abnormal that he saw? Then suddenly, he remembered the ashes he found on the floor.

"Ah yes! There were ashes near the scene of the crime. Not a lot, just a bit on the floor."

"That seems odd," remarked Joy. "Why would there be ashes there?"

"Seems strange to me," agreed Hermione. "Why don't we check out that corridor? Maybe the ashes are still there!"

"Let's hope they still are!" said Ron, as everyone got up and went to the scene of the crime.

Harry put back the rose in his robe pocket and headed with the others. They rushed through all the halls, trying to find the exact corridor the attack occurred. Harry felt a bit sorrowful inside, remembering what happened that horrible night.

They finally came across the little hallway where Cho had been attacked. Harry was very uncomfortable in this place. They all looked around, when Ron spotted a little bunch of ashes on the floor, which was in what almost looked like a swirl. There was not a trace of ashes anywhere else, which seemed very odd.

"Where do you think this could have come from?" pondered Ron, touching some of the ashes.

"I have no idea," said Harry. "Maybe we can look around a bit more, to see if there's any more traces of this stuff."

"I guess we can," said Joy. "It wouldn't hurt, although I haven't seen any more ashes so far. If we look around, we might find some more clues."

They looked around the surrounding hallways, trying to find another piece to the strange puzzle. They looked left and right and up and down all the hallways. When they thought that there was no more looking to do, they bumped into three familiar people.

"Watch where you're going, Potter!" said Malfoy, brushing off his robes with his hand.

"What are you doing here, Malfoy?" questioned Harry.

"I was going to visit Glory, that's all. I was going to meet her in front of the entrance to their common room."

"You know, you shouldn't be waiting around for people these days, concerning what happened."

"What, about Cho's attack? Come on! As long as I've got Glory on my side, I've got nothing to worry about!"

Goyle and Crabbe chuckled at the remark, though that statement was true. According to all their theories, about Voldemort and Malfoy conquering over the world with Glory's power, it would be very unlikely for Glory to get hurt. Considering Malfoy was thought to be in the plan, he wouldn't be hurt either. But did the attack have something to do with Voldemort and the other things, or was the attack a separate mystery?

"So Malfoy, aren't you just excited for Quidditch season to continue?" questioned Harry. "No wait, I forgot; the Slytherin team is disqualified!"

Now it was Ron, Hermione, and Joy's turn to chuckle at Harry's remark. Harry was actually quite happy the Slytherin team was disqualified, after trying to attack him during the game.

"Quit it, Potter! After all these attacks and shocking incidents, I wouldn't be too sure to go back on that field. You never know, maybe something will happen there too!"

"Malfoy, something already has happened. It burned up! Whoever's doing this is going to do something to the Quidditch field again! They probably have a lot of security around there anyway."

"There used to be, but now they don't. They stopped security around there 2 weeks ago. In fact, I went to visit the field yesterday. They fixed some of the stalls and everything, but the other bleachers, the scoreboard and hoops are still in very bad shape. Plus, there's loads and loads of dust and ashes underneath the snow. There's very slow repair for that field. If my father was in charge, he'd get it finished in less than a month!"

"But the field's been very badly damaged, and Professor Dumbledore and the others have been very, very busy."

"Suit yourself. Come on Crabbe and Goyle, Glory and her friends are waiting for us."

The three Slytherins left Harry and his friends and went to the Ravenclaw common room. There was something suspicious about Malfoy, and Harry could tell. "I never liked that Mafloy guy, I absolutely hate him!" said Joy. "He should be expelled."

"Unfortunately, there's not enough proof or reason to get him expelled," sighed Hermione. "Do you have any idea what could have caused the ashes?"

Harry though about what Malfoy said, and suddenly an idea came to him.

"I've got it!" he shouted with a bright smile on his face.

"What is it?" asked Ron.

"The ashes! Malfoy said he had visited the Quidditch field yesterday. He probably had ashes on his shoes. He could have been the one who did this, and he must have left some of the ashes that were on his shoes."

