Another Room

Chapter Four

After a quick lunch that same day, she headed off to Transfiguration with Ron. Hermione and Harry said they had needed to go up to the Common Room to get something, but Cailee wasn't stupid; and the fact that when Harry announced it and turned about fourteen shades of red didn't do any good to hide it.

"Hmm, I wonder when the lovebirds will show up," Ron mused, getting out his book, parchment and quill, and wand.

"I don't know," Cailee laughed.

"What's so funny?" asked Seamus, who was sitting next to Dean, and they were at the table next to Cailee and Ron.

Ron explained and finished up just as Harry and Hermione came through the door. Harry was still blushing, all though he looked downright pleased. As did Hermione, Cailee thought. Dean and Seamus turned away and snickered at Harry.

"Good afternoon, students," Professor McGonagall said.

"Afternoon," they replied in unison.

"I'm sure that in your previous classes you have started reviewing for your tests at the end of the year. Well, we will be keeping up with that in here. And, for those of you who can prove you have the talent, and the emotional and physical strength required, we will be signing up to learn how to become Animagi. But, keep in mind you cannot receive your license until you are seventeen. Now please open your books to page 2 and take notes on that chapter. Then, once you are finished, please proceed to turn your book into a teapot, and your chair into a bookshelf. Miss Cailee, I need a word."

For the second time that day, Cailee found herself being interrogated by her teachers. And she was sure it wouldn't end with two.

"Professor Dumbledore tells me that you do not require a wand to do magic, is that correct?" she asked, looking into Cailee's eyes.

"He is," Cailee nodded.

"And how is that? Why do you not need a wand? And if you do not need a wand, what do you use?"

"I use this, ma'am," Cailee said, reaching inside her robe for a small crystal ball (it's not like the ones used by supposed fortune tellers or Divination). Inside the crystal, see-through ball were twelve stars that looked exactly as though they had been plucked from the sky. Only Cailee and her family knew what the stars represented.

When Cailee removed the ball, she heard McGonagall take a sharp breath. Did she know? Cailee panicked. How could McGonagall know? Dumbledore had been sworn to secrecy. Had he slipped, perhaps during a meeting? In fact, did all the teachers know?

"All right, how is it used?" she asked stiffly.

"Well, what would you like me to do?" Cailee asked, trying to remain calm.

"Hmm, turn that desk into a piano and back," McGonagall said, pointing at an empty desk in the front row.

All the students had their eyes on Cailee as she approached the desk, the crystalline ball in her hand. She slowly moved her thumb around the ball in small circles, and then concentrated deeply. In almost a moment, the desk had turned into a piano that was also playing a catchy tune. The class applauded. Cailee turned slowly around to McGonagall. Her eyes were like glass. It was impossible for Cailee to read her expression. But Cailee thought it was one of pure hatred.

For almost a week, people had been coming up to Cailee asking her to do some sort of trick for them with the ball.

"I'm a witch, just like you," she finally snapped one day at a seventh year Ravenclaw. "If I can do it, so can you. Go practice!"

They wanted to hold the ball and try to do spells with it, but Cailee adamantly refused. "Why not?" a fifth year boy asked her. "Because I said so, that's why."

Cailee had been close to her guess about McGonagall hating her. Was it jealousy of what she was; of what her family possessed? Cailee doubted it. Maybe it was being shown up in front of her students. But since that class Cailee had had plenty of questions during classes following afterwards, and she was completely ignored.

Cailee's favorite class had been Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts. Lupin thought her a natural. The very first day the class had played a type of war game out on the grounds. Cailee was captain for one team and Lupin the other. It had been fun. The students had thoroughly enjoyed cursing each other, probably the Gryffindor's more so, because now they had just cause to curse there enemy, the Slytherins. Even though Lupin had restricted them to using a few advanced curses, it didn't stop most of them. Ron had been attacked by a curse that caused him to sprout green sprigs from his ears, between his fingers, and down his nose. Hermione vindictively cursed Pansy with one that caused her to break out with acne, sport purple and yellow broils, and have pus bubbles popping at awkward moments, leaving her drenched in smelly, sticky, yellow fluid. It had finally come down to Cailee and Lupin. They had run in and out of the greenhouses, hurdled over Hagrid's garden, and disrupted Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures class, causing the animals he was showing to be startled and run around in their pen. Lupin eventually won when he finally hit Cailee with one of the curses that caused her to stand stock-still while red spots grew all on her, like poison ivy. It was painful to stand through. Lupin made her the guinea pig for that curse as he quickly taught his class about it.

Charms had also been fun. Professor Flitwick thought it the most miraculous thing that she could do magic with her crystal ball. "Magnificent!" he had exclaimed during class one day when she was able to levitate his desk and make it fly around the room for twenty minutes. "I don't understand how you do magic with that ball, but it's superb! Probably better than my own wand!"

