Darkness Rising: The Unicorn Hunt

by Three Craaaaaaaazy Aussies

In Harry’s seventh year, the Unicorn Hunt is to be held at Hogwarts, and the eight great schools of the Western Magisphere are called together to participate. With the darkness rising, nothing will go to plan.

14. Murderous Intent

Welcome to the newest chapter of KALLAIX! Molfmoon is currently in ireland, so all your reveiws will bi going bi-continental! How cool is that! This chapter goes to the amazing Courtni, aka - Ceeliegh. Cause she's from TEXAS! and cause her review rocked my liddle Aussie socks!

---

Chapter Fourteen: Murderous Intent

"BLOODY MONKEYS!" Tanya screamed. For the past five minutes, the four of them had been standing back to back in a circle, struggling to keep the monkeys back from them. Draco had quickly realised, when he chopped one of their heads off, that they'd regain a head and keep coming.

Each of the monkeys had a dagger and a small shield, but no one had let them close enough to see just how sharp the daggers were – there'd been a few close calls though.

"We have to split up," Draco said, "We need to separate the monkeys a bit! This just not working!"

Everyone nodded, "Tanya, you're with me," Draco told her, and she nodded. The two of them moved toward the other end of the chamber, the end that would get them out, while Saul and Leon stayed pretty much where they had been.

Draco was trying to keep all of the monkeys away from Tanya, who was letting him at the moment, as she watched the monkeys, searching for their weak points, and ways to attack them without getting hurt herself.

When three monkeys attacked Draco at once, coming from three different sides, the Slytherin boy obviously wouldn't be able to deal with it. Tanya did a half turn to gain momentum, and let out a powerful flying kick, her foot striking one of the monkeys in the leg and making it turn in mid air, distracting it for long enough to let Draco scare the other two off.

"Nice kick," he said, with a new respect for Tanya.

"Thanks," she replied, and went back to searching for a weapon that she could use to some advantage – kicking would just make her feet hurt after awhile. "I think the other two are having some difficulty," she added.

Saul was not coping with the monkeys. He had no weapon to use against them, and had to let Leon do most of the actual work at the moment. He'd been the brains behind their operation, but now it was time for the fighters to take over. "I'm going to help them," Tanya said, and before Draco could tell her not to go, she was running to her two friends.

She took out the monkey that was attacking Saul with a swift sharp kick, and, as she turned to let the momentum fall away, she snatched a short, thin sword from the wall and took off a monkeys head with a single powerful swing. "Saul, there's weapons on the wall, see what you can do to find one that suits," she told him, "I have to go and help Draco!"

She bounded back over to Draco and grinned at him, "I found a sword," she told him, "One that isn't too big for me!"

"You know how to use a sword?" Draco demanded.

"Yeah!" Tanya replied boisterously, hacking at another monkey, "And this room is nice and big!"

"What the! Why didn't you tell us that before?"

"Because you looked like you needed to be manly and have a maiden in distress to protect. Besides, those rooms were small," Tanya replied cheerfully. "Leon and Saul know I can use swords anyway … I just let them and Ax handle things most of the time because they really like it … but I'm having fun now!"

Saul suddenly freed a mace from the wall and swung it like a baseball bat a monkey that was coming straight at him, sending it flying into the wall, where it shattered into dust. "Cool," Saul remarked.

"He can use weapons that we didn't know about as well?" Draco demanded.

"Go Saul!" Tanya said, not paying him any attention, "You found a weapon! Nice swing too!"

Saul laughed, "Well, next time we have mock battles, I know I can actually use a weapon reasonably well!" he said happily, and bashed another monkey.

"What did you say?" Tanya asked Draco.

"Has he used a mace before?" Draco asked, looking pointedly at Saul.

"No, I don't think so," Tanya replied.

"Right," Draco said.

"Dammit! Stay bloody dead!" Saul yelled at the monkey he'd just bashed, which was scampering away with a missing limb, and went to try and kill it again.

The group got back together, figuring that would be easier, now that they all had weapons they could use. Saul was the basher, while the other three removed limbs and heads. Heads regrew, but there was a moment of panic from the monkey, during which Saul could usually bash it to pieces, before the head had time to reform.

Arms and legs, however, turned to dust upon separation from the body, and didn't regrow.

Half an hour later they'd dealt with all bar one of the monkeys, which had scampered up the wall and was chatting soundless at them from the room, out of reach.

They rested for awhile, keeping an eye on the monkey to make sure it didn't sneak up on them. The battle had been pretty intense, and they were all fairly tired now, so there was no point in trying to coax the monkey down, particularly since they didn't need to be at the top of the pyramid until seven in the morning. "I'm pretty sure this is the last layer," Leon remarked, "The map didn't say how many there were, but there can't be much more than this."

Saul looked around the room carefully, "This'll be the last," he agreed. "Looking at the size of this chamber in comparison with the first one, I'd say that there couldn't be more than one chamber on top of this one. Look at the size of the roof."

Tanya looked up in alarm and noticed that the roof was, indeed, very small. "That means that the next one will be really small," she said, and the three boys put their arms around her. "It'll be ok, you'll see," Draco said, in a rare moment of kindness.

Once they were all rested, Draco used magic to summon the monkey down, and Saul bashed it with his mace happily. The door to the next level opened, and they went upstairs, Tanya walking very slowly.

In the top room of the pyramid, the only thing was a pedestal with another stone monkey, holding a stone in it's paws. They approached it nervous and took the Portkey from it's hand, but it didn't come to life, so they sat down in a corner and watched it. While they were watching the monkey, Tanya fell asleep, sitting in Leon's lap, with her head on Draco's shoulder and legs over Saul's lap.

"Does everyone at your school hate me?" Draco asked.

"What would make you think that?" Saul asked, a little drowsily.

"Hasn't she told everyone bad things about me?"

"She hasn't said anything about you since the first month after she returned to Australia," Saul replied. "She's really different when we're at school – she's never been this bitter, ever, in the time that I've known her … I guess she has a lot of stuff being brought up, and she doesn't like it. I've never seen her cry before."

"I have," Draco said quietly.

"I'm not supposed to be telling you anything, but let me give you some advice, Draco, quit doing what everyone tells you to, quit thinking, and rationalising, and just listen to your own heart. It's the only way you're going to get anywhere in life."

---

"And that's my wonderful little life for you," Justine sighed. After a whole lot of prodding, she'd been convinced to tell Harry and Hermione what had been bothering her all day. Now they knew everything that had driven her from Hogwarts three years before. "Don't tell Ron, and don't tell Draco. I can't deal with them right now," she added.

"Ron wouldn't have done that," Hermione said.

"Open your eyes Hermione, he did, oh, I'm sorry, did I really sleep with my best friend Kris, who I see as a brother, and let Ron watch it all, which is the only way it would have gotten into a pensieve, and then after I've turned into this porn-star goddess, let Draco find out about it? Yeah, that's what happened," Justine replied, and got up, walking away to the back of the cave.

Ax half stood, but Harry motioned him back, and stood up, following Justine to the back of the cave. Hermione looked after him with an expression that said quite clearly that she Harry was disagreeing with her, in favour of Justine, and she obviously didn't understand why.

"Hey, truth hurts," Ax shrugged.

At the other end of the cave, Justine had slipped into one of the beds that she and Hermione had prepared while the boys were away, and, when she heard someone settle down beside her, said, "I don't want to talk right now Ax."

"It's not Ax," Harry replied.

"Oh," Justine said. "I still don't want to talk right now."

"I just wanted to say … I've always known Ron was bitter when it came to Draco, but I never realised that he would stoop as low as that," With that, he stood and returned to the fire. Justine let her eyes close and fell asleep in seconds.

---

The air in the Great Hall was suddenly under extreme pressure, and then it was filled with the students who'd gone away, as well all the Hogwarts students who had, for the first time since the schools had come, been able to dine in the Great Hall themselves. Everyone was milling around everywhere, as they tried to find their friends.

Tanya and Saul, who'd appeared fairly close to the doors, looked and one another, then Tanya used a chair to aid her in jumping onto Saul's shoulders, were she stood, one foot on either shoulder and yelled at the top of her lungs, "Kallaixians over here!" waving her arms.

Slowly the other Kallaix students fought their way through the masses to reach them. "You used my word!" Justine said, beaming up at Tanya, who jumped lightly back down and grinned back at her.

"I thought it was appropriate," she replied. "Can we hit the beds, I'm still tired."

"You only just woke up, Red," Saul pointed out.

"It was an arduous day, and night, and I'm still tired. Besides, you woke me up, I didn't wake up naturally," Tanya replied, and headed for the boat.

Kris put an arm around Justine, "You ok?" he asked.

"I guess," she replied, as the entire group followed Tanya down to the boat.

"I spent most of the trip trying to kill Ron," Tegan said, bouncing up to Justine. "Soo much fun! We got sent to an Australian dragon enclosure … I met the Peterson dragon that got herself into a Muggle movie before the Ministry found the Muggle involved. Shriek, or whatever it was."

"Shrek," Saul replied, "It's a golden classic."

"For you baby, I could be," Adam said, in a perfect Puss-in-Boots imitation, causing Saul to shriek, then giggle and run toward the boat, all the boys following.

Jacque and Jeffery, who had apparently gotten quite enough sleep, were laughing and joking with each other as the headed for the boat. "What are you guys gonna do?" Justine asked them.

Jacque smiled, "Set up some more bugs," she replied. "I want to know what's going on everywhere in Hogwarts. See what sort of dirt I can dig up … you never know when it might come in handy."

Justine nodded. "Have fun," she replied.

"Oh, we will," Jacque replied, smiling. "I just get a bug into Daphne's room – I'm looking forward to seeing what that will find."

Justine's eyes lit up, "Keep me posted," she said.

Jacque nodded, "Of course," she replied.

---

Ginny was in the Gryffindor tower, although they'd been allowed to eat the first part of their meal in the Great Hall this morning, once the rest of the students had arrived home, they'd had to leave again. Everyone else was eating, but she'd already finished her meal – she had when the rest of the schools had arrived back.

"Ginny, there's someone at the portrait hole for you," someone called to her, and she realised that the Fat Lady had come into one of the portraits in the room to try and find her. Must be someone with persistence then.

She got up and opened the portrait, and found Electra standing there, grinning wickedly. "You remember I mentioned that petition?" she said, and held up a piece of parchment, letting go of the second end. A roll of signatures that nearly reached the ground fell down. "Seems your Daphne has quite a lot of enemies," Electra remarked, "All but three girls in Slytherin from your school have signed it, as have everyone from the other schools … I just need the Gryffindor's to sign, and then I'll take it to Kallaix – I thought I'd leave them till the last, to show them the support they've found."

"If you leave it with me, I'll take care of that, and take it to Harry. This'll have to go through him and Defence Council to get rid of Daphne. No one else can remove her," Ginny said.

Electra nodded. "Thank you," she said.

"It's me that should be thanking you," Ginny replied. "I've had to deal with Daphne on the team all year – it's so frustrating having to deal with that girl."

"I can well imagine," Electra replied, then they said goodbye, and walked back to her schools quarters.

Ginny took the petition, closed the portrait hole, then turned to the common room, and everyone there looked at her expectantly. Ginny smiled, "Who wants to get back at Daphne Greengrass? I don't think she made a good Huntress … what about you?"

Everyone cheered delightedly, just as Harry walked into the room. "Ginny, there's a DA meeting now."

"That's it! No one who's in the DA is leaving this room until the petition has been signed!" Ginny yelled.

"Petition?" Harry enquired.

"To get rid of Daphne," Ginny replied.

"Oh, let me sign," Harry said, then saw the amount of signatures already there. "Was this the Australians doing? Or yours?"

"Neither, it was the Egyptians," Ginny replied.

"Interesting," Harry said, adding his name to the list, then dragging Ginny and the other DA members away for the meeting.

---

Justine was trying to sleep and doing a miserable job of it. It was almost as if every atom in her body was infused with manic energy. She tossed onto her back and pulled the doona up under her chin. Maybe she'd sleep better if she was on her back, shutting her eye's Justine again tried to reclaim sleep. No.

Frustrated she flipped over onto her belly and burrowed her cheek into her favourite pillow. Ever since she had found out what Ron had done on Tuesday night at the Hunt Feast her sleeping patterns had been way out of whack. At least she had gotten plenty of sleep on her makeshift bed last night curled in between Harry and Ax, Hermione refusing to sleep next to her on the basis of her spreading lies about Ron.

How dare she accuse Justine of being the liar in this case when it had all been that bastard Ron? He had destroyed Justine's entire world, the prick, and now it was all Justine's fault?

Justine sighed in frustration and reached out one hand in the semi darkness achieved by shutting the blinds to grope around on the night stand for her mobile phone, she needed to talk to someone.