"Wouldn't there be more ashes around the hallway if he had ashes on his shoes?" asked Ron.

"I've got one way to find out. Let's go to the Quidditch field."

So Harry, Ron, Hermione and Joy rushed to the Quidditch field, while their new ideas were still fresh in their minds. They rapidly snuck into the field, making sure the coast was clear. Once they had finally arrived t here, they looked around the place, noticing what bad condition the Quidditch field was under.

There was a lot more improvement though. A couple of hoops were replaced, and three quarters of the bleachers were all repaired, but the rest was all burnt, black and most of it was melted as if it was made of plastic. There wasn't any ashes on the ground, except for around the hoops. The rest of the ashes were under the snow.

"Doesn't it seem weird to be back here?" asked Joy.

"Yes, it does," agreed Harry. "I wonder how Malfoy got those ashes on his shoe. There's so much snow that you can't get to the layer of ashes underneath the snow."

"Maybe Malfoy stepped in those few areas where the ashes are exposed," suggested Hermione. "We can go look near the hoops."

"All right, but if I get ashes on my shoes, I won't be happy!" whined Ron.

With this idea, they all approached the hoops closest to them, with one of the three hoops bending all the way to the ground. There was a small ring of not-snow-covered ground filled with ashes and dust. The small ring wasn't very thick, but a bit thicker than the length of a shoe.

They looked and observed all three hoops on their side of the field. At the third ash-ring they saw, they noticed some kind of print in the ground. Harry bent down to take a closer look .

"It's a print," stated Harry. "A shoe print! This must be Malfoy's. It was him who attacked Cho! That's it, I'm going to get him- "

"Harry, relax!" said Hermione. "This might not be his shoe. We should check what kind of shoe it is, and see if it's the type of shoe Malfoy wears. Does anybody here know how to identify a shoe print?"

"I do! I do!" exclaimed Joy. "I know so much about shoes you won't believe it. Let me see the print." She bent down and studied the print, looking at it from different angles. "Okay, I know exactly what shoe this is! It's a dress shoe all right, one of those nice expensive ones... size 7 in men... from the Calvin Smitz collection... obviously a black shoe. Does Malfoy wear any kind of shoe like that?"

"He's obviously not a big guy, so I guess he could be a size 7 in men," said Harry.

"Haha, Malfoy's got tiny feet!" cheered Ron. "I've got 9 1/2!"

"Don't be so ridiculous, Ron!" scolded Joy. "Even as much as I hate Malfoy, you don't make fun of others shoe sizes. Besides, having size 9 1/2 only means you have big feet!"

Ron frowned when he heard the remark. While he was pouting, Harry, Hermione and Joy were thinking about the shoe print.

"He obviously wears an expensive kind of shoe," said Joy. "It's obvious he's rich, he boasts about it non-stop."

"I always see him with black dress shoes," said Hermione. "I never see him with running shoes."

"Then that settles it!" announced Harry. "This is obviously his shoe print. Let's get out of here before anyone sees us."

"Good idea, Harry," said Ron. "We can go back to the castle and- Oh no!" Ron's foot slipped into the ash ring and got covered with ashes, which made him very angry. "Great! Just great! I've got ash-shoes now! My mother will be so angry at me!"

"Stop whining, Ron!" scolded Joy again. "I've got a shoe kit that will get those ashes right off your shoe. Can we please go back to the castle?"

They all hurried to the castle, trying not to let anyone notice that they went to the Quidditch field. Ron was trying to hide his shoe full on ashes, but no one paid attention to him anyway. They four students noticed that no ashes whatsoever were smudged or even went on the floor. Every single particle of ash was stuck to Ron's shoe, and he wasn't happy about it at all.

They finally went into the common room, where surprisingly there was nobody there.

"This seems a bit strange," said Harry. "No one's here."

"Did they call an emergency assembly or something?" enquired Joy.