Cailee's worst classes by far were: Muggle Studies and Divination. Cailee hated being in that little classroom with some weird bug, who somehow was able to pass off as a human being. She was glad to know that she had been at one time the real teacher, but now she was subbing in. Even though, the class was always hot.

"Why does she need a fire burning in September?" Cailee had asked Ron one day. He didn't answer. He was already asleep. She had then looked over at Harry and saw he was writing a note to Hermione. He looked up at her and the tips of his ears flushed red. Cailee just smiled.

Muggle Studies was so confusing. What was a telephone? Why did they need dishwashers? And what in the name of green grass was a computer used for? Cailee didn't know much about proper etiquette for the Muggles. It was completely different than the manner they had displayed at her home. Cailee hoped that she was never given an assignment in the Muggle world, all though she knew the chances of that were so slim, it was depressing. So she tried very hard to stay caught up, and even had Hermione tutor her once a week. But that was hard too, since Cailee had to tutor Malfoy in Potion's every two weeks. Cailee knew this was of great benefit to her, and she thought about how she never planned it before. It was perfect, and Malfoy didn't have a clue.

"Did you get all that?" Cailee asked Draco at the end of their third session together.

He sighed, and then grinned. "Yeah, I think so. I might need to see Madam Promfrey though, I think I might have writers cramp forever. I took six pages of notes tonight, Professor."

Cailee laughed at him. When she had first searched him with her eyes, she hadn't seen this humorous side to him. She had only seen the fact that he hides secrets, important ones, ones that would turn out very useful.

She also hadn't really noticed too much about his looks. Mostly because her father didn't want her too.

"Cailee, you can't like any one. Do not grow attached to anyone. You develop fond feelings for someone, and you could well kill yourself. Do you understand? This is important. And, if you mess up, you don't know how many people you will be killing. Please, sweetheart, just stay away from boys, okay?" her father had said the night before she left. And she agreed. And, at the moment, she still did.

Although he looked so hot, it should be illegal. His blond hair was messed up from him running his hands threw it so many times that night. Cailee personally liked it like that, not the way he gelled it back to his head. His blue eyes looked like they had seen a thousand years of potions; they seemed so knowing now. And they seemed hungry for something.

'Cailee, you are so hot! Has anyone ever told you that? Our eyes match each other, and your hair is so pretty. It's so silky; I want to run my hands through it. Your face is so smooth; I want to pepper you with gentle kisses. And your lips are so longing, I just want to—'

He snapped out of his thoughts as Ginny came running in. 'Thanks a lot, Weasley. We could have gotten somewhere, but we won't now, thanks to you.'

"Cailee! Guess what? Hermione sent me here to tell you this! Dumbledore has been thinking for quite sometime now about making a Common Room where all the upper classmen of each house can hang out. He thinks it will help build unity, since that's what we need. He said that since we're going to be going through dark times with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named rising again—"Ginny shot a dark glare at Malfoy—"he thinks unity, trust, and loyalty need to be built up amongst us. We need to get rid of the silly competitiveness that has surrounded us the years we've been here, and get ready to face reality. Dumbledore said we can't lead a sheltered life forever."

"That's great, Ginny! Where is it at?"

"I'm not sure, but I believe it's in some vacant classroom. It hasn't been used for a long while," she burst out, her face flushed with excitement.

"This will be so much fun! Don't you think, Draco? Then we wouldn't have to study here in the library, but in the room with our friends."

"Yeah, I guess it would be all right," he said, picking up his items, and left the room.

"What happened?" Ginny asked.

"What do you mean, 'What happened?'?"

"That. Why did he just walk out of here?"

"Because we are done with the lesson," Cailee said, picking up her items, and heading up to Gryffindor Tower.

Inside, the room was bustling with excitement. Everyone was excited about the new room that would be there's to share. The younger students looked a bit depressed; they would not be allowed to use the room.

Cailee sat stretched out on one of the couches, one arm above her head, one across her stomach. Ron glanced at her, and then did a double take. He had seen this exact same scene in a picture before, but where? He was positive it wasn't here in the school; at least not in the halls or anything. He knew he had seen it when he was with his mom, but where? He was beating himself up about it, but the lovely vision before him steered him away from it.

She was lying on her back, her face looking into the fire. Her brown hair was spread out all around her head, like an angel's halo. Her complexion was gorgeous. He could see in her eyes the reflection of the flickering flames of the fire. Her lips were parted ever so slightly, and she looked lost, deep in thought.

