Harry Potter 1. Meeting Shannon Jade Parks.

Harry Potter and the Crystal of Dreams.  
  
You couldn't help but like Shannon Parks. Honest, blunt, funny-she spoke her mind and didn't care what people thought of her. At fifteen she was short and small with greyish teal eyes and dark brown hair cut into a layered bob that framed her oval face. Her coral pink lips nearly always curved into a smile and she was always ready to tell a joke and cheer up people. She had a tendancy to say the most innapropriate things at the worst of times, but everyone forgave her.  
She went to the Carnia Academy of Magic in northern Italy, where she lived with her father, step-mother, and half-sister, although she was Irish. They had emmigrated due to her father's job when Shannon was ten.   
Then there was another change in her father's job. They would have to move back to England, which Shannon didn't mind too much, even though she'd miss her friends. She'd have to start a new school however-Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  
~*~*~*~*~  
Harry put the phone down and walked into the kitchen where his only remaining family sat eating breakfast. His obnoxious cousin Dudley was still on a diet that all of them were having to follow (well, Harry wasn't, he'd cheated by getting his friends to send him food via owl post again). It had begun to work a bit-two chins had disappeared, and he could now fit more comfortably on a chair.  
His Uncle Vernon was reading the newspaper, grumbling about some young vandals who had torched a building in the next town. Obviously the lack of food had stretched his fine temper to almost breaking point, and Harry was often shouted at for the least of things-sitting in the worng chair, or being around the family too much, or looking in the wrong way at someone. Aunt Petunia was washing up whilst peering out of the window although no neighbours were out yet (it being only eight o'clock in the morning) to spy on.  
However, Harry had a weapon-once again, if ever they refused to let him go out with his friends, he would just threaten to write to Sirius, his wrongly-accused godfather who was still on the run from Azkaban the wizard prison. They still thought that he was a mass-murderer, as it had slipped Harry's mind to tell them that Sirius Black was, in fact, innocent, and that guilty Peter Pettigrew was working for Voldemort, the wizard that had killed Harry's parents when he was a baby, and had left him to be brought up by the Dursleys.  
Harry cleared his throat. No effect. He decided to speak.  
"Er...that was my friend Hermione on the phone. She said that she and her parents would pick me up and take me to buy my school stuff later. Can I go?"  
Vernon grunted. "Get you out of the way. I hope they're coming in the normal way?"  
"Yeah, Hermione's dad can drive a car."  
The silence that followed was uncomfortable, so Harry left to go up to his room. He had told Hermione that even if his aunt and uncle didn't want him to go, they could still pick him up. They were punctual, arriving at ten o'clock exactly.  
"Hi Harry!" Hermione said as Harry climbed in. He grinned at her and Ron as he sat down.  
"Hello Harry," said Mrs. Granger, who looked quite like Hermione but with sleek blonde hair.   
"Hi."  
He could see Aunt Petunia glancing out from behind the net curtain and waved sarcastically as the car sped off.  
Harry hadn't been to Diagon Alley for two years, and he was happy to be back. They wandered around buying books and robes and potions ingredients, talking about what actions Dumbledore might be taking against Voldemort, and what the new DADA might be like, and various other topics. Eventually, when they had brought all they needed to, they decided to buy ice-creams at Florian Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour. The mid-afternoon sun beat down heavily on them as they dawdled over.  
Inside it was cool and quite dark, their eyes taking a while to adjust to the light. A few tables were occupied by gossping groups of witches or debating gatherings of wizards. Leaning against the marble-topped counter was a dark-haired girl of about their age, talking to Fortescue whilst a smaller child clung to her, sitting on her hip. She was the only one in the cue, so they got behind her.  
"...I'll have strawberry, and what do you want Hannah?" she was saying, her voice a mixture of accents.  
The younger girl, who was about four or five, reached up and whispered something into the teenagers ear. She laughed and said, "O.K baby. That'll be two strawberry cones please."  
"Coming right up." Fortescue bustled off to get the order. The girl prised the kid off her hip.   
"Come on baby, you can't eat whilst I carry you around." She said, struggling to make her stand up. Eventually, she did as she was told, but she still hovered very close to her. She took the cone the older one passed to her and began to lick it happily as she payed.  
"What do you say Hannah?"  
She looked up with round, dark eyes. "Thankyou!" she lisped. They both laughed, and the first girl took her free hand as she led her out. She smiled at the trio as she passed them. "Hiya."  
They were about to go outside, when suddenly the door opened. Hannah's little hand was knocked back, and the pink ice cream flew down her dungarees. The person who had opened it came in. It was Vincent Crabbe, one of the trio's enemies. The older girl was furious.  
"Look what you've done to my sister!" she thundered, making everyone look round at them. Hannah was crying by now, lamenting over the cone on the floor.   
Crabbe grunted and glared down at her. She might have been smaller but she was no less powerful. He tried to push past, but she stepped in front of him.  
"Apologise at once to her."   
Crabbe stared down at her blankly. She repeated, slowly and dangerously. "I said, apologise to her at once. Now!"  
Crabbe looked shocked and embarrassed at being threatened by a starnger half his stature. He mumbled something, then walked out again. The girl knealt beside her sister and wiped away her tears.  
"Please stop crying baby, I'll get you a new ice cream, come on girl." She got up and led her over to the counter again, in the cue. Fotescue quickly made up another ice cream, flicking his wand to clear up the mess on the floor and child. He passed it over and refused to let her pay him. She thanked him and they walked out.  
Harry stared after her. He'd know if he'd seen her before, but she didn't go to Hogwarts. She was so pretty, with those huge fierce eyes, and that lovely dark hair...  
Ron waved a hand in front of his face. "Yoohoo? Earth to Harry?" Hermione giggled.  
"What?" Harry muttered, digruntled.  
"I said, what ice cream did you want?"  
When they got outside, they saw her again with the little girl, both sitting on a low wall eating their ice creams. Hannah had pink goo all over her face and hands, and was licking it happily off. As there was nowhere else to sit (the tables all being full), they sat next to her. She looked over.  
"Hiya, you were in the parlour, weren't you?" she asked.  
They nodded. "Do you go to Hogwarts?"  
"Yeah." Said Harry.  
"Oh cool, I'm starting in September. What year are you guys in?"  
"We're going to be in the fifth year."  
"You don't look like a first year," Hermione told her.  
"That's 'cause I'm not. I'm fifteen, I'll be in your year. I'm a transfer from Italy."  
"I didn't know we did exchanges."  
"I think your headmaster said I was the first. Oh, sorry, I forgot. My name's Shannon, and this is my sister Hannah."  
"I'm Ron, that's Hermione, and that's Harry."  
Harry hoped that her eyes wouldn't start boring straight through his fringe to his lightning scar, but they didn't. They locked into his and she smiled.  
"I'm pleased to meet you all. What's Hogwarts like?"  
They sat there for at least half an hour, telling Shannon their experiances and teachers, and the houses.  
"Hope I'm not in Slytherin!" she said, blowing upwards to ruffle her fluffy finge. "It sounds dreadful!"  
"It is," said Harry.  
"Shannon Parks! Get here now!"  
She looked up guiltily to see a woman of about twenty-seven who looked Italian with her raven-black hair tied up in a chic twirl and tall, slender figure running towards them. Hannah jumped off the wall and toddled over to her, and was scooped up in her arms.  
"Si, Julianna?" Shannon asked, her voice defensive. The woman, Julianna, began to complain to herhalf in English and half in a foreign language they didn't understand. Shannon averted her eyes and yawned boredly, before defending herself valiantly. Eventually, she turned back to her new friends.  
"Sorry guys, I've gotta go. Something about worrying Dad sick and all that by being out with Hannah too long. Anyways, see ya on 1st September!" She got up and followed Julianna to the Leaky Cauldron.  
"C'mon Harry, we'd better go ourselves," said Hermione, as she and Ron stood up. "We'd better go ourselves, my parents will be waiting."  
Harry got up and followed his two best friends along Diagon Alley. Something told him this year was going to be interesting...  
*****  
Harry approached his uncle and aunt warily in the living room that night, and cleared his throat loudly. This time they started and looked up.  
"Back are you?" Vernon grunted. "Well, what do you want?"  
"Erm, will you take me to King's Cross on 1st September so I can catch the train?" Remembering his manners, he added a strained, "Please."  
"And what will happen if I refuse?"  
"Uh...well, I don't think Sirius would be too pleased..."  
He needed to say no more. "ALL RIGHT, ALL RIGHT, WE'LL GIVE YOU A LIFT TO THE DAMN STATION!" Vernon roared, jumping to his feet.  
Harry nodded. "Thank you." He went out of the room, and as he mounted the stairs, he heard Aunt Petunia pouring her husband a large brandy to calm his nerves.  
*****  
OK, what did you think? As you can see, I couldn't be bothered with any of that 'because Harry Potter was a wizard' clap trap, so I just bunged down a load of stuff. THIS IS NOT A MARY SUE STORY! Mary Sues are sweet, charming and tactful. And, er, Shannon's not.  
PS. Please review. Thanx. I reallly appreciate it. Wow, just what you always wanted, to be appreciated by some maniac shap shifter! (See my profile)  
  



	2. All Aboard The Hogwarts Express/The Sort...

I'm baaaaack!! OMG!OMG, OMG, OH MYYYYY GOOOOOODD!!!I got reviewed!I can't thank you enough!   
As I write this, 8 ppl have reviewed, so thanks to elizabeth, caro, Luna9, Toraia, Savita Yoshima   
aka Louisa, AntiSocialButterfly, Starlight, and erised_15 for all the support and comments.   
And thanx if you've just reviewed like two seconds ago! Uh, yeah...um, sorry caro,   
my e-mail's kinda gone weird @ the moment, that's why I couldn't contact u.   
And be patient Savita Yoshima. Let's just say Shan's character may get pretty...manical.  
Shan:Get the heck on with my story, Shadowz!  
OK. Sozz, I'm being controlled by Shan Parks...weird. Thanx again!  
  
Harry Potter and the Crystal of Dreams.  
  
