Sorry it took so long, I was very, very busy this week! Hope you like this
chapter. I'll try to get more up next week (or as soon as enough reviews
are left)
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Harry?"
Briar turned around and saw a very pretty girl with long, black hair and almond shaped eyes. "What are you doing in the dungeons?" She asked curiously.
"I was looking for the potions classroom."
"But-it's Saturday!"
"I need to find all of the classrooms so I know where they are for Monday."
The girl looked at him with a very confused expression before shrugging. "Well, if you say so." After a brief and strange silence, she spoke again, "Er- I just wanted to-to say I'm-" she took a deep breath, "I'm really, really sorry about last year. I was awful! The crying, talking about Cedric in front of you, running away, getting mad about the stupidest things, I'm so sorry about everything! I didn't mean to make you feel worse! I was so selfish! And Marietta really wasn't that bad, at first! I didn't think she'd tell! Oh, Harry, I'm just really, really sorry!" By this time, the girl was sobbing uncontrollably into Briar's shoulder.
"Uh- it-it's alright. R-really." Briar was stunned. One minute she was standing there, perfectly normal, the next, she was sobbing desperately about strange things he didn't know about-and didn't really want to know. What could she possibly have done that had been so bad? And what was he supposed to do now? He had never had to deal with a hysterical girl before- besides Tris, but that was different. It wasn't like he hadn't known girls his whole life, but this one was very different. She seemed to need quite a bit of help to keep herself under control. 'Oh, great,' Brair thought, 'just what I need: more to deal with.'
"I d-didn't mean to!" She wailed loudly, "It wasn't my fault!"
Suddenly Briar heard a cold voice, "Well, well, what's going on here?" Briar turned to face the man who had first called him Harry. "A little reunion? I would advise you both to go to your common rooms before you get into any mischief. But first I think, ten points from Ravenclaw, Ms. Chang, and the same from Gryffindor, Mr. Potter."
"It's not her fault, sir. I was-was down here by myself, and she found me and was-" at this, the Chang girl wailed even louder, and the Potions master looked at her with disgust etched in every line of his pale face.
"Fine, Chang, keep your points! But Potter, you just lost Gryffindor another ten points!" Opening his mouth at this unfair statement, Briar felt a jab in his ribs, and noticed that the crying had stopped and Chang was looking worried.
"No, Harry," she whispered, "Don't do it! Just let it go," she grabbed Briar's hand, and began pulling him to the stairs. Without looking back, Briar began to sprint up the stairs, every second working to get as much distance between him and "that hook-nosed kaq", as Daja said, as possible.
They kept running until they got to the Great Hall, where lunch was being served. When they were there, Briar stopped and looked at the girl. "Uh- sorry about that," he said.
"It's okay," she said, smiling. Briar noticed that the girl's red-patched cheeks couldn't properly hide her pretty face. Especially when she was smiling.
"Well, do you want to eat with us then, over here, on this table? It's where we had breakfast." He said, trying not to sound too clueless.
"Sure," she replied in a giggly voice that was very different from that which she had used a few minutes earlier.
Briar sat down next to Tris, and across from Sandry and Daja (who had come to sit at their table, accompanied by many rude stares).
"Er, Harry, why is Malfoy over here?" The Chang girl asked, pointing at Daja. Daja, in turn, gave her an evil stare.
"Well, that's not very nice!" Tris said, "It's not her fault she was turned into a boy!"
"Tris," warned Sandry, "we weren't going to talk to anyone about that, remember?"
"Fine!" Snapped Tris, fingering her wand. "But you best be nice from now on, you hear me?"
The girl nodded mutely. Briar waved his hand at the seat to his left, and smiled at the Chang girl. She cautiously sat down, watching Tris very carefully.
"Oh, don't worry, Tri-uh -Hermione isn't usually that snappy," Briar assured the black-haired girl. He noticed her face tighten up. He distinctly heard her mutter ''Darling' Hermione, isn't it?'
"Sorry, Chang, what was that?" Briar asked
"Chang? You know you can call me Cho, don't you Harry? You didn't have a problem last year."
