Few short notes before the story. AN1: siu yeh is an overnight snack or meal in the Hong Kong area. If there are other terms, just let me know. AN2: Please stop by my forums at http:/ magi-tower . forum-free . net for more fun and excitement. AN3: Finally, anyone that proves to me that they read the notes I write by leaving a review using the word "balderdash" properly in a sentence will get a free sneak peek into the next chapter.

If there is one thing learned at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, it is this one simple lesson: Never, ever tempt fate. Unfortunately the only way to learn this lesson is to actually experience it for yourself, as Su-Li was finding out. Seating herself next to Harry, she couldn't help but feel dozens of eyes turning on her, scrutinizing her every action as she politely ordered some Char siu over rice, and a dish of Sai mai lo of medium thickness.

When she first came, it had surprised her with the sheer variety of foods available to her, but for some reason, after the first evening meal she found herself reverting back to things her mother would make. She had also grown to really miss siu yeh, but it just didn't feel right asking for special favors from the elves that she knew to be serving her that late at night.

But right now, she wanted to know about the twins who sat opposite her, studying her with an almost casual interest. It was only when Hermione spoke that the silence was broken. "Su Li, meet the twins Fred and George. Gred, Forge: this is Su Li, be nice."

"Why Harmony, that cuts us to the quick it does, as though..." Fred started dramatically, putting his head to his hand with a body racking fake sob.

His twin seemed to favor putting a hand to his forehead, and looking ready to faint in the slightest breeze. "After all we've done for each other, do you really not trust us to behave?"

As one the twins looked at each other, then at the two people on either side of Su, and finally at each other again. As one they turned with a sheepish pair of smiles, and stated in unison, "Don't answer that, there's too much evidence on your side."

Pulling out a pair of chopsticks, Su began eating her meal slowly. Turning slightly in her seat, she smiled warmly at Hermione, while she could hear Harry and the twins talking about something called comm-wands, and bringing in Professor Flitwick in on the project. "Hermione... I... we are going to meet about eight, right? D... Do you think that will be enough to work on my problem?"

Hermione lowered her forkful of spaghetti before seeming to give the question serious consideration. A slight shake of her head later, she sighed softly. "I'm afraid that it will be more likely just a start. But I'm sure that we'll make excellent progress as the year progresses."

"Oh... I... I knew that it would not be a quick fix, but I did not realize it would take that long..." Su answered while looking down at her food sadly. It felt horrid being the only Ravenclaw that wasn't fluent in English, and it had really been a huge blow to her pride that she had to ask for help in the first place. After all, she was the first in her family to not be a martial artist. She thought when she was accepted into the school, that she wouldn't feel like such a failure.

But it had been a full week now, and she couldn't read the assignments without getting a headache. It was just so difficult translating what was being said, and History of Magic was the worst, as she had to spend half her time reading a map to figure out where things happened. And now she was wishing she'd stayed back in Hong Kong with her best friend Hua Fu. They had planned to go up through middle school together, and try to stay together through high school too. But then Su had to go and awaken her magic, making her have to keep such a major secret from her best friend.

"Su, I know this is a touchy subject, but... are you used to Chinese more than English?" Harry asked curiously, while stirring his chicken noodle soup slowly. "I mean can you read Chinese better than English?"

"Yes... I grew up learning Chinese, my parents run a dojo and most of the lessons are done in Mandarin," Su explained with a small smile as she felt herself warming up to Harry. "As my parents and family only spoke Mandarin at home, I never spent much time learning English..." Lowering her voice, she poked her rice with her chopsticks quietly as she continued, "As my grades showed..."

She hoped no one asked about her grades, as they were a major problem with her parents. She'd always struggled with English, and they always wanted her to be the best. And most of her grades were, it was just English that was the bane of her existence. "But when I found out I was to be going to an English speaking school, I practiced a lot..."

"Well you're good at conversational English…" Hermione mused for awhile before a devious little smirk played over her lips. "Perhaps learning a little Mandarin wouldn't be bad for us..."

