Chapter 32

That night when I was sleeping I had the strangest dreams. A beautiful lady in a white dress rode on a thestral, which soared in the sky. Suddenly a mass of darkness covered the scene. I fought to see around it but it was too big. Instead, I threw my mind forcefully at it. It tried to block me, but eventually it balked under the pressure and I flew through it The lady on the thestral was shining, flying strongly. She could beat the world. She had power and friends. She… was me.

I woke with a start, taking a few seconds to reorient myself in the entirely light blue room.

I pushed Sorina's shoulder. "Wake up!" I cried. "Sorina, Emma, Harry, wake up!"

Sorina groaned and rolled over. "Go back to sleep, Ashley. There's no classes today!"

"There won't be anymore classes if you don't get your stupid butt off the floor of this misery trap!" I screamed angrily.

"Ashley, calm down. Don't lose your temper. We'll find a way out of this," yawned Emma.

Harry seemed to need a minute to remember what was going on. Suddenly he sat up.

"We need a plan! Never go anywhere without a full explanation of whats going on and a plan. I learned that in my fifth year from experience. It wasn't good." He shook his head sadly. "I lost my godfather that day."

I nodded sympathetically. "Sirius Black. I know. I'm sorry."

Harry looked at me strangely. "How did you know that?"

"The books about you that Professor Rowling wrote," I pointed out.

He groaned. "Right. I told her not to show Malfoy in that way, but she wouldn't listen. She said the muggles needed to know what was going on, even if they just thought it was a story."

"Not the best idea," shrugged Emma. "But it seemed good at the time. I-"

"Not now!" I snapped. "We need a plan. We can't get off topic. We need to concentrate. So what can we do to get ourselves out of this?"

"Well, let's see. We have a girl who can make portals and send her consciousness elsewhere, a girl who can make herself invisible, a guy who has the power of 'love,'" Sorina made a face as she counted each person off on her fingers, "and a freak like me who changes into animals by accident. We're doomed."

"Hey, I can do more than that!" said Harry, irritably. "Love is what gave me my powers and saved me from Voldemort, Quirell, and who knows what else. I can do occlumency, am excellent at wandless magic, especially defense magic, and know how to get on Malfoy's nerves." He grinned evilly. "It's fun to get on his nerves. I've been doing it half my life."

"None of us are useless," shrugged Emma. "We just need to figure out how to work it out."

"Okay, here's my plan," I said, slyly. My companions leaned in as I explained as quickly as I could.

We were all sitting around the room waiting for Malfoy to come again. I was thinking back to the memories of my friends and family from my muggle life. Sorina was combing her fingers through her hair, aggravated at how it would not lay flat. Emma was tucking the tongue of her sneakers (or trainers in England) in since she no longer had her shoelaces. Harry was apparently sleeping again.

I sighed, only to hear the door bang open behind me. I slowly turned, making sure that our plan was beginning out of the corner of my eye.

"Food," grunted the guard. He placed it on the floor and turned to leave. Another guard was standing behind him just in case we decided to attack either of them. I smiled sneakily, looking down so that they wouldn't see.

"Hey," said the second guard, looking confused, "weren't there four of them before?"

The first one frowned. "I think there- ARGH!!!!" He clutched at his throat as a pair of invisible hands held a shoelace tightly around his throat. The second guard backed away and began to reach for a gun strapped onto his belt, his eyes wide.

Suddenly Harry's eyes shot open and he threw himself at the second guard. Once into the small corridor that had led to our prison, wrestling with the guard, he was able to do wandless magic and freeze the guards. Now just Sorina's part and I could get us out of here.

"Sorina!" I shouted. "Hurry up! Malfoy'll be down here any second!!!"

She bit her lip. "I can't! I can't change without any pressure!"

"This isn't enough pressure for you? Sorina, WE'RE GOING TO DIE IF YOU DON'T GET YOUR BUTT INTO A HORSE SHAPE NOW!!!!"

Apparently, it worked. A few seconds later the shadow of a rhino was surrounding Sorina's floating, yet unmoving body.