"Uh- right- Cho, that's what I meant," said Briar. Sandry choked into her bowl of soup. Quickly disguising it as a cough, she snatched a napkin and turned away from the table. Daja smiled kindly at Cho and offered her the rolls. Cho, in turn, gave Daja a disbelieving glance, as she slowly accepted the basket. She inspected it quickly, before taking one and passing it to Briar.
"Why does everyone do that?" Asked Daja, annoyed.
"Do what?" Asked Cho.
"Act like I'm evil, like I've done something very cruel that I don't have a clue about." Answered Daja.
"Well," said Cho, "you haven't exactly been kind to Harry the last five years, Malfoy."
"Of course she- uh I mean to say he- has," said Briar, the other three nodded in agreement.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Sandry and Briar were sitting in the common room, talking about the recent strange happenings, when a girl with dark, braided hair walked up to them.
"Come ON! Hurry up and change into your quidditch robes, I have told you a million times that we have quidditch practice today, in about five minutes!" She said, looking at her watch impatiently.
"Er- okay" said Briar uncertainly, then, glancing at the stairway leading to the boy's dormitory he added, "Um- what do my quidditch robes look like again?"
"Oh for gods sake, Harry! They told me you hit your head, but you should at least know which robes to wear!" Said the dark-haired girl accusingly.
*~*~*~*~*~* ^_^ (AN- Aragorn was here) ^_^ *~*~*~*~*~*
"So, what do you suppose we'll be doing?" asked Sandry after they had successfully changed into their quidditch robes and were walking down to the field, holding a broomstick each, with the dark-haired girl well ahead of them, "Ginny told me about quidditch, but I didn't know I'd actually get to play it! I wonder which position I'll be playing. Ginny said that you play as a Seeker."
"That's the one where you have to fly on a boom and try to catch a small golden ball with wings, right?" Asked Briar, "That doesn't seem too hard."
The dark-haired girl set down a chest that she had carried with her on the grass in front of them. She opened it and pulled out the largest, scarlet-colored ball and turned to Sandry. "What are you waiting for? Fly up and guard the hoops!"
"Um, how do I do this?"
"You both hit your heads? Oh my gosh, we will never get the Quidditch Cup!" she said, "Alright, then, just mount your broom and fly over there."
"F-F-Fly? We have to fly? Now? I don't know how!" Sandry squealed.
The girl sighed, "Like this." She grabbed her broom roughly and swung one leg over it. The next second, Briar realized she was in the air and soaring in the direction of three of the immense hoops standing at one end of the field. The girl pressed the left side of her broom and made a large, slow arc. She landed next to Sandry and said, "Now it's your turn. Just grab the broom like I did. It knows what to do."
"Er- okay." Said Sandry hesitantly before swinging her own leg over the broom and closing her eyes tightly.
"Well, you have to lift the tip upwards, and kick off!" Groaned the tall girl.
Briar turned to the dark-haired girl. "What's your name, then?"
"Katie Bell," began the dark-haired girl, but she was interrupted.
"AAAAAAAARGHH!!" Sandry was flying full speed up the field, trying to steer away from the goalposts to avoid collision. "Aargh! HOW DO I SLOW DOWN??!!"
"Oh, no," moaned Katie before mounting her broom again and zooming after Sandry.
Briar stared after her. He could now see her flying alongside Sandry and shouting instructions to her that Briar couldn't hear. Finally Sandry slowed down and ungracefully came to a halt, landing jerkily and shaking from red-haired head to foot.
By the time she got back to where Briar was still standing, open- mouthed, she was smiling in a scared sort of way. "Briar, you should TRY that, it is so much FUN!!"
"Er- okay." Briar first made sure that he had a thorough understanding of how to fly from Katie before finally mounting his broom and kicking off.
His heart gave a huge leap; flying was thrilling and fun and downright scary all at the same time. Yet this didn't seem very hard at all. It was hardly like riding a horse, but somehow, he already knew what to do.
He made a small loop, steered upwards, flew up twenty, thirty, forty, fifty feet in the air, and took a chance at diving. He soared downward with the wind whistling in his ears as he gathered more and more speed. He was sinking to the earth twice as fast as he'd ever moved before. Only ten, eight, five feet from the ground!