She flipped it open and scanned the phonebook, eventually calling Mark - she figured she could slip out while everyone slept off the tours and have breakfast with her favourite cousin.

"Hello?" came the cheery response down the line.

"Hey handsome where are you?"

"Drinking coffee, how was the tour thingy honey?" He asked, seemingly too cheerful for the early hour, Justine glanced at the luminous hands of her clock… okay so it wasn't too early.

"Are you at the three broomsticks?" Justine asked "I can come join you."

Mark answered, "No hun, I had to come down to London yesterday for a meeting with a director, then today I'm off to a magazine photo shoot."

"Oh."

"But we can meet when I come back up for the Quidditch, okay?"

"Yep."

Mark sensed something was wrong with Justine. "What's wrong? Tell me."

Justine smiled at the phone, "I'll be fine, I just wanted to, I don't know… escape?"

"Oh… wait… Justine there's a dude across the street taking photo's of me so I've got to go but I say this to you, don't put off till tomorrow what you can do today, find something to occupy your mind."

Justine stared at the phone after she hung up. "You're so right." She got up and put on a black ribbed turtle necked sweater and a black mini skirt. She slipped on her black knee high boots and some dark sunnies and walked to her bedroom door. "Let's do this now."

---

Ginny walked into the DA Meeting with Harry and the rest of the Gryffindor's, and took a place to one side of the room. "I wanted to talk to the full DA group, rather than just the DC, because I think this is something really important. It was first brought to me by Leon, who got it from the Kallaix students."

"What are you doing, getting ideas from them?" Daphne demanded.

"The Kallaix students have plenty of good ideas, Daphne. Not everyone is too close minded to realise this," Ginny remarked. "Let Harry talk!"

"She's right – the Australian's do have ideas," Draco agreed, and everyone turned to stare at him, "What? Saul was the only reason that we managed to get through our Tour as easily as we did."

Harry smiled slightly – finally Draco was coming to realise that not all Kallaix students were modelled on Justine. Now he just had to realise that Justine was in no way to blame for what had happened between them, and that was the same nice person that Draco had fallen in love with once, and everything would be good.

"So, what's this idea that the Australians had that was good?" Draco asked, when Harry didn't start talking.

"Well, you all know what happens when you break the rules here – a teacher will deal with it, and half the time they don't understand what's going on, right?" Everyone nodded in agreement, this was something every student had been through at least once. "Well, at Kallaix, they have two sets of rules. One of them is the school rules, things like vandalism, stuff against teachers … that sort of thing, and the others are the Student rules, which covers plagiarism of another students work, fighting, messy break-ups where someone gets hurt, and malicious pranks directed at fellow students. In the words of the Kallaix students 'When a student behaves in a heinous manner toward another student, or in a way that makes the school look bad,' a student trial is called.

"A student trial is presided over by three prefects, or the Head Students, depending on the severity of the crime. If it's just a minor fight between students, fifth year prefects will deal with, if its something like plagiarism, then the Heads are called in. Each party is represented by the student of their choice, and the presiding Judges are unbiased. The judges form a decision, and that decision is unable to be appealed against, unless a teacher believes that the decision was biased. In that case, a retrial with different judges is called," Harry finished.

"That sounds pretty interesting," Draco remarked, "But how did you find out so much about it? Owled Kallaix or something?"

"No, I had the Head Girl and one of the Prefects with me on the Mystery Tours," Harry replied, "I got it all from them. They were pretty happy to talk about it all."

Draco nodded, "I'll definitely bring it up with Dumbledore at the next Head meeting," he said. "I really like it."

Hermione looked a little unsure about whether to agree or not. On one hand it was a good idea, but on the other … she wasn't sure she could trust anything that Justine was telling them about. She hadn't had anything against the Kallaix Head Girl, but all this stuff about Ron? Ron just wasn't like that! "I think that it could be used by some of the Prefects to try and gain too much power within the school and make the students do what they want," she said after a moment.

"That's way the teachers preside over the decisions, with the ability to call a retrial," Harry pointed out, "To make sure the Judges are just and unbiased."

Hermione shrugged, but didn't say anything. Damn Justine, she'd brought a rift in between Hermione and the boy she loved, a rift that should never had been brought up. Why couldn't Harry see that Ron wasn't like that? That Ron wouldn't do something to deliberately hurt someone? Draco looked between Harry and Hermione, and immediately knew that something had happened between them. He'd ask Harry what later on.

A fifth year Prefect turned up at the doorway, "Terry Boot, Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger?" he half asked, half summoned.

"Yeah?" Draco asked, "What?"

"Dumbledore wishes to see you in his office," the Prefect said, sounding a little self important.

Draco rolled his eyes at Harry, "If it wasn't for the trial thing, I wouldn't go … but I may as well let him know that we're thinking of new options for the school – that's what the Head Students are supposed to, right? Take the students words to the teacher and make sure something happens about it?"

Harry laughed and nodded. "Tell me what happens later," he said.

Draco nodded, and the three of them left the room, following the overly excited Prefect.

---

Justine walked to the door that Winky had told her held the D.A. meeting. The room of requirement, what a quaint name. She opened the door and walked to the middle of the blank room. She looked around and casually put her sunnies in a pocket and pulled her hair back into a pony tail.

Justine opened her mouth and screamed.

---

The door had opened and Harry knew someone was in the room. The members of the D.A. hadn't had to hide since the days of Umbridge and when Lupin had returned and the numbers had swelled, the occurrences of unwanted guests had dwindled to zero. Then an ear splitting scream ripped through the room, and it seemed that the very illusion making the walls themselves shatter, causing them to splinter and smash to smithereens, the shards off illusion, glasslike and glinting, to fall at their feet. And their in the middle of the room, dressed in black and radiating a black glow of dark energy stood Justine.

"Hello everyone," she said with a flick of the wrist. All of the D.A. were thrown against the walls with such force that they lost consciousness. Harry alone had managed to retain clarity, and he realised that his Magai powers were stopping her control over him to an extent. He could slide against the walls moving back and forth, but he couldn't move from the wall itself.

He suddenly remembered Justine and saw that she alone stood next to a lone figure who wasn't against the walls. Ron. Harry's eyes widened, it was all going down. Now. Even if he'd been able to, he wasn't sure that he would have done anything to stop her, knowing what Ron had done, he understood that she wanted retribution. He would have in her place, he knew that.

"Having a nice day, Ronnie?" she asked coolly, watching Ron, who was looking like a mouse when confronted with a cat … a very big, fast, dangerous cat. "I just came up to have a nice little chat with you. You see, the other night you told me that we knew each other really well, that we knew everything about each other … I know something that you don't know I know," using magic, she hurled him against the wall, but she herself didn't touch him. When she closed her fingers, as if his throat was between them, he convulsed, as if Justine really was choking him.

Harry started trying to break Justine's hold on him – he couldn't stand by and watch her kill Ron. Ron might have been a complete bastard, but he didn't deserve to die for it. Justine didn't even turn to look at him, just flicked her other hand, and Harry found himself pinned back against the wall with even more force than before. It seemed he really had met his match with magic, and he decided that he really didn't like it.

Justine let her fingers fall, so that Ron could breath again. When she spoke again, it was in almost childish tone, that reminded Harry strongly of Bellatrix Lestrange, which really scared him. "Ronnie, are scawed? And you worried I'm gonna hurt chu bubby?" then her tone changed, taking on a slightly sadistic note, "You should be.

"Let's talk about memories, Ronnie. I have a really … interesting one here, and it's not one of those fake memories that you're so fond of, you know, the one's that destroy peoples worlds – this is a real one." She raised a hand and touched one finger to his forehead, but Ron's head slammed back against the wall under the force of the memory she hurled in his mind.

Justine standing in her favourite jumper … Draco calling her a slut … Running to the Gryffindor tower … fear … Draco behind her, following her … Draco hitting her … the blood on her hand … the pain in her heart … Ax jumping down, saving her … Draco not loving her any more… FLASH … Ron hugging his new girlfriend … Ron confiding that he'd destroyed someone's world … a vision of Justine inside Padma's mind, the pain she felt at that second betrayal … the retribution she would have.

Ron screamed, the pain of Justine's spell, the power of the memory that Justine had thrown at him destroying what little control he had had. He stared at her, only now realising just how hurt Justine had been by all of that. Sure, she'd left the school, but he hadn't realised the emotional agony that she'd gone through.

"So, how was it, destroying someone's life for the fun of it? Did you get a little thrill?" Justine demanded.

"I only wanted you to-"

"Let's see how it feels to have your heart ripped into little tiny pieces, shall we?" Justine smiled at him, and that smile really scared him. She knew what she was doing, knew how scared he was, and she was enjoying it. Now she placed her entire palm on Ron's head. "Enjoy," she said coldly.

Padma seeing Ron dance with Justine … Jealousy, burning anger … Ax … drunk, handsome … the need for revenge … the sexual tension, desire … Ginny-no, Tanya's- pain … the betrayal of it … worthlessness … no understanding … Justine's anger … Padma's wantonness … Pain … Ax's disgust … Pain, Justine causing a lot of pain.

"NO!" Ron screamed, "It's not real!"

"How's it feel bub?" Justine sneered, "I've been there too – and IT WAS YOUR BLOODY FAULT! How dare you? Assume that it's not real. I only deal with real memories, not made up CRAP used solely to destroy someone. If I destroy someone, I do it properly, and I only use what's already there."

"Don't you understand? I only wanted you back!"

"Understand?" Justine demanded, "You think I don't understand why you did all this? It was because I chose Draco, wasn't it? You couldn't handle that yoo him again. How did you feel when Harry chose him as a best friend last year? When Harry shared all that he created – the DA, the DC – with Draco. When Harry spent his summer holidays with Draco… did it hurt? If it did … YOU FUCKING DESERVED IT!" Justine screamed the last in his face and slapped him as hard as she could. Ron's head slammed back against the wall again, and his eyes went woozy for a moment.

"OH NO YOU DON'T!" Justine said, and threw a bolt of destructive healing magic at him, bringing him back to full consciousness without removing any pain and causing more while she did it. "YOU THOUGHT YOU AND YOUR IDIOT BROTHERS COULD JUST WALK IN AND FUCK MY LIFE UP BECAUSE YOU HAD A BLOW TO YOUR FUCKING EGO! GINNY IS THE ONLY DECENT ONE IN YOUR ENTIRE FUCKING FAMILY! I HATE YOU!"

Suddenly Ron started glowing with the same black purple energy as Justine was, and he screamed.

Harry turned to look at Ginny, stuck to the wall beside him, and saw that she was the only person in the room who was awake, and that she was watching Justine with an expression of fear, horror and disbelief. "Ginny, look away," Harry begged her, but she couldn't tear her eyes from her brother and the woman who was torturing him. Harry knew then that he would have to tell Ginny what had happened – Justine didn't need more enemies, she was losing control as it was.

Then he realised. She wasn't losing control, she hadn't had control, not completely control, since the moment she'd entered the room. She probably couldn't stop herself. No wonder he couldn't break her hold on him now – unbridled Magai power was the force that pretty much turned the universe. There was no way someone who was in control would be able to take down a Magai in Justine's situation.

Suddenly the door burst open and several of the Kallaix students raced into the room. Kris, Ax, Jeffery, Saul and Tanya raced into the room, then came a dead stop when they saw Justine. "Justine?" Kris asked tentatively, but she ignored him completely, as if she couldn't hear him.

"She's too far gone," Harry said, looking directly at Kris. "It's a Magai thing. You have to stop her."

Kris nodded, gulped and walked up to Justine, paused for a moment, then stepped between her and Ron. "Bunny?" Justine stopped, freezing completely, not even risking hurting the man she thought of as a brother. Everyone fell to the ground, and Harry grabbed Ginny, pulling her against his chest, tucking her face against his body, so that she couldn't see what was going on.

The illusion popped back into being, and it was suddenly a clearing, rather than a room. "Hey, where'd Kallaix come from?" Saul wondered. "This is the clearing, next to the Wentworth common room … this is Justine's place – ooh! I get it now!"

Jeffery, Saul and Ax went for the students that were lying unconscious on the ground around the walls. Justine turned and bolted from the room before anyone could stop her. Kris raced after her immediately and Harry let go of Ginny. "Ginny, please, don't hate Justine. I'll explain what happened as soon as I get back, you just have to let it go for a couple of hours. It's not what you think. If anyone asks, this was a DA training session that got out of hand, and it won't happened again." Then he raced after Kris.

Ginny rushed to her brother, all too happy to forget about Justine for a moment and make sure that her brother was alright. In the centre of the room, Tanya was standing and looking completely lost. She didn't know what was going on – Justine had been enjoying herself in Ron's company just days ago, and now she was trying to kill him … and she'd been scary.

"Ax?" Tanya asked, her voice sounding like that of a lost child. "What happened? Why did Justine do that?"