A few 5th year Gryffindor boys came down the dormitory and were heading to the common room exit, when Harry asked them something.

"Excuse me, can we ask you something?" asked Harry.

"What is it, Harry Potter?" asked one of the boys.

"Is there an emergency assembly today? Where is everybody?"

"Most people are in the library," answered the other 5th year. "Professor Luigi is giving extra help for his classes, and he's telling everyone about all his adventures! We're going to the library too. Extra help for his classes are every Thursday from 4 o'clock to 5 o'clock, and his story telling is from 7 o'clock to 8 o'clock."

"It sounds great!"

"Are you coming, Harry?"

"No, I'm staying here with my friends."

"All right! Oh, and people are signing up for Professor Luigi's Defence Against the Dark Arts N.E.W.T. Club, which is in about 3 weeks. It's going to be every Saturday. Are you going to join?"

"Defence Against the Dark Arts N.E.W.T. Club?" questioned Hermione. "It sounds interesting. What is it?"

"It's a club Professor Luigi's founding which involves lessons and tips on things that are not in the Defence Against the Dark Arts curriculum, and that Aurors usually deal with. They talk about the Dark Arts around the world, defense tips, Auror work, and a bunch of other cool stuff. It's only for the N.E.W.T. students."

"Wow, sounds great. We might join!"

The 5th years scurried out of the common room which left Harry, Joy, Hermione and Ron all by themselves.

"That sounds great, a Defense Against the Dark Arts N.E.W.T. Club," said Ron. "I wonder what things they'll do."

"Actually, Professor Luigi and his brother Professor Mario had a Defense Against the Dark Arts N.E.W.T. Club at my other school as well!" said Joy. "I couldn't go, but I heard it was great!"

"What things did they do?" asked Hermione.

"A lot of things! There was this one time when they were talking about vampires and their stereotypes. Then they talked about all these techniques how to fight vampires, and then they got to practice fighting vampires with a hologram. I heard it was very realistic, but it didn't hurt you.

"Last year, they talked a lot about Voldemort. They tried to discuss the ways they could stop him, but no matter how many times they tried to figure something out, it didn't work. I wonder why my sister and I didn't bring up the idea to Professor Luigi that we could get an army after him. Anyway, they showed the N.E.W.T. students a lot of tips on being an Auror and how to defend yourself against someone like You-Know-Who."

"That seems so great!" said Hermione. "A club like that could be really handy concerning what's going on. I guess we should start talking about Malfoy."

"You're right," agreed Joy. "I'll get my shoe kit and get that stuff off Ron's shoe."

"All right," said Hermione. "First of all, we noticed in the hallways that nothing came off Ron's shoe. That probably explains why there wasn't any trace of ashes anywhere else."

"Then how did that pile get off his shoe in that little corridor?" questioned Harry.

"Good point, Harry. Ron, can you take off your shoe to show us?"

"I kind of don't want to touch this shoe," said Ron. "It's very sticky and disgusting. Is it okay if I just lift up my foot and show you?"

"Sure!"

Ron lifted up the bottom of his shoe and showed Harry and Hermione the ashes stuck on it. It sure seemed as if it was completely stuck there.

"It resembles a lot like tar," said Hermione. "Do you think this might be a different kind of ash?"

"I don't know," sighed Harry. "It could be, but then how could it be a different kind of ash? If we found out how it was caused, we could find out why it's like that."

"Maybe it's because of the cold weather and wet snow," suggested Ron, "which makes everything stick together."

"It could be," said Hermione. "I could go look in the library about fires with Joy tomorrow. Because Joy gets special permission to check out books from the restricted section, she can get books for us and we can research on this."

"Cool."

"Okay, I've got the shoe kit!" called out Joy, coming out of the girls' dorm.

"Youppi!"

Ron twirled around and rushed to Joy. Harry looked down from where Ron was at first, and noticed the most remarkable thing. There was a bundle of ashes on the floor in a spiral shape, just like the one they saw in the corridor!