By nine-thirty the next morning, Harry Potter had finally left number four, Privet  
Drive, for another glorious year at Hogwarts. He couldn't stop grinning, even when faced by   
his hostile, silent relatives.  
Uncle Vernon loaded his trunk, which contained all the spell books and things he had   
gotton at Diagon Alley, into the car boot and orded him gruffly to get in the car. He was driving,  
Aunt Petunia sitting in the passenger's seat with her lips pursed. Dudley, after being bribed with  
three new games for his new computer, and eventually agreed (still somewhat reluctantly) to sit next to Harry  
in the back. His porky body was pressed so far away from Harry and Hedwig that he was in danger of falling out   
of the car door.  
Harry really didn't care. He wanted to just leave his dratted family and be at his school  
with his friends.   
Hedwig hooted gently from the cage on his lap. She was excited too. She was looking forward to  
nights of flying free, and days of long, undisturbed sleep.  
King's Cross station, when they got there seventy five minutes later, was bustling as usual. Harry unloaded  
his things onto a trolley by himself and walked off. His relatives were, for some totally strange reason, were  
following him. Harry suspected that Uncle Vernon wanted to complain loudly about the 'good-for-nothings' more  
commonly known as witches and wizards.  
He frowned as he wandered over to the platforms, half-watching the large clocks that clicked as their numbers  
flicked over. Where were Ron and Hermione? He guessed, in a resigned sort of way, that they were probably already on   
platform 9 and 3/4. But then he realised he'd missed someone out. And then he heard her voice.  
"Hey Potter, wait up!"  
Shannon came running through the crowds at a dangerous speed towards him, pushing her trolley in front. Hannah  
was sitting on top of her trunk, clinging on for dear life, but laughing with her cheeks flushed from the ride.At the   
last minute, she skidded to a halt and instinctively grabbed her little sister's arm to keep her from falling.  
"Hey Shannon," he said, laughing too. She grinned and replied with, "Hey ya."  
There was a loud coughing behind Harry, and he turned to see Vernon complaining to Aunt Petunia about "young hooligans"  
with "no respect for safety". Petunia nodded at each sentence, obviously taking in everything she could possibly hate about the   
young pureblood. Her scruffy trainers, her battered leather jacket, even the loose bunches her dark hair was tied back in.  
Harry knew Shannon had heard, but she said nothing, and shifted the bright backpack on her shoulder.  
"Shannon! Wait for us!" a man's voice called.  
Edging through the masses now were her parents. The man looked slightly like her, but he was quite tall. The woman was   
the glamorous Julianna, who now helped Hannah jump down from the trolley.  
"Sorry Dad, saw my friend." She gestured to Harry. "This is Harry. Harry, this is my dad, and you already know Hannah and   
my stepmum Julianna."  
Shannon's Dad's eyes flicked up to the scar underneath Harry's fringe then shook his hand. "Joe Parks, Mr.Potter, very   
glad to meet you." Behind him, Julianna smiled kindly and Hannah lisped "hello" in a very small and shy little voice.  
Harry's relatives left at this point, half dragging Dudley away from these dangerous maniacs. Mr.Parks let go of Harry's hand   
and looked at the clock, and then his elder daughter.  
"You'd better go Shannon. Don't want to miss the train." He smiled sadly. "We'll miss you."  
Shannon hugged him, then Julianna, then Hannah. Harry felt like he shouldn't be watching this family moment. But there was something else.  
An odd sort of jealousy, because he had never known his own parents. Then Shannon eventually let go of her sister and straightened up,   
wrapping her hands around the bar of the trolley.  
"OK. This is me. I'm goin'." She glanced at them one last time. "Bye then."  
With that, she started off for the barrier at high speeds. Harry almost having to run to keep up. At the same moment they passed through the  
barrier-  
And stepped out onto another platform full of pupils in black robes pushing their way onto a large scarlet steam engine. Platform 9 and 3/4,  
with the Hogwarts Express just about to leave. The pair dodged through anxious parents and excited children until they reached a realtively empty   
entrance. Harry helped Shan load the trunks onto the train and they set off to try and seek out their friends.  
They didn't have to go that far. Hermione and Ron were in compartment eleven, screeching at each other at the top of their lungs, both red in the face.   
They didn't exactly know what the topic was, but it seemed to be about Hermione's psychotic fluffball cat Crookshanks. What he had done, they also didn't know,   
but Ron's Charms textbook was now attractively shredded. Shannon slid the glass door open and they entered, unnoticed at first.  
"Honestly, Hermione, that thing is evil! I don't see why you don't have it put down!" Ron yelled at her.  
"I can recommend a god vet!" Shannon said brightly, then winced ever-so-slightly at the weird looks she was getting. "What?"  
Hermione moved up so that Shannon could sit next to her, which she did, and Harry sat opposite her, next to Ron. Shannon took off her   
backpack and unzipped it. In the next instant, a blur of fur shot upwards into the luggage rack and peered at them with bright amber eyes   
from between Hermione's books and Pigwedgeon's cage. Harry squinted at it. It was what looked like a small white and tan cat, But then he realised that it had   
outsized ears and a lion's tail.  
"That's Tiah," Shannon explained. "My kneazle. Always great at diverting arguments. Dad put an oxygen charm on the bag so I don't have to carry her in one of   
those muggle cages and get normal people asking why my cat has lion features."  
The train gave a huge heaving jolt as it began on its long journey to the castle. With a small sigh, Shannon brought out a deck of magical cards from her jacket and began  
to shuffle them. "Esplosione Colpo, anyone?" When greeted by their blank faces she explained. "Exploding Snap? Sorry, I have to work on my Italian translations."  
They carried on playing loud and raucous games until the plump smiling witch appeared with the lunch trolley. Shannon, Hermione and Harry all brought a huge stack of sweets,  
whereas Ron's ears turned pink as he mumbled about having brought some food. Harry just tossed him some pumpkin pasties as the conversation turned to Quidditch. Shannon and Ron got   
into a quite heated discussion over the teams they supported-Ron supporting Chudley Cannons and Shannon the Ballycastle Bats. It only broke up when Ron couldn't think of a reply to,  
"We wiped the pitch with you last season! It was 450-nil, and we were missing a Chaser!" The other branch of this conversation was the school teams. Shannon had been a reserve Beater   
at her last school, and listened with great intrest to the recounts of every victory Gryffindor had gained in the past four years with Harry as Seeker.   
By mid-afternoon, conversation had dried up and they all sat quietly doing their own things. Harry was tending to his prized Firebolt, Ron was attempting to shut up his owl,  
Hermione was busily absorbed in "The Standard Book Of Spells Grade 5", and Shannon sat with Tiah draped across her shoulders, reading a book entitled "Explosive Pranks To Blow Your Mind!"  
and noting things down on a brightly coloured notepad. It had been like this for a good half hour when they heard the door slid open and all looked up simultaneously-  
To see Draco Malfoy standing there, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle.  
"Well, if it isn't Potty, the Weasel, and Miss Mudblood..." he began, in his usual drawling tones. Shannon cut him off.  
"If it isn't them, you can always go away. In fact," She cocked her head in mock thought, then shook it. "Do that anyway. Please. Your face makes me sick."  
To their utter surprise, Malfoy's pale, pointed face cracked into a small grin. "And you are?"  
"Shannon Jade Parks, who the hell are you?" Her voice sounded like Hannah's almost when she said that.  
"Draco Malfoy. What's with these loosers as friends?" he asked, indicating the indignant trio around her.  
"What's with the bullying jerks as bodyguards?" Shannon replied, her gaze slipping past him to where Crabbe stood stupidly. Her teal eyes narrowed and locked into Malfoy's grey  
ones. "That taller one, he was picking on my Hannah." She sighed, and raised her eyebrows in a bored expression. "If the best you could do was idiots who push into four-year-old girls,   
you really must be bummed."  
Malfoy's expression darkened. "You'll regret saying that, Parks."  
Harry brought his wand out from his pocket and pointed it at his enemy's sneering face. "Leave, now."  
"Or you'll what? Hex me?" He laughed slightly, mockingly, and took a step into the carriage. He was about to say something else cutting, when a scraggy ball of matted fur leaped   
up and attached itself to his robes, yowling in high-pitched menace. Crookshanks obviously did not appreciate spoilt little rich kids trampling on his bushy tail. And being a very expressive   
cat, he wasn't one to hide his feelings. Malfoy screamed, but the cat's body smothered the noise as he tried desperately to shake him off. Eventually, with the help of his goons, he managed  
to get it off, even though it left huge, deep gouge marks bleeding in a shocking contrast to his white skin across his face.  
There was about three seconds of complete silence, save for Crookshanks's hissing and spitting. Then the newly-formed quartet burst out laughing, unable to contain it any longer. Malfoy  
clenched his fists and scowled, turned and left. Goyle and Crabbe hurried clumsily after him. Finally, they brought themselves back round to some measuer of sanity, or at least composure. After   
that the silence was only broken by the occasional snort of supressed laughter. The psychocat calmed and fell asleep on Hermione's lap, just as peaceful as Tiah.  
By nightfall, they were well into the wilder land that led to Hogwarts. They were all sharing a mixture of feelings-happiness, nervousness, excitement-as they changed into their school  
uniform and began to clear up their stuff. Tiah went back into the roomy backpack, and Crookshanks was shoved into his basket. Hedwig, who had slept for the whole journey, hooted gently as Harry   
lifted her cage down from the luggage rack.   
Fifteen minutes later, the train came to a juddering halt in Hogsmeade station. They stepped out of the compartment and joined other black-clad students in the bustle to get off the Express  
and onto the platform, which they found just as crowded. The night sky above them was clear and cloudless, with a nearly full moon and plenty of stars. Near the head of the train, they could see   
Hagrid looming over an ever-growing band of frightened first-years, swinging a large lantern from one of his dustbin-lid sized hands.  
"Firs' years! All new pupils this way!" he called. The four enchanged a questioning look; Shannon shrugged and pushed her way through the students over to the gameskeeper, closely followed by   
Harry, Hermione, and Ron. Hagrid raised his shaggy eyebrows when he saw her.  
"You don' look like a firs' year." he remarked. Shannon gave him a lop-sided grin.  
"I'm not. Fifth year transfer." she explained.  
"Shannon Parks?"  
"Yep."  
"OK then. Yer to be Sorted after the firs' years." he told her. Shannon nodded. Hagrid's beetle black eyes moved onto the other three and crinkled as he smiled at them. "Hello, you three?   
Ready fer another year at school?"  
They chatted to him for a while, until a bell rang somewhere, signalling that the horseless coaches were about to leave. They said a hurried goodbye, and Shannon replied with, "See you in Gryffindor."  
"How d'you know where you'll be?" Harry asked, puzzled. Then he wondered if it was just him, or if Shannon's eyes suddenly seemed a bit sad. He decided it must have been him, as a second later   
she seemed perfectly happy.  
"I just do. Trust me on this one. Now go!"  
They ran off to the last carriage in line just as the first few began to move. They climbed inside, joining Neville Longbottom and a couple of fourth year Ravenclaw girls they didn't know. In   
a moment, their carriage sprung to life and began for the school. Looking out of the window, they saw Shannon in the midst of the group going by the lake boats, chatting amiably to a few of the others.   
Half of them looked about as tall as her, and possibly older, but she held a total ease with strangers that none of them did. The journey for them was bumpy and slightly unpleasant, but quick-soon they  
had arrived at their destination. When walking up the steps to the main entrance, they caught sight of Malfoy, scowling sulkily, in between his cronies. He had used some sort of charm or something to get rid  
of his facial cuts, but still seemed to be in considerable pain.  
The Great Hall looked as marvellous as usual on feastdays. The massive stone room was decked out in the colours of the four houses, with silken banners of each house mascot hung above the correct oaken table.  
Behind the staff table hung another banner, this time of the whole school crest. A lion, an eagle, a serpent, and a badger grouped around a large capital 'H'. The trio found places at the Gryffindor table where they  
could get a clear view of the Sorting. Already, the patched and frayed old hat sat on a three-legged stool in front of the table which the staff sat around.  
They could see all their normal teachers talking amongst themselves, with the few odd exceptions. Professor Trelawney, the fraudulant Seer, had obviously been coaxed down from her usual haunt of the North   
Tower by Dumbledore, and was now perched nervously on the edge of her chair, studying the milling students with enormous, frightened eyes behind giant glasses and fiddled nervously with the loops of clashing   
jewels around her neck. Professor Snape-the head of Slytherin, Potions master, and general biased slimeball-slumped in his seat with an expression quite like Malfoy's, but with double the sourness. He was glaring at  
the lovely girl who didn't seen more than eighteen with a long sheet of white-blonde hair. They realised after a moment who it was.   
Fleur Delacour, the ex-Beauxbatons champion in the Triwizard Tournament, had obviously gotten the job she had wanted as Defense Against the Dark Arts professor to 'improve her English'. Snape, who had wanted  
that job since he joined the school as a teacher, looked as though he had swallowed one of Honeyduke's Super Sour Balls whole.  
Presently, Professor McGonagall came out of a side door, leading all the new students into a line facing the Hat. Shannon, in between a tiny girl with blonde plaits and a tall boy with glasses, smiled and gave   
them a hidden wave. Then the Hat pulled itself up, the rip near the brim opened, and it began its traditonal welcoming song:  
"Here I am, The Sorting Hat,  
Just as observant as a cat,  
In front of you to decide what house you should be at.  
Let me tell you this.  
Gryffindor is for the brave,  
The stalwart and the true.  
Not for the weak-hearted are the lions-  
The fearless warriors, one of them are you?  
The clever ones to Ravenclaw,  
Who value learning and wit.  
These brainy people can learn it all  
In one go, not bit by bit.  
Students loyal in Hufflepuff,  
These are the just and fair.  
They may be your best friends,  
About you they will care.  
The fourth house is cunning Slytherin,  
House of the ambitious and the sly.  
For they will get what they want,  
They use any means, by and by.  
So put me on and sit right here.  
I'll see what you have between your ears  
Don't worry about it, I'll find the correct place  
For you in Hogwarts Schhool!"  
(A/N:Yes, I am fully aware that the song sucked, but bear with my dreadful poetry, please?)  
  
