­Chapter 27

I angrily stood up, shaking. "I'm tired of getting kidnapped! Leave me alone for once!!!" I shouted to no-one in particular. I hated how I kept getting kidnapped. It was so stupid.

"I can't believe this…"I started, tailing off. As I stood and looked around I realized I was still in the room!!!! My body and the bodies of Sorina, Emma, and Professor Potter sat on the floor breathing in tune to each others. "Wow" I mouthed.

I thought back to the time when I had overheard Potter, Rowling, and Dumbledore discussing how dangerous I was and about how they needed to know the rest of the prophecy. I also thought back to the time right before that when I had first found myself sitting on- no, in- my bed. Stella's hand had passed right through mine. This was part of my other powers, but definitely not as destructive.

I didn't want to disrupt anyone so I floated back into my own body. As I was passing from a spirit to a solid human, I viewed saw a few wondrous things that I won't ever forget.

I saw Sorina flashing from human to the shadow of a calm deer, relaxed and gentle. Her spirit was in the deer, her body void of any thoughts. So this was what it looked like when her special powers took over. Her body was visible, but a wispy smoke with the color and shape of a deer surrounded her body. It was an amazing sight, to see Sorina and her essence sitting as one, but in two forms when you were seeing it. I only hoped her parents wouldn't force her to switch schools.

As I passed into my body I saw Emma flashing from visible to invisible. I had almost forgotten that she could do that. She had amazing control of a power that seemed so unusual. I wondered how she had been able to master it. Maybe she hadn't completely, mastered her powers. Maybe she had gotten into trouble being invisible, and that was why Professor Potter had to have gone rescue her the other night when Sorina and I were kidnapped. All three of us- Sorina, Emma, and I- were on the same boat. We were one of the few people in the world who could do these unusal things without the help of apparition or an invisibility cloak. But hadn't Dumbledore said in the fifth Harry Potter book that Harry had a special power too. The power to love?

I saw one last thing as I switched from spirit to the real me. In Professor Potter I saw deep worry. Worry about his past, when he had been forced to fight off Voldemort ( I didn't yet know how he had done this as I had only read up to the fifth book), and worry about other people. I saw his concern for Emma, Sorina, and me. How he had rescued Emma from being stuck as invisible. How he understood Sorina, when she was misunderstood by others, like her parents, when they found out how different she was. I saw his love for his dead parents and godfather. Under all this love and these feelings that I could just feel from looking at him in that moment of understanding, I saw his worry for me.

I had heard him warn Dumbledore how dangerous I was. I had heard him say how I needed to learn control as quickly as I could. But there was no way I could've understood what he really knew. He was the only one who knew what my powers could really do, the only one who could really help me. I finally knew.

He could tell that all this being kidnapped and then portaling myself away would lead to disaster, I would either use up my magic, and therefore my life, in a vain effort to escape someday, or my powers would be stolen by the three evil wizards, and the world would fall into chaos and fear as it had when Voldemort had reigned. He didn't know how the evil would steal my magic, but he knew a bit more of the prophecy then her let on. As his clam face hid his true fears, I heard in his deep, knowing voice that which had changed my life.

"The wand of Merlin, in the right hands,

held by one of an old and new hour

Her power dark, yet bright, at once,

Driven off in the struggle for power"

There was a pause, where I guessed he didn't know a part.

"The One with the laugh,

cruel and vile, sanity lost

he knows her weakness

and how she can be crossed.

The One who Does nothing,

Waiting and plotting

His servants do his work

And be his unlimited strength

The One whose father fell

Lonely and evil

The worst of the three

And yet with the least upheaval

He's the one

who could truly kill her

For if he were to rule

It shall be as if the world never were"

There was another long pause

"And yet, have strength,

for all hope is not yet lost

This one girl, who seems of no importance

Holds the world in her hands

Of her be wary,

She will know and have the will

She…"

The rest of the words in that verse were a low mutter that I could absolutely not hear.

"So wait for when all seems lost to some,

For the worlds most saddening hour

And leaves a world, One who can save us all

or grant evil horrible power."

I was in shock when I heard the prophecy. Had Harry told Dumbledore all this? How did he know it all, and why didn't he tell me. This made it sound as if I would give evil people all my powers and then die. Was this why Harry wanted Dumbledore to be careful of me? So that I wouldn't do something hideously evil? I seemed so confused. There was so much to think about.

Even though Harry Potter, the boy who lived, wanted to make sure I didn't ruin the world, I knew that he was truly worried for me. He wanted me to have a chance to make the prophecy happen differently. Dumbledore had told him it was possible to change the results of a prophecy, so could I? Would I have the courage? Would I have the brains? Would I have the right powers and control?

