Hi kiddie-winkies! Sorry have always wanted to say that! Anyhoo. Here I am at last. Sorry for taking to long to update, etc. etc. yadda yadda same old shit. This is the last chapter everyone:0( Very sad, I know. But not to worry, I did promise an epilogue and it is on the way, but that will be it. Then this shall be it. Over, finished, complete. So thank you all for you support and enthusiasm! You have made my life more livable. And you have been my inspiration throughout this whole fic, so, big thanks to all who reviewed. And also thanks to all who read all of it, even if you didn't review. You still liked the fic enough to keep reading, so grazie to you all. And with out further ado, the final installment of settling the differences…. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 19 – The end?
"So Ginz, what do you have up your sleeve?" Harry asked. She grinned wickedly at him at picked up the earlier discarded deck of cards. Harry's, Draco's and Lee's eyes widened in horror.
"Not to worry boys, its not that horrific this time." She said winking at Draco and Harry. "I thought we might want to play… go fish!" She said happily. She was met by blank stares. "What? Its fun!"
"Go what?" Blaise asked.
"How the hell are we supposed to fish out of the barred window at the top of a tower?" Ron asked, very confused.
"It's a card game dumbass." Harry explained.
"Oh…. that's stupid."
"You are."
"Am not."
"Please don't start!" Hermione begged, seeing the idiotic argument coming.
"He started it." Ron stated non-chalantly.
"Did not." Harry replied.
"Just let it go." Draco cooed. Harry immediately shut up.
"I think that's the first time you've ever obeyed one of his demands!" Ron remarked angrily.
"Well technically not the first…." Harry mumbled, blushing red. Ron scowled.
"So how do you play this fishy thing anyway?" Ron asked irritably.
"Go fish Ron. We pass out cards and you try to make pairs and you ask people if they have the card you need. If they don't they say go fish." Ginny said calmly.
"That's so…. dull." Morag commented from the other side of the circle.
"So? Don't we want to look like perfect little angels when they come to let us out of here?"
"Honey, not only are we far from 'perfect little angels' but remember, who left the firewhiskey, contraception, and handcuffs in that chest? Who put bloody beds in the adjacent rooms, the number of which was exactly enough for each pair to have their own? I highly doubt they'll be expecting 'perfect little angels' to be sitting in a nice neat circle playing a nice safe, libidoless card game!" Draco said in a tone that made it literally impossible to argue with him.
Ginny just shrugged. "True, but we could still look like we just sat here the whole time."
Draco scowled. "Alright, deal the cards."
"Um…Guys…I think you're forgetting…." Harry began,
"Forgetting what?" Draco asked.
"Our clothes. We could be doing the most unsexy thing on the face of the planet and it would still look questionable doing it in our underwear." He said simply.
Everyone stared. Their clothes had been off for so long that it hadn't even occurred to anyone to put them back on. This made the majority of those in the circle feel very dim, as they hurriedly got up and began to sort through the pile of discarded robes, many yells of frustration were emitted from the group of teens struggling into the wrong robes and then having to swap with someone.
Ginny had a tough time wrangling her robes from Seamus who went dancing around the room in them declaring that he had always wanted to so this and refused to give them up until he had finished his little dance. After he finally relinquished them, Ginny bitched for the next twenty minutes about how much he had stretched them out and how little chance of having children he'd have once she got her wand back.
Eventually was settled and in the correct clothes and they took a seat to play one last game. So Ginny began to pass out the cards, and our dear horny teenagers sat playing go fish for around an hour as the "rosy fingered dawn" began to fill their prison with the soft glow of the morning light.
Suddenly in the middle of Seamus' fourth request for sixes, they heard the doorknob turn and in stepped the tall, smiling form of Professor Dumbledore.
"Ah, hello!" He said brightly. "I hope you had a nice stay. I've always had a particular affinity for this room…." He said his eyes twinkling, staring, around at the room. "I do hope it helped you all get along?" his gaze falling on Harry and Draco particularly. There was a round of furtive looks passed around the circle, then a couple of hesitant nods.
"Lovely. We bewitched the room to supply you with whatever would aid in the effort of making peace between the houses. Not an easy task I might add…" He smiled politely at their looks of surprise. "I was actually quite curious as to what it produced…" he said taking another step. There was a general lunge in his direction and a few desperate "NO!"s. Dumbledore surveyed them. "Ah, I see, perhaps I'll peruse the premises later then..." He chuckled a gleam in his eye that rather frightened the students.
