Meagan Snow: Yeah, don't worry, I'll continue it eventually. Right now I'm mainly focused on this fic, but occasionally updating others.

A Sky Full of Lighters: Yep.

killerpizza504: Yeah, I was wondering about that. It did say 505 last time, I went back and checked. Good luck with your new school. If you get lost, maybe you'll secret passages like in Hogwarts!

PjoHp._Spells_and_words (sorry about the spaces, the site won't let me write your name otherwise): Yeah, I actually live in the Midwest (ironically, at night, it was actually colder in Orlando than it was at home!) We were on vacation. We go every other year or so to Disney, Universal was a special treat.

loretta537: Thank you, I'm so glad you like it! :)

hAdes_Lyth_Erin_madrigalX: Yes he is.

strangebloke: Alright, thanks for letting me know. If I ever revise that chapter, I'll be sure to change that.

AN:/ Sorry for the wait, I meant to update last Sunday, but I had to take my high school entrance exam. I hope I get into honors English!

The blond girl charged in, seizing her friend by the shirt collar. "What did you do?" she demanded. "I swear, I can't leave you for five minutes alone! I'm gone for less than a week and you open up a pet shop? I'm going to kill you! And what's he doing here?" she exclaimed, gesturing towards Aleron.

"Well," said Forrest somewhat awkwardly, ignoring the death glare he was receiving from Vaisey. "It looks like you two have a lot to talk about, I'll just be going . . . " he began to back away slowly.

"Oh no," swift as a fox, Aleron's hand grabbed ahold of Harper's shirt collar, making a three-way collar chain. "You're not going anywhere."

"Stop it! Stop it!" he begged, "you'll stretch out the shirt! I'll stay. I'll stay, I promise." Vaisey let go and the other boy straightened his collar.

"I can't believe you betrayed me!" cried Annabeth. "How could you do something so incredibly stupid?"

"He's my dog! I can do whatever I bloody please with him! Besides, it wasn't even my fault it was - -" Aleron glanced in Forest's direction. The other boy's eyes were pleading with him not to give him away.

Annabeth said, "Well, this outta be good."

"It was . . ." Vaisey paused, and against all Slytherin instinct said, "it was my fault. I told a couple of people, hoping that they could help me with Canis. I'm sorry."

Harper couldn't believe it. Vaisey had lied for him. Why on earth would he do something so stupid? "Oh, shut it, Aleron," Harper said, "I'm not afraid of a girl. I forced Vaisey to tell and then I told a few people. There. Sue me."

Harper barely had time to notice Annabeth's throbbing vain before he was lifted off the ground. The look in her eyes was a combination of anger and a bit of curiosity. "You created this business?" she asked, carefully articulating every word.

Harper gulped, then he started blabbering. "Yeah. I was kidding about the whole girl thing, by the way. Umm. . . here, you can have some of the prophets if you want," he held out a handful of coins, which Annabeth snatched.

"Hey, Harper," said Dennis Creevey, "I finished scrubbing the cages. What do you want me to do now?"

Forrest ignored him, instead turning to Annabeth. "So . . .um, are we good, or . . . ?"

"Who else knows about this place?" she asked, interrupting him.

"Err . . . just me, you, Vaisey, Branstone, Creevey, Wespert, and Madley."

Annabeth paused, considering his words very carefully. Even she had to admit, it was pretty impressive. "You know," she said, "I always was against keeping these animals locked up all day. . . maybe we could make this work."

Harper stared at her, his mouth agape. Surely his ears were deceiving him. Had he really gotten off the hook so easily? He looked at the Ravenclaw, scanning her over, trying to see any signs of trickery. He saw none. Still, she looked uncomfortable. Her foot was tapping, her eyes darted around the room, and her hands could not seem to stay still. Something was on her mind.

"But," Annabeth added, "we need to have a way to make sure that nobody snitches," she glared at Aleron as she said those words. "Is there some sort of magical binding contract that we could sign?"