And apparently Ron wasn't the only person in the room to notice. Almost every guy in there saw it. And since it had become quiet with the guys not boasting about anything, the girls had looked to see what had drawn their attention. When they saw, most of them harrumphed their disgust and tried to gauge the guys back into conversation.

And the whole time Cailee was oblivious to it all.

'How could she be?' Ron pondered. 'She was so lovely, she knew that. She had to know that. And I know her. She isn't stuck up; she isn't doing this for attention. This is just her. She doesn't seem to care people look at her, and why should she?'

"Budge up there, Barbie," Hermione said, patting Cailee's legs softly so she would move them and Hermione could sit down. Ron was disappointed that Cailee was up in a sitting position now, but she was still gorgeous.

"What's Barbie?" Ron asked, looking confused.

Hermione laughed at him, and so did Harry.

"No, really, what's a Barbie?" Cailee asked too. That took Hermione back. She thought Cailee knew, but now was just an opportunity to explain.

"Barbie is just a toy doll that most little girls in the Muggle world play with. She comes with an assortment of friends and cars and toys and stuff. And for a doll, she's pretty," Hermione said.

"Oh," Ron commented. Then he groaned.

"What?" Ginny asked.

"I still have homework," he complained. "Why does Snape always give us crap loads of work? Does it humor him, I wonder?" Ron said, as he reached into the bag at his feet to get his schoolwork.

"I finished mine," Cailee said, smiling.

"When?"

"When I was tutoring Draco."

"I'm so sorry for you," Harry muttered from behind a stack of books and parchments at a table behind the couch Cailee and Hermione were sitting on. Ron laughed.

"Harry, you look like Hermione did back in third year when she was taking about a jillion classes a day."

Hermione didn't find that the least bit funny. On the contrary, she got up and stormed off to her room.

"What? How come I can never win? If I lie, I end up in a fight or trouble or something, and then if I tell the truth, I still get in trouble."

"That was rough for her. You don't know what she went through that year," Harry said.

"All right. I'm sorry. I'll talk to her tomorrow."

"Hey, I'll be back in a little while, okay? I'm going off to see Lupin about our DADA class," Cailee said, waving to those in the room. They nodded and said good-night as she went through the portrait hole.

'Cailee, you're doing the one thing you know you shouldn't be doing right now; you're turning into a filthy liar,' her conscience told her. Cailee kicked that aside. Right now she was so homesick; she wanted to see everyone in her family again. She didn't care about the hassle it would cause for Caleb to plot her course of travel throughout all the realms. She just wanted to see them, hold them, and hug them.

After wandering for about ten minutes, she turned off into a classroom, and went and sat at the teacher's desk. Cailee had never been in this class before. She sat there for the longest time debating whether or not to make contact with her realm. If she did, she could get into so much trouble. Not to mention what her dad would do. Probably appeal to get her pulled off the assignment.

No, after a long time fighting with herself, she decided against it. And since that was her answer, she started to cry. She wished Brandi was here to comfort her. She would probably hug Cailee and tell her to not give up, that this would be over soon. Then she thought about Nicole, and she had to laugh. Nicole would take a completely different route to cheer her up. Nicole would stand there and tell her jokes and do funny impressions for Cailee.

Cailee waited for a few moments and wiped her eyes. She didn't want someone to pass her in the corridors and see she had been crying. She muttered a few words under her breath, and she felt her face relax. She stepped out into the hall and began walking towards the stairs.

Halfway down the corridor she saw Malfoy. Great, she whispered.

"Hey Draco!" she said, waving to him.

"Hello, Cailee," he said back to her. They were now standing in front of each other.

"I was hoping I would see you," he whispered, stepping closer to her.

"Really? And why is that?" Cailee asked, afraid of what might happen.

"I wanted to thank you for tutoring me in Potions. I'm doing so much better now, I can't believe it. You're better than Snape himself." Malfoy looked at her and then took her hands in his.

"No I'm not. I just know—"

"Why is it that if someone tries to compliment you, you wont hear of it?" he asked.

"Because, well….." Cailee didn't know.

"You don't want to sound prideful, is that it?"

"Part of it, yeah, I guess. But I was raised up different too."

"You're such a sweet girl, you would never sound prideful, no matter what," he said. He leaned forward to kiss her.

At the moment, Peeves appeared.

"OOOHHH! I will get you two for this!" he screeched, floating upside down. "You're going to be in so much trouble when Peevesie tells on you," he said in an annoying sing song voice.

"Catch you later," Cailee said, and bustled off towards Gryffindor.

'Get a hold of yourself, woman,' she said. 'You can't get involved with anyone, it will make all the more harder. Keep your distance, but don't seem to far away.' If only Cailee could find the willpower to do that

Author's Notes: I NEED Reviews! Desperatley! Even a little bit of constructive criticism!