I shrugged. "Rhino. That works too. Hop on!" I jumped onto the rhinos back and gave Emma a hand up. Harry jumped on right behind us.

"Never though I'd have the chance to ride a rhino!" I laughed to Emma as Sorina crashed through the underground hallways, ruining everything in sight.

She shivered. "I didn't even know you can! I still don't think you can! This is so wrong!"

"Ashley! The portal!" shouted Harry as a reminder.

I shut my eyes tightly and imagined all four of us in my common room at Hogwarts. Nothing happened.

I shook my head. "No good! We need to be farther away! There's probably some kind of spell on the dungeons! That must be why the guards had guns, not wands!"

"Damn!" cursed Harry. "Okay, we need to get farther away. Outside or something. Can you do that, Sorina?"

The rhino just continued it mad rampage.

"What other choice is there?" I shrugged. "As soon as we're out I'll make a portal!"

I felt a tingling on the back of my neck. I turned around only to see the empty, torn apart hallway, I had the strangest notion that someone was watching us. I looked around, but saw nowhere for anyone to hide that wasn't just ruined by Sorina as a rhino a few seconds ago.

Magic! I swore and nudged Harry. "We're being watched," I informed him.

"Go!" he shouted at Sorina. The rhino sped up. I saw a light around a corner. "Turn, turn, turn!!!" all the humans in our little group shouted. Sorina spun to run towards the door, almost throwing us off her back.

As we got closer, I could see trees outside the doorway. We just had to go up some small steps and we'd be free to escape!

We were seconds away from the door. "C'mon, Sorina!" I whispered.

Suddenly the doors swung shut. Sorina rammed into them, but they were solid. We all were tossed off her back and thrown into the wall. With a grunt, Sorina changed back into her human self. She kneeled over and clutched her nose. She looked at me apologetically and shrugged, "oww!"

I would have laughed if Malfoy and the other evil wizards weren't standing right in front of me. Two people grabbed me from behind. I struggled, but they threw me down to the floor and held me down. One had my feet; the other, my hands. I couldn't move.

"What should we do with her, boss?" asked one of the men. I recognized his voice. He was one of the people who had kidnapped me before and thrown me in a sack to bring to his master.

I turned my head, growling. "You creep!" I shouted. "You total creep! All of you are! You're freaks, trying to kill me for some stupid magic! Well guess what, I don't want it! I just wanna be normal!"

"Good," said Malfoy smoothly. "Then just relax and this will be painless and easy."

I snorted. "Yeah, sure. Killing me with your stupid machine is painless and easy. Maybe for you, but I don't wanna die just yet! I haven't even kissed a boy yet! For good sakes, I haven't even finished my first year at Hogwarts!"

"You never will," snickered the evil wizard, the one who never did anything himself.

"Move her to the machine!" ordered Malfoy. "And dispose of the others."

They picked me up, still holding me so I couldn't struggle. My friends were lying motionless on the ground. Somebody had knocked them out. I saw some men go to pick up Sorina, Emma, and Harry. Malfoy smacked the one who was about to lift Harry.

"Not him!" sneered Malfoy. "I want to deal with Harry personally. He cost me all those years of humiliation when we were in school together. I want to humiliate him like he did to me. Of course, I'll use a bit more torture then he would ever be brave enough to use."

He began to laugh. It was cold and heartless, sending shivers down my spine. Exactly how you imagine those cheesy moments in books and movies where the character is helpless and the bad guy is about to win. But then someone comes and rescues the good guys, preferably the main characters boyfriend or girlfriend.

'I don't have a boyfriend! There's no one left who could rescue me!' I thought panicked. With deep breaths I told myself, 'Just think of the Harry Potter books. That's always calmed you down before. Harry always wins.'

'But that isn't true,' taunted a nagging voice in the back of my mind. 'He lost when Cedric, and Sirus died. He lost when Voldemort came back into power. He lost his family. Even if this was similar to the Harry Potter books, which give you so much comfort, you could be the person close to Harry who dies. And Harry could possibly die. This could be it for you, Ashley.'