Chapter 28

I stared in shock as I thought back to what I had just seen. In my real body, my eyes snapped open. No one else seemed to notice that I had just seen some of their most inner feelings and magical powers. I wondered what they would see if they could have seen me the way I had seen them. How much could I really do? I could make portals, help someone not be stuck in animagus form, and I could see amazing things. I could float outside of my body and I could probably do so much more. If only I knew how much I could do.

My breath grew ragged and Harry, the person that as a muggle I would have died to meet, opened one eye and gave me a stern look. I shook my head. I didn't want to do anymore. What would he say if he knew what I had just found out. I shakily stood up, trying to breathe and look casual. Harry broke the others from their meditations by shaking them gently until they opened their eyes.

For some reason, I didn't want to call him Professor Potter any more. I had seen who he really was. A child at heart, someone full of love and compassion. I felt better calling him by the name that I had grown up calling him, from when I was in second grade, to when I was in fifth grade. Harry. He had been my hero. He was my story book idol. I wanted to be just like him, having adventures and magic. But now that I actually knew him, he was different. I knew that he was a real person with faults and weaknesses. It was scary, but it was somewhat calming. I just didn't want to call him 'Professor Potter' anymore. Harry would do just fine.

Sorina stretched as she stood up. "I think I almost fell asleep," she joked. She yawned which made her chuckle.

"Good job. That's how it's supposed to feel when you start," said Harry. "Now, I want both of you to practice for next Friday. Imagine pulling all your energy into one tiny ball inside of you. It'll help you learn control."

Sorina walked out the door. Emma waved and followed her.

I was about to leave, when Harry put his hand on my shoulder. "Ashley, I need to know before you leave. Why did you want to stop?"

I just shook my head an pulled away. "It's just…I don't know. I can't really say…" I muttered, trying to avoid the question. I didn't want him knowing what had really happened.

He sighed and stared off into space. "That's okay, Ashley. I just wish you'd learn to trust me."

With that last sentence lying heavy in the air, he left.

"But I do trust you," I whispered. "How could I not when it's someone like you." But by then he was already gone.

Chapter 29

I began the long walk up to the Gryffindor tower when I bumped into Flora Marigold.

She smirked. "How's it going…owl thief?"

I winced. That was so long ago. Since then we had ignored each other in classes we had together.

"I didn't steal your owl. A thestral was attacking it." I tried to explain.

"Sure. And a freak like you would actually go outside in the middle of the night to save somebody else's owl just because they felt like it. Yeah right. You stole her. She would have been in the Owlery when I needed her if you hadn't taken her. Then you made me have to search the whole school for you, you rotten sneak. I bet you couldn't even be trusted to hold someone's pencil for a second without running off with it." Her words were sharp and angry. It had been such a little thing and she had held such a long grudge. This must've been normal Slytherin behavior considering what I knew from the Harry Potter books.

I just ignored her and tried to walk around. She blocked my way. "You're so stupid. Just like a Gryffindor to be so stupid and conceited. You with your 'special powers'" She spat the words out like a curse. "You probably think you're so great just because you can do something no one else can. Well, guess what. You're a freak!!! Nobody likes you. You're just a good-for-nothing nobody."

Her words stung. She walked arrogantly away, leaving me standing there with my mouth open, still trying to think of a comeback

Flora didn't seem to be a big part in my life, but just because she hated me her words seemed to have such a big impact. She was to me like Draco was to Harry, but she wasn't quite as evil…I hoped. She made me see how I was really an out-of-place, practically muggle girl at this big wizardry school.

Despite all this, I continued to the Gryffindor tower to meet Ashley.

"You really should learn to trust him," she told me when I recalled what he had said in the room. I mentioned nothing about my seeing the deepest qualities of her, Emma, and Harry. "He's trying to help us, but you seem to be pulling away and not even trying sometimes. You have to try though," she begged. "The next time you're kidnapped could be the final showdown, the big ka-boom. You don't know, but what if you don't make it. What if one of them is really able to get your powers? Sometimes you act like this is all a game and you can stop playing whenever you feel like it, but if the bad guys win then you'll probably die and the world will be in their control. Please, Ashley. You're my best friend." Her eyes started to tear, she rubbed it away as she leaned forward, putting her head into her hands. "I don't want you to die."

I turned away from her and closed the curtains of my four-poster. 'I was trying,' I thought silently to myself as I cried in my bed. 'Why doesn't anyone understand that? I'm not going to die. I'm too strong for that to happen.'