"Right you are 'Mione," Harry answered with a wider smirk appearing on his face, one that Su couldn't help but wonder about the nature of. Sliding her gaze sideways, her worries tripled after finding identical smirks on the twins as well. "But first things first, twins... what do you think of being friends with Su?"

"I don't know Harry... she doesn't look like she has the knack we're looking for..." George... or was it Fred... stated while eying her critically. Oh great, here it was again, the judging stares, the evaluations, the gentle pat on her head?

She must have missed something here, for the other twin smiled warmly at her, patting her head again. "Don't let him fool you, you're in."

"Besides, the knack we're looking for is a perfectly innocent partner in crime..." the first one explained while shrugging his shoulders and sighing heavily. "Anyhow, we know what it's like not being the bright shining stars that they're expecting of Ravenclaws... see... we're a year older than our classmates."

That was a major bomb apparently, to judge from the confused looks on Harry and Hermione's faces. After a moment's thought, she figured that it would have been a major deal at her old school to be held back a year, and being in the smart house probably made that worse. "I do not understand... why are you not in the same classes as others of your year?"

"That would be our fault..." Fred... or maybe George... answered while the other chuckled sheepishly and scratched the back of his head. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Hermione leaning in, probably to hear better. "See, Gred and I got so excited to start at Hogwarts that we sorta broke into our older brother's trunks... snatched up some potion ingredients and started mixing them together..."

"But that could have done any number of things, including..." Hermione cut in with a worried tone to her voice, as Harry's eyes widened nervously. Apparently they realized the same dangers that she did, after all, a lot of those warnings on the ingredients she'd bought had been in Mandarin Chinese as well as English, and the sheer number of risks written on them was enough to make her double-check everything she did.

"Exactly, we were blasted into the next room, and spread a cloud of knockout gas that had us out for six months... when we woke up at St. Mungo's... mum..." Forge continued, before cutting himself off with a slightly nervous look, and a quick glance to Harry. Even as she turned her head to see what was up, some dark, hidden emotion played out in Harry's eyes before he nodded for them to continue. "Well mum wasn't too happy with us, and after we spent the next month cleaning and repairing that level of the house, it was too late to try and catch up with the rest our age, so instead we opted to stay out for the year, and read our books... especially after mum grounded us until the new school year."

"She only left the books my dear Forge," Gred added with a lecturer's tone and a finger shake. "She also said if we ever did that again, then she would take us both and break out wands over our heads..."

"So of course, the first thing we did after getting back last year was to set up a potions lab, with tons of security and precautionary measures to keep us from blowing ourselves to bits."

At first it had been a little squeak from Su, that turned into a giggle, and finally she was laughing, joined in by Harry and Hermione. So there was the little fact that she wasn't completely alone in laughter, and judging by the twins chuckling along with the other three, they weren't even mad. It felt natural to be here, almost like being back with Hua Fu...

After dinner, Harry and Hermione took a direct path back to the tower, to gather their notes, diagrams, and prototypes, including the flattened remains of the third comm-wand. While they were doing this, the twins and Su went off somewhere to presumably to get to know each other better. After gathering the necessary components, they politely knocked on the teacher's door inside the tower.

A little known fact about the doors to the teacher's quarters inside the towers is that they send a signal to the teacher in question when a person touches them. For each teacher it's a different type of signal, but they all work pretty much the same way. They gain the attention of the teacher inside or out of their quarters upon a knocking of their door. For Professor Flitwick, the signal is a gentle vibration of a wooden disc in a special pocket in his robes.

A curious occurrence should be noted in the pages of Hogwarts: A History is that one of the previous teachers failed to heed the headmaster's advice about making it a subtle alert, instead choosing to go with an outlandish idea that occurred after imbuing too much Butterbeer the night prior. Never let it be said that George 'Falsetto' Kingston couldn't take a blow, but sadly after a year the DADA teacher had to take medical leave in order to save his reproductive abilities.

A short while later, and Professor Flitwick arrived from the main entrance, unlocking his office door with a wave of his hand and indicating for them to proceed him in. The office was very much like the storage room that they had cleaned previously. They could almost feel the age of the items in here bearing down on them and their little curiosities.