He jerked up on the handle and came smoothly level with the ground. "Wow."
"I see you aren't going to need any help flying, Harry, just like before. You really are a natural!" Katie exclaimed after he had landed next to her, then she added, "I'll let the snitch out now, you'll probably catch it right away, so give it a head start before you look for it."
"Okay," said Briar, "That doesn't seem that hard."
"It isn't hard, for you." She said, and then turned, again, to Sandry, "all you have to do, is block the quaffle from getting through those hoops." She pointed to the goalposts at the far end of the field. "I am going to spell the quaffle to fly at you, alright? It will fly at the hoops repeatedly until you block it five times in a row."
"Alright," said Sandry, "Will you give me a minute to get into the air?"
"Sure, but hurry we don't have all night." Katie replied.
(AN- since the italics aren't reliable, I've underlined the emphasized words)
After a while of intense goal blocking and snitch catching, they retired to a delicious Hogwarts supper.
"Wow," said Sandry, looking at Briar with amazement, "you were certainly very good at being a Seeker for the first time in your life!"
"Well you were good too!" Briar attempted, but failed.
"I only saved TWO GOALS!"
"Well, it was your first time."
"You caught the snitch Twenty-three times!"
"So?"
"SO, THAT'S A LOT OF TIMES!" Screamed Sandry. Everyone within 100 feet turned to stare at the two of them. Sandry's ears turned bright scarlet.
"I think everyone heard you," Briar whispered wickedly in Sandry's ear.
"Why you-- why you vile, ignorant-- I should-- oh, you've been around Rosethorn too long, you horrid boy!" Sandry hissed back, her blush deepening.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"If you can't figure out which plants to pull up, and which ones to leave in the ground, I'LL HANG YOU IN THE WELL BY YOUR ANKLES!!!" Yelled Rosethorn as Harry pulled up what he had thought to be an overlarge weed.
"S-sorry, Rosethorn, I- er- I didn't mean to. I've never done this before." Harry would rather have been anywhere but there. He looked dejectedly at the plant he had been yanking up roughly. "Could I- er- please go help Ron with something. Needlework? Anything?" Adding in his head 'anything but this!'
Rosethorn took a deep breath. "No," she bellowed flatly.
"Come on, please?" Begged Harry, desperately.
"Just finish this section of the garden, Briar- wait, that's not right is it? What was your name, boy?" Said Rosethorn.
"Er- Harry. Are you positive I can't go help Ron? I bet I am better at needle work than he is." The look on Rosethorn's face silenced Harry that very instant.
Rosethorn sighed, "Well, we could work on those medicines the healers wanted instead."
*~*~*~*~*~ ^_^ (Alanna was here) ^_^ ~*~*~*~*~*
"Hey Lark, I think I have the hang of this!" Ron yelled joyfully. Lark looked up from her sewing to look at Sandry's body. Earlier Lark had tied Sandry's hair behind her head to satisfy the new person inside it.
"That's good, Ron, keep working like that and you'll be fine." She said, encouragingly. Ron grinned at himself and returned to his sewing.
A few minutes later Ron heard Harry inside his head. 'Aargh, she's going to KILL me!'
'What happened?' Asked Ron, closing his eyes. When he opened them, he had looked though Harry's eyes accidentally and saw Rosethorn shouting at where he was standing.
'Sh-she really is g-gonna kill me this time!'
'She looks like she's going to bite you. Whatever you did, she's really mad.'
'I- I added the wrong kind of leaves! Th-they looked exactly the same!'
'At least you aren't stuck with needlework' Ron thought back.
'Good, she went back to her work.' Sighed Harry.
Ron smirked and turned back to his disgusting tangle of threads that had accumulated while his mind had wandered. "Oops."
"Just fix it and try again, it's okay." Said Lark kindly.
*~*~*~*~*~
All of a sudden, Ron looked out the window to see Rosethorn strangling Harry! (AN- just kidding! Ignore that sentence)
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Please R&R!!! Next chapter goes up when more reviews go up! All I'm askin is 10 reviews, please! (Hannah, don't you dare, or I'll send my big black shaggy dog after you! Grr! Grr!)