The students cheered and applauded. The filthy Hat bowed to each table, grinning widely, and eventually lay still again. McGonagall, unrolling a long parchment scroll, stepped forward.  
"When I call out your name, step forward, try on the Hat, and wait to be Sorted." she explained, looking down at the list. "Atkins, Emily!"  
The girl next to Shannon came out and tried on the Hat. It considered her for a moment, before yelling, "HUFFLEPUFF!"  
The Hufflepuff table exploded with cheers and applause even louder than that given for the Hat. Emily took off the Hat and scurried over to find a seat.  
"Azecka, Jack!"  
"Ravenclaw!"  
And so the Sprting continued, until "Zacharias, Ellen" joined the Slytherin table. Shannon was the last, remaining alone in front of the Hall. Whispers of confusion erupted, everyone   
curious as to why this dark-haired stranger was still up there. She smiled at them, and winked at her friends on the Gryffindor table. McGonagall rolled up her scroll and sat down. The talk   
died as Dumbledore stepped forward, the torchlight gleaming on his silver beard.  
"Last year, you may well remember me telling you that ties with other magical communities are more important now than ever. I therefore ask you to welcome into the fifth year our   
first ever transfer, Shannon Parks from the Carnia Academy of Magic." He turned to Shannon. "Please try on the Hat, Miss Parks."  
Shannon glided forward, pulled the Hat over her head and sat down. The Hat began to talk to her, as she knew it would, in its low voice.  
"Well, last one now. Hmm, Miss Shannon, you seem mighty familiar..."  
Shannon couldn't stop the wry smile that twisted at her lips."You're thinking of Eileen Hope, I can tell." she thought to the Hat.  
The Hat paused, then continued in a surprised tone. "Eileen Hope? The Cursed One?"  
"Yes. My mam."  
"Oh dear."  
"It was a long time ago. Anyway, aren't you supposed to be Sorting me? If I delay the feast, I swear Ron will kill me. About a million chocolate frogs, and he's still hungry."  
"Oh, yes. Now, Miss Shannon, you probably wouldn't fit into Slytherin. Your biggest ambition is to invent the world's largest firecracker, and I don't think that's quite Slytherin   
material. Now then...creativity, that's good for Ravenclaw, but you don't always work as hard as you could, so not Hufflepuff. Dear oh dear...ah yes, what's this? You would do anything to   
protect your little half-sister."  
"Hannah means the world to me. I'd do the same for any others in my family, and my friends."  
"Then that's settled. Just as your mam would want it." She heard the house name shouted to the whole Hall. "GRYFFINDOR!"  
Sighing in relief, she removed the Hat and went over to the applauding table and slipped into a seat next to Harry, grinning in a maniac fashion. "Hey ya, told you I'd see you in Gryffindor!"  
He grinned as well, very happy now they knew Shannon was in their house. "I'm glad you're in our house."  
"So am I." She cracked her knuckles, making Hermione wince. "Next stop, dyeing that damn giant squid purple!"  
Dumbledore meanwhile was making all the usual announcements about things being banned (like fake wands and ink-squirting quills, or entrance to the Forbidden Forest), and he introduced Fleur as the   
new DADA teacher. With that all done, he clapped his hands and the feast appeared. Each of the starving students loaded their plates high and tucked in at furious speeds. Conversation spread like wildfire in   
between mouthfulls, the fifth year Gryffindors discussing Quidditch and the upcoming O.W.Ls. When asked about her own past in Italy, Shannon vaguely told them about a school smaller than Hogwarts   
with about fifty boarders and the rest just day pupils. According to her, the grounds had consisted of one Quidditch pitch and not a lot else, because it was all too easy for them to be spotted by muggles  
in the nearby town of Venzone.  
Just as Harry started on the dessert, his fan club turned up. It consisted of Colin Creevey, his second-year brother Denis, and Colin's camera, which was, as usual, slung around his neck.  
"Hiya Harry!" Colin said enthusiastically, clutching the muggle photographing device. Harry stifled a groan and looked up from refereeing Shannon and Ron's ressurected argument over Quidditch teams.  
"Hello Colin." he replied, attempting to keep the resignation and annoyance from his voice. "Had a good holiday?"  
"Great, great!" Colin answered, grinning broadly. "Any chance of a photo Harry?"  
He must have enough photos of me to start a gallery, Harry thought. Aloud, he said, "No, not tonight. Maybe some other time."  
Colin, looking extremely disappointed, slid his gaze to Shannon, who was smiling triumphantly at having beaten Ron into silent glares. He said, "You're the new transfer, aren't you?"  
"Y'think?" she said with added friendly sarcasm, looking up at him. He didn't answer, just left and joined up with the rest of his fourth-year gang.  
Shannon leaned over to Harry, her crooked smile showing she was about to make another joke. And here it was.  
"Nice pair of psychotic stalkers y'have there Harry!" she told him. Opposite her, Dean and Seamus snorted with supressed laughter. Harry smiled, but said, "That isn't funny Shan."  
"Really? I'm funny, and y'all know it!" With that, she launched into the extremely worn-out joke routine she had been using since she had been five and still living in Kilmare in Ireland.   
She had quite a large audience from various houses by the time it came to the end of the feast, and people began dispersing to their house quarters. The original three threatened to gag Shannon as they went up the first  
staircase to their common room and dormitories if she didn't quit the why-did-the-whateverhaveyou-cross-the-road? gags. She obeyed with mock-meekness, and concentrated on memorising the numerous staircases and  
hidden doors. Eventually they came the the portrait of the Fat Lady.  
"The password's 'Antipodean Opaleye'." Ron told them as the painting swung forward. "McGonagall told me just before we left the Hall."  
They climbed through along with the other Gryffindors into the warm, circular stone common room. It was filled as always with its usual jumble of threadbare chairs and battered old tables. They all bid  
each other goodnight, and Hermione showed the new girl up to their dormitory. Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown were already in there and ready for bed, but poring over a copy of Teen Witch. The other two  
followed suite and got ready. Shannon let Tiah out of her bag and began to set some things on the bedside cabinet that was next to the new bed. There were two photos, one in a gilded frame and the other in a simple wooden one.  
The first was a picture of Shannon and Hannah outside their Italian home, and the second was of a laughing woman who looked like a twenty-something version of Shannon. Parvati wandered over and looked at them.  
"Who's in the pictures?" she questioned.  
"That me and my little sister Hannah about a year ago. And the other one," Here she sighed, and Hermione noticed how sad she seemed as she gazed at the picture, the happy woman's features frozen forever.  
"That's my mam."  
*****  
Yes, I know you'll all flame me to high hell for putting Shan in Gryffindor. Go 'head. I know, I know, it's like cliche of the millenium, but I just thought that's where she belonged. Review please!  
If you do, I will carry on writing this, and you can find out about why I picked this title, about Shannon's past, and about her mum. Now go, review!!!  
P.S. I am planning a spoof/parody of the HP charcters in a chat room w/ Shannon included. It will probably/certainly have a v. lame title, so just tell me if u would read it, K? K then. Thanx once more!  
  
-Shadowz. 


	3. Classes

Here I am yet again, with more of Shannon's story about her...hangonaminute! If u didn't know   
about this, you wouldn't be here! Anyways, thanks for the reviews, and in order to get more, I   
will offer this cookie (::) to you if you review. Now go head and read! Flame all you want, my   
feet are bloomin' freezing, our heatings broke.  
Oh yeah, and 'sozz' is the word my friends and I sometimes use for 'sorry'. Just to clear   
up any possible confusion there.  
  
Harry Potter and the Crystal of Dreams.  
  
The next day dawned grey and stormy and complete with driving rain and gale-force winds,   
the total opposite of the sunny and cheerful weather the day before. It was, of course, the   
typical moody weather that everyone asscoiates with England.  
  
Hermione was even relucant to forsake the warmth of her bed for the start of classes,   
but she eventually managed to crawl out and into the bathroom to get washed and changed. By the   
time she came out, the other three were only just waking up. She strode mercilessly over to   
Shannon's bed and pulled aside the heavy drapes. Shannon groaned and pulled her pillows over her   
head as light struck her face. Tiah stretched, yawned, and darted off the bed as Hermione shook   
her friend roughly.  
  
"C'mon Shannon, it's time to get up!"  
  
"No. Leave me. Sleepy." came the muffled reply.  
  
Hermione sighed and went over to the dressing table, ready to battle her bushy tresses.   
"Fine! You'll miss classes!"  
  
"Don't care." Shannon yawned.  
  
"You'll miss breakfast!"  
  
Shannon instantly sat bolt upright and chucked her pillows aside. "I'm up!"  
  
Hermione watched, in between shock and laughter, as Shannon jumped out of bed, grabbed   
her clothes, and tripped over her trunk, falling flat on her face. Unpertubed, she pulled herself  
up and ran into the bathroom. When she emerged, she looked a world away from the wild-haired,   
sleepy-eyed figure she had been upon waking.  
  
By eight o'clock, the girls were walking into the Great Hall. Shannon stared in amazement  
at the ceiling of the Great Hall, which she hadn't really noticed the night before.   
  
"Wow," she said. "What did they do to the roof?"  
  
"Charmed it." Hermione answered, looking up at the swirling grey clouds. "It's bewitched   
to look like the sky outside, it says in Hogwarts, A History."  
  
"Aw, damn. Couldn't it look like the sky in...Barbados, or something? That would be more   
cheerful."  
  
Hermione laughed as they joined the boys at the table. "Yeah, I guess it would."  
  
There was a rally of 'hi's and 'hey's as the girls helped themselves to food. Class   
timetables were passed up the table, and Shannon asked them about each class in between   
mouthfulls of pancakes and syrup.  
  
"Today, there is...hey, what's Potions like?" she said suddenly, twisting her fork. Ron   
dropped his spoon with a clatter and a splash (it landed in his glass of pumpkin juice) as he   
grabbed his timetable, stared at it, and groaned loudly, attracting weird glances from a passing   
group of Hufflepuffs. He swore noisily as well, earning a disapproving look from Hermione.  
  
"I don't believe it! Potions on our first day! How evil is that?" he moaned.  
  
"When?" asked Harry, a sinking feeling in his stomach.  
  
"After lunch." Shannon replied. "Um, sozz guys, but what's up with Potions? I like it."  
  
Ron stared at her like she had just changed into a hippogriff. Shannon raised her   
eyebrows at him, then switched her look to Harry, who decided to ease her confusion.  
  
"The teacher's a complete biased git. He favours people in his house, he hates just about   
everyone, and he gives out even more detentions than the caretaker." Harry thought for a moment.   
"Oh yeah, and he's head of Slytherin."  
  
"I coulda guessed his house just from the description." Shannon replied. Her expression   
grew thoughtful as she looked over Harry's shoulder. "Is it that slimy guy approaching you after   
hearing what you said?"  
  
Harry, Ron and Hermione started simultaneously and turned quickly to see...nothing.   
Shannon giggled loudly.  
  
"Geez, you guys are so easy!" she exclaimed in between laughter.  
  
Hermione turned back to her breakfast with a slightly disapproving look. "That's not  
funny Shannon."  
  
Shannon looked down at her now empty plate with a mock-sadness expression. "Aw, nobody  
'preciates my jokes no more!" She paused, then added, "Now is the time for you to ammend that."  
Harry caught on. "Of course we appreciate your jokes Shannon. Without them, our moods   
would be worse than Filch's on a terrible day."  
  
She looked at him and smiled sweetly, giving him a gracious nod. "Thank you Harry. I   
appreciate that you appreciate my jokes, even if I don't understand your replies."  
  
The bell for start of class rang at that moment, and Hermione jumped to her feet   
immediately. "Come on," she said urgently, "We have Herbology to get to."She left among the   
first wave of students departing, followed by a curious Shannon, an already bored Ron, and a   
silently laughing Harry.  
  
The weather as they crossed the grounds to Greenhouse Four calmed them down, and they   
joined their fellow pupils in the room in a state that suggested they had been dunked into the   
lake and held there for several minutes. Hermione used a simple drying charm on them that she   
had learnt from The Standard book of Spells Grade Five on the train yesterday, and they looked   
no different than they had been in the castle. A few more attempted the spell, most without   
success-Susan Bones managed to turn her hair luminous blue and Hermione had to change it back   
for her. Eventually Professor Sprout arrived, shaking out a magical umbrella that had shielded   
her from the rain, and they took their seats as she went to the front of the classroom.  
  
