Note to T, Jay, Court, Emily, Shannon, and Michelle (and anyone else who this could possibly affect): My only request is that none of you kill me for this; I had a fever when I wrote it (which is why none of you saw me today) and I think they must be putting alcohol in the medicine now. Either that or I'm just plain nutz. Or both. Lol.
She walked in and set the forms down on a nightstand, unaware of what was hidden in them. The seven girls were already there. After she made sure everyone changed into flowing outfits (a few had to borrow Gemna's dresses with the help of "blekeya tetlarro"), she told them to all lie on their backs on beds. "Gemna?" Ginny said. "There's only five beds and six of us need to lie down."
"No problem. Just hand me one of those tissues, please." Ginny handed her the tissue and Gemna set it on the floor. She pointed to it and said, "Akemshift!"
"What did she just do?" Seamus asked.
"Sounds like she transfigured a bed from a tissue," said Ron.
Dean smirked. "I can see where that could come in useful."
Harry elbowed him and said, "You're sick." They all laughed before Ron reminded them that they were missing the conversation on the other end of the Extendable Ears.
"Wow, thanks Gemna!" Ginny said as she lied down. "How did you do that?"
Hermione answered for her. "It's the Makeshift Charm. You find an item with similar qualities of what you need, picture it transforming into the necessary item, and say the charm. It'll stay like that for three hours."
"Cool. Well, now what do we do?" asked Emilia.
"Okay, everyone clear their mind. Relax. Everything is at peace. Yet there is nothing. Relax." Gemna and Hermione walked around the room to see that everyone was calm. Ron, Harry, and the other guys waited anxiously to see what would happen. "Now," Gemna continued once everyone was ready. "Picture yourself lifting up; nothing but that. No surroundings; just you lifting up. Your body floating…your spirit lifting…your soul at one with the world around you."
"She talks so beautifully," said Neville in a daydream tone.
The girls began to rise slightly off the beds. "Good. Now imagine yourselves flying through wonderful places; floating through your dreams. Be at peace. Fly through a field of flowers. Glide across clouds." Gemna gave Hermione a congratulations smile for being so helpful. The girls had managed to levitate high above their beds now. Courtney was four feet above hers.
"If I floated through one of my dreams, it wouldn't be very peaceful," Harry said. "Like that one with the flaming duck." He added once he saw the smug look on Dean's face.
"I just realized something," Neville said to change the subject. "You three are gonna have to do this tomorrow night."
"Oh my god, I never thought about that," Seamus said nervously. "I don't wanna wear a dress!"
The other guys laughed. "Don't worry," Dean said. "I'm sure you don't have to wear a dress. Besides, you can always borrow one of hers." They laughed again and quieted to hear more of the dialogue in the girls' room.
"Okay, I think that's good for now. You all pretty much got the hang of it. Now imagine your bodies and spirits safely lowering back down. The keyword is safely. If you don't think safely, your body and spirit could lower separately and you could end up dead…or just injured. But don't risk it." The girls all lowered safely back onto the beds and sat up as the guys gave each other terrified looks. Could that really happen or was she just joking?
"That was amazing!" Shania shouted.
"I feel so refreshed an energetic now," said Maria.
"And we get to teach the others how to do this?" asked Michelle.
"Yes, you do." Gemna answered. "However, none of them will be able to learn in one lesson like you girls. It's a gift to be able to learn it this quick. It'll take the first three or four classes to get everyone levitating, probably. After that, we'll let select few learn free levitation. This means they can levitate on the floor, from a chair, standing…anywhere. Well, pretty much. However, not even all of you will be able to do this…" Gemna lifted off the ground and floated around the room, before landing back where she started.
"Cool!" Courtney yelled.
"What did she do?" Ron asked.
Harry shook his head. "I don't know if we'll ever find out."
"Probably no more than three people out of all who signed up can even get close to that," she said as nicely as possible. "Well, that pretty much covers everything. It's only ten-thirty. Still early…" they all sat down on the beds again; Gemna and Hermione sat with Emilia and Ginny.
"Hey," Emilia said. "I know what we can do." She smiled devilishly as the others turned towards her in question. "Let's play truth or dare."
They guys jumped up and cheered. "Yes!" yelled Dean. "We couldn't have asked for a better conversation. Ron, you have to give your brothers a major thank you for this Extendable Ear thing. And ask them to send me a dozen." They all laughed as they stopped their cheering and listened eagerly.
"Sounds good," Ginny said. "I haven't played it in a while."
"I've never played it. What do you do?" Hermione asked to no one's surprise.