Jeffery and Saul were already floating everyone from the room, but they left Ron behind, figuring that it might be dangerous to move him, since they didn't know what had been done to him yet. They'd send Madam Pomfrey up when they reached the hospital wing.

Ax walked over to Tanya and hugged her gently. "Ron created a false memory of Justine cheating on Draco with Kris, of all people, back at the end of our forth year, before I came to Australia. Draco got all violent and Justine left, with a broken heart. She just found out what Ron did, and she tried to kill him. She wasn't in control of her Magai powers; I've never seen anything like that before. I hope I never do again."

Ginny, kneeling beside her brother, heard every word, and jumped back from Ron, staring at him. She thought she'd known him … and then she realised, that was exactly the sort of thing her brother would do, if Draco Malfoy got something Ron thought was his. She'd known that he'd gone out with Justine, but the way he told it, he'd broken up with her.

---

Justine raced through the corridors, running as fast as she could to try and outrun her emotions – unfortunately for her, rounding one of the many corners, she ran smack bang into her emotions. Reeling, Justine fell against one of the walls, and Draco Malfoy staggered against the other, taking a moment to recover.

"Oh, so now you're trying to kill me, is that it?" he demanded icily, staring at her once he'd realised exactly what had happened.

Justine looked at him, her expression unreadable, and Draco suddenly realised that she was glowing with negative black energy. It had been a little dimmer, not surrounding her as strongly, until he had spoken. Above her, a window cracked and the shards fell to the ground and shattered completely, before disappearing.

Draco, however, was still caught up in the colour of her magic. It was the same as his. Whenever he used his magic, it was black. Where Harry's was multicoloured and spectacular, his was scary. Just like Justine's was. Before either of them had a chance to do anything else, the second last person Draco wanted to see rounded the corner.

Kristopher Crompton looked at Justine, then at Draco, then at the window, still with small shards of glass clinging to the frame above Justine's head. Kris suddenly grabbed Draco by the scruff of his shirt and lifted him bodily off the ground, walked around the corner and dumped Draco before going back to Justine.

Draco just stood there, shaken. He was over six foot in height, and Kristopher had lifted him up like a rag doll.

When Kris came around the corner, Justine looked at him, then took off again. Kris looked around the corner, "This isn't finished," he told Draco, then raced after Justine.

Just as Draco was considering following the pair of them to find out what was going on, Harry skidded around the corner, nearly knocking Draco over for the second time in as many minutes. "What's going on?" Draco demanded.

"Ron threw Justine over the edge, she's completely out of control of her Magai powers. If you go near her, she might kill you," Harry replied. "Don't follow," with that, he went off, chasing after Justine and Kris.

For a moment, Draco stood where he was, trying to make sense of what Harry had told him. Finally he decided that he might find answers at the DA meeting that was supposed to be going on, and headed off, continuing on the way he had been following before she had turned up.

---

Kris and Harry threw upon the Entrance Hall doors and started down the sloping grounds after Justine. Ahead they could see her racing up the pier and on to the boat. There, Adam seemed to appear from nowhere and grabbed her, pulling her in for a hug.

"Good, Adam's got her, she'll stop running," Kris said, slowing down to a walk.

Following suit, Harry looked questioningly at Kris, "Why?" he enquired.

"Because he's Adam," Kris replied.

Harry sighed, realising that he wouldn't get any more out of Kris on this subject – besides, he didn't have the breath to ask too many more questions. It'd been awhile since he had run that far, that fast.

They made their way slowly down the grounds and onto the boat. The McEwan dragon was circling the boat worriedly, but neither of them notice, too intent on reaching Justine quickly.

When they found her, Justine was sitting on Adam's lap, one balled fist on either shoulder, her head buried in his chest, muttering incoherently and still glowing with black energy.

Adam looked up at them mildly, "She's been like this since she arrived, and what's wrong with the pool?" the pool, they noticed, was rippling and warping in very unnatural ways. Kris just walked over and lifted Justine, princess style, from Adam's lap. Justine twisted slightly to bury her head against Kris's chest and throw her arms around his neck.

"I'm going downstairs to try and calm her down. Don't follow immediately Harry, but come down in about five minutes," Kris told Harry and headed for the stairs. Tegan lurched sleepily upstairs before Kris could reach his destination.

"What's rocking the boat?" she asked, "It woke me up and I'm feeling irritated."

"Shit, it's McEwan!" Kris said.

Tegan blinked, and then registered what was wrong with Justine. "I'll calm her down," she said, and ran to the railings, diving smoothly over and into the lake, swimming with strong, sure strokes out to the distressed dragon, and the rocking of the boat quickly ceased as the dragon stopped stirring up the waters.

Kris was downstairs in a second, leaving Harry alone on deck with Adam, who folded his arms and stared hard at Harry. "What did you do to my Justine?" he demanded coolly.

"It's her story to tell, when she's ready," Harry replied. "But it involved Ron, myself, Draco and a few others."

"Was she trying to kill Ron too?" Adam inquired, "Tegan spent most our tour trying to kill him in some pretty ingenious ways, but she wouldn't say why.

"Again, I would advise you to talk to Justine – I don't know how much she would want you to know," Harry told her.

"Just as long as no one tried to physically hurt her … if they had, I – we – would have had to kill them," Adam said.

Harry blinked, "I thought you were the nice one," he remarked.

"Oh, I am," Adam replied, "But if someone hurts Justine, they're asking to die. She's our princess, everyone at Kallaix would die for her if need be, kill for her too, in a second. Because we know that she'd do the same for us."

Harry mulled over this for a moment, considering how closely the Australians seemed to be linked to one another, and found himself wishing that all of Hogwarts could be like that as well, not just the single Houses. Harry turned and headed downstairs, hoping that it had been long enough for Kris to calm Justine down.

He found the two of them in the living room and Justine seemed quite a bit calmer. She looked up at Harry as he walked into the room and smiled sheepishly, "Hi," she said.

"Hi," Harry replied, amused. "You seem a little … less black."

Justine grinned at him, "Yup, just the hands now," she told him, holding them up for evidence.

"Just don't mention you know who, or you know who two," Kris advised, "That would be a bad thing."

Harry rolled his eyes, "You know, I think you really need to get out of Hogwarts, and right now, I could whole heartedly agree. There's quite a few secret passageways into Hogsmeade, so what do you think? First butterbeers on me."

"Won't you get in trouble?" Justine asked, "Dumbledore probably won't like it at all."

"Do I care?" Harry demanded, arching an eyebrow.

"I'd say not," Kris replied, "And anyway, you're Dumbledore's golden boy, you won't get in trouble. Come on, let's wake the others and get on deck. I think we could all use a break."

---

Ten minutes later everyone was assembled on deck. Saul, Jeffery, Ax and Tanya had arrived, with Ginny in tow, and since no one had asked the Gryffindor girl to leave, she was still there, listening to the plan. Harry was trying to decide which of the passageways he should use.

"Screw passageways," Justine snorted, "Let's take the front door. We've got horses, and Harry, you've got a broom."

So far, it had been decided that Jacque, Jeffery, Alyson, Adam, Tegan and Saul were not going to become, either because they were too tired or they just didn't feel like it. "I can ride Nubie, Tanya can take Isis, Loki will let Kris ride him," Justine pointed out.

"Ok, sounds a plan," Ax said, "But I'll need to borrow your broom Justine, you forgot about me."

"Sorry," Justine said. "Before we go, I think that I should explain to everyone what's been going on, since not everyone knows. If you don't what to hear it all over again, those of you who know, feel free to wander off, just nobody interrupt me."

Part way through her explanation, Daphne Greengrass stalked up the pier, but was stopped from stepping on to the boat by the McEwan dragon, who was still a little on edge. "WEASLEY!" she screamed in frustration, "GET OVER HERE NOW!" Ginny looked guilty at Justine, who nodded, "Go if you want to," Justine told her.

Ginny sighed, "I'd better, I still have to live with her, though hopefully not for too much longer," she'd already handed the petition for Daphne's removal over to Tanya on the way down, though no one had had a chance to tell Justine about it yet. Ginny nodded to them all, then trotted off the boat to join Daphne, who went to grab her by the arm to drag Ginny away.

The McEwan dragon reared up out of the water and snarled, Daphne left her attempt to touch Ginny, and jerked her head in the direction of the castle, stalking off. Ginny followed silently, looking as if she was going a funeral.

"And so, I want all of you to promise that you won't tell Draco about any of this. He didn't believe me, and I don't want him to know, if he's too stupid to figure out I wasn't lying, he doesn't deserve the information. At least I know what happened now," Justine said.

Ax and Kris stood up to stand on either side of her, "And if I hear that anyone's mentioned it, that person answers to us," Kris said.

"Painfully," Ax added.

Jeffery stood up, "On behalf of everyone, I have to ask – why would we?"

Half an hour later, the group was most of the way to Hogsmeade, and the Australians were exclaiming in delight over the petition that Ginny had given to Tanya. "We can finally get rid of Daphne!" Justine laughed, then an expression of mischief came over her features, "You know, if we even mentioned it Geggly at the next event, he'll probably give it to all of the Ministers to sign as well! No one could say no to that!"

Kris laughed at that, "Knowing dad, you're right. Oh! How funny will that be? Let's do it!"

A couple of metres above them, Harry and Ax were racing back and forth, testing the speed of their brooms. "You're a pretty good flyer – why aren't you on the Quidditch team?" Harry asked.

"I can fly, but I can't be bothered to do it professionally. Flying if for spare time, duelling is for continual practice," Ax replied calmly. "I was a Chaser for Peterson for awhile, but then I decided to dedicate myself to the sword."

Harry nodded in understanding, just as Hogsmeade came into view. "So, where first?" Tanya asked Harry. She hadn't been to Hogsmeade before, and really had no idea what any of the attractions were.

"Well, I already said I'd buy the first round of butterbeers, my only request now is that first round doesn't turn into only round," the group laughed and several people assured him it wouldn't be.

"You know, maybe we should do lunch as well," Tanya remarked, "I'm getting hungry."

"All that sleeping took it out of you?" Ax teased, "Don't worry, I agree. I'm starving too."

"I'm not paying for lunch," Harry warned.

"We wouldn't expect you to," Kris replied, grinning.

"Kwis? I wuv you," Justine said, turning pleading eyes to him.

"Your lunch is on me bunny," Kris said in defeat, knowing by now that it wasn't even worth trying to fight.

"Thank you!"

"Is this normal?" Harry enquired.

"Yeah," Ax replied. "You'll get used to it. Kris makes it all better by spoiling her – Justine has the money, and pays for herself often enough, but whenever she's had something happen, it's time for Kris to come in and spend a load of money to make her feel better. Expect him to buy little presents every five minutes all day."

Harry laughed, "I'll keep that in mind. Does she ever wonder why the press thinks that they're going out?"

"Oh, she knows well enough," Ax assured him, "That doesn't mean she's going to put on an act to pretend that they aren't friends. Just like Mark – no one yet has managed to figure out that they're cousins."

"They're cousins?" Harry demanded, and everyone laughed as they rode into Hogsmeade.

"What are you going to do with the horses?" Harry asked, as everyone dismounted.

The girls and Kris smiled, and took off the saddles, stacking them in a neat pile and taking the bridles off as well, then turned around and headed across the street and walked toward the nearest shop to 'window shop' for awhile.

"But … shouldn't you do something with the horses?" Harry asked, looking between the horses and the girls retreating backs. "What if someone tries to steal them?"

"They're Llysanyins," Kris replied calmly, "If someone tries to steal them, be it on their own head."

"Try being the operative word," Ax added, shrinking his broom and tucking it into a pocket. Harry did the same with his, and the three boys headed after the two girls. Justine was attempting to drag Tanya into a clothes store.

"Justine! If you put one foot in that store!" Kris yelled after her, and Justine looked over her shoulder with a look that seemed to say 'who me? I wasn't going anywhere near the store'.

"Lunch first. If you're going to drag us into every clothing and/or accessorizing shop in the place, I need some food to convert into energy. So does Harry, he isn't used to going shopping with girls, have pity on the poor man," then he turned to Harry, "Welcome to every man's hell."

Justine gave him a look, "You're lucky you're buying me lunch," she informed him, "Otherwise you'd be carrying my bags all day."

Kris muttered in Harry's ear, "Like that's gonna stop her," but he didn't let Justine hear him.

---

Harry led them to the Three Broomsticks and they all ordered lunch. Justine ended up sitting squashed between Kris and Harry, who started a jokes competition, while Ax and Tanya stood by and shook their heads, shaking with laughter. Lunch passed as quickly as Justine could make it, and then she dragged Kris and Harry off to shop.

Tanya threatened to walk in the other direction, so Ax caught her and dragged her after Justine, while she laughed and protested. Ax ignored this, "If we have to put up with Justine doing clothes shopping, you have to as well."