"Now, this year you have your O.W.L.s coming up, and for the exam you'll need to have a  
fairly extensive knowledge of carnivorous plants." She paused to let Seamus Finnegan groan and   
bang his head on the desk. She gestured to the plant next to her. It was at least five foot tall  
as sat in a vast stone pot. Harry thought it looked like an inflated, writhing venus fly trap  
with a yellow-spotted red flower and huge pearly fangs. Its mouth was bound tightly with   
magical ropes so that it couldn't bite, but it was drooling with the thought of food. What it   
ate, Harry didn't like to consider.  
  
Sprout asked, "Can anyone tell me the name of this plant and its main features please?"  
  
Three hands went up in the air-Hermione's, Neville's, and Shannon's. Sprout raised her  
eyebrows and said, "Miss Parks?"  
  
The trio lowered their hands and Shannon spoke up. "It's a Tentacruela Dedruba and it  
comes from the Amazonian rainforest. Its bright colours let it hide between other vivid magical  
plants. It eats all sorts of fairly small creatures, but it especially likes human children, like  
my sister. Its teeth are so sharp it can cut through solid iron immediately, although that one's  
just a baby and so it can't just yet."  
  
"Very good!" Sprout ammended, smiling widely. "Five points to Gryffindor!"  
  
She continued to explain how dangerous plants like this could be when fully grown and how  
best to tackle them. Harry leaned over to Shannon.  
  
"What did you mean about your sister?" he muttered. She smiled slightly.  
  
"Two years back at Venzone, they had an open day and Hannah sorta wandered off into the   
Herbology department, in with the dangerous plants. We had a Tentacruela Dedruba almost full-  
grown, only she was two and didn't know the dangers." She sighed. "Luckily my friend  
Dario was passing with his family and he managed to stop her getting eaten. I dunno what I woulda  
done if she got killed."  
  
"Well now," Sprout said. "Get into groups of six and take a plant each."  
  
"Huh?" Shannon asked, eyebrows raised. "What did I miss?"  
  
"The instruction that now we've got to try and tackle one of these things in groups."   
Hermione said, disapproving that Shannon hadn't been paying attention to the talk. She gestured  
to the side of the room. "Let's go."  
  
It was then that Harry noticed several identical plants at various intervals around the   
sides of the room. Some were struggling against their bonds, a few were sulking, and the rest   
were avoiding the shears that apprehensive students were trying to use the prune them. The one  
Hermione pointed out was smaller and quieter than the rest. They pulled on dragonshide protective  
gloves and made their way over, joined shortly by Justin Finch-Fletchley and Hannah Abbot.  
  
The plant may have been smaller, but it was definately no less fierce. It took Harry all   
of his Quidditch-borne reflexes to dodge with the plant and hack off any dead greenery on it. By   
the time class was over, so was the rain, and they trudged back up to the castle, aching and  
complaining about their charges. Ron came up with some very interesting tortures for the violent  
weeds (aided, of course, by Shannon) until Hermione reprimanded him.  
  
The next lesson was Charms, in which tiny Professor Flitwick was teaching them health  
charms. After a quick lunch of shepherd's pie, they had to face their awful fate.  
  
Potions.  
  
Being some of the first in due to Hermione hurrying them, they managed to cram onto a   
back table. Snape, who was arranging bottles of slimy pickled newt's tails on his desk, didn't   
look up and no snide remarks were made as Pansy Parkinson and her group of Slytherin girls   
wobbled past at that moment. Pansy whispered something to Blaise Zabini behind her hand, staring   
straight at Hermione, and they cracked up with vicious giggles. Hermione's cheeks turned dark red   
but she fixed her eyes solidly back on them at said nothing as they passed.  
  
Eventually, the rest of the Slytherins and Gryffindors arrived. Snape glared at them all   
and began to call the register. Just as he had done at Harry's name five years ago, he paused   
slightly before Shannon's and gave a twisted smirk.  
  
"Shannon Parks." he called, voice full of disdain automatically earned by all those who   
weren't Slytherin pupils. She raised her hand in reply. He fixed her with a cold stare as he   
said, "I expect your work to be impecable. Spending five years at some foreign school is no   
excuse for tardiness."  
  
Shannon smiled at him as she put her hand down. "I'll try my best, sir."   
  
Snape's gaze darkend and he sneered at her. "A point from Gryffindor for your insolence,  
Parks, let that be a warning." Shannon raised her eyebrows but stayed silent as Snape turned back   
to the role call.  
  
Eventually, when everyone had been checked off on Snape's list, he stood silently,   
sneering at the fifth years.  
  
"Every year, I reach new levels of amazement at your stupidity." he hissed. "Never, in   
all my years as a Hogwarts porfessor, have I witnessed such a bunch of dunderheads blundering on   
blindly through my classes." It was obvious to everyone that he was just speaking to every   
Gryffindor. Suddenly, he turned on Harry, as Harry had known he would.  
  
"Potter!" he growled. "Recite to me the ingredients of a Sommeil Sleeping potion in the   
exact order they would be added!"   
  
Mentally insulting his hated teacher in as many lucrative and colourful ways that his   
mind could think of, he replied truthfully through gritted teeth, "I don't know the answer."  
  
Malfoy sniggered from his place on the other side of the room, his cronies chuckling   
dumbly in obedience. An unpleasant smile twisted on Snape's thin lips as he said, "So, the  
Great Harry Potter decided that he was too famous to study this holiday! It's the same story   
every year. Ten points from Gryffindor. Parks! Answer my question!"  
  
Shannon's eyes widened slightly and she bit her lip in hurried thought. Snape fixed his   
hollow black eyes on her, ignoring Hermione's waving hand in the air. After a moment's pause, she  
answered, voice echoing in the stony room, "I can't tell you the order that they're   
added in, but I know that the ingredients are powdered runespoor fangs, essence of belladonna,  
lionfish bile, diced horklump, and Welsh Green dragon scales."  
  
The nasty, leering smirk returned as Snape said, "You answered incorrectly. A further   
three points from Gryffindor, and I suggest you too work harder. Now copy these notes."   
  
In the scrambling for parchment and quills to reproduce copies of the complicated notes   
and diagrams Snape weas putting up on the blackboard, Hermione turned to Shannon.   
  
"You got all the ingredients right!" she exclaimed, her emotions something akin to   
surprise. Shannon really didn't seem the type to study extremely hard.  
  
"Yeah," she answered, somewhat ruefully. "Just the last two mixed up. Dad made me study  
really hard in the holidays just to make sure I wouldn't be behind. I think he got obessive about   
it, constantly testing me on my knowledge and all that, so I probably know enough to take my   
N.E.W.T.s at the moment."  
  
The rest of that lesson was spent in monotonous silence, copying the theory of sleeping   
potions from the blackboard, with Snape striding past the benches and making plenty of snide   
remarks. By the time the bell eventually rang, and the class poured thankfully out, another twenty   
points had been removed from the Gryffindor total (five from Seamus for coughing, five from   
Lavender for not having her hat straight, and ten from Neville for misspelling 'Horklump'.) Of   
course, Slytherin gained twice what Gryffindor lost for the most pointless of reasons.  
  
However, the class that everyone (or the boys at least) had been eagerly awaiting was   
Defense Against the Dark Arts. It took place first thing on Thursday morning, and the quartet sat  
in the front middle desks (on Ron's request). As soon as the bell rang, Fleur Delacour swept into  
the room, white blond hair and sky-blue robes sweeping elegantly behind her. She placed the pile  
of books in her arms onto the desk and surveyed the silent Ravenclaws and Gryffindors with a   
smile.  
  
"It ez good to see you all again," she told them in her heavy French accent. After the   
register, she told them to turn to chapter one in their textbooks for their first lesson. Shannon   
glanced at Ron, then looked at Hermione, whispering, "Is she a Veela? And what does she mean   
'again'?"   
  
Hermione nodded, also looking at Ron. "Yes, partly. It's a long story, I'll explain   
after class."  
  
"Thiz year, I shall be teaching you of ze dark objects. They shall be appearing on your   
tests at ze end of ze summer terms, and so you must study hard. These dark objects can control  
a person's actionz, thoughts, or even their emotionz." Pointing a long finger at the page of the   
open textbook on her desk, she added, "Take a look at zis picture 'ere. Thiz iz ze first thing we   
shall learn about."  
  
Harry looked at the picture that Fleur had indicated. It was of a 3D pentagonal gem, the   
sides of which were completely transparent and seemed to sparkle and glimmer in the light shining   
from an unknown source. The magic of the picture caused a white mist to rise slowly in within the   
prism before sinking back into oblivion. The caption underneath read, "Cristal de Reves".  
  
"Thiz iz ze Crystal of Dreams, oreeginating from France thousands of years ago, thus   
giving it a French name. Dark wizards and weetchez have used zis crystal to store ze dreams of   
zeir enemies so zat zey can interpret the thoughtz and emotions of zat person. Zey also can send   
ze most horrendous nightmares so zat zeir enemy slowly turns insane from nightly torment. It   
meanz zat ze dark wizard or weetch does not need to approach zis person to defeat them, making et   
one of ze most dangerous dark aids."   
  
Shannon muttered, "I'll check the gem on the next pendant I buy very carefully." Hermione   
smiled.  
  
The white mist rose within the prism walls of the picture of the crystal in Shannon's   
book, before fading gradually into nothing.  
*****  
Okies, sozz about leaving it like that, but I can't think of anything else. Oh yeah, and   
sorry about the delay in getting this up, fourth chapter soon, I swear!  
  
Thank you to Anon, my ninth reviewer! (grins cheekily) Although I admit Shannon is   
probably quite Mary-Sue esque as of yet, that is all set to change! My first fic, please be nice   
to me.  
Review now, or face my excellency at the Unforgivable curses! 


	4. Trials and Hogsmeade on Hallowe'en

Sorry about the wait. Here's your next chapter up, dedicated to my reviewers.  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter in any way or form, except for my own plots and creations. Same for you. Don't worry, like me you'll get over it with years of extensive therapy! (That one's for Nick!)  
  
Dedication: To hytenywg (hope that's spelt right) who provided me with another much needed review. Thank you so much! :)  
  
BTW, I don't learn Italian, but have tried to incorporate some (stupid, I know). So if you learn Italian, and some of the grammar is round the wrong way or whatever, please tell me but don't flame. Cheers a lot.  
  
And so on with the story.  
  
Harry Potter and the Crystal of Dreams.  
  
October brought many events with it, the first and most noticeable change being the weather. The already nasty climate declined to impossible levels of constant rain, sleet, and gale force winds to match the frequent sub-zero temperatures. It was just about the worst weather anyone could remember for so early in autumn, and every pupil and teacher stayed indoors as much as possible. Hagrid began to hold some of his Care of Magical Creatures classes indoors to avoid any possible skiving of that lesson that his pupils might consider due to the weather. Unfortunately, the Erklings he had gained over the summer holidays seemed to be riotous no matter where the lessons were, and managed to break four of the Great Hall windows in one go.  
  
On one such occasion, when the students were attempting to round up the vicious elfish creatures to feed them, the four Gryffindors had a confrontation with their least favourite person. It happened whilst Shannon had attempted a rugby tackle on one of their charges and just ended up with painful elbows as she landed flat on her face.  
  
"Very graceful, Parks," Malfoy sneered. Shannon looked up at him from where she was still lying, propped her chin on her hands, and replied with a grin, "Thank you, I thought so too."  
  
Malfoy pulled a face of annoyance about the fact that his insults could get nowhere with her and turned to Harry as Shannon stood up and dusted herself down.  
  
"I hear your Quidditch team's one down this year." He smirked. "Considering the amount of talentless creeps in your house, I think it's safe to say that the Cup's ours this year."  
  
"That's where you're wrong." Shannon said from behind him, causing him to turn. "The 'talentless creeps' jibe describes your own house sweetie. Get it right."  
  