Despair came upon me. I couldn't stand it anymore. I gave up the struggle. It was hopeless. Malfoy had won. The prophecy's bad side would have victory. I would give my powers to the bad side, they would take over the world, and it would be awful. People would die, terror and horror would spread across the globe. They had won. I had lost. Good bye, life.

Chapter 33

I was thrown onto the machine, hanging against the wall, with the strange metal surface behind me. Once again my wrists were chained to the wall, and my ankles also to the wall, but just barely on the floor. It was a tight position, painful as well as frightening, but I had given up so that it no longer mattered much to me.

'They're all gone.' I thought to myself. 'My friends are being killed, while I'm hanging here letting destiny do its work. The prophecy will be done- unfortunately, it turned out the bad way.'

Malfoy laughed horribly at me. The draining began. Like before, I felt myself growing weaker. Like before, I felt my magic leaving me. Like before…I was dying!

I had given up struggling so I lay there as I died. My head hung, tears in my eyes. 'My parents! They'll never know what happened to me! I'm gonna miss them. And I hope the school finds out what happened to us all. And my friends- if Malfoy kills them I'll come back and haunt him for eternity! I won't leave him alone until he's damned to Hell for doing this!'

My mind blurred. I didn't have strength left to think. So this is what it was like to die. The world dissolved around me. Nothing else mattered but the pain. That too slowly eased away and my soul left my body.

I was no longer.

I was dead.

I just have to interrupt myself. You may be thinking right now "Oh, she's dead. That's great. So how the hell is she writing this?" Well, you have to remember one very important thing. This was the magic world- not the muggle one. It also helps to remember that I was prophesized about.

Now, I bet you really want to know what happens next. Did I really die? Well, the answer to that is yes. I died. End of my life.

Big deal.

Floating in nothingness, I looked around. Was this Heaven? Was this the afterlife? wAs this reincarnation? What the Hell was this?

"This is death, my dear," chimed a voice that sounded like a thousand ringing bells. "You have died. The Evil Ones have your magic. Lucky for you, however, this is not the end."

"What???!!! Who are you?!!" I wanted to shout. To my dismay I found that I didn't have a mouth to shout with. Nor, for that matter, did I have a body either. I was nothing in nothing. I had no body or surroundings. I was just a soul.

"Follow me, my child. There is more to this tale," said the voice, this time sounding more solid to my ears.

My ears?! I thought I didn't have ears!! To my relief, I opened my eyes and found myself in the real world again. It was solid, and true. It was the dungeon. Right in front of me was the metal machine that had stolen my life. Worst of all, to my shock, was me lying attached to it, seemingly dead.

"But how is that possible if I'm right here? I…" I asked, looking up to find the most beautiful lady I had ever seen. She was almost glowing she was so glamorous. I remembered reading about glamours and faeries and figured that a lady this wondrous couldn't be human.

I reached forward to touch my cheek and immediately pulled my hand back. My other body was cold- dead, even.

"Follow me, my child," she smiled down at me. I followed her curiously as she navigated through the maze of hallways in this underground death-trap. She opened a door to a room. "Peek in, but do not be scared. There are things we can do to save them."

When I looked in, I found Sorina and Emma lying out cold on the floor. The two evil wizards who weren't Malfoy were arguing.

"Crucio's the best way to solve anything. They suffer and die, and it takes effort from yourself," I managed to hear one say, aggravated.

"No, you dolt! They need to suffer long and still care. Crucio makes people not want to live anymore!"

I shivered. "That's awful!"

The lady nodded. "But you can free them. You have been given another life. Not your old life, but a new one. You can move them, but, for the moment, you cannot be seen. The Evil Ones will not even see your friends' bodies as you move them. I shall make sure of it."