"I'd much rather go and visit this 'Shrieking Shack'," Tanya complained.

"Don't make me carry you," Ax warned, "I will if I have to."

Tanya made a face and nodded, knowing that Ax meant exactly what he said. He did the same thing to every girl in Kallaix when the mood took him. They followed Kris and Harry to the clothing shop, Ax laughing at Tanya's disgruntled look. "You have to buy a dress for tomorrow night you know."

"I still have the one from last ball," Tanya protested.

"You need a different one," Ax informed her, "You can't wear the same dress to two occasions in a row, at the same place. It just isn't done."

"It is now," she replied.

"Not while I'm still breathing," Ax replied, "Or Justine, for the matter. She'd hurt you if you tried that."

Tanya stared at him, "Why? Why bother?"

Ax just rolled his eyes, "Ask Justine, I haven't figured it out yet either. It's just not done."

Tanya sighed as Ax steered her into Gladrags Wizard Wear – the most exclusive clothing shop in Hogsmeade. "Why me?" she asked the roof above her. "Why can't we go to one of the cheaper stores?"

"Because Justine ordered clothes from her favourite designer, and he's sending them here," Ax replied, "Besides, Justine only ever shops at the most exclusive places she can find. You'll get used to it."

Tanya shook her head, "No I won't," she replied.

"Oh, you will."

---

Justine was standing in the middle of the foyer, attempting to get the attention of a store clerk, and failing miserably. They were all racing around, most of them chatting about the mysterious order from 'Déanni', whoever that was, or informing Justine that they were busy trying to finish the dresses for the Egyptian Head Girl, and Hermione, both of whom had payed in advance for their dresses to be ready by the next day.

Justine was obviously unused to being ignored in clothing stores, in Australia, pretty much every wizard knew exactly what she looked like and wouldn't dream of tending to anyone else before her. Her hands started sparking black again, and Harry stepped past her, "HELLO!" he yelled.

Every store attendant spun around, "Mr. Potter!" they all cried, almost simultaneously, and suddenly Harry was surrounded by a flurry of activity, most of the attendants assuring him that they hadn't seen him, and hadn't meant to be rude. Harry sighed, and directed a half bow in Justine's direction, letting her take centre stage.

She walked past him, and raised on hand to point at a medium sized box that was sitting behind the main desk, the order that had just arrived from Déanni that morning, and which everyone had been fussing over. "My delivery?" she enquired coolly. "I need to select my dress for tomorrow night."

The attendants all squealed almost simultaneously, amazed that they had found the person that the delivery from the most exclusive young designer in Italy belonged to. The store owner, looking flustered, tried to remain calm and treat this young woman as a normal customer – besides, she wasn't sure if Justine was the person the delivery belonged to yet, "May I ask your name, Miss?"

"Snape," Justine bit out, "Justine Snape." She pointed again, "My order? Number 100304 from Déanni"

"Miss Snape! I'm sorry, we didn't realise," the woman simpered.

"You do now," Justine informed her.

The store owner handing the box over to Justine. "Will you be paying for that now, miss?" she asked.

Justine gave her a look, "Of course not," she replied, "Déanni will charge it, besides, I haven't chosen which dress I want yet."

"But, have you not only ordered one? We only got the single box."

"I require an attendant and a rack to hang my dresses on," Justine said, ignoring the question, and opening the box. The store owner herself hurried conjured up a rack, as Justine took out a dress that might have fitted a Barbie doll, but certainly not Justine. The moment she had it clear of the box however, it became a life-sized vision of perfection.

Justine eyed it, "No, I don't think so … but I'll need to see it on before I can decide."

She handed it to the storeowner and started taking out an entire wardrobe of possible dresses. Once she had unpacked half of the selections, she closed the box for the moment. "I'll have a look at these first," she said calmly, "And the rest can wait for a moment."

"We'll shut up the shop for a little while and let you try the dresses on in privacy," the storeowner said, someone who could afford to have an entire selection of gowns sent to her fromDéanni demanded the upmost respect. "But I can only offer you an hours time, with the Moonlight Ball tomorrow night."

Justine nodded slightly, "Of course, I understand," she replied. "Tanya! I need you to put some of these dresses on."

Tanya, who had been examining the cheapest rack in the store, and still exclaimed over the prices, spun around to see the dress that Justine was holding up, and tried to back away, "I couldn't try that on! I'd break it!"

"You have to try it on," Justine replied firmly, "How can I be expected to know how it hangs unless I see it on? Mirrors lie … besides, it'd take me forever to try all of these on."

"And it'll take me any less?" Tanya demanded.

"I'll try some of them on," Justine said, impatient, "But I need to see what they look like on someone else first. Try!"

Tanya sighed and walked forward, knowing that she wouldn't be able to avoid it, and took the dress, holding it as if it was made of air or something, and walked into the changing room. It took her ten minutes to change and come out.

"No," Justine said, "Try this one."

In the ten minute wait for Tanya to change, Justine tried some of the dresses on, dismissing every single one of them. When Tanya emerged, Justine sighed, "You can't take ten minutes to change dresses!" she said. "That one doesn't work either by the way. I think I need someone to help you change quicker."

"Let someone I don't know help me change?" Tanya almost shrieked, "No! No! No!"

"Then I'll do it," Justine sighed, selecting another dress and shooing Tanya back into the changing room. With Justine helping, the process of changing dresses was accelerated immediately, to Justine's relief.

After the fifth dress, one of the attendants came over, asking if they required refreshments. Justine ordered something very obscure, Tanya looked confused and asked for a butterbeer, and they didn't hear what the boys asked for, because they were standing over in a corner, conferring with an attendant.

"We're just going to get fitted for tuxes, bunny," Kris told her.

Justine nodded absently, and started working her way through more of the dresses, taking an entire selection into the changing room, and only coming out with Tanya when she wanted to ask Kris's opinion on something, which was rare. Whenever they came out, Harry was standing looking uncomfortable in a tux, while Kris went over it critically. "Why hadn't you gotten a tux yet?" Kris asked Harry.

"Hermione was going to drag me down here tomorrow," Harry replied, "But we aren't exactly talking at the moment."

One of the attendants gave him a strange look, which he missed, and then continued on her way.

Then the refreshments arrived. The boys were served first, since the girls were still in the changing room, and Harry noticed that one of the glasses was a fluted wine glass filled with silvery liquid. "Is Draco Malfoy getting fitted at the moment?" Harry asked, recognising the drink as the only drink that Draco would buy in such a situation.

"No, Mr. Potter, that is Miss Snape's drink," the attendant replied, and went to deliver it to Justine.

"Why did you ask that?" Kris enquired.

"Because that's the same obscure drink that Draco orders every time something like this happens," Harry replied.

"It's the only drink that Justine will drink in clothing stores, she says it calms her down, because she needs clarity to pick the 'perfect dress' – which she usually only ever wears once anyway."

Almost an hour later, Tanya was dragged out wearing a beautiful black dress, and everyone nodded appreciatively. "Wouldn't work on you, Justine, but it looks really good on Tanya," Ax contributed, and Justine nodded.

"You're right," she agreed. "That's it, I'm sick of trying things on." She fished out her mobile phone and pressed one of the auto-dial numbers.

"Déanni, darling, I'm not interrupted anything, am I?"

They could just hear the heavily Italian accentedresponse, "No, darling, whatever is the matter? Is there a problem with the clothing? I was not sure for some of them, but I thought hey, she likes trying dresses on."

"I can't find the right one!" Justine replied.

"Cara, the perfect dress is there, I packed it myself."

"I knew you'd put a surprise in there for me, where can I find it?"

"At the bottom of the box, wrapped in silver tissue paper." Suddenly there was a commotion on the other end of the line, and everyone close by could hear the man when he yelled, "It is Miss Justine Snape, please, do not interrupt me. No, all calls can wait for a moment!"

"I'm sorry, you sound busy," Justine said.

"Never too busy for you, Cara."

Justine smiled, "Thank you so much Déanni, you'll just charge it as usual?"

"Of course, Cara. I look forward to dealing with you again soon."

Justine was smiling as she hung up the phone and flew to the box, digging through it until she found the package he'd described to her, while everyone else watched her with amazement. She had just personally called Déanni and he had put offother callsto speak with Justine.

The moment that Justine removed the package, she found herself holding a gown made of silver liquid silk. She smiled, "Perfect," she said, "My favourite colour! I knew Déanni wouldn't let me down."

Harry, Kris and Ax had since found their tuxes, and Tanya had put off buying a dress for the moment, thinking to return tomorrow when she wasn't completely sick of trying things on. "She chose a dress in the same colour as Draco's eyes," he remarked softly to Kris.

"We may as well start walking," Kris said, "She has to fuss over packing the dress up for another ten, twenty minutes. We don't need to stay for that."

"Can I come too?" Tanya asked hopefully.

"Sure," Kris replied, slinging an arm over her shoulder.

"I need to ask Justine something," Ax said, as the rest of them headed for the door.

"Look for a joke shop," Kris replied, "Harry, lead the way."

Harry led them out onto the street and up to Zonko's Joke shop. The moment that they walked inside, Kris looked around and headed straight for a large sign saying 'Flammable'. "Um, Tanya should we be letting me go there?" Harry asked, turned to the red head next to him, but she was already gone.

"Where?" Harry muttered, looking around, then saw her standing under a sign reading 'Explosive – Caution, Do NOT Touch'. She was standing there, delicately examining each of the explosives, and completely ignoring the sign that said Do NOT Touch. Harry was torn between running over and telling her to stop touching those things, and going to make sure Kris didn't set fire to place.

Before he could make up his mind, Ax strolled into the store, looking a little smug. "Hey," he said.

Harry gave him a panicked look, "Tanya's touching the explosives, and Kris is looking at flammable objects – I don't think that's particularly safe," he said.

The moment Harry mentioned where Tanya was, Ax turned and headed toward her, still seeming completely unconcerned. Harry threw Kris a look, but Kris didn't seem to be doing anything dangerous, so he followed Ax over to where Tanya was standing, fiddling with one of the explosive devices.

"Does it have the ingredients?" Harry heard Ax asking Tanya as he approached.

"No," Tanya replied, "How bodgy. Well, I'm pretty sure I could work out what goes in it anyway, and I'm sure I can make this more explosive." Harry gave a start – she was already holding one of the most explosive devices in the shop.

Suddenly the door opened and Justine came in off the street, looking very pleased and holding the box that had her dress inside. Kris approached her, and she handed him the box without a word, as the two them came over to join the rest of the group. "Anything in flammable?" Tanya asked Kris without looking up.

"Nope, nothing we can't do better on our own," Kris replied. "What about you?"

"Well, I've got this, which I've never seen before," Tanya said, holding up the object that she was fiddling with. "It's supposed to make a really big explosion – noise, fire, that sort of thing, and it'll break anything within a ten metre radius. I'm sure that I could extend that though."

"You're sure?" Kris demanded.

"Give us an hour in the potion lab and me'n'Teegs will have it completely worked out," Tanya replied positively.

"Right. How many do you need?"

"Two, one to explode and one to dissect," Tanya replied.

"I am on it, boss," Kris said, saluting, and took the explosive from Tanya's hand, taking another from the shelf before heading over to the counter with them.

"What's going on? Those things are dangerous," Harry said, staring between the Kallaix students.

Justine smiled, "These are what we use when we really don't feel like going to class," she replied. "Last time we blew up half of the Great Hall – while no one was in there of course," she added hastily when Harry gave her a half amazed, half afraid look.

"You blew up your Great Hall?" he repeated.

"Yup. The teachers spent the entire day fixing it. Saul and Tegan convinced McEwan to make us some waves and we spent the day surfing," Justine replied.

"Surfing?" Harry said doubtfully.

"Don't worry, you wouldn't understand," Justine replied, "Surfing is … life."

Kris walked over and handed a paper bag to Tanya. "He tried to warn me that these were dangerous," he told Tanya who laughed delightedly.

"As if we'd be buying them if they weren't," she remarked.

"OK, I need a jewellery shop," Justine said. "And something sweet. I feel like something sweet."

"We'll go via Honeydukes," Harry replied.

---

They spent some time in the giant sweet store, then, as they walked toward the jewellery store, from which Harry assured her that he and Draco had shopped in often enough to know that jewellery was the top of the range, Justine paused outside the window to a toy shop and smiled, pointing to a bunny in the window. "Isn't it cute?" she remarked, not seeming to be talking to anyone in particular.

The words had no sooner left her lips than Kris had gone inside, returning a minute later carrying the bunny, which he presented to Justine with a bow, "Your every wish is my command," he told her.