Harry grinned, even thought the Erkling in his arms seemed just about ready to bite him with its sharp little teeth. Malfoy attempted to look down his nose at her, but found that it isn't effective if the recipient is just two inches shorter than you. Maybe that was why the lopsided grin never left her face as she pushed past him and went to help Hermione use Freezing charms on some of the elves.  
  
It was true that the Gryffindor team were missing a Keeper since Oliver Wood had left the school. Angelina Johnson had been appointed captain in his place, and Harry just hoped that she possibly wouldn't be as fanatical as him. He still had nightmares of being awoken on freezing mornings for gruelling practices that lasted hours on end.   
  
She seemed quite worried about the state of the team though. Before the trials were held on Thursday evening, she confided in the team that they would probably have to train twice as hard as they normally did to get the new player in shape and used to the team in time for their first match. The start of the house tournament was just about a month away, leaving them with an alarmingly short amount of time for practice.  
  
Ron, on account of not having his own broomstick (his ancient Shooting Star had been blown up by the twins over the holidays), wasn't trying out for the team and seemed quite bitter about it. He said nothing as Harry left, but concentrated on the chess game between himself and Ron Weasley-Hermione had refused to play until she had rechecked her History of Magic essay on Grindelwald for what must have been the hundredth time. Shannon was nowhere to be found, as she had scarpered after class claiming that she was researching the charmed ceiling in the hall.  
  
McGonagall, clutching the magically amplified megaphone and a clipboard full of names, sat in the stands and watched the game carry on. The team played as different Keepers switched in and out of the game on her commands. Harry didn't have anything really to do, as catching the Snitch meant the end of the game. Instead, he was more interested in the evaporating line of hopeful try-outs.   
  
There was something about the last one, the casual way she leant on broom as she chatted with some others, the faint laughter carried over the winds, which was familiar. The dark ponytail told him it was Shannon.  
  
"Switch!" she yelled. "Last Keeper up, Shannon Parks!"  
  
Shannon winked at Harry as she passed him to replace a fourth year girl called Emma Dobson. As the game progressed, they saw that she was a fairly good Keeper, and managed to save seven out of the ten goals that were shot at her before McGonagall called them all down to the pitch. As she entered a whispered discussion with Angelina, Shannon sidled up to her friend.  
  
"Hey ya Harry," she said, leaning on her broom again. He looked at her and grinned.  
  
"How come you didn't tell us you were trying out, Shan?" he asked.   
  
She pulled a slight face. "And have Ron wanting to strangle me? Not likely. Anyway, I wanted to surprise you all."  
  
Just then, the discussion broke up and McGonagall spoke up.  
  
"Thank you all for trying out and showing great dedication to Gryffindor. You all played well, but we have chosen our new Keeper as Geoga Atkins."  
  
A sandy-haired girl near the front punched the air triumphantly and became the target of many (sometimes flippant) congratulations and frosty, envious glares. Shannon pulled another face, this time one of disappointment, but shrugged.  
  
"Ah well, maybe next time," she sighed as all the pupils started up the lawns for the castle. "I tried."  
  
"You played well," Harry said, "I bet you were next on their list."   
  
She smiled, causing her eyes to sparkle like crystals. "Thanks Harry."  
  
As they neared the school, a large band of excited, chattering Ravenclaws poured out of the doors and down the steps. Judging by the various makes of broomstick they were all carrying, it was their turn to try out hopefuls for the empty places on the team.   
  
Amidst the crowd, Harry saw Cho Chang, silent and ignoring the talk. As if she could feel his stare, she glanced up and her dark eyes locked with his green ones. They looked at each other awkwardly for a long moment, and he saw the pain and hurt that still haunted her eyes. Then she looked away again, down at the ground as she followed the others down in the direction of the Quidditch field.  
  
Although he still felt the deep-rooted guilt that had affected him since Cedric Diggory's death at the end of the Triwizard Tournament, it wasn't as strong as before. Even when he saw Cho, one of those most affected. The words that he had been told so often after that terrible event had eventually started to work on him-`It wasn't your fault. There was nothing you could have done.'  
  
October also heralded the first Hogsmeade trip of the year, on the day of the Hallowe'en Feast. It was announced via a parchment message left on the notice board in the Gryffindor common room a week before it was planned.  
  
Harry walked over to his friends, still holding his broom from Quidditch practice, and noticed the crowd around the message board. He sat in the chair across from Hermione, immersed in a thick volume of O.W.L Potions revision, occasionally glancing up at the chess match between Ron and Shannon.  
  
Shannon chewed a loose strand of hair thoughtfully as Ron's knight took its move. Eventually, she spoke.  
  
"Rook to H3." She said. The piece in question, and several others, turned to begin arguing in high, squeaky little voices with her, protesting her decision until she finally snapped.  
  
"Stai zitto, tu stupide idiota!" she growled, pulling her wand from her pocket. "Silencio!"  
  
The little black chess pieces fell eerily quiet under the Silencing charm and Shannon moved the rook, laughing in a deranged manner. Ron thought for a moment and made his move to take her king.   
  
"Checkmate."  
  
"Shoot!" she cried, giving all her remaining pieces dirty looks. "Bleeding chess set, never listens to me."  
  
"That's why you lost," Hermione said. "And if you keep on with the 'Shut up, you stupid idiots' comments, its no wonder they don't like you." Upon the questioning glances from her three friends, she shrugged. "What, I learnt a bit of Italian a few years ago."  
  
"Ah, well, you loose some, you...well, in my case, loose some more." Shannon remarked. To Harry, she added, "That's the twentieth bleeding game in a row that he's won!"  
  
Harry laughed. "None of us can beat him. Anyway, Hogsmeade trip this weekend."  
  
"Cool!" Shannon grinned. "My prank stocks are running low, ever since I planted those yet-to-be-discovered dungbombs in Filch's office."  
  
Ron glanced up from packing away the chess set. "Ever been to Hogsmeade before?"  
  
Shannon shook her head. "No. Whenever I came back from Italy in five whole years it was to visit my family in Ireland. What's it like?"  
  
Hermione responded by reciting various historical dates and happenings, whilst Ron told her about all the different types of sweets and chocolates in Honeydukes. Under the torrent of talk, Shannon muttered to Harry, "From this I gain confusion." Above them, she added, "I guess I'll find out when I get there. Oh god, just remembered! Hannah needs a birthday present, fifth birthday in two weeks, quite the little lady. I'm going to the dormitory, 'kay?" Without waiting for an answer, she left.  
  
"Poor Shannon," Hermione sighed, watching her leave. "She misses her little sister something chronic."  
  
"Weird." Ron deemed. "She actually likes her sister?"  
  
She glared at him. "Just because you don't like your siblings, doesn't mean she can't. Didn't you see them together? She really dotes on her."  
  
Shannon heard this from where she sat at the top of the stairs to the girl's dormitory, blinking back the first tears of homesickness. More than anything at the moment, she wanted to see Hannah open her presents. She doted on her more than anyone could possibly realise, and for reasons that nobody could know or understand. Alone, she rose to her feet, and continued on her way to the empty dormitory.   
  
*****  
  
Saturday morning saw a slight ease in the weather- it managed to settle on a slight drizzle of rain and thick dark grey cloud. The Gryffindor quartet sat down at their House table to eat. Shannon seemed cheerfully distracted as she hummed an old Westlife song and almost poured pumpkin juice on her cornflakes.  
  
Her preoccupation deeply worried Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and they ate with frequent glances around the Hall and at their fellow pupils. It was not until McGonagall's magically amplified voice boomed out for the final call to board the horseless carriages that would take them to Hogsmeade that something actually happened.  
  
Kelly Stevens, a Gryffindor first year, was gazing around the room when she suddenly spluttered her pumpkin juice all over the table, and knocked over a jug of milk across the scarlet tablecloth as she abruptly pointed up at the ceiling.  
  
"What? What is it Kell?" her best friend, Anna, asked impatiently.  
  
"Look at the ceiling!" she cried, so loudly that half the hall did what she said. And then that half got the other half to do the same.   
  
Huge, glittering ruby letters snaked across the ceiling, spelling out the words "GRYFFINDOR RULES", complete with the sybol of the rampant lion. By the door, Shannon giggled as guiltily as she ever would and exited quickly before the teachers could punish her.   
*****  
  
Down in Hogsmeade, Harry felt sympathy for Shannon. Ron and Hermione were intent on showing her about a hundred different places all at once. He stopped them before Shannon would probably explode with frustration (after seeing her prank that morning, he was in little doubt that she could probably pull this off).   
  
"Where'd you want to go Shannon?" he asked. She shrugged and grinned with the reply of, "The prank shop, of course."  
  
Laughing, the four friends made their way across the street and into Zonko's Joke Shop. As usual, it was a bright place filled with flying sparks and glittering showers of magical pranks. However, it was completely empty apart from a youngish man with greying brown hair at the other end of the room, studying a row of fake wands. Harry frowned. Something about him was overwhelmingly familiar and he watched him, ignoring the chatter of his three friends behind him.  
  
"Professor Lupin?" he called. The man turned around and Harry's question was answered.  
  
"Hello Harry," Lupin said, smiling as he walked over. The other three had looked up by now and Lupin smiled at them as well. "Hello Ron, Hermione." He paused at Shannon. "I don't think I know you."  
  
"Shannon Parks." she prompted. He thought for a moment.  
  
"You must be Joe's daughter, right?" he asked. She nodded. "I thought you moved to Italy. How is he?"  
  
"He's fine, and yes, we did. But we came to England in August." she answered. "You know him?"  
  
"Of course. He was Head Boy when I was in the fifth year." Lupin turned to Harry. "Harry, could I have a word please?"  
  
"Er...sure." Harry followed Lupin back to the other side of the shop. "What is it?"  
  
Lowering his voice, Lupin said, "I thought you should know that Sirius is safe. At the moment, he's alerting people who used to be in our section of Aurors of Voldemort's rise to power again. He says hi."  
  
"Great," said Harry, unable to contain a grin. He felt a lot better knowing that Sirius had left Lupin's house alive.  
  
With a back glance at the other three Gryffindors, Lupin continued, "Does Shannon know anything about Sirius being wrongly accused?"  
  
"Don't think so. Strangely enough, it's never come up in the conversation."  
  
"Perhaps it's better to keep it that way, for the moment at least. Her father works for the Ministry so he might know now and tell her himself. Well, you'd better get back to your friends. I'll see you around." Lupin walked up to the door, but looked back just before he left. "Shannon, I'd get something a little less violent if you're buying a present for a small child."  
  
Shannon glanced at the packet of exploding quills she was holding. "Er...thanks."  
  
Hermione shook her head when she saw what Shannon had picked up, muttering, "Honestly! Trying to buy that for a little girl of five!"  
  
Shannon raised an eyebrow. "Who said it was for Hannah?"   
  
*****  
  
She grinned silently at the happy memories of that day as she climbed into bed, drawing the hangings protectively around her. In the thick sheets of darkness, she cocked her head briefly; listening for sounds that indicated anyone else was awake. Lavender mumbled something in her sleep, but other than that all was silent. The grin slowly faded.  
  
She slid her right hand under her pillow and, after a moment of feeling for the object, brought it out into the open. With her left, she picked up her wand and muttered, "Lumos."  
  
The light from her wand bathed the small book in her thin hands in a yellowish glow. It was small, but thick, with innumerable gold-leafed pages and a hard dusky purple cover, all corners slightly dog-eared with age. She dropped the book silently onto the red and gold coverlets on her bed and lay on her stomach to get more comfortable for her reading. She stared at it for a moment, fingers slowly tracing the gold lettering on the cover, before opening it.  
  
There was no entry to be added tonight to her part of the book. Instead, she wanted to read those of another girl like her, a girl who had attended Hogwarts more than twenty years ago.   
  
A girl who was now long dead.  
  
This book told more of her than she could let on to her friends. Because what would they think if they knew what she had done, without even realising her sins?   
  
*****  
  
The wait was longer, and so the chapter was too. I couldn't be bothered to write the rest of the trip, or the feast, but let's just say that they passed peacefully enough.  
  
If you don't review, I'm not encouraged to write. That's why I kept on with my Buffy fic and sorta left this one. Please review, please! 