"Joy! Ron! Hermione! Look at this!"

Harry's friends all huddled around Harry as he showed them all the print Ron made.

"Oh no!" grunted Ron. "Professor McGonagoll's going to be so mad at me when she finds out I ruined the floor!"

"True, but look at this," pointed out Harry. "It looks so similar to the bundle of ashes in the small corridor!"

"How did Ron do that?" asked Joy.

"He twirled around and rushed to Joy."

"We should make sure about this," suggested Joy. "Ron, I know you don't want to get in trouble, but can you twirl and dash one more time? Don't worry, I know a perfect spell to get it out."

"Fine."

Ron shrugged and went to one spot in the room. He twirled around and dashed very quickly, then stopped to see if he made that mark. What he had done had made another mark of ashes!

"Now we know what happened for Malfoy to make those marks! Once Cho screamed, he probably knew someone would come and see what was happening, so he twirled around and dashed into the other direction. It's that simple!"

"Great, but after solving some mysteries, I start to get hungry," said Ron. "I think supper at the Great Hall is ready."

"Ron, we have to clean up this mess, and your shoes!" said Joy.

"Fine. Joy and I can stay here and clean everything up. You others can go to the Great Hall. Will this be long, Joy?"

"Oh no, not at all!"

Harry and Hermione went to the Great Hall where they were serving a delicious supper (lasagna, steak, corn, ribs, plates of cheese, peas, French bread, Greek salad and pastries. My, does that menu sound good!). About 12 minutes later, Ron and Joy came down, Ron having two clean shoes again.

Harry finished his supper quickly, and once he was done, he went to the Hospital Wing to visit Cho. When he got to the door of the Infirmary, he knocked on the door shyly three times.

"Who is it?"

"It's Harry Potter, Madame Pomfrey."

"Come in, Harry! Come in!"

Harry opened the door to see Madame Pomfrey trying to feed Cho some soup and mashed-up food in her hospital bed. There was a green-purple-blue liquid in a bag connected to a cord which went into Cho's skin (just like those packages of blood they give at the hospital to patients who have lost a lot of blood). Cho still looked awful and dried up, but she was improving.

"Eat, Cho," pleaded Madame Pomfrey. "Eat! It's hard for her to eat, Harry, her being so exhausted and all. She was in a coma before, but an hour ago she woke up. I don't think she's very alert though. You can try to speak to her, Harry."

Harry walked over to the hospital bed and sat on the edge of Cho's bed, looking at her tired, tense face.

"Cho?" whispered Harry to her.

"Harry...." she murmured, wheezing while she said it. "I'm so....glad.....to see...you."

"I'm glad to see you too."

Cho gave Harry a small, soft smile, which was all she could do, as weak as she was. Madame Pomfrey tried to feed her food, and Cho swallowed it all very slowly.

"Will she be all right?"

"Yes, she will be okay, thank heavens, although we don't know if the memory of this will scar her for life. There's a chance that she hasn't remembered a thing. I guess we'll never know what happened to her."

Harry tried to agree, hiding the fact that him and his friends had found some pieces to the mystery. He looked at the package with the strange liquid, wondering what it was.

"Madame Pomfrey, what is the substance in that package?"

"This," said Madame Pomfrey, pointing to the bag, "is Timplewimp Paste. Haven't you been studying the Timplewimp in Herbology, Harry?"

"Yes, we have. We planted some a few days ago."

"Anyway, the Timplewimp makes the paste which can cure what Cho has."

"Wait a minute. The Timplewimp is for those who have lost blood, fat and magic, right? It's obvious that she's lost blood and fat, but has she lost her magic?"

"Half of it, Harry! Scary, isn't it? If whatever happened to her had gone on for about a minute longer or so, she could have lost all her magic, and if it went on for two minutes more, she probably would have been a goner."

"She could have died?!"

"Oh yes, Harry! This is very serious, what she has."

"How long is she going to stay here in the Hospital Wing?"