"It's easy," Gemna explained. "Somebody picks someone else and the chosen person chooses truth or dare. If it's a dare, they have to do whatever the dare is. Is they pick truth, they have to answer whatever question they're asked, truthfully."
"Okay…but nothing dangerous, right?" she checked.
"Nothing like killing yourself or jumping off the roof," Michelle clarified. "Now who should get to choose first?"
"I think Gemna should," Shania said. The other girls agreed.
"Well, alright. I pick…" Gemna looked around the room. "Emilia. It was her idea to play," she giggled.
Emilia thought for a moment. "Dare."
"Dare?" she laughed. "Well, I don't want to get into the more…interesting dares yet. So your first dare is to…hm…do back flips up and down the stair case."
"No problem," she said. "My Mum had me take gymnastics for four years." All the girls walked to the door. Emilia turned around and did about fifteen consecutive back flips down the stairs and another fifteen back up. Several girls looked out of their dorms and most of the students in the common room stared at her when she reached the bottom of the steps. The girls walked back into the room, closed the door, and sat down again. "That wasn't so bad of a dare. You could have dared me to do it nude or something."
"I haven't played this game at this school before. I don't know what you all consider acceptable. One time when I played it last year," Gemna said, "one of my friends dared someone else to run around the school naked. They both got detention for a month. At least they both got boyfriends after." They all laughed. "Well, Emilia, it's your turn to pick someone.
"I choose…Hermione."
"Truth," she said immediately.
"Alright. Who do you have a crush on? And we all know you like someone so don't lie," Emilia giggled.
Hermione sighed. "Nothing said in hear will be repeated outside this room, right?" They all nodded. "Okay. I like…Ron."
Ron's heart stopped and his jaw dropped as the guys turned towards him. "Congratulations, Ron," Neville said. "Hermione is a great girl. You're lucky."
He just stared at the floor as the thought sunk in. Ron didn't know how to react. He liked both Gemna and Hermione. But now he wasn't sure if he really loved either of them, or merely cared for them as if they were sisters.
"You like my brother?" Ginny giggled. "Maybe one day we'll be sisters!"
"That'd be cool," Hermione said, much more relieved at the acceptance she was receiving from the rest of the group. "Well, I suppose it's my turn to choose someone now, isn't it? How bout Maria?"
"Dare. I feel like doing something risky," she said with a giggle.
"Risky? If you insist." Hermione walked over to her and whispered something in her ear. Then she pointed her wand at her, whispered an incantation, and they all watched the door open, with no sign off what happened to Maria.
"What did you dare her to do?" asked Courtney.
"Oh, you'll see. I felt it was only fair to make her invisible first. But if she doesn't hurry, it'll wear off. It's only good for ten minutes."
"What happened?" asked Seamus. Just then, there was a small noise from outside their door, and it unlocked and opened. There was no one there. The guys pretended not to notice and acted like they were talking about Quiditch. None of them were sure what was going on, but they didn't want to risk getting caught, so Ron hid the Extendable Ear. They didn't look, but they heard something like a cabinet open, followed by the soft click of the door being closed again. Ron took the Ear back out. "Okay, do we really want to know now?"
Before any of the other guys could answer, Hermione's voice came over the Ear and she was obviously undoing the invisibility charm. "I got 'em!" Maria exclaimed. Maria held up Harry's boxers. "They didn't even notice I was in the room! They were talking about Quiditch." The guys waited anxiously to hear exactly what it was that she had gotten.
"Wow," Gemna giggled. "Harry has some interesting taste in clothing. Blue and green isn't really a good color combination for him though."
Harry's jaw dropped as their heads slowly turned towards a half-opened drawer. "Oh shit," he said quietly as the others laughed.
"Harry!" Ron cracked up and fell backwards on the bed. "She took…" He couldn't even finish the sentence before bursting into laughter again. Harry slid off the bed and sunk to the floor, gripping his knees to his chest and staring at his feet.
"Okay," Maria said once they all calmed down and Gemna put the boxers under her mattress. Ginny caught a glimpse of Essence Of Self again. "I pick Ginny."
"I'll go with truth. You're not getting me to go steal anyone's underwear," she laughed.
Maria giggled and said, "What's the furthest you've ever gone with a guy?"
Ginny bit her lip and answered, "Just making out. That's not that bad, is it?"
"Nah," Michelle said. "I once heard of some twelve year old muggle having a baby! So making out by the age of fifteen isn't bad."
She sighed in relief, as Ron grew very overprotective. "I'm gonna hunt down whoever that guy is and strangle him," he said fiercely as he made a choking motion with his hands.