	5. Old Aquaintances and Quidditch.

A/N: Updated at last! Hallelujah! OK, hyper- as if you didn't guess. Please r/r.  
  
Dedicated to: Julia (thanks for your xmas card) and also to all my reviewers.  
  
Disclaimer: If only luck had granted me to be J.K.Rowling, I would own a lot more than a Buffy t-shirt, 20 pence, one stripey sock, and a bag of half-eaten sugar. I don't even own my non-existent sanity. I think that says it all really, don't you?  
  
Harry Potter and the Crystal of Dreams.  
  
Sirius Black, the renowned criminal and escaped, wrongly accused murderer, bounded along the street- in dog form of course. It was still quiet early and very quiet, and although nobody in the muggle town would recognise him as a huge black Grim, he wanted to get to the house before people started to come outside. Because he didn't know what the reaction would be.  
  
He had been running for three days almost solidly to get here. Now he was shambling along the roads he used to know on aching paws and an empty stomach.   
  
At the end of the main road he skidded to a halt and stared at the sign. Cherry Avenue. And when he padded along the street to number ten, he sat looking sadly at the neat, unchanging house. Recalling memories and thinking of what could have been.  
  
But he wasn't here to gaze at a silent house for hours on end. His task was much more grim. He was here to warn a woman called Chloe Taylor of Voldemort's resurrection. The job wasn't helped in the least by the fact that she was the fiancée he hadn't seen for fifteen years. He didn't know what her actions would be, to him and the news. He didn't know if she had changed or not.  
  
He walked up the path towards the white front door, and scraped at it with his paw to alert her that somebody was there. He sat on the step, almost nervously awaiting any acknowledgement. From within the house he eventually heard approaching footsteps, and then the click of the lock as Chloe opened the door.   
  
He looked up at a petite woman dressed in old jeans and a white long-sleeved top. He noticed that her goldeny-brown hair had been cut up to her shoulders now, and watched as her tired eyes peered out confusedly at her height level. Then she looked down and gasped, her ice-blue eyes widening as she took a step back.  
  
"Padfoot..." she whispered, leaning heavily on the doorframe.   
  
He barked, standing up as he did so. She knew that he was saying, "Kat, let me in."   
  
She pushed the door open and stood aside to let him enter a hallway. The walls were still pastel yellow as he remembered, but now they were covered in photographs of children he didn't recognise. Some he could pick out a faint resemblance to Chloe in (he guessed they were her nieces and nephews), but others looked more like Lucinda and Nina, two friends from the past.  
  
Chloe shut the door behind her and stared at Sirius as though she still couldn't believe it was him. She shook her head.  
  
"You have one heck of a lot to tell me."  
  
*****  
  
"C'mon Harry, you've got to eat something."  
  
Harry pushed aside the plate of bacon Ron was offering him. "No. No food. I can't eat anything."  
  
The Gryffindor fifth years were finding their task of making Harry eat some breakfast before the Quidditch match against Hufflepuff harder than they first thought.  
  
"Harry, if your guts get beaten out by a Bludger today and strewn across the pitch, we at least want them to be full." Seamus said, placing a huge pile of toast and sausages in front of him. "Eat."  
  
"That's a good line, mate, I'll have to remember that one." Shannon complimented. Ron rolled his eyes.  
  
"Irish!" he muttered, earning dirty glares from both Seamus and Shannon. (A/N: No offence.)  
  
"Harry, please," Hermione wheedled. "Just a little bit of toast or a few mouthfuls of cornflakes, whatever. Just please eat something."   
  
"When you feel like there's a mass of slithering snakes in your stomach, I'll remind you of this." Harry said darkly, resigning to his fate by picking up a piece of dry toast. He took a tiny bite, swallowed, and threw the food back onto the plate. "See? I ate something."  
  
Shannon giggled, her annoyance at Ron's remark gone. "That reminds me of the time my friend Frankie came to my house for dinner. We kept playing 'Sea food' with Hannah, and Julianna got really narked. Being twelve, we thought it was hilarious."  
  
"What's that?" asked Ron.  
  
Picking up Harry's discarded breakfast, Shannon explained. "You take your food and have a bite." She took a bite from the other end that Harry had used. "You chew it up." She did so. "Then you ask someone if they want sea food, and when they say yes, you show them this." She stuck out her tongue, a horrible clump of mushy toast on the end. "See? Food!"  
  
Everybody 'eww'ed at this and Shannon swallowed it and grinned, taking mock-bows. Parvati and Lavender gave her haughty looks as they returned to their glossy copy of Teen Witch. Hermione looked like she was about to be sick.  
  
"That...is...disgusting." she finally managed to come out with.  
  
"And an insult on my dear stepmother's cooking, which led to hours of grovelling on the part of myself. Hannah escaped because she was only one, although her imitations were great, and Francesca- or Frankie- got off with it because she was just a guest."   
  
Fred and George came up at that moment, and George clapped Harry so hard on the back that he nearly went flying into the table.  
  
"Ready for the match?" Fred asked, rubbing his hands together in the prankster-like way.  
  
"Should be over pretty soon- Hufflepuff's a push over." George added. A gossiping gaggle of Hufflepuff girls passing shot him venomous glares.   
  
Harry shrugged. "Are the team going to the changing rooms yet?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Great." Harry stood up. "At least I'll get away from this lot." He glared at the other eight fifth years.  
  
Shannon grinned, attempting (and failing) to use the puppy-dog eyes. "Ah, c'mon, you love us really."  
  
"See you later." Harry followed the twins to get ready for the match.   
  
There wasn't long to go, and the horrible nerves that always affected him before Quidditch or exams had kicked in big time. The changing room was filled with a nasty, eerie silence as the team got ready, broken only by the faraway sounds of the excited spectators gathering in the stands. Their enthusiastic chatter only made Harry feel worse.  
  
Just before they were due to leave, Angelina stood in front of them, as if about to make some kind of speech. Several moments dragged by as they watched her helpless expression expectantly. Eventually, she shrugged, nerves having obviously consumed her as well.  
  
"Oliver used to make such great big speeches before the match," she said. "All I'm going to say is play well, because you can. Good luck."  
  
"You'll go down as one of the greatest speakers of our time." Fred assured her as they all left the changing room.  
  
Harry felt, as always, quite overwhelmed when he stepped out onto the long pitch. Half the stadium was a blaze of scarlet, whilst the other half was filled with canary yellow. Madam Hooch, who was refereeing again, made Angelina shake hands with Michelle Duffy, the new Hufflepuff Captain and Seeker. They mounted their brooms on her command and kicked off when the whistle blew.  
  
As soon as he was flying, he felt immensely better. He soared on his Firebolt until he was way above the pitch and the crowd. From here, he saw a banner held up by five people who were obviously Ron, Hermione, Shannon, Seamus, and Dean. It was red, with gold letters flashing the in the message "GO ON HARRY". He grinned, feeling less nervous by the second, and began to search for the Snitch. He and Angelina had decided that it was probably best to end the match quickly, as Michelle had been training the team very hard.  
  
Lee Jordan was commentating yet again, as McGonagall hadn't been able to find a replacement despite advertising for one- Lee had bribed any possibles to let him take up the job again. So the professor had eventually relented, although she was watching him just as closely as usual, if not more so.  
  
"And the Quaffle is taken by Angelina Johnson, captain of Gryffindor. Nice pass there to Katie Bell, back to Johnson, oh no, intercepted by Bailey of Hufflepuff. She passes to McHelone...pass to Newell..."  
  
Harry searched around the pitch for the tiny golden Snitch. Michelle was coming closer, and it looked as though she might by tailing him.  
  
"Good Bludger work there by George Weasley. Missed Newell, but he's dropped the Quaffle right into Alicia Spinnet's hands. Great pass there to Johnson. Johnson zooming up the pitch now...watch that Bludger! She aims...she shoots...she scores! Ten-nil to Gryffindor! Gryffindor score first! Take that, Jake Barnes, you owe me a Sickle!"  
  
"Jordan! Commentate properly or give me the microphone!"  
  
"Sorry, professor."  
  
Michelle was definitely tailing him now, following his every move as he circled the area like a hawk. The cheering in the Gryffindor stands had finally died down as play resumed, with Hufflepuff Chaser Bailey taking possession of the Quaffle.   
  
Squinting his eyes, Harry pretended to spot something close to the ground. He could feel Michelle's pale green eyes watching intently, hovering close by. Suddenly, he pulled down into a nosedive. Michelle followed a second afterwards, pulling her Nimbus two thousand almost level with the very end of his Firebolt. Now was his chance. He pulled away to the left and flew back up. His Hufflepuff counterpart almost hit the ground as she realised she had been tricked. Almost. She managed to swoop back up to join him.  
  
"Beater Jenkins pelts the Bludger straight towards Bell of Gryffindor. Almost got her, but she's free again, heading straight up the pitch now. Nice pass there to Spinnet, accurate throw back. Pass to Johnson, who aims...aw damn, blocked by Keeper Edwards, and play continues with McHelone seizing the Quaffle. Ducks a Bludger sent his way by Fred Weasley, Chasers Bell and Spinnet, and passes to Newell. Newell to Bailey, Bailey to Newell, takes aim...damn, he scores."  
  
Geoga Atkins, the new Gryffindor Keeper, looked extremely disappointed. Lee gave a string of such obscene curses that McGonagall looked tempted to hit him, not just tug the microphone away as she did now.  
  
"No, I didn't mean it, Professor, I'm sorry, won't happen again. Johnson of Gryffindor in possession, really streaking up the pitch now. Ha, Bludger sent her way by Beater Copping misses by miles! Takes aim, SHE SCORES! TWENTY-NIL TO GRYFFINDOR!"  
  
Just as Lee yelled this, Harry saw the familiar flash of gold near the foot of the Gryffindor goalposts. He pulled his broom into a rapid horizontal dive towards the area, praying that he wasn't mistaken. After a moment's hesitation, wondering whether this was another feint, Michelle followed.  
  
Up in the Gryffindor stands, Shannon was yelling louder than anyone else.  
  
"C'mon Harry! Come on!"  
  
Lee picked up on this change in play. "And the two Seekers are heading straight for the Gryffindor goalposts! Potter of Gryffindor is miles ahead of Duffy- of course, his broom is still the best you can get!"  
  
Despite this, Harry could feel Michelle gaining on him- he zipped straight between the goalposts, curved and swooped down. The Snitch fell straight into his outstretched hand, little silver wings beating feebly.  
  
The crowd erupted into cheers from the Gryffindors and into catcalls from the Hufflepuffs. As Harry descended along with all the other players, he saw his friends screaming and cheering as they joined the scrambling to descend the stands to the ground. And all he could do was grin.  
  
The Gryffindor common room was filled with raucous celebration for the rest of the day and most of the evening. Even Hermione put aside her extensive essays in favour of partying. The Weasley twins managed to make about a sackful of Galleons by selling the pranks that they had recreated over the holidays, and there was plenty of laughter with the plantation of Canary Creams and other prank foods. However, after Lavender Brown gagged in the centre of the room on her six-foot-long, purple, swollen tongue, everyone kind of lost their appetite.  
  
McGonagall showed up at ten minutes to eleven, when the students had begun to pelt each other with the remainders of the food. She stood there scowling, hands on hips, and threatened them all off to bed unless they wanted to be partying in detention. They decided that it was probably wise to heed her orders, and scooted quickly out of her sight. Ron and Harry bid the girls a hasty goodnight before scurrying up to the dormitory. Just as they pushe4d the door open and went in, Ron turned to Harry.  
  
"Tell you something, for such a midget, Shannon has a right pair of lungs on her. She's probably deafened everyone watching the match today." he said, voice lowered slightly in an almost conspiratorial way.  
  
Harry raised an eyebrow. "So she's loud? We knew that anyway. She gets told to shut up at least once every lesson by the teacher. And she's a midget."  
  
"Harry, she's shorter than you, and that's saying something."  
  
*****  
  
Hermione glanced up from the book she was reading by wand light (the dormitory was otherwise dark). Parvati and Lavender were giggling in the bathroom as they removed their make-up. Shannon was sitting on her bed gazing at photo in her hands.  
  
