Chapter two
They landed with a thud on the grounds outside Howarts next to the lake. It was a cold night that was slowly turning into a cold morning and none of the four were really dressed for the occasion.
Right after they ;anded Hermione let out a long, agonized yell.
"Her leg." Harry said, lifting Hermione up and supporting her bad side.
At the same moment Crystal collapsed in tears and the only person left to catch her was Ron. He held her close to him but looked over her head at Harry with an awkward expression on his face. He had no idea how to handle this. So he just hugged her close. This seemed to work becuse she stopped crying but pressed herself closer to him, still shaking. She smelled strongly of liquor. She held her breath and stopped moving all together for a minute then pulled away from him.
"S-sorry." she whispered.
Ron didn't respond. He didn't know what to say. He just nodded slowly, his eyes wide.
"Would you four care to step into my office and warm up?" a calm voice said from over towards the castle. They turned to see Professor Dumbledore standing in the doorway smiling at them.
"How did you know we were here, Professor?" Harry asked him.
"Miss Granger's scream was quite enough to signal that something was not quite right, Mr. Potter."
"Oh," he responded quietly, "Right."
Dumbledore motioned towards the castle with a wave of his withered hand and they all followed him through the doors, Hermione leaning on Harry for support.
"...and I knew that when you use that spell to transfer power the person who receives them appears to be dead for about ten minutes. Usleless spell, really. The person who temporarily gets the powers can't use them. But anyway, I demonstrated on Hermione and he thought I had killed her but I had really just transferred my powers to her. So Voldemort used the same spell on Ron and then he was powerless so Harry could defeat him at last." Crystal finished her account of what had happened that night.
"Thank you for informing me," Dumbledore said to the four exausted students sitting in chairs on the opposite side of his desk, "And now I suggest you stay for the remaining day of your summer holiday. You may report to the Griffindor tower now. Good night... or morning rather"
They stood up and one by one walked out the door one after another. Hermione's leg had been mended by Madam Pomfrey while Harry had told Dumbledore what had happened.
They walked down the hall silently when Harry wondered something, "Crystal, are you really Hitler's great-granddaughter?"
"No," she told him, "I made all that up."
"Then why couldn't Voldemort tell you were lying? Do you know occlumency?" he looked at her quizzically.
"No I don't." Crystal laughed, "I think I was just so drunk I beleived everything I told him."
"Are you really an actress?" Ron asked her.
"Well," she smiled at him, "When I want to be."
They reached the Griffindor tower and realized they didn't know the password.
"Can you just let us in?" Ron whined at the Fat Lady, "Noones here yet, there's nothing to steal and no one to hurt. Besides, we're Griffindors, we've been here for five years now, don't you know us yet?"
"I can't let you in if you don't have the password." she responded stubbornly.
"You could tell us the password..." Crystal suggested.
"I can't let you in if you don't have the password," she repeated.
"Fine, we'll find somewhere else." Harry said.
"Where though?" Ron asked.
"How about the Room of Requirement?" Hermione suggested.
"Yeah! Great idea! Let's go." Harry said.
"The wha-?" Crystal ws cut off.
"C'mon," Ron said grabbing her by the wrist and pulling her down the hall after Harry and Hermione, "You'll see."
They ran across the school and stopped when they saw the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy.
"Okay, stop." Ron whispered to Crystal as Harry paced back and forth in front of a blank stretch of wall, apparantly thinking hard about something. All of a sudden, a tall, wooden door appeared on the wall. Harry turned to his friends ans smirked with a tilt of his head before turning the large brass handle and walking into a spacious room.
The room had four beds in it, all in a circle with the feet turned to the center. The tall windows had long maroon velvet drapes that matched the coverings on their solid cherry beds. Along one wall there was a sink and four mirrors with the same maroon curtains on rods that pulled out in cubicles around the mirrors. Underneith each of the polished, full-length mirrors was a trunk. Crystal walked over and touched the nameplate on the second one from the left.
"How did my trunk get here?" she asked the other three while her fingers ran over the words Crystal Amelia Noramison.
"The Room of Requirement, this room, provides whatever the user needs at the time. And we needed a place to sleep, so..."
Crystal didn't respond but Ron looked up at her for a second and saw her mouth the word Wow. He smiled and walked over to his trunk, which was next to hers.
The both pulled the curtains around their mirrors shut and changed into their pajamas. Ron came out first, nto in his trademark way-too-short maroon pajamas, but in a pair of maroon plaid boxers and a black ribbed muscle tank.
Harry and Hermione both raised an eyebrow at him.
"I hadn't exactly packed yet and I probably threw these into my trunk when I was undressing this morning."
Hermione rolled her eyes and Harry laughed at Ron's steadily reddening ears.
Hermione got up and pulled the curtains shut around her section as Harry did the same. A moment later Crystal came out of her's wearing vertically striped shorts in different shades of blue and a white ribbed tank top. Her hair was no longer in a messy but in a tight ponytail on top of her head. She no longer wobbled or swayed when she walked.
"Hangover charms," she said to Ron, "Come in really handy."
He laughed as they walked over to the sink to brush their teeth. When Harry came out he went over to his bed to pull the covers back and looked over at the sink. When he say Crystal's pajamas he blinked a few times and took a sharp breath in before letting a long slow one out. Crystal saw this and shook her head as she walked over to her bed.
"No I didn't mean anyth-" harry started to try to explain.
"I know." she laughed at him as she crawled into her bed slowly, fake taunting him.
He wiggled his eyebrows at her and licked his lips. They both broke out laughing at exactly he same moment.
"What's so funny you two?" Hermione asked them as she came out from between the curtains in her rather short, sleeveless, light yellow nightdress.
Ron playfully whistled at her.
"Uh!" she said in mock offence.
They all laughed as the climbed into their beds and pulled the covers up over them.
They fell asleep watching the sun rise over the lake. All but one of them. Two of the eight eyes in that room slowly closed as they watched the different colors of the sunrise reflect in Crystal's eyes.
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