"Mr. Potter, Ms. Granger, I'm so glad that you two are willing to talk with me about things, how may I help you?" the diminutive professor asked while stroking his mustache in thought. He remained silent as the pair set out their wooden assemblies on his desk, and a stack of papers with rolled up scrolls on top beside them. Looking at the flatter of the trio, he chuckled softly. "I take it that they are still in the prototype phase?"

"Yes sir... you see, we were working on these with the twins for use on the Quidditch team, but..." Hermione started, before trailing off and indicating the flattened unit.

"And what... pray tell are these?" the professor asked, picking up one of the more functional models. "I see... basic runes for transmitting and receiving, but what do they transmit? And how does one use these?"

Harry picked up the other working prototype, slipping it onto his head with practiced ease before sliding a piece of wood into position to complete the rune-set. Hermione coached the teacher through the process, putting it on his head and adjusting the pieces so they were in proper position. While this was happening, Harry went to the far corner of the room, and faced away from the professor. Whispering softly he asked, "Can you hear me professor?"

The effect was nearly instantaneous on the part-goblin professor, causing his eyes to snap open and face the backside of Harry properly. "Why yes, yes I can Mr. Potter..."

"That's good... because that is what these are designed for... however you add a third one into the loop and..." Harry whispered conspiratorially, causing Hermione to roll her eyes and sigh heavily at the dramatics. "We're not entirely sure what happened, but the twins theorized a magical feedback loop."

Switching off his unit the professor pulled it off and began taking a closer look at the device, his eyes turning sharp and focused on the devices. "I think I see the problem..."

Harry rejoined Hermione, sharing the curious look on her face as they peered at the devices, wondering what they and the twins had missed in their construction. After a minute of inspecting the two working prototypes, the mustached man pulled over the scroll and unraveled it enough to see that it was the blueprints before spreading it out on the desk and tracing the various lines. "Marvelous... and to think this is first and second year students... how surprising..."

"Oh my, they did a good deal of research on that part... and why did they do... oh that's why..." Flitwick continued to mutter as he continued tracing lines and components of their spell work. When he got to the list of potion ingredients on the side, he frowned in confusion until he finished it and chuckled. "AHA! So that is how they got the wood to work properly... soaked it in wand preparation solution..."

"Err... Professor? Have... have you found where the signal feedback is happening?" Hermione interjected after a few minutes of his mutterings.

"Huh? Oh yes, yes, sorry, but I believe it is a rather basic problem..." Flitwick answered while tapping one of the running notes on the edge of the plans. "Here you said that you made sure to utilize the same sample of milk from a fire crab's flame sack, to ensure cohesion of signals... sadly that means you only have the single signal to travel on... If you can find a family of crabs, you will get a good twenty or thirty signals to work with..."

"Really? I hardly expected it to be so simple," Hermione started as she scratched out the answer on the back of one of her previous notes. Harry watched silently as he traced the lines that still confused him half the time, thankfully Hermione and he were confused on opposite halves of the complex pattern. "I thought we would have to rework the rune matrix, or possibly add in a limiter, but that would cause trouble when we go further away from each other..."

"Yes... that's true..." Flitwick answered while studying Harry's actions. "What troubles you Mr. Potter?"

"It's just... we talked about adjusting the volume of the sending and receiving voices, since people are likely to be shouting during the game... and we can't use wand magic... so a voice activated command would be best..." Harry stated quietly while rubbing the back of his head nervously. "I mean... I think it would... if we use obscure codewords for them to raise or lower, maybe have them have to touch the earpiece for the listening volume, while the mouthpiece for speaking strength..."

"Astute thinking Mr. Potter... very astute indeed... I must say that you four have surprised me with this..." the chocolate eyed man stated with a twinkle in his eyes as he looked over the prototypes again. "And you countered the wind's interference by using the scoop design around the reception area..."

At the blank look from Harry and Hermione, he held up the broken unit's microphone arm and indicated the end which was settled over a mouth usually. Turning it over he showed them the bowl like depression one of the twins had added to make it look cooler, and they let out a little chuckle. "Actually Professor... that was an accident..." Hermione explained. "Fred thought it would look better..."