Chapter 30

The next day was torture. I don't know why. It just happened that way. My mind drifted in class. I dropped a heavy water pail on Professor Sprout's foot, causing her to take points away from Gryffindor. In Potions, I skipped three major ingredients and my potion ended up a bright red color, instead of a slimy, olive green. All in all, it was torturous. Luckily, I didn't have Defense Against the Dark Arts. If I had, I seriously would've cracked.

"Ashley, are you okay?" asked Stella, a couple of times. I nodded her off, not even noticing when she rolled her eyes at Nicole.

"I have a weird feeling about today," Sorina whispered to me during Defense Against the Dark Arts. "For some reason, I think we should tell Professor Potter."

I shook my head. "Don't bother him. It's probably nothing. He had enough worry.

"Ashley," she sat down next to me, "You've been so dreary lately. I want to know what's going on. I'm your best friend and I swear, you can tell me anything."

"Well, nothing's wrong," I snapped at her.

She gave me a sympathetic look. "You're feeling it too. Something big is happening."

I ignored her, but the thought that she was right kept nagging at me all day long.

On our way to Herbology, we noticed the many clouds in the sky. They were such a dark shade of gray that they were almost black. Our classmates whispered about it as the dark storm clouds swirled overhead, forming and staying right above Hogwarts. Nicole shrieked in fright when lightning stuck not even a mile away from us.

"Run, back to the school!" ordered Professor Sprout, trying to yell about the howling wind and the not-so-distant thunder rumbling above us. We raced back to the school just as it started to pour. The rain relentlessly beat down upon the school, causing concern among the students and staff.

"It's just not natural for this time in the year," I heard McGonagall muttering to Sinistra.

Liatrix was frowning as she climbed out of the dungeons. "It's flooding down there!" I heard her screeching at Filch.

Something was wrong about this storm, and Sorina agreed with me.

"The feeling," she reminded me.

It bugged me to admit she was right, but there was no hiding from that truth now. We had to tell Harry that we sensed something.

In his office, he looked a bit unnerved by the storm too, and Emma soon joined us.

"This is so weird!" Emma explained. "I've felt this strange urge all day, like I've forgotten about something, but it's still nagging at me in the back of my mind."

Harry nodded. "This is no normal storm. It's dark magic. We can sense it so well because our extra powers make us extra aware of the surroundings."

"But others can sense it too," exclaimed Sorina.

"Exactly. That's why this is abnormally dark magic. More than even Voldemort could control, which makes me think that isn't just one wizard. It seems more like the workings of…" he gave me a look, "three."

I took a deep breath. "So, it's coming? The big showdown?"

He nodded. Emma looked worried for me. Sorina looked like she was about to cry. I remembered what she had said. "The next time you're kidnapped could be the final showdown, the big ka-boom. You don't know, but what if you don't make it. What if one of them is really able to get your powers? Sometimes you act like this is all a game and you can stop playing whenever you feel like it, but if the bad guys win then you'll probably die and the world will be in their control. Please, Ashley. You're my best friend. I don't want you to die."

I looked away. What was I going to do? I was going to die, probably. And there was no escape.

I felt my essence flutter and I looked up at them. "It's happening," I said calmly. They all hugged me and, together this time, we disappeared from Hogwarts.

Chapter 31

I could hardly believe this was real- how close I was to the end of this fantasy in my mind. But Emma, Sorina, and Harry were with me. We would go through this "end of the world" situation together.

We opened our eyes to find ourselves in a room, made of hard, light blue walls that seemed to be a stone of some type. The colors swirled together and had an alien feel about it.

"Opal," said Harry, lightly touching the wall next to me. He suddenly banged his fist against the wall. " The only thing that can hold us in here. The magical properties of Opal can cancel out magic, or hold great magic. In this case, it must be here to keep us in. Or at least, keep Ashley in." He turned to the three of us. "I don't think Malfoy realized all four of us would come."

"What makes you think it's Malfoy?" snapped Emma, searching for a line in the wall that signified a door. Without one, we were completely locked in. She knocked on a section of wall that looked the same as the rest. "I think it's hollow, she explained, laying herear to the wall.

The wall suddenly fell away, causing Emma to fall to her knees. She saw a black boot and followed it up to see the smirking face of Draco Malfoy. "You were right," he said in a oily voice, and kicked her in the face.

Emma fell back, clutching her nose. Sorina helped her sit up, looking sincerely scared.

"So, Potter. How's your fiancé? The little Weasley brat?" Malfoy asked, turning to Harry, his eyes filled with hatred.