"A very long time, about a month or more. You can only take the medicine of the Timplewimp half a litre every three days maximum. For usual cases, they just have to give them a little needle of this stuff, but her attack was very bad, that we have to give her a lot of the paste."

"A month! That's a long time. She'll probably not be able to play for the next Quidditch game. Oh my goodness! She'll still be in here for Valentine's Day! That's a shame."

"Don't worry, Harry. A month will go by very quickly. Besides, you can visit her as much as you want."

"Thank you, Madame Pomfrey. I'd better leave now. Bye, Cho."

"Bye.....Harry....."

Harry got up and left the Hospital Wing, glaring back at poor Cho. He was very worried about her, and was very disappointed that their Valentine's Day would be ruined. He rushed back to the common room, where he told his friends all about his visit to the Hospital Wing, and they discussed their new findings about Malfoy, the ashes and the attack.

*****

"Joy, I can't believe all the useful books you can find in the restricted section! There's The Attacks of the Dark Arts, The Loss of Magic, The Top 100 Dark Arts Enemies to the Magic Community, and look at this one! It's called The Encyclopedia of Worst Case Scenarios of Evil. This is pretty scary stuff!"

Hermione was having a field day as she looked through the gigantic pile of books that Joy had picked out from the restricted section in the library. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Joy were in Joy's study (which was decorated in a metal and simple -styled decor, that was very chique) researching to find clues of the strange things that were happening at Hogwarts.

The four of them split up topics to research so that everyone was assigned different topics to look up in the pile of books Joy got out from the library. Harry had to look through books about fires and ashes, which wasn't as exciting as the topics the others got to look for. At the moment, Harry was looking at a book called The History of Great Fires, which he didn't seem to find any good information in.

He placed the book aside, and rummaged through the stacks of books to find another one concerning fires and ashes. He spotted a very intriguing one, called The Mystery of Fire and Ash: A Look at Various Kinds of Fires, the Types of Ashes from Them and the Spells to Create Them. He picked up the large, red book and flipped through the pages, looking at all the illustrations of the many kinds of fires: gigantic, green-coloured fires, oil fires, smoke fires, and so forth. He reluctantly read every single type of fire, but passed to the next one if the descriptions didn't match up to their situation. After he had gone through 23 types of fires, their ashes and how they were created, he found one kind of fire called The Slick Fire. Harry read the context to himself, thinking that this fire might be the one they were looking for:



The Slick Fire, scientifically called Firius Slico-Collantus, is a very dangerous fire, which can spread very quickly and silently, burning up 3 yards of land in 1 minute. It is because of its quick movement and silence that gave it the name, 'The Slick Fire'. Its characteristics are caused by the extreme stickiness of the fire. The adhesiveness of the flames of this fire are almost like a runny, flaming tar, which melts most objects into gluey-like liquids.

Because of this, the ashes of the Slick Fire are very sticky and black. If stepped in, the ashes cling onto the shoe and don't come off, unless the front of the shoe is put into large amounts of friction (usually being rapid dash movements and spinning). Removal of this kind of ash can also take place when it is rubbed by a chemical called ocknus-diodium, which is found in many shoe cleaning kits.



"Joy! Ron! Hermione! Come quick!" called out Harry. "I think I've found the fire that burnt up the Quidditch field!"

All three of his friends dropped their books and rushed to Harry's side with excitement. The three of them skimmed through the text, nodding at each other in agreement that this was the one, the fire that burnt down the field.

"This fits all the characteristics!" said Ron. "It tells about how silent and quick the fire is. Remember, Harry, in Divinations? We didn't hear a thing, and it was as if it came up out of nowhere! By the time the class found out about it, the whole entire field was consumed in flames."

"Exactly!" agreed Joy. "The part of how sticky the ashes are, and how to get it off perfectly fits the ashes in the field. It's the right one, there's no doubt about it."

"Harry," said Hermione, "can you read the next paragraphs on how the Slick Fire is formed?"