"Calm down, Ron," Dean said. "Michelle's right. She's fifteen now. She coulda done worse by now. She's been pretty angelic compared to some people. I accidentally saw Ariel and Jared half naked behind a stare case one time two years ago. Trust me, you don't want to picture it. I had to wash my eyes with soap after." They all laughed; though Ron only felt slightly more relaxed.
"Now it's my turn. I pick…you, Michelle," Ginny said.
"I guess I'll do truth," she said quietly.
"Okay. I'm not asking this in a sick kind of way or anything; just in general: what's the weirdest dream you ever had?" She really did mean it in general, contradictory to the guys' opinion.
"I would have to say the one I had around the end of last year."
"What was it about?" Emilia questioned.
Michelle looked up at her. "That that Umbridge woman was slowly tortured to death with fire and sharp objects and the universe celebrated as mutant fire ants gnawed at her rotting flesh." Both rooms went silent.
"Um…right…" Ginny tried to get the image out of her mind, though she almost wished it was true.
"Sorry," Michelle said with a faint smile. "But that was the weirdest dream I ever had. Let's move on. I pick…Courtney."
"What the Hell," Courtney said. "Dare."
"Hm…ah, I know. Say one nice thing about Malfoy," Michelle laughed.
The guys actually wanted to hear this. "Well," Courtney said, "if I have to. He's got nice muscles." All the girls laughed. The guys were repulsed.
"Yeah," Hermione agreed. "For the meanest, most rotten jerk in the school, he's pretty good-looking."
"Just for the record, I only said that because I Was dared to. It never leaves this room. Neither does anything else, right?"
"Of course. Now it's your turn to pick someone, Court. It'll be the last one tonight. It's almost twelve," Emilia said.
"Good. I pick Gemna."
"Dare," Gemna said.
"And it can be anything that isn't deadly, right?" Courtney asked. Maria nodded at her. "Okay. I dare you to strip in front of the guys; whether or not they're still awake."
"Fine. I don't mind," Gemna said with a giggle.
The guys' faces lit up. "Oh no!" Neville said as the others went nuts with excitement. "What are you guys so happy about? Don't you think it'll be the slightest bit suspicious if we're all sitting here waiting?"
You're right," Harry said. "Come on guys. We got to get changed for bed fast."
They all rushed into nightclothes, turned off the lights, and jumped into their beds just in time to hear Gemna coming up the stares. The door creaked open and the guys pretended to be sleeping. "I swear, if I get caught, I'm gonna strangle Courtney," she whispered to herself. She held her breath, walked into the center of the room, and took off her clothes. They were all incredibly happy that it was too dark to see them, but the light from the window shined on her. "Okay, now I can say I did it. I better get out of here." Gemna threw her dress on and ran out of the room, closing the door behind her.
They all sat up and turned on the lights. "My new favorite game is truth or dare," Seamus said.
"That has got to be the best thing to ever happen at this school," Ron laughed.
Harry looked on the floor where Gemna stood moments ago. "Hey, look," he said.
The guys looked at what Harry was staring at as voices returned to the Extendable Ears.
Gemna walked back into her dormitory and slammed herself onto her bed. She noticed the one form the spell earlier had vanished. "Were they awake?" Emilia asked anxiously.
"Well, the lights were out and they were all in their beds. But I've been in there when they were sleeping before and I really can't tell. But I hope they…" Gemna stopped. "Oh dear God," she said as she crossed her arms.
"What?" they all asked together.
"I left my bra there! What am I going to tell them? How can I get it back?" A tear dripped down her face.
"Well you said they were sleeping, right? Just go back in and get it," Michelle said.
"They might not be sleeping anymore. I accidentally slammed the door when I was leaving."
Hermione sat down by Gemna and tried to comfort her. "I'm sure there's something we could do. Maybe we can work out a trade. Harry's boxers for your bra." They all laughed; even Gemna.
"You're right. I'm sure somehow we can resolve this whole thing in the morning. I promised Ron since we could spend more time together tomorrow since we were so busy today. Maybe that'll help. We better get to bed. I don't think I'll be getting up early in the morning." They all said goodnight to Michelle and Ginny as they left; then they got changed for bed and went to sleep.
"Harry," Seamus said. "Do you realize what this could lead to? She's desperate to get that back and she still has your boxers. You heard. You could ask her for anything; more than just your stupid underwear."
"I don't want to take advantage of her," he said as he picked up her bra and put it on a shelf.
"Take advantage of her?" Ron said rhetorically. "We just spent almost four hours spying on her and now your concerned about whether or not you should ask for a favor in return for her stealing your boxers?"
"Look, we'll do what she said and work it out in the morning. I'm going back to bed." Harry turned out the lights without waiting for a response from the others and got back into bed. Not as though any of them could sleep, however.