"Oh, was it now? Interesting... very good work all together," Flitwick mused shortly with a beaming smile on his face. "If you'd like I can take a look over your notes, plans, and prototypes and see if I have other suggestions to make... perhaps by the end of next month we will have enough for the Quidditch team..."

"Of course Professor!" Hermione gushed happily while Harry smiled shyly from behind her. "Thank you so much Professor, for everything..."

"I will require assistance in crafting the..." here he paused to look at the name at the top of the blueprints, "Comm-wands, was it? Yes... perhaps the four of you could spend some time over the weekends..."

"I'll be there," Harry answered for the first time with a force behind his conviction. It felt weird, but he wanted to work on this, to learn more about the strange and magical world he'd fallen into by adding just a small piece to it. "Just tell me when sir..."

"We'll be there Harry, I'm sure the twins will, and Su Li might like to observe..." Hermione corrected while smiling back at the bespectacled boy. "We should get ready for the tutoring session..."

"Tutoring? Are you having troubles?" Flitwick asked curiously while looking between the two. "But both of you are at the top of your year..."

The two blushed at the compliment before Hermione explained the situation with Su's English, feeling that the head of their house ought to know if a student is struggling. "I see... that is not the first time, and yes, I believe you have the right of it, working with her will speed up her adaptation to the written English language."

"Thank you Professor... but please don't bring it up to her... she is rather sensitive about it..." Harry explained while he and Hermione stood by the door. His smile took on a warm tone as the Professor nodded his understanding. "Thank you Professor..."

"You're welcome... oh and if you see the twins, please inform them that they are to receive 100 points each for their work on this... and both of you also gain another 50 points on top of that for helping your fellow student..." the man stated with a wide smile, which only grew wider as the pair took on a shocked, stunned, gape mouth stare. At their nod, he waved them out.

"T...thank you sir..." Hermione offered as she exited, leaving Harry remaining behind.

"Sir... if... if there is a need to purchase supplies for the Comm-wands, I... I would like to help... b...but I'd have to contact Gringotts about how much I can access..." Harry explained shutting the door partially. "I... I was wondering if there was a proper way to write the goblins sir..."

"Oh... of course you wouldn't have been taught that... I'll set aside some time to help you write a letter, and some basics of Goblin etiquette... How does next Wednesday afternoon sound?" Flitwick offered with a warm smile as he walked over and patted Harry on the upper back.

"Thank you sir, it really means a lot to me..." Harry answered with a smile of his own, especially when he fought down the instinctive urges to shy away from the physical contact.

"Of course, I am glad to help."

Harry stepped out of the office, and found Hermione setting up the study area, but strangely noticed a lack of Su, who had always seemed to be a punctual type. It wasn't until she and the twins ran into the common rooms and slammed the door behind them that he realized what happened. "She a Rebel yet?" Harry asked across the empty room.

"She has one upped you Harry me boy... she managed to use the octo-potion on Draco!" Fred proclaimed, slinging an arm around the poor girl who was blushing so hard that Harry worried she was going to ignite.

"I... I... I never thought I would see that outside of my brother's magazines..." Su stated in a haunted voice while shivering and holding her shoulders as if to ward herself from danger.

That brought the festive mood of the other Rebels to a screeching halt, each one turning to look at Su curiously before deciding to leave that particular subject for another day. Hermione futzed with the material, while Harry walked over by her. The twins gently pushed her over towards the table, and sat the still shell-shocked girl down in a chair, before saying something about getting some tea from the kitchens.

It was Rowena that finally broke the awkward silence. "I feel sorry for the potion..."

The giggles coming from Su at that were rather infectious, as Harry and Hermione soon joined in with laughter of their own.

Meanwhile, down in the dungeons Draco dragged himself into the Slytherin common room with a whimper. "I... I... I need a cuddle..."

Omake: The Octo Potion

Fred and George were grinning widely as they dragged their newest partner through the school while shooting back and forth ideas. "Jaw-busters?"