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Harry?"
Briar turned around and saw a very pretty girl with long, black hair and almond shaped eyes. "What are you doing in the dungeons?" She asked curiously.
"I was looking for the potions classroom."
"But-it's Saturday!"
"I need to find all of the classrooms so I know where they are for Monday."
The girl looked at him with a very confused expression before shrugging. "Well, if you say so." After a brief and strange silence, she spoke again, "Er- I just wanted to-to say I'm-" she took a deep breath, "I'm really, really sorry about last year. I was awful! The crying, talking about Cedric in front of you, running away, getting mad about the stupidest things, I'm so sorry about everything! I didn't mean to make you feel worse! I was so selfish! And Marietta really wasn't that bad, at first! I didn't think she'd tell! Oh, Harry, I'm just really, really sorry!" By this time, the girl was sobbing uncontrollably into Briar's shoulder.
"Uh- it-it's alright. R-really." Briar was stunned. One minute she was standing there, perfectly normal, the next, she was sobbing desperately about strange things he didn't know about-and didn't really want to know. What could she possibly have done that had been so bad? And what was he supposed to do now? He had never had to deal with a hysterical girl before- besides Tris, but that was different. It wasn't like he hadn't known girls his whole life, but this one was very different. She seemed to need quite a bit of help to keep herself under control. 'Oh, great,' Brair thought, 'just what I need: more to deal with.'
"I d-didn't mean to!" She wailed loudly, "It wasn't my fault!"
Suddenly Briar heard a cold voice, "Well, well, what's going on here?" Briar turned to face the man who had first called him Harry. "A little reunion? I would advise you both to go to your common rooms before you get into any mischief. But first I think, ten points from Ravenclaw, Ms. Chang, and the same from Gryffindor, Mr. Potter."
"It's not her fault, sir. I was-was down here by myself, and she found me and was-" at this, the Chang girl wailed even louder, and the Potions master looked at her with disgust etched in every line of his pale face.
"Fine, Chang, keep your points! But Potter, you just lost Gryffindor another ten points!" Opening his mouth at this unfair statement, Briar felt a jab in his ribs, and noticed that the crying had stopped and Chang was looking worried.
"No, Harry," she whispered, "Don't do it! Just let it go," she grabbed Briar's hand, and began pulling him to the stairs. Without looking back, Briar began to sprint up the stairs, every second working to get as much distance between him and "that hook-nosed kaq", as Daja said, as possible.
They kept running until they got to the Great Hall, where lunch was being served. When they were there, Briar stopped and looked at the girl. "Uh- sorry about that," he said.
"It's okay," she said, smiling. Briar noticed that the girl's red-patched cheeks couldn't properly hide her pretty face. Especially when she was smiling.
"Well, do you want to eat with us then, over here, on this table? It's where we had breakfast." He said, trying not to sound too clueless.
"Sure," she replied in a giggly voice that was very different from that which she had used a few minutes earlier.
Briar sat down next to Tris, and across from Sandry and Daja (who had come to sit at their table, accompanied by many rude stares).
"Er, Harry, why is Malfoy over here?" The Chang girl asked, pointing at Daja. Daja, in turn, gave her an evil stare.
"Well, that's not very nice!" Tris said, "It's not her fault she was turned into a boy!"
"Tris," warned Sandry, "we weren't going to talk to anyone about that, remember?"
"Fine!" Snapped Tris, fingering her wand. "But you best be nice from now on, you hear me?"
The girl nodded mutely. Briar waved his hand at the seat to his left, and smiled at the Chang girl. She cautiously sat down, watching Tris very carefully.
"Oh, don't worry, Tri-uh -Hermione isn't usually that snappy," Briar assured the black-haired girl. He noticed her face tighten up. He distinctly heard her mutter ''Darling' Hermione, isn't it?'
"Sorry, Chang, what was that?" Briar asked
"Chang? You know you can call me Cho, don't you Harry? You didn't have a problem last year."