Justine laughed, hugged the bunny for a moment, then handed to Harry, who shrunk it and put it in a pocket when Ax muttered instructions in his ear. In the jewellery shop, the moment they walked into the shop, Justine paused, listening to the music that filled the place. "Oh my God! I love this song!" she said, delightedly, and Harry looked at her for a moment, then seemed to dismiss what he was thinking of. Justine danced around the shop, listening to the music and looking at the jeweller. Eventually she selected a simple silver chain with a round two carat diamond hanging from it, then exchanged a significant look with Ax.

Ax nodded, and led the rest of the group from the shop. "We may as well go and have a look at the cosmetics shop," he remarked, "She'll be a moment packing that."

"I need some hair gel," Kris agreed, "Let's go."

Justine had caught up with them by the time they reached the cosmetic shop, and swept inside, staring around, and grabbing several hair products, which were followed by perfumes, deodorant charms, lip gloss and the like. Eventually they reached the nail polish section and Justine paused.

"What colour?" Kris asked.

"Do you really need to ask?" Justine demanded.

"The silver is over there," Ax remarked, pointing, and the group stood around in front of an entire rack of silver nail polish.

Kris selected one and held it up, "This one?" he asked.

"No," Justine said dismissively. "Too dark."

Kris selected one several shades lighter, and held that up. "Too light," Justine said, giving it no more than a glance.

While Kris tried to find the right shade, Harry stood, thinking about what he had seen that day. Justine had chosen a dress that was Draco's favourite colour, they had the same favourite band, the same favourite drink … working on his theory, Harry looked through the nail polishes until he found the one he was looking for, and lifted it up. "How about this?" he asked.

Justine turned to look at him, and suddenly gave a shriek, "That's it!" she said, "That's the shade! The ultimate! I've never found it before, oh my God I love you!" she threw herself at him and hugged him, before taking the nail polish and picking up five more of them. "And I'll probably never find it again, so I'm buying lots."

Kris stared at Harry in obvious admiration, "How did you do that?" he asked. "I've known her for most of her life and I've never been able to find the right shade. The first cosmetic store you walk into with her, the first nail polish you chose, is the shade! How?"

Harry looked after Justine. "It's the exact shade of Draco's eyes," he replied softly. "They have the exact same favourite drink, you remember I asked if Draco was here when I saw it on the tray in the shop. They have the same favourite colour – he loves the colour of her dress as well … she never did get over him, did she?"

"The drink was mine," Justine said, returning from the cash register, her purchases in her bag, "The song … I started liking them after Draco and I were through. The colour … I can't explain." She was starting to look angry again, and sparks were appearing around her hands.

Kris reached into his pocket and withdrew a small paper bag quickly, "Here, I got you another present," he told her, and she squealed and grabbed it, unwrapping it as quickly as she could. Kris grinned at Harry, "Works every time," he said. Justine laughed and she pulled out a tiny monkey on a key chain. It was grinning at them and had a blue patch on it's stomach. Justine jiggled it around for awhile, then handed it to Harry.

Harry smiled slightly, and they walked to where they'd left the horses, who were still there and came cantering over to meet them. Tanya, Kris and Justine quickly saddled the horses while Harry and Ax unshrunk their brooms and mounted, taking off and circling around waiting for the others to mount.

While the three horse riders headed off, Harry and Ax raced each other again for awhile. Finally, Kris, who'd been watching them with a calculating look for awhile, called out to Harry. "Hey, can I have a go on your broom?"

"Sure," Harry replied, landing easily and dismounting. "Why?"

"I want to see which is better," Kris replied, sliding to the ground and throwing the reins up over the saddle. Loki kept going, and when Harry approached, she gave him a look and pranced ahead. Harry sighed and fell back to walk between Tanya and Justine. Tanya was looking happy because, riding Isis, she was actually taller than Harry if he was on the ground.

"What is your obsession about being taller than people?" Harry asked.

"Because I'm constantly reminded that I'm short," Tanya replied grimly.

"Who would make a big deal of it?" Harry asked, not really getting it.

"Ax," Tanya replied.

As they came closer and closer to Hogwarts, while Ax and Kris raced overhead, Justine became grimmer and grimmer, and hardly responded to anything that Harry was saying. When Ron accidentally found his way into a funny story that Harry was telling to try and get Justine to cheer up, her hands started sparking.

"Justine, if you can hardly deal with hearing Ron's name, how are you going to cope with being in the same building as he is?" Harry asked quietly.

Justine thought about this for a moment, "I hadn't really given the matter much thought … with great difficulty I suppose."

"Justine, you'll be playing Quidditch against him tomorrow," Tanya told him, "You can get pretty violent on a Quidditch pitch – with Ron there and your powers acting up, what are you going to do?"

"Shit," Justine muttered. "Wait! I know. Harry, I know that Magai's can put spells on people to block their powers. Could you block mine? Just until tomorrow night or something, long enough for me to calm down and not kill Ron in the match?"

"You could just not play," Harry remarked, unwilling to try magic like what Justine was suggested, not when practicing on a live subject without testing it first.

"No way," Justine said flatly. "I won't do that. I'll go to jail before I let my team down. If you want a best friend tomorrow night, however stupid he might be, I suggest you listen to me."

Justine dismounted lightly from Anubis and stood in front of Harry. Tanya pulled up Isis and watched them – she wasn't particularly worried. She didn't completely understand the significance of what was about to happen, but she trusted Harry's ability, and Justine's opinions. If Justine said it was possible, she had no doubt that it was, and if it was possible, she had no doubt that Harry could do it.

Harry hesitated a second more, "I don't know if this is a good idea," he said.

"It is," Justine assured him. "Just get on with it already!"

Harry reached out and put a hand on each of Justine's temples, closing his eyes. She closed her own, and Tanya gasped as suddenly the air around Justine turned the negative black of her magic, forming an aura around her, flaring powerfully, out of control. She pulled Isis back a step without even noticing that she had.

Before Justine's magic could escape, the air around Harry blazed as well, and Tanya gasped again, because his magic was so beautiful. It was a rainbow haze, flashing with sparkles of silver, gold and every other colour she could imagine. The magic swept from Harry to encircle Justine's power, and slowly pressed it closer and closer into her body. Finally her skin was sparkling with rainbows, and there was no trace at all of her own power in it's physical manifestation.

Kris and Ax, seeing what was going on, had suddenly raced back to the other three dismounting in a hurry and racing over to Justine. They weren't sure what Harry had done, but it had involved magic and if he'd hurt Justine, no matter how much they'd liked him, he would pay.

"It's ok," Justine told them, and explained what she'd asked Harry to do.

Kris and Ax didn't like it, but they accepted that it was Justine's decision, and soon enough had taken off again and were racing away. Justine, only a little bit unsteady on her feet, mounted Anubis again and they carried on to Hogwarts.

Standing at the gates to Hogwarts, Kris and Ax were standing at the gates, brooms in hand. Kris was looking smug and Ax wasn't looking particularly happy. "Who won?" Tanya asked interestedly.

"I did," Kris said happily, "On both brooms."

"I haven't ridden a broom for so long," Ax said, "I'm out of practice."

"No, you just suck," Kris replied calmly.

"Don't make me bring up you and tennis," Ax threatened.

"Tennis?" Harry asked, not quite sure how this related to flying in the least.

"Kris sucks at tennis," Ax smirked, "He can't play games where there isn't any chance of tackling your opponent. He's to physical for rackets and balls. I, however, am rather good at tennis."

"If you do say so yourself," Tanya muttered under her breath.

"Yes, that," Ax agreed.

Harry took his broom and fly toward the castle, almost wishing he was still in Hogsmeade, not particularly feeling like returning to Hogwarts. He'd just found out that Ron was an idiot, Hermione wasn't talking to him because he actually believed Justine when she told him what happened, and he really liked the Australians. He would much rather spend the time with them.

The moment he walked into the Entrance Hall, he ran into a bunch of teachers who'd just come together. Apparently they were looking for something and had come together to report that they hadn't found it. When the doors opened, they all turned around and gaped when they saw Harry standing calmly before them.

"Potter, we've been looking for you everywhere!" Flitwick squeaked at him, a little admonishingly.

"Why?" Harry enquired.

"Professor Dumbledore wishes to speak with you about the fact that fourteen of the DA students are unconscious in the Hospital Wing. Mr. Campbell and Mr. Thorpe-Townsend have already been summoned, Miss Snape, Miss Bussa, Mr. Crompton and Mr. Kidson are also being looked for in regards to the same incident," McGonagall informed him.

"What have Saul and Jeffery said?" Harry asked.

"They refuse to speak, I believe that is why the rest of you are wanted. Please follow me," McGonagall. Harry looked regretfully out the door, wishing that he could go and warn the Kallaix students of what was about to occur, but knowing he had no choice but to follow McGonagall.

---

While the Kallaixians rode and flew to the stables to unsaddle the horses. Ax stayed around to chat, and Justine ended up making him put the tack away so that he wasn't just standing there "looking cute".

"But that's what I do best," Ax protested, carrying the heavy saddle over to its normal resting place.

The others laughed and, once they were finished unsaddling the horses and putting all the tack away, they headed down to the cruiser, talking merrily. "Well, that was a good shopping trip," Justine remarked, "I found the perfect dress and the perfect nail polish. How good was that?"

As they walked onto the boat, Adam looked up at them from where he'd been sitting on one of the deck chairs. "Someone's in trouble," he remarked with a grin. Tegan, sitting next to him, scowled at Justine.

"How dare you?" she demanded.

"What?" Justine asked, confused. Was Tegan yelling at her for hurting Ron or something? Tegan had tried to kill Ron often enough herself, apparently.

"You went out and caused pain and you didn't invite me," Tegan growled, eyes narrowed. "That's just not cool. I feel so ignored! And on top of that, you went shopping without me!"

"You don't like shopping," Justine pointed out in confusion.

"No, but I'd have appreciated it if you'd asked if I had needed to go to Hogsmeade," Tegan told her, "You're lucky I already have my dress for tomorrow night, otherwise I'd really not be happy right now, because I'd have to go and chose a new one on my own. I'm not talking to you now," she got up and walked over to the pool, not looking back at Justine at all.

Justine thought quickly, "I brought you a present," she said, and Kris and Ax grinned at each other. Justine wasn't the only one who could be distracted with the offering of a present.

"Really?" Tegan suddenly spun around and bounced over to Justine, grinning widely and holding out her hand.

Justine dug in her back, buying time while she frantically tried to think of something that would work for Tegan. Giving her hug, like Ax had done to Justine, just wouldn't work. Her fingers came in contact with the Honeydukes bag and she dug through it until she found something she remembered buying.

She pulled a lolly pop out and handed it to Tegan. "I searched through half of Honeydukes to find that for you," she told Tegan, "It's guaranteed to last for twelve hours of constant sucking."

Tegan accepted the sweet and threw her arms around Justine, "Thank you!" she cried, and immediately unwrapped the lollypop and stuck it in her mouth, while Kris turned to Adam.

"What's this about being in trouble?" he asked.

"We got a message a couple of hours ago asking where you were because they wanted to talk to you about the fact that fourteen Hogwarts students turned up unconscious in the Hospital Wing. Saul and Jeffery had to go and talk to Dumbledore because they brought the students in," Adam replied.

"Well that's alright then," Kris said with a sigh of relief. "We all know that Saul and Jeffery won't tell Dumbledore anything unless Justine says that they can. Knowing them they won't have said anything at all…"

"Now I feel bad. They've been stuck up there, not talking, for hours. How much must this be killing Saul?" Justine remarked. "Come on, I guess we'd better go up there and help out a little."

"May as well," Kris agreed.

---

They were ushered into Dumbledore's office a few minutes later, having been cornered by teachers the moment they stepped into the Entrance Hall, who weren't listening when they said that they were going to see Dumbledore anyway. For some reason they seemed to assume that the group was intending to run off and hide.

Harry was standing in front of Dumbledore, hands folded across his chest and a stony expression on his face, not saying anything. Behind him, Jeffery and Saul were sitting in chairs, looking anywhere but at Dumbledore and also determinedly silent. Ginny Weasley had also been called, but she was just looking confused and repeating that she wasn't sure what had happened, because she'd been unconscious until the very end.

"Now, Miss Snape would you kindly inform as to what has happened in my school?" Dumbledore enquired coolly.

"Sorry Justine, we let slip that you were involved before we stopped talking," Saul said, looking ashamed.

"Don't worry about," Justine replied, and was about to go on further when Kris stepped in front her.

"We want a lawyer," he informed Dumbledore firmly.

"You want a what?" Dumbledore asked.

"A lawyer," Kris repeated. "As members of the Australian embassy we deserve proper legal representation."

Dumbledore blinked, and Harry smirked slightly. This had to have been the first time that the Headmaster of Hogwarts had been asked, by a student, for legal representation in any matter … least of all when said student was apparently in a lot of trouble.