"Not hardened enough yet... how about the oil slick hall?" George shot back as they rounded a corner. Finding a straight stretch of hall that could allow them to slide down the entire length of it without any real problems.

"Did that last week, they'll start warding against it if we do it too often., how about the Octo-potion?" Fred countered finally catching Su's attention.

"Octo-potion? Do... do I want to know?" Su asked hesitantly, knowing that the answer was probably no, but she was about to find out anyhow. The sinking feeling she got about it only worsened as they pulled out a jar filled with oily blackness, sealed up to the gills with warning labels, that they removed gleefully.

"No Su, all you need to do is find a non-Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff to open this, and then get to a minimum safe distance... we'll be standing at it so you'll know..." Fred explained while holding out the container carefully to the girl that pulled away cautiously.

George put a hand on her shoulder, and gave her a gentle squeeze. "You don't have to, but it'd be easier for you to do it..."

"I... I get to pick target?" Su asked carefully as she debated the dangers she was facing right now. The name Octo-potion didn't sound promising, but she felt she could trust the twins to defend her should anything go wrong. Carefully she held the container the same way that Fred had been offering it to her.

"As long as they aren't Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff..." George answered with a wide smile as he patted her shoulder lightly. "It's one of our few rules that we always try to follow."

"Y... yes..." Su stated while she turned the final corner before trying to find a target. The Hufflepuffs under the first arch were completely out of the question, as were those girls that had been teasing her about her slow reading in the bathrooms, since they were Ravenclaws. Maybe she could ask for an exception for them.

That's when she saw him, the perfect target. He was pushing his way through the Hufflepuffs, and insulting them for being in his way when he was walking. The green and silver of his tie confirmed his Slytherin status, and his greased back platinum blonde hair told her exactly who it was. As if the two meat-heads 'guarding' him didn't already. Draco Malfoy, and this was the perfect opportunity to get him.

Walking over, she shyly tried to get his attention, until finally she was directly in front of the trio, looking at her feet nervously. "D...Draco Malfoy? I... my friend a...asked me to give this to you..." she offered while holding out the container. "It... it is a s...special order potion from t...the stylist Madame DuClair's Salon..."

"And why didn't your friend bring it to me?" Draco demanded with a snort, knowing that this mudblood wasn't worth his ire.

"S...she is shy... an... and does not speak much English... so she asked me to help..." Su lied shifting nervously while holding out the potion to him nervously. "P...please accept her feeling."

One of the goons, she thought she remembered him being named Goyle took the potion while the other Crabbe leaned in to look closely. "It looks like it'll last you the month Draco..."

"Very well... let's just make sure it doesn't stink or something..." Draco answered with a sneer, before waving Su away, which she gratefully accepted. A short bow later, and she was running away, acting like a girl that had just confronted her crush.

"Think she likes you..." Crabbe suggested before he levered open the jar. The second the airtight seal was breached, many things happened at once. First the eight large slithering tentacles shot out, and lashed themselves around the first target they came in contact with, this just happening to be Draco. Second the jar was dropped to the ground by a shocked Goyle, causing the potion inside to be splattered over the area.

Third, the puddles of potion began to sprout tentacles of their own, eight each. Ranging in size from inch thick to thinner than a sheet of toilet paper. Fourth, these each clung to one of the Slytherin trio as soon as they could. Fifth, the screams of all the other students caused the poor tentacles to react in a strange way.

They tore off clothing and began trying to pry into any openings they could find in order to hide from a presumed predator. Up until this point Su didn't so much as look back, still running full tilt to rejoin the twins. However, as she joined them, she couldn't help but grow curious as they watched over her shoulders. The curiosity got worse when they tried to stop her from looking back.

"Don't look Su... it's not worth it..." Fred offered while carefully pulling her away.

"That which hath been seen..." George intoned, with haunted eyes.

Fred took a moment, but he eventually was able to find presence of mind to finish the saying. "Cannot be unseen..."

She should have known better, honestly she should have. But her curiosity had always been one of her weak suits, and so when she glanced over her shoulder as they were running away, there was only one person in all of the Magical World she could really blame. Herself.

It was at that moment that she vowed never to touch an Octo-potion again.