I took a deep breath and tiptoed into the room. The wizards continued to argue. I glanced unsurely back at the lady. She gave me a reassuring nod and a warm smile. I lifted Sorina on to my back and dragged her out. The wizards never ceased to argue. I ran back for Emma, less careful now that I knew it was possible. I grabbed her, and tried to get her into a piggy back on me, like I had done with Sorina, but she was too heavy. I reached for my wand to levitate her.

"Wingardium Leviosa," I whispered.

My wand shone and Emma began to rise. Simultaneously, the wizards stopped arguing and looked at me. I stumbled…and ran. Levitating Emma behind me, and Sorina too once I had reached the doorway, I sprinted through the hallways. The mysterious and beautiful lady was gone.

"No, no, no!" I cried, stumbling blindly around the dungeon like place.

I saw a door and made a dash for it, holding my wand up. Why had they had to see me just as I had picked up Emma. And where was the lady? Had she deserted me?

I turned the corner into the door and crashed straight into someone's back. Not just anyone though…Malfoy. Harry was lying in front of him, breathless on the floor as if he had just fought a duel and lost.

Malfoy turned angrily. "You were dead!" he roared, grabbing for my neck. He just barely missed as I ducked out of the way and ran past him to help Harry. Harry wouldn't get up. He just laid there and breathed hard. Emma and Sorina's floating bodies smacked Malfoy on their way in. I settled them behind me, before Malfoy could set up for another attack.

"Harry, you need to wake up," I cried, shaking him. I was getting frantic. I couldn't face Malfoy by myself.

"You won't be by yourself, little one. I will be here too," said a chiming voice next to me. I turned to see the lady again.

"Where did you go?" I shouted, frustrated for being deserted, yet relieved to have someone to help me.

"I was with you the whole time. I couldn't help you again until you had ended that spell of yours," she answered calmly.

I returned to the present situation. I didn't have time to argue with a lunatic.

I threw up a shield spell as Malfoy began to hurl curses at me. I glanced at where the lady had been seconds before and cursed. She was gone again.

Chapter 34

"How did you survive? I saw your dead body! I have your powers! You cannot be here!" hissed Malfoy at me.

I smirked. "I am dead. My body is in the other room lying there dead. I'm not really alive, Malfoy."

Malfoy went white. "But…but that's impossible," he stuttered. "No one can return from death, and the prophecy said…"

"The prophecy said that you were the only one who could truly kill me, not that you actually would."

He smiled, making me hesitate. A smile like that on the face of a person who was facing his defeat seemed insane, and just not right!

"Then I can still kill you, my dear One-Who-Can-Save-Us-All-Or-Grant-Evil-A-Horrible-Power."

I cursed and ducked as he shot a strong spell which broke through my shield. Thanks to my being raised as a muggle, I had never had the time to really get the hang of some magic.

"Don't use lasting spells, your essence returns when you use them," said a irritated, yet still beautiful voice from my side. "When you use an active spell, one that lasts instead of taking just a second, you won't be able to hear or see me."

"Sorry," I apologized, "But now's really not the time to lecture me. I won't use spells like that, but I have to protect my friends."

"What about protecting youself?"

That made me freeze. "I'm not as important. I already gave up died, and had a chance to come back. They won't."

She nodded, "A friendship is an awful thing to lose. But worry not, when you do not perform active spells, you cannot be seen. Your essence is not fully here. Half of it is in the muggle world. I can explain more after this current issue."

"So Malfoy can't see me?" I asked slyly, ideas forming in my head.

She looked at me sternly, with an uncanny likeness to Rowling in the way she showed her disapproval. "Don't even think of it," she warned.

Ignoring her, I slid past Malfoy and cleared my throat loudly, while doing a quick shield spell.

Malfoy turned quickly, his eyes wide, the whites showing. He must've thought himself mad to be able to see me one minute, and not the next. "Where are you?" he cried out, wildly.

I raced past him and he snarled as he saw me.

Instantly I ended my shield spell again and was invisible. I was vaguely aware of the lady in the corner of the room watching, unsatisfied, with her arms crossed.

I raced past Malfoy and shot a simple Shock Spell at his back.