"Do you have a preference for who that lawyer is?" Dumbledore asked, quickly accepting the situation and moving on.

"Yes. Jean Wadsworth, our Headmistress," Kris replied.

Dumbledore gave Kris another surprised look – most people wouldn't request another teacher when they were in trouble, but went over to his fireplace anyway, throwing green powder into it and sticking his head into the flames. A moment later, Dumbledore stood back and the fire went brilliantly emerald green. Harry and Ginny were just looking at one another in amazement.

Out of the fire came a very short woman with a round face, big blue eyes and girly lashes who was wearing her short hair in pretty curls around her face. She was wearing a black power suit and smiling pleasantly. When she saw Kris, she sighed and said in a voice that was startling Ocker, "Lemme guess – he wanted a bloody lawyer?" she demanded.

Harry and Ginny looked at one another; it seemed that the Australian students had a Headmistress who was jut as out there as they themselves were. "Don't cha know it," Kris replied.

"Every time you get in trouble you call for a damn lawyer. Have you ever thought of arguing your case on your own?"

"Is it a crime to want to have the best legal advice as possible?" Kris demanded and batted his eyelashes.

"Ooh, you're so lucky I like you," the woman told him laughingly. "Mr Dumbledore, may I have a moment over there with my students to discover what the bloody hell they've done this time?"

Dumbledore smiled at the woman, "My dear woman, please," he gestured to the lower level of his office.

Jean looked around at her head students, her prefects, the pretty red head that reminded her somewhat of Tanya and the infamous Harry Potter. She recognised him immediately of course. "So, did you break something, someone, a serious rule or all of the above?" she asked with a lift of the eyebrow.

Justine, very high speed, whispered out the entire story.

"Ah. All of the above. We really do need to fill Mr Dumbledore in on this one, Justine, because if any of those students are seriously hurt, you could be in some huge trouble." Jean said slowly, "We also need to get across firmly that it was only by the actions of others that you lost control, and a Magai does deserve certain considerations."

Justine had casually left out that her powers were blocked, she had just said it was Harry who had helped her resume control. "Okay, lets see if I can fix this mess I've made."

She moved over in front of Dumbledore and took a deep breath. "I'm very sorry for any actions I took this morning that may have lead to the infliction of harm upon any of the students of your school. Unfortunately I had lost control of my Magai ability, and at the same time I was given some disturbing information. This lead to my emotions getting the better of me and I attacked Mr Weasley. Any student who was in the room with him was unintentionally caught in the brunt of my anger. I understand if I need to be punished for my actions but I ask heartfeltedly that you do not take any anger you may have with me out on the Kallaix team, as they were in fact, the ones who stopped the incident from intensifying." Justine stepped back into line beside Kris and Jean Wadsworth.

"Nice. Dad couldn't have twisted what really happened better." Kris whispered in her ear.

"I spend way too much time at your house not to be that damn good." Justine grinned wickedly for a fleeting moment then focused once more as Jean began to speak.

"Professor. While I understand that at your school has been affected by this situation I really am going to have to step in and in this instance and put my foot down, I will punish her when she returns to my school. We have very different styles of running our schools but I believe that we are both on the same sides in this war and the significance Justine could play. She is a Magai..." Jean gave Dumbledore a significant look.

Justine looked at the Teachers ... Yep she was a Magai, how was that significant to the war effort? "Um. Is there something I should know?" Justine asked her teacher.

"Not right now, no." Jean said, in the particular tone of voice that all Kallaix students knew not to mess with.

Justine hung her head sadly - even though she knew better than to question her Headmistress when that tone was used, if she was important for anything, she'd rather know.

"I am aware of her status," Dumbledore said quietly, his attention focused entirely on Jean Wadsworth, "But said status has no significance in this particular situation. She has harmed a student, and it happened here - the forms clearly state, and were signed, to say that she is under the jurisdiction of Hogwarts during the event, and that her actions are punishable by Hogwarts law. I have wavered this often enough already for serious offences against Hogwarts law ... I cannot do so again."

Jean took a half step back, "Sorry Kristopher - you're out of your league here. Match point to Professor Dumbledore."

"But Jean!" Kris protested, "You're da man!"

"Da woman," Jean corrected. "This match goes to Dumbledore ... but the war ain't over yet sonny boy. YOU CRAZY OLD COOT!" she screamed at Dumbledore, "I'm removing my students right now! As members of the Australian embassy, the very idea of this punishment is outrageous! You know ... you're an idiot, you say that their behaviour has been bad for some time now, but at the same time you never notified us. You have let this situation arise, where you have to punish my Head Girl for something that is, in essence, your fault entirely."

"Ma'am, I understand that you upset, but please, I must request that you do not direct your displeasure in the form of anger at my person. I am just attempting to comply with the rules that govern my school, just as you are with yours. I have two issues which must be address - Miss Snape you have laid no less than fourteen students in the Hospital wing, one who is in a semi-comatic condition."

Justine rolled her eyes to side, not prepared to play guilty, as Jean mumbled, "You said a couple of students got hurt."

"They aren't hurt, just unconscious," Jeffery remarked darkly, "The only student actually hurt was Weasley, and he deserved it."

Dumbledore turned to face Jeffery, momentarily forgetting his quarrel with the Australian Headmistress, "Now we're getting somewhere - why was Mr. Weasley injured? And why only him?"

Jeffery and Saul exchanged looks, then clamped their teeth shut audibly and crossed their arms, glanced at Jean, before staring determinedly at the ceiling.

"Good work boys," Jean said with a firm nod, "But if you know something important, you should probably think about telling Professor Dumbledore. Completely up to you, of course."

Jeffery and Saul turned from the ceiling to Justine questioningly. She looked back at them for a moment, and the three of them seemed to be having a conversation with their eyes. Finally, Justine sighed, "I am so sick of telling this story. I swear, the next time someone asks, I'm going to tell them it's because I've decided to become a drag queen and move to New Orleans and no one's being bloody supportive!"

"I thought Drag Queens were guys?" Tanya questioned, brows knit in confusion.

Justine gave her a look, and Tanya shut up. "Anyway. Very quickly - two years ago Draco found a memory of me cheating on him in a pensieve-"

"Yes, I'm sorry to say I know all about that ... it was my pensieve that was stolen and used to store the memory."

"Well what you obviously didn't know, or you wouldn't be making me tell this story, is that the memory was fake."

"Miss Snape, I'm afraid that's not possible. I know for a fact that a pensieve will only accept a person's real memories. There is no way to fool them. Unless..." he began to think hard.

"Yes, Mr. Dumbledore, it's incorrect," Justine replied, "Not only memories are accepted - dreams are as well. If a memory is created, inserted into someone's mind, which then validates it as a dream, since it didn't actually happen, then you can put it into a stupid pensieve, which is exactly what Ron Weasley's older brothers realised two years ago. They acted on their theory, and hey presto, my life is ruined. Two years later, I find out about it and try to kill Ron. There, happy?" Justine's eyes were shining with tears, and Kris put an arm around her. Saul bounced over to her as well and tickled her.

"I believe that this ... Ron Weasley, whoever he may be, should be punished for so severely harming the welfare of another student at his school," Jean said, looking happy to find herself back on grounds where she knew exactly where she stood.

"Twenty points will be removed from Gryffindor, now that these events have come to light," said Dumbledore, with the air of one making a huge concession.

"THAT'S IT?" Jean asked, "Removal of points? You aren't even going to call a Student Trial? What, you deal with all the student matters yourself?" Jean asked, uncomprehending.

"No, that is what the Heads of the Houses are for," Dumbledore was just as uncomprehending as his Australian counterpart.

"You people really are archaic, get with the times already" Jean said, shaking her head.

"Look I'm sorry Miss, but Hogwarts is one of the most prestigious schools in Britain, and Professor Dumbledore is it's best Headmaster to date," Harry said, staring at Jean and completely the missing the look of upmost relief and joy on Dumbledore's face as he spoke. "This situation can be dealt with - you have different schools and they run differently. Stop sizing each other up."

As suddenly as he had exploded, Harry calmed down and took his seat, expression cool, but defiant. Jean and Dumbledore both glanced at him. "Your right Harry," Kris was the first to speak, "Although there is a loophole to work in the favour of Kallaix in this circumstance."

Saul suddenly piped up, "Justine did indeed break the rules and has been offered a punishment by the headmaster of her school. Dumbledore's argument stands to say that the punishment should be delivered by Hogwarts due to the signed agreement that we would abide by your rules in the entry forms, but Professor, it is not your name on the forms..."

"SEVIE HAS THE POWER!" Justine finally yelled, "He's our sponsor teacher, and only he has the jurisdiction to punish me, and as my family member that control is passed onto a non-bias representative of his choice!"

"So we're only screwed if he choses Dumbledore." Jeffery said. "And right when we were in the lead. Our points better not be penalised."

Five minutes later Severus Snape swept into the room and went into conference with Dumbledore, then Justine in turn. "So what do you thinks gonna happen?" Kris asked Saul and Jeffery, the three of which had slowly backed away from the group, joining Ax and Tanya in the background.

"I figured it would be better if we stayed to the back of this situation, I have a tendency of letting my anger get the better of me and half the time Tanya speaks before she thinks." Ax said to the group. "We cant let Justine get punished, she's to fragile, she wont be able to sit through a detention or a ridiculous punishment. Harry has made her power internal so she cant hurt others, but she can still hurt herself with that power block."

Kris's attention was recaptured by the Slytherin Head as he came back to the Headmaster. Out of the ear shot of most in the room, and not paying attention to Harry who sat still to one side of Dumbledore Snape said. "Professor, Weasley has, I presume, been given a harsh punishment?" Snape spat Ron's name like it was poison.

"Twenty points have been removed from Gryffindor" Dumbledore said in a placating tone.

"That's it?" Snape seemed furious. "The boy has harmed Justine in ways you can only imagine, and you remove points from Gryffindor?"

Dumbledore frankly looked back at Snape. "Severus, I had to take into account the punishment that I know you yourself will seek to deliver upon Ronald's head. I must implore you to remember he is a student in our care..."

"I DON'T CARE IF HE IS! HE WILL PAY!"

From the other side of the room, where she was getting hugs from Kris, Justine guessed what Sevie was talking about. "Severus. Please just let this go, I just want to pretend none of this happened, so can you just punish me already so I can go... I wont even argue. This is just taking so long."

Kris stared at Justine in shock, her eyes were full of tears and black. The white, iris and pupil all pitch black and sparkling. Jean came forward. "I propose that Justine be barred from the UYC round three, that she be confined to her room for the evening, and that when she comes home, she deals with a week's grounding to the Wentworth commons."

"That sounds fair." Dumbledore and Severus both said in a rush, wanting nothing more than to calm the Magai down.

"Okay, I can deal with that." Justine said, just as Saul decided to tickle her. Justine gave a shriek of surprised laughter, "What was that for?"

"I don't have to play 'silent and serious' guy anymore! Thank you thank you thank you!" Saul bounced around the group hugging everyone, including Dumbledore. When he hugged Jean, she surprised everyone and hugged him back.

"Obscurely enough, I've missed you Saul. Your brother Isaac just isn't the same, in the seat of the McEwan prefect."

"Damn straight, he isn't me," Saul replied.

"Oh, so I suppose Daniel's completely replaced me as the best Head Boy Kallaix has ever seen?" Kris demanded. "That's just not cool."

"It's not my fault you aren't as missable as me," Saul muttered.

"Daniel? He is doing a rather good job ... perhaps we should replace you permanently, and start up a new tradition of having the Head Students come from sixth year from now on..." Jean remarked thoughtfully.

Kris gave a slight sniff and turned away.

It had all been arranged that the students were going to share a quick dinner before the Great Hall would be used for the UYC that night. So the Kallaixians got their stuff together and made their way up to the Castle about five minutes early to get there on time. On the way they had given an over exited Winky permission to clean up if she wanted to. Justine was happy that her ban from the UYC did not prevent her from coming to dinner, although she would have to leave before the event was set up.

"That elf has serious issues," Kris said, "I mean she thinks your the bomb when you ask her to give the boys bathroom and dunny some extra attention. Honestly!" Kris shook his head.

Justine smiled, "She just likes to take care of us, and personally I think she's adorable. I want to keep her!"

"And where, Pray tell would you keep said elf? In your school trunk?" Ax asked blandly

"No," Justine put in happily, "I'd send her home to look after my mom."

---

They entered the Great Hall and moved to the far side of the room to take their place at the Hufflepuff table. The Hogwarts tables were so big that they could easily accommodate for the extra twenty or so students at each table on top of the Students that belonged there. The whole of the Hogwarts School would be sharing dinner tonight as in a rare occurrence for the Hunt, they did not get banished to their common rooms for meals.