"Uh- right- Cho, that's what I meant," said Briar. Sandry choked into her bowl of soup. Quickly disguising it as a cough, she snatched a napkin and turned away from the table. Daja smiled kindly at Cho and offered her the rolls. Cho, in turn, gave Daja a disbelieving glance, as she slowly accepted the basket. She inspected it quickly, before taking one and passing it to Briar.
"Why does everyone do that?" Asked Daja, annoyed.
"Do what?" Asked Cho.
"Act like I'm evil, like I've done something very cruel that I don't have a clue about." Answered Daja.
"Well," said Cho, "you haven't exactly been kind to Harry the last five years, Malfoy."
"Of course she- uh I mean to say he- has," said Briar, the other three nodded in agreement.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Sandry and Briar were sitting in the common room, talking about the recent strange happenings, when a girl with dark, braided hair walked up to them.
"Come ON! Hurry up and change into your quidditch robes, I have told you a million times that we have quidditch practice today, in about five minutes!" She said, looking at her watch impatiently.
"Er- okay" said Briar uncertainly, then, glancing at the stairway leading to the boy's dormitory he added, "Um- what do my quidditch robes look like again?"
"Oh for gods sake, Harry! They told me you hit your head, but you should at least know which robes to wear!" Said the dark-haired girl accusingly.
*~*~*~*~*~* ^_^ (AN- Aragorn was here) ^_^ *~*~*~*~*~*
"So, what do you suppose we'll be doing?" asked Sandry after they had successfully changed into their quidditch robes and were walking down to the field, holding a broomstick each, with the dark-haired girl well ahead of them, "Ginny told me about quidditch, but I didn't know I'd actually get to play it! I wonder which position I'll be playing. Ginny said that you play as a Seeker."
"That's the one where you have to fly on a boom and try to catch a small golden ball with wings, right?" Asked Briar, "That doesn't seem too hard."
The dark-haired girl set down a chest that she had carried with her on the grass in front of them. She opened it and pulled out the largest, scarlet-colored ball and turned to Sandry. "What are you waiting for? Fly up and guard the hoops!"
"Um, how do I do this?"
"You both hit your heads? Oh my gosh, we will never get the Quidditch Cup!" she said, "Alright, then, just mount your broom and fly over there."
"F-F-Fly? We have to fly? Now? I don't know how!" Sandry squealed.
The girl sighed, "Like this." She grabbed her broom roughly and swung one leg over it. The next second, Briar realized she was in the air and soaring in the direction of three of the immense hoops standing at one end of the field. The girl pressed the left side of her broom and made a large, slow arc. She landed next to Sandry and said, "Now it's your turn. Just grab the broom like I did. It knows what to do."
"Er- okay." Said Sandry hesitantly before swinging her own leg over the broom and closing her eyes tightly.
"Well, you have to lift the tip upwards, and kick off!" Groaned the tall girl.
Briar turned to the dark-haired girl. "What's your name, then?"
"Katie Bell," began the dark-haired girl, but she was interrupted.
"AAAAAAAARGHH!!" Sandry was flying full speed up the field, trying to steer away from the goalposts to avoid collision. "Aargh! HOW DO I SLOW DOWN??!!"
"Oh, no," moaned Katie before mounting her broom again and zooming after Sandry.
Briar stared after her. He could now see her flying alongside Sandry and shouting instructions to her that Briar couldn't hear. Finally Sandry slowed down and ungracefully came to a halt, landing jerkily and shaking from red-haired head to foot.
By the time she got back to where Briar was still standing, open- mouthed, she was smiling in a scared sort of way. "Briar, you should TRY that, it is so much FUN!!"
"Er- okay." Briar first made sure that he had a thorough understanding of how to fly from Katie before finally mounting his broom and kicking off.
His heart gave a huge leap; flying was thrilling and fun and downright scary all at the same time. Yet this didn't seem very hard at all. It was hardly like riding a horse, but somehow, he already knew what to do.
He made a small loop, steered upwards, flew up twenty, thirty, forty, fifty feet in the air, and took a chance at diving. He soared downward with the wind whistling in his ears as he gathered more and more speed. He was sinking to the earth twice as fast as he'd ever moved before. Only ten, eight, five feet from the ground!