"What're you looking at, Shan?" she asked, although she knew what it was. She was just curious, but too polite to ask directly yet.  
  
Shannon glanced up and smiled lop-sidedly, replacing the photo frame back on her bedside cabinet. "Oh, just Mam's picture." She rolled over onto her stomach, chin propped up on her hands, looking straight at the picture again. There was a short silence, before she added, "She's ever so pretty, isn't she?"  
  
Hermione looked at the woman in the picture closely. She looked to be in her early twenties, and the location seemed to be somewhere in Ireland. She was laughing, her greyish-blue eyes twinkling, her long dark brown hair rippling behind her. She certainly was very beautiful. Then she looked at Shannon, and saw something that surprised her. She seemed so vulnerable and young all of a sudden.  
  
"Yes," Hermione replied eventually. "She is."  
  
*****  
  
Review, please, and you'll get a mention. I can't believe I got no more reviews for the last chapter! I think I'd better alter the summary. Not exactly striking, is it? Oh well, enough of my pointless random babbling for now, just review please! 


	6. A Face From The Past.

A/N: What can I say? I'm just tired @ the moment. You would not believe the sheer MOUNTAIN of work I had to do earlier on, but at least I'm here now. Uh, yeah. So read on please.   
  
Disclaimer:All hail the Almighty J.K. Rowling! All hail the Almighty Chimpy! (Silvermoon will get that joke.) All hail the Almighty Shadowz! (What? I own something, thanx very much!) All hail the Almighty Bowl of Sugar! (too true, too true.)  
  
Dedication: Emily, who reviewed this about 4 times. ;-D Oh, and Emily? If you check, Harry lives in Diagon Alley for a week in 3 rd year, but doesn't go there in the fourth. HE GOES TO THE QUIDDITCH WORLD CUP! Ahem. Anyways, I counted that as two years.  
  
Harry Potter and the Crystal of Dreams.  
  
"MISS PARKS! PAY ATTENTION!" McGonagall hollered from the front of the classroom.  
  
It was the end of another Transfiguration lesson, five minutes before the bell signalled the end of another day's long slog at the studies. The hairbrush-cum-Pelicans that they had been using sat sqwaking in the cage on the teacher's desk (Neville's had an interesting pattern of bristles over its back and wings). Shannon had been firing random coloured sparks into the air, a pointless task for a bored five minutes, and definitely not listening to the teacher.  
  
Shannon looked up, eyes wide with guilt. "Oh. Sorry professor." She glanced briefly at the willow stick in her hand. "I'll just put this down." She slowly lowered her wand to the desk, where it promptly started and shot out a jet of green light. The light bounded off of one wall, and hit the bookshelf bracket opposite, causing it to drop with a clang to the stone floor, and the heavy volumes of Transfiguration texts to slide off it as unfortunate Ravenclaws ran for cover.   
  
Shannon bit her lip as some laughed and some glared. Professor McGonagall was applying the latter. She was silent for a second then raised her eyebrows sheepishly. "Oops?"  
  
With an irritable sigh and a wave of her wand, McGonagall cleared up the mess and ordered apprehensive students back to their seats."Just leave that wand where it is, Miss Parks, and for once just LISTEN!." She calmed and looked over the class as a whole. The last few gigglers quietened instantly and listened intently. Silence fell for a moment before she continued.  
  
"Now, those of you who were here last year will remember the Yule Ball as part of our Triwizard Tournament. This year, a similar function will be held, called the Winter Dance. As before, all above the third year can attend, but younger students can be invited. It will take place in the Great Hall on the last evening of term, the seventeenth." The bell rang. "You are dismissed."  
  
The pupils began to chatter excitedly at the prospect of another dance. Harry didn't feel so optimistic, remembering how last year's one had turned out. As if he needed a replay of that. He shoved his books into his bag and joined his friends in the rush for the door. Shannon and Hermione were discussing something in low voices. Just before he could leave, however, McGonagall's voice rang out.  
  
"Mr. Potter, could I have a word please?" An order, not a request.   
  
"I'll catch you up later." He muttered to the others, and went back, wondering what he could have done wrong. The deputy headmistress stood by her desk, peering sternly over her glasses at him. For a brief moment, he thought he saw something like pity there, but then it was gone.  
  
"Potter, please follow me. Professor Dumbledore wishes to see you." She walked out of the room, a sign that he should do as she said. He trapsed behind her through corridors of milling students heading for their common rooms.   
  
He recognised the way, and when they eventually left behind the crowds, he asked, "Why does he want to see me?"  
  
"There is someone you must meet." She replied simply. They had reached the stone gargoyle by now. "Sugar quill!"  
  
The gargoyle became alive at once, wriggled, and sprung out of their way. The teacher turned to Harry.  
  
"I believe you already know the way to the headmaster's office." she said. He stared at her, and after a second she pursed her lips. "Well, go ahead then!"  
  
Harry stepped through the gap and onto the bottom of the moving staircase. By the time it had carried him halfway up to his destination, he heard the gargoyle hop back into its original position. A minute later, and he was standing outside the door to Dumbledore's office. From within, he could hear two voices conversing, Dumbledore's and the voice of a woman who sounded quite worried. He hesitated momentarily before raising his fist to knock on it.  
  
"Come in," Dumbledore called, and Harry obeyed, wondering what was going on.  
  
The office of the Hogwart's headmaster was identical to the last time he had seen it. Fawkes snoozed on his perch as peacefully as the portraits of old headteachers in their frames. The ruby-studded sword that he had pulled from the Sorting Hat in his second year glittered in its glass case, whilst the ancient hat sat on one of the tables full of whirring silver contraptions.  
  
Harry approached the desk, which Dumbledore sat behind, smiling at him kindly. The woman that he had heard speaking leapt up from one of the two seats opposite Dumbledore. He watched her as he came closer, intrigued somewhat by the unknown reason why she looked so pale and why she was shaking.  
  
She was a very pretty woman, almost as beautiful as his mother, and probably about the age she would be now- in her mid-thirties. Something, however, made her look a bit younger, but her slanted ice-blue eyes looked as though they had experienced pain and suffering in their time. She was dressed in muggle clothes, and her toffee coloured hair was taken back into a high ponytail.   
  
"Harry," Dumbledore said. "I'd like you to meet a friend of your parents', Chloe Taylor. Chloe, I think you already know Harry."  
  
She nodded, then added in a very faint voice, "I'm glad to see you again Harry."  
  
"Hi." Harry nodded at her, and she managed a very weak smile, still looking very shaken and slightly ill.  
  
"Harry, Chloe, please sit down." Dumbledore gestured to the two chairs, and they took them. "Good. I'll give you two a moment to catch up, then return to discuss the issues at hand with you."  
  
He left them, robes sweeping behind him as he went. After the click of the door, there was an awkward silence that neither quite knew who to break. Eventually, Chloe gave a small laugh.  
  
"Gave me a bit of a fright, I'm sorry. I'd swear you were James back in the fifth year. I bet lots of people have said how much you look like him, but with Lily's eyes." she told him.  
  
"Yeah, they did." There was a pause, then he added, "You knew my parents?"  
  
"I was...am your mother's best friend. I sent some of the pictures for your photo album about four years ago, think I'm in a couple. The wedding one."  
  
Harry's mind flipped back to think of the main wedding photograph he had received in the red leather-covered album. It showed his parents, Sirius as the best man, and a laughing blonde in a light blue bridesmaid dress. It was obviously Chloe.  
  
"Yeah, I think I recognise you now." There was nothing else he could think of to say.  
  
"Well, you haven't seen me for about fourteen years, so that's quite good. Oh, I almost forgot." Harry watched as she dug through the pocket of her old denim jacket and produced an envelope adressed to him. "Sirius told me to give this to you. He decided to write because he won't be seeing you for a couple of months." She smiled. "I daresay you know that he's got to go around the country and get up the old crowd of Aurors."  
  
Harry nodded and took the envelope. "Thanks."  
  
At this moment, Dumbledore knocked on the door and came in again. He smiled as he sat, and Chloe returned it. Harry saw that she had stopped quaking now.  
  
"I hope you'll be alright to talk about this subject now." he said. They nodded in answer, and Chloe said, "Yeah, we've caught up a bit."  
  
"Good. Now, this is a very serious matter." Dumbledore's light blue eyes peered over the half-moon spectacles perched on his crooked nose at Harry. "Harry, I have no wish to worry you, but I believe you have a right to know this. After Voldemort's ressurection in the summer, he has disappeared. This is dispite our best efforts to track him down, and we now have no idea where he is."  
  
Harry suddenly felt like somebody had dunked a vat of freezing water over his head. His insides seemed to disappear when he realised the gravity of the situation now. Voldemort was hiding somewhere, possibly biding some time before he struck again. But why? What could he gain from that? Why didn't he just establish himself again as the most powerful and evil dark wizard ever immediately? His emerald eyes rivited on the headmaster.   
  
Dumbledore continued with a sigh. "There has been a reporting of five muggles and two witches found dead mysteriously in a small village near Rodez in southern France. We think that it may have had more than a small something to do with Voldemort."  
  
Harry turned his head to see Chloe watching him, her smile long dead. "We're telling you this," she began, her voice sounding quite a lot more like the older woman her eyes portrayed. "Because we want you to tell us straight away if anything happens. If your scar hurts or anything-"  
  
"How did you know about that?" Harry asked, frowning. He realised the answer almost immediately as the words left his lips.  
  
"Both Remus and Sirius have told me this." She held up a hand to silence any possible indignant interruption, but one wasn't coming anyway. "But they wouldn't have done it if they didn't think it was absolutely necessary. And it is. If he's come back, we're all working together, and we only want you to be safe. Do you undertsand?"  
  
Harry looked deep into those strange cat-like eyes for a moment, discovering a mother-like concern there, a profound care. He felt a pang of the familiar ache for a family before nodding. "I understand, Chloe. Thank you."  
  
*****  
  
Shannon leaned back in the armchair, arms folded and eyes narrowed. The subject of her glare sat opposite her, twisting her hands nervously and chewing her lip as she shot quick glances around the room.  
  
"Go on already!" Shannon hissed. "You are really starting to annoy me now."  
  
"Oh, I don't know." Hermione sighed helplessly. "What if he says no? What am I going to do then?"  
  
Shannon raised an eyebrow. "If he says no after all this that I've had to put up with, I swear I'll murder him. Just go for it!"  
  
"Oh, honestly, do I have to do this, Shan?" Hermione pleaded. "Please, can't I just wait to see if he asks me first?"  
  
"No, you will go now." Shannon's tone was final. "Or I'll yell out to him for this whole room to hear."  
  
Hermione became aware of just how crowded the common room really was, and her cheeks began to pinken. "No, you wouldn't!"  
  
"I've heard that from so many people, and they all ended up with a date because I stepped in. You have a choice, but not one by where you can escape him knowing you want to go the the dance with him."  
  
"I never actually said that!"  
  
"Not in those words, but you've overly implied it." Shannon groaned. "What do you think I am, blind and deaf? Get your backside over there and ask him, or I'll call."  
  
"You are truly cruel, Shannon Parks." Hermione muttered, gathering her resolve and dragging herself out of the chair. Shannon grinned.  
  
"Thank you. Now go!"  
  
Hermione set her sight on her destination, took a deep breath, and began to walk. It was stupid to feel this panicky, she told herself, when she saw this boy every day anyway. All she had to do was ask him to go with her to the dance and, if he refused, act nonchalant. It wasn't a big deal, she could easily do this.   
  
She glanced back to see Shannon waching her closely, eyebrow still arched. Hermione bit her lip, telepathically questioning whether this was really necessary. Shannon smirked in reply, cupp;ed her hands to her mouth, and took a deep breath, ready to put the full force of her loud voice to use.  
  
Hermione turned back from the unpleasant prospect of having her private life broadcast to every Gryffindor present, and continued. Why was the walk to the window so much longer? Just to deter her, she supposed. But eventually she reached the table where the boy sat, playing chess by himself. She gulped and took another deep breath.  
  
"Hi Ron," she said, voice sounding surprisingly calm to her. He looked up and smiled.  
  
"Hi Hermione. Listen, I was going to-"  
  
"No, I have to tell you something first."  
  