Professor McGonagall bustled in looking ruffled. "Bloody first years…" they heard her mutter before she reached them. "Well, I hope you all have settled you differences because I'm not getting up again in the middle of the night to stop some immature group of students that couldn't peaceably-"
"Minerva, I think they have quite gotten over their initial feud." Dumbledore said calmly laying a hand on her shoulder. She seemed to calm down somewhat and smiled.
"Good. But if you even think about doing it again, I'll show this to the entire school!" she brandished a small vial filled with a shimmery blue gas.
Draco and Hermione's eyes widened in horror. The rest of the faces stared blankly at it.
"So?" Ron said confounded as to why it would be so horrible for people to see it.
"It is sort of like Muggle video taping Ron…" Hermione said softly, her eyes focused on the vial.
"They didn't…" Harry whispered horrorstruck as realization dawned in him. McGonagall looked around at everyone's expression and seemed to understand what they were thinking.
"Oh!" she exclaimed. "Its not you! Its us!" She said grinning devilishly at Dumbledore. He in turn smiled back and kissed her on the tip of the nose. She giggled.
"McGonagall giggles?" Lee asked, shocked.
"It seems she does more then giggle." Ginny said with a wry grin. Everyone stared.
"Ew." Acacia summed up everyone's exact thoughts. Their faces stared at the heads of the school in complete disgust.
"Well you run along to breakfast, I daresay you must be hungry." Dumbledore said energetically.
"I will see you all in transfiguration. For now Albus and I will, er examine, this room. Go on now, shoo!" They didn't need to be told twice. Everyone hopped up and were heading out the door when McGonagall stopped them to return their wands.
When they were down at least two flights of stairs and out of earshot they paused and stared at each other. "What the hell was that?" Theodore asked.
"Frankly, I really don't want to know." Hermione said, still shell shocked that her precious teachers were just as sexually active as she was.
"Well at least we're not still in trouble." Morag commented, taking Seamus' hand and sitting on the railing of the stairs.
"See you folks later!" he said happily. Pulling Morag with him, they sped down the banister, sliding toward the great hall and out of sight. The others smiled after them.
"They're perfect for each other." Pansy said sighing.
"For once I'm actually inclined to agree with you." Hermione said. Everyone stared again.
"Wow. A breakthrough." Blaise commented.
"For a split second." Pansy said sourly.
"Of course." Hermione replied, her tone icy.
"So," Harry butted in trying to break up an argument. "Who do we elect to spread the rumor about Dumbledore and McGonagall?" He grinned mischievously.
"No one." Draco said suddenly, making everyone turn around to stare at him. (They've been doing a lot of staring haven't they?) "Look, It's better to stay out of trouble for now. I have a feeling next time we get "detention" It'll be something really unpleasant like scrubbing cauldron bottoms." At this everyone made a face.
Cauldron bottoms, the generic worst detention punishment, not to mention the three hours or so one would have to spend in the presence of Snape. Of course de-slugging the old charms classroom was never much fun either.
Odds are you would randomly sprout a pair of earmuffs out of your nose for no reason whatsoever about a week later. The old charms classroom was rumored to still be insanely hexed after a group of seventh years had been practicing for their N.E.W.T.s of course, no one knows exactly what charms they were practicing but often there were bizarre side effects to going into the room at all and most students did their best to avoid it at all times.
"Agreed?" Draco asked surveying them all.
"Agreed." was the mutual reply. The group finally reached the foot of the stairs, and prepared to walk into the great hall.
Wordlessly they seemed to have all decided to walk in together, to show that an era was over, to set the example.
Ginny walked forward confidently, "here goes nothing." She said softly heading for the door.
"You ready?" Draco asked Harry in just above a whisper.
"Ready when you are." Harry said simply smiling.
"Then let's do this." Draco took Harry's hand and the two followed Ginny through the doors and into the hall.
The end. (Or is it?)…stay tuned.
Coming soon: epilogue --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alright. That's it! I know that that last little bit about McGonagall was sick, twisted and vile. But I did think it was a rather amusing concept and I couldn't resist sticking it in. So how did you like that chapter? The whole fic? Anything? Reviews would be appreciated! Anyway, hope to see many of you, for the last bit of the fic, the epilogue. But until then, toodles and happy holidays!