Chapter Eight: Suspicious

Hagrid was standing with his back turned, talking to someone in front of his cabin. Though it was over two hundred feet away, Harry thought there was no mistaking him. But it just couldn't be. It looked so much like…

"Harry, come on, what are you waiting for?" Ron asked, as Harry stood motionless. He looked over at Ron, and then back to Hagrid's hut, which had a light on inside, but didn't seem to have anyone out front.

"Oh, sorry, I just thought I saw something, that's all," he said, unsure what to believe.

Fang emitted a loud bark, which could be heard quite distinctly from their position.

"Oh, that reminds me!" Fergy exclaimed. She tapped herself on the head, no longer needing camouflage in the dark. She fished around in the front of her bag, which had a ventilated compartment. "Ah, there he is!" she said, pulling out what Harry thought was a little stuffed dog. But when he looked closer, he saw it to be a live animal, what looked like a shrunken cattle dog, snoozing in the palm of her hand. He was no larger than a doorknob, and was now sitting up and stretching.

"Good boy," Fergy said, petting him with her index finger, "time for you to be big again."

"Hang on," Ron started, but never finished his statement. Fergy had swung her flaming wand a few ways and muttered "lamronotca," as she placed the dog on the grass.

Before they knew it, he was normal sized, up to Harry's waist. He began wagging his nub (since he didn't have a tail) and started running around everyones legs as they attempted to scratch his head and back.

"Good Casey!" she said, pulling out a leash from her bag and, once she had gotten a hold of him, attached it to the dog's collar. Mali pulled out a similar object from her bag, except her dog was an Akita with a curled-up tail. "This is Zeus," Mali said. Once he had been brought to real size, both Casey and Zeus began sniffing each other and playing in the grass, while Mali put on Zeus's leash.

"You guys are crazy," Ron muttered, his eyebrows yet again in the questioning position.

"You do know dogs aren't allowed at Hogwarts, right?" Hermione said.

"Oh well," Fergy said. Harry was amazed by the amount of magic these girls already knew. He thought back to what Dumbledore said, and realized they would probably end up teaching Harry, Ron, and Hermione instead of the other way around.

They trudged over the grounds, making sure not to be seen under a glow of light from Hagrid's cabin or the many castle windows. They soon found the perfect spot, up on a hill out by the edge of the grounds, fairly far from the castle, where you could see every star in the sky. Harry saw that the moon was unusually bright tonight. He said this to Ron and Hermione, and Ron chuckled, saying in reply, "you're starting to sound like those centaurs, Harry."

"Shut up, Ron," Harry said, punching him in the arm.

He watched as Ashley, Mali, and Sam set up their astronomy equipment. It was amazing how many things they had in their bags, though as Harry reminded himself, they had used magic to shrink them.

"Did you guys have an Astronomy class at your old school?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, we had a billion classes," Ashley said. "Transfiguration, Astronomy, Family and Consumer Sciences, Potions, Defensive Magic, Cooking, Arts and Crafts, -"

"History, English, Latin, and so many more," Mali finished.

"Whew," Ron whistled.

Harry sat on the grass with Ron, Hermione, and Sam, while Fergy and Mali stood and looked through their telescopes, occasionally taking notes on whatever they saw.

"You're not thinking of inventing another spell, are you?" Sam asked, her arms on her hips.

"What, it's too fun to stop," Fergy said, stopping her note taking to look at Sam in the darkness.

"You invent spells!" Hermione exclaimed, sitting straight up.

"Of course, don't you?" Mali asked.

"No, we were never taught how to create a spell," Harry said, wondering yet again how much knowledge he would have to take this year.

"Oh, we'll have to teach you sometime," Fergy said, smiling at Harry. He felt a jerk in his stomach, not fully understanding why.

"The color changing wand one was one we made up ourselves," Mali said.

"Man, wish I could do that," Ron muttered.

After about an hour or so, Sam checked her watch.

"You guys, it's 11:42, I've got to get back to my common room soon," she mentioned.

"Okay, okay, we'll clean everything up, we've got almost all the stuff we need for our next spell anyway," Fergy said, packing up some of her equipment. Harry was glad they were heading back; he had begun to fall asleep in the cool night air. As he sat up, he realized Ron had fallen asleep on the ground next to him. Hermione was about to poke him, but Mali ran over to her, whispering, "wait!"

Hermione stepped back. Harry wondered what kind of scheme Mali had up her sleeve.

"This is an easy spell we made up last year to see what someone's dreaming about," Mali said quietly, kneeling beside Ron and leaning over him, examining his face as he snored.

"Let's hope he doesn't wake up," Fergy said.

"Dreminred," Mali whispered, pointing her wand at Ron's forehead.

A misty vapor rose from his temple until it formed an image which began to move. It looked like a girl with short black hair. They looked closer and saw a figure in the background that must have been Ron, and noticed him pulling on what seemed to be an invisible rope. As the misty figure of Ron pulled, the black haired witch came closer to him until he had her in his arms.

"Is that who I think it is?" Hermione whispered to Harry. He knew she was talking about the black haired girl in the dream mist, and he also thought it looked just like Mali.

"I've got an easy way to solve this," Mali said, grinning evilly.

She held her wand close to Ron's forehead once again and the dream cloud drifted back into his mind.

"Wake up sweetie," Mali said, rubbing Ron's shoulder, her face close to his. "Don't you want a kiss?"

Harry watched as Ron slowly opened his eyes a bit, mumbling something and smiling sheepishly. Sam let out a giggle as he pursed his lips.

"Awenkei," Mali said, pointing her wand at Ron's eyes.

"Huh, what?" Ron said, starting and staring around at everyone. They had all fallen over in fits of laughter, except for Mali who was smiling as she leaned over him.

"You fruitcake!" Fergy managed to say, her hand over her mouth.

"Ron, you're mental," Harry said, due to the confused look on Ron's face. He must have forgotten his dream already.

"Come on big boy," Mali said, wrapping her arm around Ron's shoulder and helping him up.

Harry, Hermione, Fergy, and Sam walked a ways behind Ron and Mali who were deep in conversation. Once they got to the stairs leading up to the castle, Sam, Hermione, and Harry got under the invisibility cloak, while Mali performed the disillusionment charm on Ron and herself and Fergy did the same.

It seemed to take them no time at all to find the Ravenclaw common room, where Sam left them moments before midnight.

The rest of them continued climbing until they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, where they gave her the password and clambered through the portrait hole.

NOT FINISHED YET SO KEEP CHECKING BACK!

-MUCH LUV-

FERG