Chapter 8
The Surprise Visitor



Crystal woke up early the next morning. She rushed down to the common room to see that everyone was already waiting for her. Everyone had a huge pile of presents. Crystal immediately began ripping off the paper to one of her gifts. Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione all received sweaters from Mrs. Weasley. Crystal had received a beautiful necklace from her grandmother. After everyone had finished opening all their presents they headed for the great hall for breakfast.
"Did everyone have fun last night?" Harry asked.
"I had such a good time," Crystal said dreamily. "I can't wait for the Elite competitions to begin."
"Me either," Ron said.
"Look," Hermione pointed to the ceiling. White flakes of snow began to drift toward the ground. Crystal looked out of one of the great hall's windows. There was already a foot of snow or more on the ground.
"Snowball fight," Ron declared.

Crystal was definitely the best at snowball fights. She used her wand to turn herself invisible then she could sneak up to her prey without them even seeing her. The only bad part was she left footprints.
Crystal stared off into the distance. There sitting by the lake was none other than Draco Malfoy. She quietly advanced toward him not even worrying to turn herself invisible. She threw a huge snowball which landed on the top of his blond head.
"Crystal you better run," he threatened.
Crystal tried to run away but Draco tackled her, knocking her breathless to the ground. Oddly enough Draco fell right on top of her.
For a few brief seconds Crystal was lost in the smell of Draco's wonderful cologne. Draco's breath seemed to float around her, remobilizing her body. As Draco slowly got up Crystal felt something cold fall into her hands. It was Draco's watch.
"Draco," Crystal called after him but he just kept walking back toward the castle.

"I think we need to go back to the Room of Requirement," Harry said later in the common room. "Maybe this time Draco won't come. We also need to start having D.A. meetings again. Ginny tell Luna that we're having a meeting at one today. I'll tell Neville."
At 1:00 Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, and Crystal made their way to the Room of Requirement. Neville arrived shortly after accompanied by Luna Lovegood. Luna looked a lot different than everyone had remembered her. Her long blond hair flowed all the way down her back. In one ear she wore a star earring and in the other a moon earring. Neville seemed to notice this change too, do to the fact that his eyes never left her face.
"Attention," Harry shouted as he made his way to the front of the room. "Let's begin by reviewing Petrificus Totalus. Let's break up into pairs. Luna and Neville, Ron and Hermione, and Crystal and me. Let's get started."
After Harry and Crystal had both performed the charm several times Harry left to check on how everyone else was doing. After seeing that everyone had mastered the spell Harry said, "Now I want to try something different. Seventh years have been learning about element charms. The water charm, Hydralois, is the one we will be using. Once person will use this charm while the other will try to block it with Impervious. When aimed at the water Impervious should repeal it away. Now everyone begin."
"Hydralois!" Harry shouted.
"Impervious!" Crystal said as a barrier surrounded her. The water bounced off her barrier and soaked Harry.
"You'll have to be quicker," Crystal said. "My turn. Hydralois."
"Impervious!" Harry shouted.
Seeing the charm bounce off Harry's barrier Crystal jumped to the side missing the water by inches.
"Expelliarmus!" Harry shouted, making Crystal fly into the air then land hard on the ground.
"That was cheap," Crystal said as she got up.
"Attention," Harry said to the D.A. "I think we have practiced enough for today. I'll inform you when the next meeting will be. Unless anyone has anything to say I herby dismiss this D.A. meeting."

Later in the common room Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Crystal began finishing their homework when a large barn owl flew into the common room. The owl had no letter but kept staring at Crystal.
"It's okay," Crystal said. "They're my friends."
The owl hesitated for a moment then transformed into a girl Crystal's age. The girl had long black hair and was wearing white robes.
"Saria you made the honor squad. That's so cool. But something tells me you didn't come all this way just to tell me that," Crystal said.
"It's your father," Saria began. "He was the Potions professor at my school but he left a few days ago to come to Europe. He's looking for you Crystal."
"I knew he would. But I should be safe here. Listen, you're going to have to go back and make the potion of fire. Something tells me that if my dad can't get to me he'll come for you and that's the only way you'll be safe."
"Okay," Saria replied. "But you have to promise me that you'll alert me ASAP."
"I promise," Crystal said. "You better get going. It'll be a long flight home."
"See ya." Saria transformed into the owl and flew out the open window.
"I know," Crystal said before any had a chance to talk. "I have a lot of explaining to do. So what do you want to know first?"
"Is your friend an Animagi?" Harry asked.
"No," Crystal began. "The core of her wand is Kelpie fur. This enables her to change her form without going through Animagi training."
"What's the honor squad?" Ron asked.
"It's like being a prefect. You have more power and get to do more stuff."
"What's the potion of fire?" Harry asked.
"A very difficult potion to make. She's the person at RoseOx who can make it. Even the professors can't make it. The potion protects you in a way. No evil person can hurt you as long as the potion is working. It overcomes poisons and gives you more strength in battle."
"Wow," Hermione said. "I didn't know a potion could do that."
"Like I said not many people can make it so not many people know about it."
"I have a new angle about our D.A. meetings. I think we all need to take turns teaching so we can learn as much as possible," Harry suggested.
"That's a good idea," Crystal said. "When it's our turn we can schedule the meetings ourselves." Crystal yawned.
"It's getting late," Hermione said. "We better go to bed. We can talk more tomorrow."

The next morning there was a new notice on the Gryffindor notice board:
Any 7th year that will be competing in the Elite tryouts will need to come by my office at 1:00 this evening. You will learn all about the competitions and how you gain points.
Professor McGonagall

After reading the notice Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Crystal went down to the great hall for breakfast. Not long after they sit down a hundred or more owls flew down into the great hall. A rather large owl flew down and landed in front of Ron. He quickly untied the letter.
Once he finished reading he shouted, "My dad's just been promoted to Assistant Minister of Magic!"
"That's so cool," Hermione said.
"This will really help the Order," Harry said.
"What's the Order?" Crystal asked.
"Nothing," Harry quickly said.

At 1:00 that afternoon Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Crystal made their way to Professor McGonagall's office.
"Settle down," Professor McGonagall demanded. "The Elite competitions work a lot like your O.W.L.S. You will begin by answering questions in the field that you're trying out for. Then you will have a task. The task will show you ability to think fast in different situations. The first tryout is Defense Against the Dark Arts which will be held January 10th. That will be all."

The students filed their way back to the Gryffindor common room.
"I'll defiantly win Defense Against the Dark Arts," Crystal said.
"No I'm going to win," Harry said.
"No you're not," Crystal argued.
"I guess we'll just have to wait," Harry replied.
"I have a great idea," Crystal exclaimed. "Let's have a New Year's party in the Gryffindor common room."
"That's a great idea," Hermione said.
"Wait. I'm not finished," Crystal continued. "We can play music at night right before the New Year begins. We can even set off fireworks. But during that day we could have a talent show. Just Gryffindor's can enter and we could even give out prizes. We could let everyone tryout then the audience can vote on their favorites. It would beat doing homework. We might even charge admission so we can get a better prizes."
"Sounds like fun," Ron said.
"I'll make a flyer and post it on the notice board. So how much are we going to charge?" Hermione asked.
"Does two sickels sound okay?' Crystal replied.
"I'll keep a list of everyone who's entered and I'll make a schedule for December 31st."
"WE probably want to divide it into groups," Ron suggested.
"That's a good idea," Crystal said. "How about comedy, drama, music, and other. And we'll have a winner in each category."
"I'll start on the flyer," Hermione said.