"Sure. Here it is:

"The Slick Fire usually occurs when a charm is cast with extreme rage, hate, disappointment and jealousy. It takes a very powerful person to make this charm, or at least someone who has experience in the highest of Dark Arts. If someone inexperienced and not-so-powerful creates the spell, it will blow up in their face and have much more gruesome consequences. For more information on the backfiring of this spell and the history of fire-casting backfires, read 'When Fire Spells Go Wrong' by George McGroyge.

"For this charm to be conjured up in the first place, the wand of the conjurer has to be dipped in a potion called 'the Sticky Flame Potion', which lets the spell to work slickly, with stickiness, flamingly and powerfully. To make this potion, see page 345. The potion doesn't stain or ruin the wand when dipped in. Instead, the wand sucks up the potion into its content and is released during the spell. For the instructions to cast this spell, see page 677."

"So whoever conjured the spell was in rage when they were doing it," said Ron.

"Of course," said Hermione. "Was Malfoy in rage at that time?"

"I remember he was really mad about the Slytherin team getting disqualified from Quidditch for the year," said Harry. "He was probably experiencing those feelings at that time."

"That's probably why he burnt down the Quidditch field!" said Joy. "He must have been so angry about what happened concerning Quidditch that he never wanted to see that awful Quidditch pitch again, and to ruin Quidditch for all the other teams!"

"Wonderful theory, Joy," said Hermione. "I guess he put all his anger into the spell which later made him cool off. Remember when Malfoy apologized for everything he'd done?"

"Oh yeah!" remembered Ron. "That was weird when he said that. He probably didn't mean those things, since he's gone back to being the mean guy he always was."

"Maybe he really meant it that time, but once Glory started becoming a bully, he took it up again too," suggested Hermione.

"Or maybe he just said that because he had gotten all of his hate out of him," implied Harry. "It says about who is capable of the curse. They state here that 'it takes a very powerful person to make this charm, or at least someone who has experience in the highest of Dark Arts'. Is Malfoy a very powerful person?"

"No!" laughed Ron. "Now he's starting to get pretty good in school and pretty strong, but otherwise he isn't. The only thing powerful about him would be his bank account at Gringotts."

"Is he someone who has experience in the highest of Dark Arts?"

"No..... Wait! Of course he is!" shouted Hermione. "He's plotting and scheming with Voldemort, isn't he? Voldemort practically 'is' the highest of Dark Arts. He and Malfoy have done a lot of the Dark Arts. That's probably why he was able to do such a powerful spell."

"That settles one part of the problem," said Harry. "What about your topics? Did you three find anything?"

"No, I couldn't find any attacks of this kind," said Hermione.

"I couldn't find any spell which could have done that specific attack," said Ron.

"Sorry, but I couldn't find any other information about anything that would have to do with the attack."

"Too bad," sighed Harry. "I would just like to know how could Malfoy have that much power to do that to Cho. Was he with Voldemort at the time? It just seems so weird....."

At that moment, Joy's eyes became wide and everyone could tell that she had that look when one just figured something out or when one finally remembered something. Once she saw that everyone was looking her, she tried to hide that look.

"Did you remember something that could help up with this?" asked Ron.

"Uh.... Ah..... No...... No not at all."

"Really?"

"No..... Maybe......."

"Come on, Joy!" shouted Hermione. "Tell us what you remember!"

"All right, all right. I remember reading and hearing a lot about it of the powers of a Wizard King or Queen. I remember reading that if someone is extremely powerful, more powerful than the average person like them, that person can give some of their power and magic to another person."

"What?!?!" shouted Harry, Ron and Hermione in unison.

"Yes, its true! Sometimes a Magic Monarch can transfer some of their power to another person. For example, if there was a general going to fight a very important war, the King or Queen at that time could give some of their power to the general so they could fight the war. It's usually supposed to wear off after a week or so. Sometimes even a month!"

"You mean, Glory could have transferred some of her magic to Malfoy, and he could have used it to attack Cho?" asked Harry.