Justine took her place between Kris and Saul, absentmindedly looking around the room, remembering the past, and the good times she had had here. There were groups of friends, red, green, blue and yellow friends laughing and chatting merrily as they waited for their dinner.

Emerald eyes clashed with Silver eyes and held.

Draco had grown had grown since their relationship ended some two years ago. He was taller, had grown into his once scrawny frame and was now incredibly well built; Justine had to admit, with seemingly natural grace and poise. His face was less pointed, now brutally handsome with longish silver-blond hair, a similar shade to Alyson's.

Draco looked back at her. Shockingly he found himself thinking this is the first time in years that she's looked at me like that, without fear, hatred, free from any sorrow. Her eyes, if anything, were a more dazzling shade of green and her once shoulder length black hair had grown down to the small of her back and was more of a chocolate brown colour. He had no doubt that it had been done with colouring charms - hair just didn't come naturally in quite that shade.

Damn. She'd grown into the beautiful creature that he, in his naïveté, had once predicted.

The spell was broken when Kristopher - the asshole - lent over and whispered something in her ear, pointing to the door way, where Padma Patil was standing. She had been discharged from the hospital wing that morning, because she was pretty much completely healthy again, and they needed the beds after her latest temper tantrum.

Most of the schools ignored the new arrival, probably not even aware that she had been injured in any way, but there was an exception in the Kallaix students. All bar two of the ten people there were staring at Padma with expressions ranging from open dislike, to disgust, to hatred. The only who seemed to have no expression her face was Alyson, and Draco remembered that the girl had always been somehow different from everyone else, never seeming to actually hate everyone. The other who was not looking at Padma with dislike was Ax, who had a look of cold calculation that was even scarier than the aforementioned emotions.

Noting that Kallaix students obviously dislike Pansy, and despite the fact that he found her more than a little imbecilic for a Ravenclaw, Draco decided that from now on he would be nice to Padma. He was sitting beside Harry, and there was a spare seat on Harry's other side. Before he had the opportunity to tell Harry to shuffle over, Padma headed for the seat on the other side of Harry.

Just before she sat down, Harry held up a hand, bringing her up short, "I'm sorry, but that seat is already taken," Harry said, tone icy.

Padma stared at him in complete incomprehension, "By who?" she demanded, her voice a little shrill.

Ginny was sitting two seats down on the opposite side of the table, and, upon hearing what Harry had said, stood up and walked around the table, coming around to sit down next to Harry, "By me," she replied.

Padma blinked, tears forming in her eyes, and Draco's old dislike flared. Stupid girl, crying whenever anything didn't go her way, he thought to himself. "But-" Padma started, her voice carrying her incomprehension and distress.

"But nothing," both Harry and Ginny said almost simultaneously. "Find somewhere else to sit, Padma," Harry continued on his own.

Padma turned and flounced off, taking the seat that Ginny had vacated, next to Hermione, who rested a consoling hand on Padma's shoulder. Padma brushed it off angrily and Hermione looked over at Harry, "That wasn't very nice," she told Harry, "You did that on purpose!"

Harry turned away and engaged Ginny in conversation, pretending that he hadn't even heard Hermione speak. "Why don't we all go up and see Ron?" Hermione asked, in an effort to breach the gap that had been created in their group by the attention-seeking Kallaixians, Kallaix students; Hermione corrected herself mentally, to avoid using Justine's word for her schoolmates. "He might have regained consciousness."

"Why would we want to?" Ginny demanded in a voice fraught with emotion.

"I would advise that you stay away from Ron, Hermione. He's not worth your time," Harry added icily.

"Oh, so you're turning into Percy now?" Hermione demanded, "Like that letter he sent Ron about you in fifth year? That's just being sick, I'm going to see Ron and make sure he's OK." Percy still hadn't made up with the Weasley's, who were beginning to despair that he ever would.

"I could almost hope he isn't, he deserves the pain," Harry said, and Ginny looked confused, half supportive, half against what Harry was saying.

"I don't know what to believe any more," she said, standing and walking over to the window, staring out over the night-hidden grounds.

Draco caught Harry's eye. "Tell me what the fuck is going on Harry. I'm not going to listen to anymore of this 'later' bull, what the hell is happening."

Harry looked at his step-brother with a pained expression. "Draco, I just can't. I made a promise that I just can't break."

Draco looked away. "So this is how it's going to happen. You withdraw back into your precious little Gryffindor world where if you're not in the red, you're out?" He felt as though he was being kicked back out of Harry's confidence. Something was going on, and it centralized around Ron and the Kallaix Students? "And I thought that when we swore not to keep secrets you meant it."

Harry looked as though Draco had slapped him. "But it's not my secret to tell!"

"Fuck off Potter. I just don't care anymore." Draco deliberately turned his back on Harry. He thought he found a friend in Harry. Damn! He needed to think, what was all that noise?

---

Kris and Saul were mere inches from the Holy plate when Tegan screamed "WAIT!"

Saul turned to the werewolf with a look of indignation. "Tegan, what you see before you is the Australian Holy grail, the highest level of food, the holy slices of doom, DAMMIT TEGAN! IT'S VEGEMITE TOAST! Why shouldn't I eat my fair share."

Tegan looked at him gravely. "What, pray tell, will you do if it turns out to be promite?"

Every Australian except Alyson pulled back with an audible gasp. "It can't be," Saul said with a tragic expression on his face.

"I am willing to take the risk and test out this substance on the grounds of the possibility that it might be promite," Tegan said solemnly. "For the good of my country, I will sacrifice myself."

"Oh, you're so noble," Justine said. "We'll cheer you on, but hurry up – if it's vegemite toast we don't want it getting cold … if it's promite, Alyson will just have to eat it all on her own."

Tegan edged over to the plate of toast and touched a finger delicately to the topping on one of the pieces of toast, and licked her finger carefully before letting out a whoop and grabbing two pieces of toast. "IT'S VEGEMITE!" she yelled, and everyone bar Alyson on the Kallaix table lunged forward almost simultaneously for the platter of toast and proceeded to stuff themselves with it.

At the Hogwarts table Leon looked up, having thought he heard the magical word 'vegemite' – upon seeing the Kallaix students attacking something on their table, he was pretty sure his suspicions were confirmed, and leapt up onto the table, stepping over a roast dinner and leaping to the ground again hurtling across the hall to the table, just as Tegan, Justine and Tanya, each holding a piece of toast, started singing:

"We're happy little vegemites

As bright as bright can be

We all enjoy our vegemite

For breakfast, lunch and tea,

Our mummy's say we're growing stronger

Every single week

Because we love our vegemite

We all ADORE our vegemite

It puts a rose in every cheek

We're growing stronger every week!"

As the song finished, several more people from the surrounding tables got up and approached. One of them was Electra, who joined Leon at the platter of toast, commenting that she had tasted vegemite in Australia when on holiday some time before and had never been able to find it in Egypt. Leon promised that if she sent him an owl, he'd send back a jar of vegemite whenever she needed it.

Adam called out to Oliver, who was on the staff table, saying that the Irish boy had to come and try vegemite. To everyone's surprise, when Oliver stood up to come down, so did Severus, who took several pieces of toast and went to stand with Justine, giving her one and eating another himself as they spoke quietly together.

Harry and Ginny stood up from the Hogwarts table and walked over as well, because Harry hadn't been able to convince Draco to talk to him again, and the blond Slytherin was still ignoring him. Draco had called him 'Potter' which he never did these days unless he was either really pissed off with Harry, or really happy about something … Harry was fairly sure that it was the former in this particular case. Needing to calm down and get away from people who just seemed to hate him, Harry decided to go and try this vegemite – besides, he had heard Saul praising the stuff highly the day when he had gone to the boat with his friends, back when they had all been his friends.

Like Ginny, he wasn't sure what to think any more.

Also, from Hogwarts came Neville, Seamus and Dean. When Seamus had decided that he liked Vegemite, as had Oliver, Ax, Oliver and Seamus sang the vegemite song in all out Irish accents. Justine was standing in front of them, pretending to conduct them, while at the same delivering the words very quickly and quietly so that Oliver and Seamus could sing them, because they didn't know them already. Ax knew the words perfectly and sang perfectly.

Finally, Dumbledore stood up. "I believe," he said quietly, and everyone, even the celebrating Australians, quieted down to listen to him, "That it is time to give you a point's update."

Everyone let out a brief cheer before quieting down again to let Dumbledore talk. "In first place, Kallaix Academy of Australia, on four hundred and three points," he said, then paused for the expected break out from the Australians.

"Oh yeah! Who's your daddy!" Kris yelled.

"I'm your daddy!" Saul yelled back, then the entire table went quiet and turned to stare expectantly at Dumbledore, who was looking expectantly at them.

"That's it?" he enquired, his voice carrying a tone of polite disbelief.

"Yup," Saul replied, and Dumbledore smiled faintly.

"In that case, in second place, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, on three hundred and thirty and two point five." Saul and Kris broke out again when they realised just how far in the lead Kallaix was.

"In third place, Thundreds …"

---

Once the scores had all been announced, Severus came over to Justine. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to escort you to the boat now," he told her.

Justine looked at him, "You actually have to escort me?" she demanded. "I can't be trusted to lock myself in my room?"

"The Headmaster wishes that I come with you and ensure that you have done as requested," Severus replied. "I do not believe it to be necessary, but orders are orders."

"Fine," Justine sighed, and they left the Hall together, to the interested looks of the rest of the schools, all of whom were probably wondering what was going on and why Justine wasn't staying for the UYC.

On the walk to the boat, Justine looked up see clouds sweeping overhead, obscuring the stars. "Looks like rain," she remarked.

"It almost always looks like rain," Severus pointed out.

"Not where I come from," Justine said. "Rain's something to celebrate in Australia."

Severus took Justine to her room and waited while she called Winky for a moment. "Winky, you're a life saver," she told the little house elf.

"Little miss liked Winky's surprise?" Winky asked in delight.

"Little Miss loved Winky's surprise," Justine replied. "As did Little Miss's friends. You wouldn't happen to have any vegemite down here on the boat would you?"

"Winky has some vegemite. Winky got much much vegemite for Little Miss and her friends. Winky is thinking that they might be wanting more. Is Little Miss wanting more vegemite?"

"Yes, if it's not too much trouble," Justine replied.

"No trouble at all, Little Miss!" Winky disappeared to get some toast, and came back a few moments later with a second platter for her. Severus accepted Justine's offer of some toast for the walk back to the castle, and Justine closed the door to her bedroom, hearing her uncle go upstairs and lock the door at the top of the stairs so that she couldn't leave the confines of the below deck cabins.

Justine sighed and picked up a piece of toast to nibble on… it was going to be a long and boring night, unless she just went to sleep…

Come to think of it, sleep sounding really good right now … she ate some more toast, then lay down on her bed and closed her eyes. She fell asleep in seconds.

---

Floating somewhere between sleep and reality, she groaned. Justine was never going to get back to sleep, she had woken up thirty minutes ago for some obscure reason. She had began to read a book assuming sleep would reclaim her eventually, but alas, no, she was still reading away. She was so wired, and the block on her powers was still there, Justine felt as though she had some sort of spiritual clamp on her very soul. She rolled over and kicked off the blanket, dropping the book on the floor and bundling under the silky sheets. Wait. Did the boat just move?

Justine sat bolt upright, the boat was swaying gently from side to side, and thunder was rumbling in the… HELLO! It was cracking right above them. Justine walked over to the window to find that the shutter was shut closing out the sound and light of outside. This was why she hadn't noticed the storm till now, so she swung it open. Her eyes opened wide and she saw that the Kallaix boat was definitely not taking the brunt of the storm, it was relatively untouched in a bubble of Dragon magic. Thunder rolled overhead and split the sky above the castle, throwing it into relief. Justine gasped at the sheer enormity of the castle in this light, it seemed to loom up over her.

Justine made the decision in that moment to go and spend the night with Sevie. Later that night she'd regret the decision. But it did seem like good idea at the time. I mean, come on, who thinks correctly at two in the morning?

Looking down at her attire, she figured she'd have to take her black cloak, the floor length white nightie with ribbon straps was, as Saul had said that weekend at Tanya's, very pretty, but it didn't really offer much protection to the rain. She slipped the cloak over her shoulders and walked to her bed stand, putting her trusty wand and her mobile in the deep pockets.

She slipped out of her room, into the hall and pressed her ear against the door of Kris's room. The light snoring brang a smile to her lips. She slipped up the stairs and into the bedlam of the storm. The deck was protected from the brunt of the rain by the bubble, but a light sprinkle on the surface of the pool was a tinkling and shivering. The deck chairs were looking soggy, and she almost slipped over twice on the shining deck. She had to pull the hood of her cloak up over her rapidly dampening hair.

She cautiously made her way down the ladder and out stepped out into the rain. It came down on her so fast she gasped and ran up the wharf and across the muddy grounds as fast as she could, finding the entrance path and even before she reached the doors she was cursing loudly at her lack of footwear.