He jumped, but he just barely missed seeing me. I raced around him, torturing him until he finally fell to the floor with his head in his hands. "I give up. Just show yourself or leave." He laughed insanely. I shook my head, knowing he had finally cracked. "Not that you can get out. This place is so complex." He laughed more. I rolled my eyes thinking, 'Wow, he sure forgot about the portals quickly.'

I tried to concentrate…but nothing happened.

The lady rolled her eyes. "Your portal magic is gone. Malfoy has it in his possession. You have but the tiniest bit of witch power left. Once you have defeated Malfoy, the Fates who make the past, present, and future will remove them from you and you will be a muggle once more."

I froze. Great timing, lady. So, not only am I going to be half dead and expelled, but I'll lose all of my magic. I had spent my entire life dreaming I was in Harry Potter's world and here I was, fighting off evil. But it was going to go away. I slowly turned to the lady. "And what if I refuse to fight?" I demanded, stubbornly.

"The world will end." She said simply. "It will no longer be worth living in." That made me rethink the situation.

"Then there's only one thing to do," I said. "Do you think you could help me get Sorina, Emma, and Harry out of here."

For once, the lady smiled. "That I can do, with your agreement that you will finish your battle with Malfoy."

Gulping, I nodded. "Just keep them safe. And I want explanations later!"

She nodded and a second later both she and Harry had disappeared from the room. Judging by the frantic shouting from the halls, Sorina and Emma had disappeared too.

"Malfoy," I catcalled, putting up a temporary shield spell so he could see me. "You're right, I can't go anywhere. But I can fight. And that's all that matters. And you know what else? I really hate losers like you. Avada Kedavra!"

Green light burst from my wand as I shouted the fatal words to the Killing Curse. I felt my soul screaming and it ripped apart. My magic was slipping away. I felt…normal. Too normal. Like a muggle once again. As if in slow motion, Malfoy fell to the ground. The building above me shook. Malfoy's magic must have been what was keeping it together.

I took a deep breath. "I did it." And I fell to the floor, which disappeared from under me until I landed safely in my bed in the Gryffindor Tower.

As I slept, I dreamed. The beautiful lady was in front of me, in her typical robes of thin, white silk. Light shone from behind her and the other beautiful beings surrounding me in this peaceful meadow. All had the finely chiseled features of ancient statues.

"We are the Fates." Said one particularly beautiful one. "We know the possibilities of the past, present, and future and it is our job to intervene when necessary. We prevent time paradoxes and we send prophecies to the Seers of Earth. Ashley, you were but a tool in our plan, but you have succeeded. We had forseen the trouble Malfoy would have brought. It was far worse than any human could have realized. But this peace is over. You can no longer be involved in the magic world. Around magic, your mind will not be able to proceed normally. Things will appear blurry, and you will not always be in a solid form. Without your special magic, your body cannot bind itself together properly. We removed your witch magic to prevent your death. With the splitting of your soul you have saved the future, but destroyed yourself. If you stay at Hogwarts, you will only suffer for it. Muggles cannot see Hogwarts from the outside, and from the inside it will be difficult to remain. You must rejoin the non-magic world and go on as a muggle. But do not worry, you will not miss any of it. So the Fates have spoken. So it will be."

The perfect faces and the perfect scene faded. My eyes groggily opened. School… but it was blurry. I tried to sit up and felt myself sinking. I looked down through my blurry eyes. My bottom seemed to be falling through the bed. Alarmed, I stood and raced over to Sorina's four-poster. She was asleep. I shouted her name, and she rolled over, but did not awake.

Tears began to roll down my face. What was happening to me?

I turned back to Sorina only to find her already awake. "Ashley?" she asked in amazement. "I had this awful dream. Malfoy was there. And you, you…Oh my God, Ashley, you're see-through. What's going on."

I looked to her and put my face in my hands. "It was real. I killed Malfoy and now I'm mostly muggle. The Fates want me to go back to the muggle world. I…. can you go get Rowling for me."

