"All right, here we go."

Derrin held his breath as I reached towards an apple on a table in the shopping square.

My hand was three inches...

two inches...

one inch...

I was making it agonizingly slow, just to bug Derrin. His face was actually quite funny. I stopped my hand at half an inch from the fruit. I knew I was torturing myself, But watching Derrin compensated for it.

"Oh come on you idiot! Just grab it already!"

"Oh, I don't know..."

"Screw it!" He lunged forward to grab the apple. His hand sunk right through the table, leaving the fruit in question untouched. Out of surprise, he lost his balance and fell forward, sinking through the table completely.

My heart sunk. I hadn't really expected to be able to eat, but it was disappointing all the same.

I glanced down at my friend, who was still sitting on the ground under the table, the top of his head comically sticking up through the table's surface. He looked horror struck.

After a moment, he put his head in his hands and muttered "Aw, man! That bloody sucks!"

I sighed, and said, "Yeah. But now we know we can't eat, we need to find a way out of this soon."

If it's even possible to get out of this situation...

"How?"

"I told you before," I gestured. "I can't find Ron and Hermione because of the curse, but you should be able to, without anything happening."

He moved out from under the table, but stayed sitting on the ground beside me.

"What d'you want me to do?"

I thought a second, then said slowly, "Well, I can't see them because I don't know what'll happen."

"So use a blindfold, why don't you?"

"Nah, I don't think it'll work. D'you remember what they look like? I think I told you."

"Ummm, not really."

"Well, Ron has bright red hair and freckles everywhere. He's pretty tall; last I saw him he was about half a head taller than me. Hermione has really bushy brown hair, and she's kinda pretty. You'll know 'cuz they'll be together."

"Okay..."

"Now, what if I wait here in the square and you go out and see if you can find them."

"But how will that work? We're invisible, remember?"

I opened my mouth to speak, then closed it again. After a second, I opened it again, and said, "Well, in the offchance they got caught in the curse like you did, um, they might be in the same situation. I mean, it's worth a try, right?"

"Yeah, I guess so. There's not much we can do anyway. So, you'll just wait here then?"

"Yeah, sure. Unless, how 'bout this. I'll go and wait in the tattoo parlour, back in the locker room. If you find them and they happen to be like us, then, ummm, you take them to the front room or something, then come and tell me. If they aren't like us, then run and tell me, allright?"

"Uh, yeah. Allright. But what if I can't find them?"

I thought a second, then said with a sigh, "I dunno. If you don't have any luck, then come back after a couple of hours and tell me."

He got up, then glared at me suspiciously. "And you're just gonna sit there and do nothing, eh?"

I rolled my eyes. "Of course not. I have my own experiments that I want to try."

He smirked before walking off down the road. "So what, you wanna spy on Sam when she goes into the bathroom or something? Shame, Harry."

I growled, "Not. Funny."

But he had already turned the corner.

So, sighing, I turned and headed to the parlour.