"Perhaps, but Glory wouldn't give magic to Malfoy like that. She even vowed to tell me that she would never give out any of her magic, unless it was for very, very, very, very, very, very, very extreme purposes. It would have to be someone who really deserved it or needed it, someone who could handle it."

"Maybe..... Malfoy hypnotized her?" pondered Hermione.

"How could Malfoy hypnotize Glory?" questioned Ron.

"Wasn't a hypnotist kidnapped early in the year?" enquired Harry. "Maybe Voldemort and Malfoy have him captive, and Malfoy used the hypnotist to hypnotize Glory."

"That would work," said Hermione.

"Oh yeah!" remembered Ron. "Do you remember how weak Glory was that day, the day when Cho was attacked? She probably had given Malfoy her powers. Wasn't Malfoy really strong that day too?"

"It's true, he was," said Hermione, "but I don't think him being better in classes has to do with Glory giving him power. I see him every day in the library with Glory, working very hard."

"She's right," agreed Joy. "My sister will not date anyone who isn't smart or is slacking off in class. Even so, I already know she's always helping Malfoy with his homework and tutoring others. But wait! I also forgot to tell you that after a Magic King or Queen gives some of their power to someone, they get super-strong the next day. Wasn't Glory very strong the day after?"

"She was," said Harry. "We should try to get some more evidence about this."

"Maybe another time," said Joy. "I think we researched enough. Care to help me put these books away?"

"Sure!" said all of them, as they helped Joy stack up the books and lay them on a shelf in the corner of the room.

*****

"Cho? Cho? Are you awake?"

Harry was in the Hospital Wing, sitting on a stool right next to Cho, who was resting in her hospital bed. She was still very skinny and blue from a lack of blood and fat, but there was a great improvement. It had been almost a week since she had been attacked, and Madame Pomfrey had taken care of her very well since then. Harry was calling Cho gently, to see if she was awake. Cho opened her eyes slowly, and then became alert.

"Harry, I'm so glad to see you," she said in a tired voice. She still hadn't regained all of her strength, not even half of it, so she was still exhausted.

"How's it been in the Hospital Wing?"

"It's been fine. Madame Pomfrey's very nice. She takes care of me very well."

"I know exactly what you mean," said Harry, recalling all the times he was in the Hospital Wing from a Quidditch game or from defeating You-Know-Who at the end of the year.

"What has happened while I was here?"

"Nothing big, although Professor Luigi has started a program for students who need some extra help with their Defense Against the Dark Arts work and he tells stories of his great adventures. He's also starting a Defense Against the Dark Arts N.E.W.T. Club in a few weeks."

"Oh no! I probably won't be able to be out of here by then."

"I know, I would have really liked it if you'd join. I think there might be something else.... Ah yes! There's going to be a Ravenclaw vs. Hufflepuff Quidditch game in about a month."

"I won't be able to play!"

"I know. The Ravenclaws probably won't win without you. You're a great seeker."

"Thanks for the compliment. Is there anything else?"

"No, there isn't. Uhm...... Cho?"

"Yes, Harry?"

"Do you remember anything about the attack?"

"No, sorry I don't. All I remember is walking out of the common room entrance to meet you. Oh, I forget to tell you that I was sorry that I was late for our date, Harry. My homework took me longer than I expected and I was trying to find my other earring after misplacing it. To continue, after that all I saw was blur. The next thing I remembered is waking up in the hospital."

"So, you didn't see anyone?"

"No, not at all."

"And you don't remember anything else in particular?"

"Nope."

"Do you remember what you were trying to tell me when I caught up to you? You were trying to tell me something, but you fainted before you could say it."

"Sorry, I don't remember trying to tell you anything."

"Oh. I better let you rest. Bye, Cho."

"Bye... Harry."

Harry left the room, keeping an eye on Cho as he exited to room. He remembered that his friends were still researching on clues to the attack, and he thought that they might want some help. Everyone was at the library doing homework and listening to the adventures of Professor Luigi, so the common room would be empty.