Sorina grabbed her dressing gown and raced from the room. I looked around at the place where I had been living for the past school year. It was like something out of a story, but it was time for the story to end.

Sorina arrived with Rowling and I quickly explained the whole story. Rowling told me that they were connecting my house's fireplace to the fireplace here. This was it. I would leave.

The Last Chapter

I stood up from packing my trunk, a difficult task considering my bosy kept becoming ghostly unsolid. Tears were silently streaming from my eyes. Sorina came over. "I'm sorry you're leaving." She said quietly, looking down. "I guess it's kinda my fault. I…" She shook her head and turned away. I grabbed her around the shoulders in a huge bear hug. "Why are you apologizing? You're the best friend I ever had.

Professor Rowling stuck her head through the door. "Are you ready to go, Ashley?" She asked solemnly.

I nodded, picking up one of my smaller bags. Rowling levitated my trunk behind me and we stepped down into the Gryffindor common room.

At the bottom, Professor Rowling turned to me. "Ashley, you don't have to do this. You could stay here and become a normal part of the magical community. Ashley, you could stay if you just…" She stopped as she saw me shaking my head as I remembered what the Fates had said. Looking as though she were about to cry, she nodded. "The magical world will miss you though. You saved everyone and for that we're thankful. Good bye Ashley." She gave me a little hug, something I'd never even dreamed of before I had learned that Hogwarts was real. My favorite author, J.K. Rowling, truly sad that I was leaving.

Emma stood there too, and I hugged her as well. She looked somber, and although she wasn't crying, I knew that she would miss me just as I'd miss her.

I glanced hopelessly back at the Gryffindor common room, preparing to take the fatal step into the fireplace that would return me to being an average muggle in the average muggle world. I'd have no adventures, no enemies, and I wouldn't even be allowed to use my magic. So that would be it. I would leave.

I looked for one last time back again towards the steps to my dormitory. Sorina rushed down the stairs, crying. She ran over and hugged me tightly. "I'll miss you." She whispered. I was crying too now.

"I'll miss you too. I whispered back. Both crying, we embraced knowing that this would be the last time that we would ever see each other again. I took a deep breath and looked at J.K. Rowling. I guess that would be the right name to call her now. She threw the floo powder into the fireplace, calling out "the heroine's house." So that's what I was now. The heroine. Knowing that my parents and my former life were waiting for me on the other side, I stepped into the fire place for my final disappearing act, no longer a out cast girl with one tiny flaw; different magic.

Epilogue: So now, here I am. A muggle girl with different magic, but that could be a dream for all I know. I can't use magic. I'm just a muggle in a 9th grade class of a Pennsylvanian middle school, writing Harry Potter fanfictions for the internet and wishing for adventure. My past at Hogwarts was just a dream, wasn't it. I always thought so. But from the moment I opened my journal that I had written when I was in fifth grade, I knew something was wrong. I remembered having an HP dream and writing it down, but it had been before the fifth book had come out. How had I known about thestrals or anything like that. It seemed unreal. I don't think that I'd had that much writing talent back then. I thought I was pretty bad. But this? As a fifth grader with not enough creativity to write a story…did I really right this and make it up in my mind…or was it real? Was it really a dream I had written, or reality. Maybe there was some part of the dream that wasn't remembered. Maybe Rowling had told me afterwards that I would remember it all as a dream when I arrived at muggle life again.

Maybe it was real.

Now it doesn't matter though. There's nothing I could do to find out the truth at this point. But I can always type it on Microsoft Word, an ordinary muggle computer program, and tell it to others. Who knows, maybe one day I can find out what really happened. But it all seems like a dream. A long, amazing dream.

And now, what's this. My words are fading…what's happening? I'm forgetting everything that happened again….at least it's written down…what was I saying…the truth…memories…or what….WHAT was I saying?…an interesting story but surely not true…it couldn't possibly be real…what is this? Was my memory freaking out? This couldn't have really happened. I'm just a muggle and always have been. Right? That's all I am. A muggle...right?