He jerked up on the handle and came smoothly level with the ground. "Wow."
"I see you aren't going to need any help flying, Harry, just like before. You really are a natural!" Katie exclaimed after he had landed next to her, then she added, "I'll let the snitch out now, you'll probably catch it right away, so give it a head start before you look for it."
"Okay," said Briar, "That doesn't seem that hard."
"It isn't hard, for you." She said, and then turned, again, to Sandry, "all you have to do, is block the quaffle from getting through those hoops." She pointed to the goalposts at the far end of the field. "I am going to spell the quaffle to fly at you, alright? It will fly at the hoops repeatedly until you block it five times in a row."
"Alright," said Sandry, "Will you give me a minute to get into the air?"
"Sure, but hurry we don't have all night." Katie replied.
(AN- since the italics aren't reliable, I've underlined the emphasized words)
After a while of intense goal blocking and snitch catching, they retired to a delicious Hogwarts supper.
"Wow," said Sandry, looking at Briar with amazement, "you were certainly very good at being a Seeker for the first time in your life!"
"Well you were good too!" Briar attempted, but failed.
"I only saved TWO GOALS!"
"Well, it was your first time."
"You caught the snitch Twenty-three times!"
"So?"
"SO, THAT'S A LOT OF TIMES!" Screamed Sandry. Everyone within 100 feet turned to stare at the two of them. Sandry's ears turned bright scarlet.
"I think everyone heard you," Briar whispered wickedly in Sandry's ear.
"Why you-- why you vile, ignorant-- I should-- oh, you've been around Rosethorn too long, you horrid boy!" Sandry hissed back, her blush deepening.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"If you can't figure out which plants to pull up, and which ones to leave in the ground, I'LL HANG YOU IN THE WELL BY YOUR ANKLES!!!" Yelled Rosethorn as Harry pulled up what he had thought to be an overlarge weed.
"S-sorry, Rosethorn, I- er- I didn't mean to. I've never done this before." Harry would rather have been anywhere but there. He looked dejectedly at the plant he had been yanking up roughly. "Could I- er- please go help Ron with something. Needlework? Anything?" Adding in his head 'anything but this!'
Rosethorn took a deep breath. "No," she bellowed flatly.
"Come on, please?" Begged Harry, desperately.
"Just finish this section of the garden, Briar- wait, that's not right is it? What was your name, boy?" Said Rosethorn.
"Er- Harry. Are you positive I can't go help Ron? I bet I am better at needle work than he is." The look on Rosethorn's face silenced Harry that very instant.
Rosethorn sighed, "Well, we could work on those medicines the healers wanted instead."
*~*~*~*~*~ ^_^ (Alanna was here) ^_^ ~*~*~*~*~*
"Hey Lark, I think I have the hang of this!" Ron yelled joyfully. Lark looked up from her sewing to look at Sandry's body. Earlier Lark had tied Sandry's hair behind her head to satisfy the new person inside it.
"That's good, Ron, keep working like that and you'll be fine." She said, encouragingly. Ron grinned at himself and returned to his sewing.
A few minutes later Ron heard Harry inside his head. 'Aargh, she's going to KILL me!'
'What happened?' Asked Ron, closing his eyes. When he opened them, he had looked though Harry's eyes accidentally and saw Rosethorn shouting at where he was standing.
'Sh-she really is g-gonna kill me this time!'
'She looks like she's going to bite you. Whatever you did, she's really mad.'
'I- I added the wrong kind of leaves! Th-they looked exactly the same!'
'At least you aren't stuck with needlework' Ron thought back.
'Good, she went back to her work.' Sighed Harry.
Ron smirked and turned back to his disgusting tangle of threads that had accumulated while his mind had wandered. "Oops."
"Just fix it and try again, it's okay." Said Lark kindly.
*~*~*~*~*~
All of a sudden, Ron looked out the window to see Rosethorn strangling Harry! (AN- just kidding! Ignore that sentence)
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Please R&R!!! Next chapter goes up when more reviews go up! All I'm askin is 10 reviews, please! (Hannah, don't you dare, or I'll send my big black shaggy dog after you! Grr! Grr!)