Harry gave the password to the Pink Lady ("fish and chips with extra hot sauce", a very strange password which all the Gryffindors thought abnormal) and entered, seeing immediately that a great abundance of books was spread around the room. His friends were all sitting with their legs crossed on the floor, going through tons and tons of books.

"Joy, I think you checked out the whole entire restricted section from the library," remarked Harry, being careful not to trip over any of the books.

"No, unfortunately I couldn't," sighed Joy. "Plus, I borrowed a bunch of Glory's books and I took out some of mine. Don't worry, I'm going to bring all the library books back in a couple of days."

"When you 'borrowed' Glory's books," said Ron, "do you mean that you actually asked Glory if you could use some of her books?"

"Yes, I did ask Glory for the books! She just didn't say I could take them."

At that moment while they were talking, Glory was looking through her shelves of books in her rooms, and noticed a gigantic section of her books were gone. She looked around her rooms to see if she had misplaced them. After knowing she had failed to find them, she turned around and remembered when Joy had asked for those books. Glory clutched her hand into a fist, and her face burned with rage.

"JOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she screamed, filling the whole entire castle with her screech.

Back at the Gryffindor common room, they were looking through their books and they heard the high-pitched scream.

"Uh oh," gulped Joy. "I think Glory knows I took her books. We should really hurry up with these books."

"What are you all looking for?" asked Harry.

"Just some extra information concerning the Cho-Malfoy incident last week," answered Hermione.

"I wish we could just find out what Malfoy is thinking," said Ron. "You know, go into his mind or something. Joy, you're psychic. Why don't you read his mind?"

"Sorry, Ron. I never read people's minds, at least not usually. Sometimes I read minds without even knowing it, but I'm not going to go into people's thoughts. Their thoughts are their personal things."

"Isn't there any other way we can find out what Malfoy's thinking? Maybe we can go into his dream! It could give us some clues."

"I don't think so," said Hermione. "I'm looking through this book called The Wonders and Powers of the Great Magical Monarchy. I'm flipping through the book and there's nothing of the sort. There's mind reading....future telling.... super strength....... dream peaking...... Dream peaking! Oh my goodness, Joy can go through other people's dreams!"

"All right!" said Ron, becoming excited.

"I never knew that!" said Joy. "Does this mean I could have bugged my sister by going into her dreams and seeing if she had the crushes that she denied and things like that? I've just lost 16 years of fun! Does Glory know about this? Has she gone into my dreams?"

"I doubt it," said Hermione. "What do you think we should do about our new discovery?"

" I say," said Joy, "that we go into Malfoy's dream and see if we can find some clues."

Author's Note: DUNDUNDAAA!!!!!! I'm sorry, but i love saying DUNDUNDAAAA!!!!!! SO, Glory got P.O.ed that Harry won the duel and now she's going all half Ravenclaw- half Slytherin on everybody, Cho got attacked, they figured out a few things of the mystery, and they might be going dream-peaking (actually, they WILL be). Next chapter's called: Dream Peaking. Basically, they go dream-peaking inside Malfoy's dream. Pretty cool stuff! OH, and here's that disclaimer:

Disclaimer: You know that sucked up dry of fat and blood thing? That was inspired by an episode of Smallville, when this fat girl becomes skinny because of this mysterious drink, but then becomes so hungry and she eats a deer and almost eat people or something.... Anyway, the way the deer and the person (well, she ALMOST did it to the person) looked like kinda inspired me. Oh, and I don't own Smallville. Also, I'm not great at men's shoe sizes, so I'm not sure if 9 1/2 is men is big or if 7 is small, but hey, I did my best. As you can see, I'm also not British, since i wrote 'running shoes' instead of 'trainers'. Yeah, that's all I wanted to say. Oh, and I forgot to say:

PPPPPPPPPPPPPPLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSEEEEEE REEEEEEEEEEEEEVVVVVIEWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!