"YES!" cried Dennis suddenly. Everyone turned to look at him, having forgotten that the boy was there to begin with. Creevey turned bright pink. "Um . . . I-I mean, I once heard of this thing that creates a magical seal if you sign it- - not that I've actually ever seen it!"

Nigel Wespurt, another second-year Gryffindor who knew exactly what he was talking about, gave his friend an incredulous look. "Real smooth, mate," he muttered.

Harper was suspicious. "Oh, really?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow. "And where, might I ask, would a mudblood like you hear such a thing?"

"H- - " his reply was cut short by a punch in the gut from Nigel.

"What he means to say is that we overheard the Weasley twins brainstorming blackmail ideas in the Common Room one night and it came up in their conversation. We've never actually seen it done before. Right, Dennis?" he nudged his friend hard in the ribs.

"Right!"

Annabeth wondered how stupid those boys thought they were. She had never heard anyone lie so badly in her life. But she could worry about that later. "Alright, guys," she said, "if you can get me one of those contracts thingies and prove to me that it works, you both get raises."

"What?" Harper demanded, "I never agreed to this!"

"What were you thinking?" cried Nigel in a loud whisper, "you bloody idiot, are you trying to get us all caught? Expelliarmus!" Dennis's wand flew into his hand. He threw it back. "Well, are you?"

Dennis looked down and in a very small voice said, "No."

It was later and the two boys were in the Room of Requirement again - - this time for a DA meeting. Harry had told them to spend the first fifteen minutes in partners, having a "one-on-one" duel. Creevey and Wespert dueled in a corner. Although it was unlikely that anybody else would listen to them, the boys spoke in hushed voices just to be sure.

"I mean, did you see the look on Harpers face? He knows something is up. I don't know, Creevey, maybe we should just quit."

"Are you barking? If we quit now, he'll be suspicious for sure. I'd rather take my chances."

"But they expect us to find the charm," Nigel protested, deflecting his friend's hex, "What are we going to do? Just walk up to Potter? 'Oh, hello. You know that super secret organization that we created? Well, we kind of almost let it slip, so we're going to need a hexed sign-up sheet for our other secret club that we're part of, in order to get away with it. Alright, thanks!'"

Dennis held up his hands in defeat. "Okay, okay, you win. I agree that I made a stupid mistake back there- -"

"A really stupid mistake."

"- -But maybe we can convince Harry Potter to tell us about the charm. We'll pretend that we're curious."

The other boy snorted. "That's a load of hogwash! Potter wouldn't just hand a spell like that over to a couple of second-years."

"Okay, fine. Well, maybe we can get Granger to hand it over."

"No, Granger's too smart. She'll see through our lies in a second. Weasley would be the best option."

"Fine, so we'll talk to Weasley. He's right over there." Dennis abandoned his duel and ran up to Ron, who was in an intense battle with Padma Patil who still hadn't forgiven him for the incident the previous year. Dennis tugged at the older boy's robes. "Hey, Ron!" he said.

"Not now, Creevey, I'm kind of in the middle of something."

"But I just need one tiny favor."

"If it's an autograph, I'll give it to you later."

"It's not an autograph. I just need to ask to a quick question."

"What question? Diffindo!"

"You know the paper you had us all sign?"

"The contract? Yeah. Progeto! Why?"

"How exactly does the spell on it work? I'm just curious."

Ron shrugged. "I dunno. I don't really care either. It's Hermione that knows about that kind of stuff. Stupify!" he narrowly missed Patil, who came back at him with the most vicious tickling charm Dennis had ever seen.

The younger boy's face fell. "Alright. Thanks anyway, Ron." He returned back to Wespert. They were going to need a new technique.

Sorry about the long wait. Can anyone guess how Creevey and Wespert will get the spell (if they get the spell)? Also if anybody had any ideas for this story then please let me know in your reviews.

HP Fact: There are 772 characters mentioned in the Harry Potter series.

Random Fact: Rats laugh when they are tickled.