Chapter 10

Dialogue (part 1)

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Teresa opened the front door after getting home from work on Friday and saw her husband going over one last check of his bags. She was a bit surprised; he wasn't going to be picked up for another 50 minutes and he usually was rushing until the very end. Of course, then again, it's not like he could miss a flight for this trip, since he and his coworkers were driving instead of flying the 400 miles southeast to South Carolina.

"Did I forget anything?" George asked.

If Teresa had been in a foul mood, she probably would've replied that she would have absolutely no idea whether he had everything packed. However, she was in good spirits and merely asked, "Toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, deodorant, clothes, money?"

"... yep," George said, his eyes rolled back a bit glazedly looking at the ceiling, an odd habit he had when thinking.

"Well, then you've got everything important," she replied back, and plopped down on the couch.

"Oh!" George said, turning around to look at her. "What about the story writing? I'm not going to be checked into the hotel until late..."

"That's ok," Teresa said, smiling. "Henry actually called here yesterday to check up on us, and I mentioned that today we wouldn't be able to write our stories. He gave us a one-time exercise to do instead."

George was immediately a bit wary. "Oh?"

"It's called a dialogue exercise. Basically, we write a single small story together, swapping every other sentance or so. The focus is supposed to be on what the two characters say to each other - so I suppose I write what Ginny will say to Harry, and you do the opposite? We'd have enough time to do it now."

George pursed his lips, but eventually shrugged in a sure-why-not manner. He pulled a notepad and pencil from the kitchen table and sat down at the opposite edge of the couch, twisted a bit so he was facing her with his back propped diagonally against the corner. "What am I supposed to write?"

"I don't know," Teresa replied.

George shrugged again, and started jotting on the paper.

Harry fumed, walking in through the portal to the Gryffindor commons. Honestly, if he knew that the defense professor would be as bad as Snape had been the year before, he wouldn't have bothered coming back this final year! Professor Lillith Montgomery was a slytherin to the core, and made absolute sure that no Gryffindor left her class without at least nine hours of homework. Adding to that, she seemed, once again like Snape, to have a personal dislike for him and had given him a detention for getting the wrong incantation on the spell they were working on. He let out an angry sigh, and collapsed on the couch, trying to put it all out of mind.

George handed Teresa the paper. "Is it ok? Sorry, it's a bit long..."

Teresa looked it over and smiled. "It's fine. Besides, it'd be hard for us both to set up the chapter with single sentences, wouldn't it?" She started writing beneath it.

Ginny, as well, had a bad day. Like Harry, it was due to a professor; however, hers was because the transfiguration paper she'd submitted to McGonagall had earned her a P. She had to admit, while there were some parts she didn't quite understand, she'd worked hard and knew she deserved at least an Acceptable on it. "Hello," she said grumpily, sitting down at the other end of the couch.

"Ginny again?" George joked. "Why can't Harry be paired up with Fleur for once?"

"Oh?" Teresa said smiling, pointedly twirling a finger through her auburn hair. "Harry with a blonde?" She stopped, as if to think about it, "Well, I've always wondered what would happen if Ginny dated a nice fair-haired boy like Draco. He's probably in trimmer shape than Harry..." And to twist the knife a bit, she made an obvious look at George's stomach pudge.

"Ok, that's mean," George said, just the slightest bit of a grumpy tone in his voice. He turned back and reread what she wrote. "They're both mad?"

"Why not?"

George apparently didn't really have an objection, and continued the writing. This time, however, they wrote in much smaller bits and traded the paper back and forth every ten seconds or so.

"Hello," Harry replied back. "Bad day?"

"Of course," Ginny pouted. "Remember that transfiguration essay I had to do?"

"The one about conjugation?" Harry asked.

"No, that was two weeks ago. The one about large size differences."

George rolled his eyes at reading that. Apparently Harry was never right, either.

"Oh, That one," Harry replied. "What happened?"

It was Teresa's turn to roll her eyes. Was George making a big of a deal about having it be a different essay? Shaking her head, she continued the writing and paper swapping.

Ginny frowned. "She gave me a P on it! I know, it could've been better, but it really didn't deserve a P!"

"Did you talk to her about it?" Harry asked, concerned.

"Well, no," Ginny answered. "Not yet, at least."

"You should really talk to her. I mean, she's tough, but at least she's fair - maybe if you argue your case she'll bump it up."

"Harry, I can't get a P - my mum will kill me!"

Harry took the bit of parchment and began reading through it. "Oh... well, you see, I think she was expecting you to write more about the weights and conservation of magical energy - definitely talk to her about it."

Teresa read the paper, and then set it down. "Wait, wait... George, we need to talk."

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If you're reading, please review.

Also, I have an interesting announcement. I've decided that I'm going to publish this story – print out ten copies of a final (revised and possibly more fleshed out version) of the story. I'm going to give it out to my friends as a Christmas present) So I Really want good critical reviews – what needs to be changed, what needs to be rebalanced, what needs to be brought out more, etc.