Severus's rooms were in the dungeon, so she made her way towards the far side of the entrance hall.

Justine raised a hesitant hand and knocked on the door to Severus's room when she arrived, hoping he would be in bed and not out on an errand or prowling the hall for out-of-bed students. A second later her fears were laid to rest though, when Sevie opened the door glaring down at her. Students were probably terrified of that look, but Justine just rolled her eyes and grinned. He moved aside and let her in. She saw a flash of ginger fur streak under the bed, but didn't comment.

Severus looked down at his bedraggled little niece and smiled. "Don't tell me the high and mighty Justine is scared of the storm?" he asked, a spark lighting his cold eyes.

"No I thought you might be scared and need a hand to hold." Justine said as she tucked herself into his arms.

"Can't you tell I'm terrified? Argh, Justine you're drenched… and now so am I," Severus stood back from Justine and looked at her in mock malevolence. "What on earth possessed you to walk up to me in the rain," he pulled Justine over to the fireplace and she felt a warm tingle slip down her spine as Severus cast a warming and drying charm on her.

"So, Sevie, do you mind if I bunk down on your couch tonight, I don't think I want to swim back to the boat." Justine said as she inspected Severus's quarters. The furniture was all dark mahogany with leather inserts and panelling. The two chocolate leather armchairs that faced the fire had on them black leather cushions with silver embroidery, similar to the mat and the covers on the now dishevelled bed. "Nice room."

"Justine, as much as I thankyou for your approval of my décor, there is no need for you to 'bunk down'. Before you arrived I prepared one of the towers for your stay, as far as I know it still remains as it was." Severus got out a piece of paper from a desk, and handed it to her, "these were the directions I had prepared for you, now run along, your going to need sleep to win the Quidditch for tomorrow."

Justine kissed him on the cheek and headed for the door. "Damn I love ya Sevie."

---

Alyson and Tanya were sitting in the lounge room on the boat, huddled together. Tanya had been woken by the storm, and had heard Justine get up and had assumed that she was going up on deck for a moment. Figuring that when Justine returned, at least she'd have someone to talk to while she couldn't sleep, Tanya had gotten up, dressed and gone out to wait for her.

She'd found Alyson in the lounge, looking totally freaked out, and had asked what was wrong. Alyson had explained that the unicorn in her was freaking out at the fact that the boat was moving.

"Well, Justine will have an answer, she always does," Tanya said comfortingly and settled down beside Alyson to wait … and wait … and wait.

"We did pretty good in the Conference tonight," Tanya remarked, thinking that maybe if they talked, the time would pass faster and Justine would arrive. "I mean, Jacque's arguments on Technology in Magical Schools was pretty could. Obviously, using Kallaix as a living example made it easier. I don't think that anyone really understood what she meant when she said that using an Adamantium casing on the electrical circuitry … but they really could associate when she talked about it being advantageous and how it could give Muggleborns a sense of identity when they first entered magical schools. A pity she only got a six for that, really."

"Adam, on the other hand," Alyson remarked, "I didn't even know he could talk like that! He scored a perfect thirty with his argument that there should be a Western Magisphere Annual Quidditch knockout so that the students could test each other out and get to know one another more easily…"

"You know, I don't think she's coming back," Tanya remarked. "Maybe we should go and look for her?"

"I guess," Alyson said slowly, not looking particularly happy at the prospect of going into the middle of a storm, but she followed when Tanya got up and walked out onto the deck.

"I love McEwie," Alyson said, noticing the bubble around them that prevented all but a light spray of water actually making it to the boat. "But I don't see Justine …"

"I don't think she's on the boat any more … that means we're going to go and look for her … who knows where she is?"

---

Justine placed a hand on the gorgeous banister and walked up the stairs to the bedrooms, screw Severus's room, this place was beautiful, and the boy had some wicked taste.

"Last door on the left on the first landing…" Justine muttered to herself and put out her. wand and wandered forward. There was enough light from the frequent flashes for Justine to see the door, it lay at the end of a corridor, which had the lower half of the walls in a honey coloured wood panelling, and the upper half in a pale cream. A palm tree sat under the window at the end of the hall, which was hung with white chiffon curtains. She approached her bedroom door and she gently and as silently ass he could swung it open. It was dark in the room, but she could make out the bed on the far side of the room.

It was eerie being in the tower alone. It really seemed as if she wasn't. She knew Sevie had told her that the tower was empty but still. She slipped the cloak from her shoulders, making sure the mobile and wand were secure in the pocket, and slipped into the bed.

She sighed in happiness when she felt the warmth inside the bed, "the sheets must be self warming," she thought to herself as she drifted away…

---

"I know!" Alyson said, "Let's use Jacque's equipment! She's got bugs on all of us, and it's all in the wheel house. We'll be able to find Justine and go to her and get off this damn boat!"

In the wheel house, they settled in front of Jacque's monitors and looked for the spot labelled 'Justine'.

"What's she doing so close to another dot? Who's dot is that?" Tanya asked, "She hasn't got a boyfriend, has she?"

"Shit," Alyson said, one of the rare times that Tanya had ever heard the unicorn-girl use a swear word. "That's Draco Malfoy! We have to get up there now!"

The pair of them flew from the boat, heading as fast as they could for the tower in which Justine was located.

---

Draco heard the door open and close, and had to struggle not to sigh. It must be one of the stupid girls – Pansy or Daphne, he'd assume – trying to get some sort of late night favour or something. He hated this. Why couldn't they just accept that he didn't like them, and never had, and leave him alone? He sat, up ready to tell the girl, when she came near enough, to bugger off. What was this? He was using stupid Australian slang now? He would tell the girl to go away.

The bed creaked as someone pulled back the covers and snuggled in, and Draco was about to say, "Don't get comfortable, you aren't staying here," when the girl's smell reached him. Roses and vanilla … the only girl he knew with that scent was her. He stayed stock still, listening to the breathing of the person next to him.

He heard her sigh, before her breathing slowed and he knew that she had fallen asleep. Shit, what was going on here? Someone came to his bed, then just settled in and fell asleep? Without even asking? Was this some sort of prank? Someone had realised what she smelt like, and was trying to get back at him for some imagined slight by sending someone with that scent to his bedroom…

He thought for a moment, then accessed his Magai powers to the light room just a little, so dimly that it would not disturb the person beside him. The moment he saw her, his heart froze and his breathing almost stopped.

It was her. What was she doing here? What was going on?

Then he remembered – this was the tower that had been prepared for the Kallaix students, and this room was supposed to be hers. She hadn't turned the light on when she game inside – she didn't know that he was here. She wouldn't know that the DC had claimed the tower once it became apparent that the Kallaix students had no interest in it.

He thought for a moment. How could he get out of this? Could he just get up, walk out and bunk in with Harry for the night, pretend that they'd never been here and that she had never come? He looked around the room. All his stuff was here, arranged exactly as he liked it. He couldn't move that now … dammit, what was he going to do?

Eventually it came to him. The only way that this could work would be if he woke her up. There just was no other way. He paused for a moment, preparing himself, then placed a hand over her mouth and poked her in the shoulder, knowing from past experience that this was the best was to wake her up.

Justine jolted awake, and screamed silently against his hand, which he was thankful he had thought to place there. At least this way none of the DC would have to know what happened, and the moment she was gone, he could go back to happily pretending that this had never happened.

"Stop screaming," he hissed at her. "Do you want to wake everyone?"

She recognised his voice and shrank away from him. For a moment he felt a stab of pain – once she would have welcomed him with a smile, now her eyes filled with terror at the sound of his voice … but he pushed the pain away. He didn't care any more. She was a cheating little bitch and he wanted nothing more to do with her. She didn't deserve his pain.

She reached up and pulled his hand away from her mouth, glaring at him, before leaping out of bed and screaming at the top of her lungs. Draco stood up and walked around the bed to approach Justine. She stopped screaming immediately and cowered back away from him.

Before he could think of anything else to do, Draco raised a hand and stunned her, then lifted her onto his bed, just as the door burst open and the lights flared to almost blinding light as Harry appeared in the doorway. He threw a hand out behind him, and Draco could almost feel the magic throwing closed all the doors that were opening along the hall way and locking them.

Harry looked between Justine, lying unconscious on the bed wearing nothing but a white negligee nightgown, and Draco standing over with an expression of shock and dislike on his face in nothing but black satin pants.

"Draco, what have you done?" Harry enquired.

Before Draco could respond, the doors to the tower flew open and two girls raced into the room. For a second, Draco mistook Tanya Bussa for Ginny again, but when he realised that it was Alyson beside her, he realised that the Australian's were coming – they knew where Justine was … this was not good.

"What did you do to Justine!" Tanya walked straight up to Draco and shoved him in the chest – despite the fact that she had to reach up so high that it almost didn't work. Draco, caught by surprise, stumbled backwards and Tanya spun around to test Justine's pulse. "She's still alive," she called to Alyson.

"Was there ever any doubt that she wouldn't be?" Draco asked, sounding offended.

"Yes," Tanya replied. "Now – five minutes ago you were in the bed with her! What did you do? Did you rape her?"

Draco looked absolutely disgusted, just as Harry quickly said, "No."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes!" Draco yelled. "Dammit – why am I getting blamed for this?"

"Because Justine is unconscious wearing next to nothing in your bed – and you're still alive. Therefore, this must be your fault," Tanya replied.

"Hey! She got into bed with me," Draco said.

"Wait," Alyson said suddenly, "Justine's necklace! It's glowing."

"So?" Tanya asked.

"What are the names on Justine's necklace?" Alyson demanded.

Draco looked at the side facing up on Justine's chest, just as Tanya said, "Mark and," she snapped her fingers, trying to remember the other name. Draco flipped the necklace over and Tanya glared at him, "Get away from her," she told him, just as Alyson and Draco said simultaneously,

"Kris."

"Shit," Tanya yelled, and Alyson yelled,

"Shut the door!"

Kris came strutting in, wearing nothing but his boxer shorts, carrying a shirt, probably hoping that someone would see him and swoon. He'd felt the thingy on the back of his watch warm, which meant that a spell had been used on Justine … and it hadn't been a nice spell. The moment he saw Draco, standing over a bed, on which Justine was lying –

"She's alive," Tanya told him, before he could freak out too much.

"Is this your room?" Kris asked, his voice reaching a tone that scared everyone in the room, especially Alyson, who rarely ever felt him feel this kind of anger.

"Yes-" Draco said, and before he could say anything else, Kris shot a volley of curses at him, stalking forward, and, before Draco could manage to respond, punched him in the nose.

---

WOW! I love it when Kris looses his temper... Becomes a true Steelwell. Thanks for reading guys, and a big shout out to the Evil Percussionist and Queenie, both of whom Beta'd this. Love you both to death and here (hands them silver stars) I present you with an OoK (Order of Kallaix, Gabbie already has one)

COMING SOON - The Quidditch final. Tanya versus Harry in the showdown to the snitch. Oh, and Draco finds out what Ronnie did. Thats TONS of fun (maniacle grin)

Queenie - Hey Sweetie kisses Thanks for your review love, chuckles cause of another cliffie, handing Queenie lactose and gluten free candy :)

Dark672 - Uh, get over it. Its my story, i'll keep it H/Hr as long as i want, and your not making it come any faster with your constant bitching. One day you'll not mention it and hey presto! they'll break up. But thanks for reviewing, and please keep reading. offers candy but takes it back if he's going to be nasty about it

Evil Percussionist - (Princess runs and hides behind a palm tree cause she added stuff that didnt get beta'd before she posted it, then she glances out cautiosly) uhhhh.I love you :) holds out Candian maple sugar candy

Murdrax - (laughs) That would be so FUNNY! Thanks for readiung and reviewing dude! holds out candy bag for you to pick Thanks for reviewing - read on!

Ceeliegh - OMG! how much am i the biggest fan of TEXAS in the world! I'd tell you why but it's a spoiler. Wait, was saying that a spoiler? (im so confused) Thankyou so much for reviewing the story, keep on reading ok? grins and holds out a twelve hour lollipop like Tegan got. (grins) JOHNNY IS SO SEXYNESS! Your a legend for reading and reviewing!

BladeKnight - Hey hun, thanks for reading and reviewing! give mixed lollies, including peachbites and those sour drop thingies you liked so much I dont think you had this chapter did you? Thanks for reading!

Goddark (Gabbie, AKA, the esteemed she of the OoK) - Hey! I know, how good is Gaia! I met you on there the other day (does the 'i met up with Gabs' dance) Read and review Hun!

READ AND HIT THE SPECIAL BUTTON DOWN THERE THAT SENDS PRINCESS THE WARM FUZZIES! THIS WEEK I PROMISE... CHOCOLATE!