Harry clenched his teeth. "Ginny's fine. Not that you would care, Malfoy!"

Draco chucked evilly. "But why wouldn't I care? I was at Hogwarts with you, if you haven't forgotten, and I remember Weasley- her and the bat boogey hex she put on me in our fifth year."

"You never were good at defensive spells," retorted Harry.

Draco shrugged. "At least I wasn't as hated by the school as you were in our second and fourth years. The Dark Lord's curse made your life miserable Potter, didn't it?" At this comment, Harry's face darkened and he looked away. "And to think I was jealous of all your attention," sneered Malfoy. He pulled out his wand and shouted, "Expelliarmous!"

I tried to get a better grip on my wand a second too late. All of our wands flew out of our hands and into Malfoys. He tucked them away in his robes.

"Now, you four may be wondering what you're doing here?" He motioned to somebody behind him.

My jaw fell as two men came up behind him. I recognized one of them at once. The other seemed strangely familiar. They were the other two from the prophecy.

The first one was stout, and unhuman looking. He had an insane greedy gleam in his glassy black eyes, his dark navy robes too long for him, and dragging on the ground. I remembered what I'd heard of his part of the prophecy:

"The One with the laugh,

cruel and vile, sanity lost

he knows her weakness

and how she can be crossed."

He knew how to magnetize me and get rid of me. He must've told Malfoy, who stood beside him, tall and proud of the shock on our faces.

The other one was the one who had his minions summon me and put me in a sack. I rubbed my arm, as if the memory of the kick still hurt me. He hadn't directly harmed me, but even with his lean body, and uncaring expression, he seemed as malicious and threatening as the other one.

"Couldn't you just have taken care of her yourself? I was doing something." He complained in a hushed voice to Malfoy, who slapped him in reply.

"No, you fool. I needed you here. This was the only way to fufill the dark side of the prophecy."

He rolled his eyes. "I don't' believe there really is a prophecy, but she does have power. She escaped from my minions despite the strength of the magic I had stolen from that old witch in Kettlesbrook. That spell should've kept her. With her strength, I could… I mean, we could, of course," he corrected himself hastily as Malfoy shot him a detesting look, "rule the world."

His greedy, yet lazy personality brought his part of the prophecy to mind:

"The One who Does nothing,

Waiting and plotting

His servants do his work

And be his unlimited strength"

So he could steal magic from other people, or at least spells. That would explain the unlimited strength part. He must have teamed up with the crazy one just before the crazy one captured me a second time. How else could the "One with the Laugh" have the magic-stealing technology that had almost killed me?

Third, there was Malfoy. The worst of the worst. The most powerful of all evil.

"The One whose father fell

Lonely and evil

The worst of the three

And yet with the least upheaval

He's the one

who could truly kill her

For if he were to rule

It shall be as if the world never were."

Harry and Emma had told me how Lucius Malfoy, his father, had been one of the highest Death-Eaters- right in Voldemort's inner circle. Malfoy would have become a Death-Eater himself, but Voldemort was defeated by Harry in his last year. His father was killed, and his mother put in prison. His mother wasn't as evil as most Death-Eaters. She disliked muggles, but she at least had a sense of love. She tried to pass it on to her son, before she was imprisoned, but he took after his father too much and paid her no attention.

Malfoy himself did not look so evil. In fact, if it weren't for all the horrible things he had done, he would've looked handsome. His shining blond hair caressed his face, making his unique features stand out. How could the person who was plotting to kill me, and take over the world with the two other evil wizards at his side, be so damn good-looking?

"Malfoy, I know you don't what to let her go," Harry began, "but you don't have to do this. Remember when I first met you in Madame Malkins? You assumed the best and talked to me. True, it wasn't the best conversation, but you weren't so evil. You don't have to do this!"

Malfoy winced at this harmless memory of his past. "I don't have to, but I will. I have gone through far too much trouble to bring you and the girl here. The other two will only add to my power. I shall rule in place of the Dark Lord, for I have succeeded much farther then he ever has." He finished, looking triumphant.

Harry sadly looked at him. "If you feel you have to."

Draco's triumphant pose fell. It didn't seem as if he expected Harry to give in so easily.

He opened his mouth to retort, but then shut it as if he had nothing else to say. Turning on his heel, he left the room with his cape billowing behind him. "I will be back later to collect my rightful magic," he called over his shoulder.

The other two evil wizards followed him, the opal door closing solidly behind.

I couldn't hold it in anymore. I burst into tears, hugging Sorina and Emma. "I don't wanna die," I sobbed. "I wanna go back to school, back to being a muggle. I don't wanna live this life anymore."