"This is kinda important..."  
  
"So is this." Hermione was determined not to let her courage slip now that she had started this, and Ron could tell her whatever it was afterwards.   
  
"Me first." They said at the exact same time, took a breath in perfect unison, and both blurted out, "Will you go to the Winter Dance with me?"  
  
The was a stunned pause as they both realised what had happened, and then they both began to laugh.   
  
"Sure, OK." That was timed perfectly as well.  
  
Harry entered the common room as Hermione sat down next to Ron and glanced around, seeing Shannon first. She grinned and beckoned him over. He obeyed and took up Hermione's vacated seat opposite her.  
  
"How was your chat with McGonagall?" she asked. "What'd ya do wrong?"  
  
"Nothing. I had to see Dumbledore, but I'll explain in a minute." He looked around again. "Where're Ron and Hermione?"  
  
Shannon's grin grew wider as she gestured over to the table by the window where their friends sat chatting. "Don't look now but I may have set up the young romance of the year."   
  
*****  
  
On holiday at the moment, so I'm off to stockpile some chapters right now. Review please, and more shall be submitted! 


	7. Arrangements.

A/N: **Singing along to walkman** More than a woman, more than you'll ever...oh, hey ya. Here's the next chapter- enjoy! **Back to singing** I'll be, I'll be, more than a woman, more than you'll ever...  
  
Disclaimer: Same old, same old.  
  
Dedication: Whoever invented holidays! I'm on mine now!  
  
Harry Potter and the Crystal of Dreams.  
  
Harry climbed through the portrait hole quite late after Quidditch training one Thursday night. The common room was not as full as it had been before he left, but still quite busy. Even so, he could spot Shannon sitting alone by the blazing fire, shuffling a deck of Exploding Snap cards. He went over and sat next to her, causing her to glance up.  
  
"Hey ya, how was practice?" she asked with a small smile which he returned, putting his broom down beside him.  
  
"OK, but it was freezing." He shook his head. "Probably got frostbite."  
  
"Ah, that's what you get for being such a good Seeker." Shannon stated, an air of false wisdom in her voice as she began to deal the cards into two piles, one for herself and the other for Harry.  
  
"I thought you were in detention for the incident with the Dungbombs in McGonagall's desk." he asked, taking up the cards but not looking at them yet.  
  
"Yeah, but it was with Flitwick. He can never decide what to make me do." She lowered her voice conspiratorially, pushing her tinsel hairband back in place. "I was stuck writing lines again, but I used a Duplication Charm when he wasn't looking. Just don't tell Hermione." She frowned. "Where is she anyhow?"  
  
"I think she said she and Ron were going to see Hagrid."  
  
"Yeah, well that's their story." Shannon snorted as she finished dividing the cards and began to rearrange her pile. Harry shook his head in wonderment at her and she looked at him confusedly. "What?"  
  
"Why is it you always think like that?"  
  
"Like what?" She realised what he meant. "Oh right. Well, I blame my childhood. Living in pretty remote villages has probably affected my mind. Lack of fellow pranksters."  
  
Harry laughed. "So, who're you going with to the Winter Dance? There's only a week now."  
  
She pulled a face. "Myself, at the moment. Would you believe that I've only been asked once?"  
  
"Who by?"  
  
Shannon hesitated as she laid down her first card and dropped her voice, leaning over to whisper, "Dennis Creevey."  
  
Harry laughed again. "You're kidding!" But when she leaned back and he saw her somewhat disappointed expression and her flushing cheeks, he realised she was serious and shut up.  
  
"No, I'm telling the truth. Poor kid, I said I wasn't sure I was going and that maybe he should ask someone else. I felt terrible when I saw his face." She sighed, then her look brightened with a lop-sided grin. "But how many is it now that have asked you to go? Or did you loose count after the first twenty."  
  
Harry rolled his eyes and put down his first card too. On the night that the Winter Dance had been announced upon, the stream of Harry's admirers/wannabe girlfriends had started flooding up to ask him out. He'd been asked by girls from almost all years, of all descriptions, and from all houses- even a furiously blushing Slytherin first-year who was desperately trying to ignore the catcalls tossed her way by her classmates. As Hermione had said about Viktor Krum before the Yule Ball the year before, they only wanted to go with him because he was famous. He severely doubted that he'd get a second glance off of any of them otherwise. And he hadn't even considered asking Cho Chang- that was one girl definitely off of his list.  
  
"So? C'mon, Harry, who're you going with?" Shannon pressured, setting down a second card.   
  
"You're not going to let this drop, are you?" Harry's tone was exasperated.  
  
"Me, drop gossip this good? Not likely!" She paused, aghast. "Oh my god, I'm starting to sound like Parvati. Anyways, you should know by now that the only thing I drop is homework in favour of other, more fun, pursuits. Like finding out who you're going with to the Winter Dance."  
  
Harry sighed. "Why do we even have to have these dances?"  
  
"It's to keep the female population happy." Shannon looked knowing. "They have to have a dance every so often or they go crazy and smash things up. Like the entire school."  
  
There was silence as they played on, both lost in their own thoughts. Suddenly, Harry sat up. "I've got it!"  
  
"The formula of how to turn lead to gold?" Shannon giggled.  
  
"No. Look, I need to go with somebody to the Dance, you need to go with somebody to the Dance. Maybe we could go together."   
  
Shannon looked him in the eye bemusedly. "Harry, that means we'd be going on a date."  
  
"Yeah." He sighed as her eyebrows arched again. "C'mon Shan, as a favour."  
  
She shook her head, smiling. "Oh, alright then."  
  
"Great." Suddenly, something occurred to him. "Shannon, you won't blow anything up, will you?"  
  
She snorted, smile still intact. "Been there, done that."  
  
She laid down her final card onto the pile, and the deck exploded. The singed pair blinked then laughed.  
  
"It's a date." Shannon chuckled.  
  
*****  
  
Kinda short, but it stands better on its own. Next chapter should be up soon. **Glances around** I should be revising for my exams at the moment, but I prefer this. Ahem, anyways, I leave now to find chocolate!  
  
**Leaves to search the house for chocolaty goodness**  
  
**Returns half an hour later, chocolate smeared around mouth**  
  
Huh? You still here? Oh yeah, please review, next chapter up soon! ;-D 


	8. The Winter Dance.

A/N: @_@ Just sat through Monsters, Inc. 2day. It was pretty good, only now I'm lasting on several mugs of coffee 2 keep me awake. Ah well, such is the life of a fanfiction author! And good grief is this chapter gonna be long!  
  
Disclaimer: The song 'Queen of my Heart' belongs to the Almighty Westlife, they rock! Harry Potter, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling and various other stuff is mine.  
  
Dedication: To lilmissperfect, thanks for your really sweet reviews! As to your question, Shannon's accent was originally Irish (when she lived in Ireland), then became more Italian when she and her dad moved there. She's still kept those accents patrially, but is sounding more an' more English as she continues to live there. It's sorta mixed and changes from time 2 time...hope that answers ur question!  
  
Harry Potter and the Crystal of Dreams.  
  
And so the final day of term had arrived. It signalled great relief from everybody- the students, for eventually escaping the dreaded classrooms, and the teachers, for not having to attempt (and inevitably fail) to hold a class's attention when all they were thinking about was the upcoming Dance.  
  
Immediately after the last bell rang, dormitories became densely populated with worrying teenagers, each one intent on outdoing the next in the stakes of appearance.  
  
The dormitory of the fifth-year Gryffindor girls was no exception. Of the four who were in there preparing themselves, Shannon alone appeared to be fairly calm. Even Hermione was acting more like Parvati and Lavender than herself, rushing about to get ready despite the three hours she had until seven o'clock. Shannon laughed as she dried her hair with a simple charm, pulling the towel off of her shoulders.  
  
"For the love of Quidditch, calm down Hermione. You're runnin' around like a headless chicken." she giggled, shooing Tiah from her bed.  
  
"But Shannon," she whined, staring hopelessly at herself in the mirror. "Look at my hair! How am I ever going to get this sleeked down in time?"  
  
Shannon rolled her eyes with a smile. "Alright, come here, I'll do it for you."  
  
Hermione moved over, setting down the bottle of Sleekeazy's hair potion on the bed and handing her brush to Shannon. Shannon dipped it into the bottle and began to brush through Hermione's bushy mane.  
  
"I don't see why you're so nervous," she laughed. "He's probably more scared than you."  
  
Parvati stopped on her way to her bed and looked over. "Who're you both going with again?"  
  
"She's with Ron and I'm with Harry." Shannon replied.  
  
"Oh. Harry." Parvati sighed as though the name brought back too many unpleasant memories. "Let's not go there. He's not interested in any girl he takes."  
  
Shan stopped brushing Hermione's hair and met Parvati's gaze with an oddly challenging look in her eyes. "How would you know?"  
  
"I was the one he took to the Yule Ball," Parvati said, very blatantly glad to share this information with his new date. "But he soon decided sitting at the side was more important, so I spent the Ball with a very cute boy from Beuxbatons." She smiled with a somewhat nasty veneer. "I daresay it'll be the same for you by the end of tonight."  
  
"Three galleons says I can keep him by my side the entire time." Shannon offered coldly. "Or d'you reckon he'll definitely find me more interesting than you?"  
  
Parvati scowled. "Three galleons." They moved over and shook on it.  
  
"Who are you going with anyway?" Hermione asked, breaking the slightly uneasy silence.  
  
"I'm going with Seamus again." Lavender enthused, beaming impossibly wide as she applied eyeshadow.  
  
"Terry Boot." Parvati said, glancing frostily at Shannon as the Irish girl resumed sleeking down Hermione's hair. "The cute Ravenclaw with the gorgeous brown eyes. At least HE'LL pay attention to me."  
  
Shannon just chuckled.  
  
*****  
  
The boys' dormitory didn't quite match up to the bustle of the girls', but the topic of conversation was the same- their dates.  
  
"So, Harry, Ron, which girls are you going with?" Neville asked.  
  
Ron grinned. "I'm taking Hermione this year. And he," He glanced at Harry and sniggered. "Is taking Shannon."  
  
"What's so funny?" Harry asked, picking up his forest green robes from the bed. "At least she's good-looking."  
  
"I guess she's pretty enough," Ron shrugged. "But she's also a maniac who'll probably blow something up. Guess you didn't think about that."  
  
"Been there, discussed that." Harry laughed.  
  
Dean grinned. "Ron, he could've done a lot worse. Seamus here is going with Lavender Brown again."  
  
"Hey, you're really one to talk," Seamus snorted, turning to the other guys with a growing grin. "Dean couldn't even get a date from our year. He's going with some Ravenclaw girl from the fourth year, her brother's Keeper on the Quidditch team."  
  
"What, Bryan Tolkein has a sister?" Harry said.  
  
Dean blushed slightly. "Her name's Shadella." He raised an eyebrow at Seamus. "And she's one hell of a lot nicer than Lavender Brown. So who cares if she's a year younger?"  
  
Seamus shook his head with a groan. "You've got it bad, Dean."  
  
Harry and Ron laughed, and Harry asked Neville, "Are you taking Ginny again?"  
  
"Er, yeah," he said. "I asked her just after we were told about the Dance."  
  
"Seems like we're all sorted then." Ron muttered as they all resumed getting ready.  
  
*****  
  
Eventually, at ten minutes to seven o'clock, the common room began to fill up with the ready couples and people awaiting their dates. The single boys were mainly waiting at the bottom of the staircase leading to the girls' dormitories and then drifting away when their dates came down to join them.  
  
After Lavender and Parvati had been down for a few minutes, Harry and Ron heard familiar voices and laughter. There was a clatter of footsteps and Hermione emerged, hair sleeked back into an elegant bun and looking very pretty in lilac dress robes. Harry had to kick Ron in the shins to make him stop gawking at her. Ron was looking good in his dark brown dress robes (courtesy of the twins), and the colour matched his eyes.  
  
"Poor Ron, he looks like he's been electrocuted," somebody giggled from behind Harry. He turned to see Shannon standing there with her typical crooked grin and a sparkle in her teal eyes.  
  
Her dress robes were bright blue, a colour that suited her well, with a plunge neck. Her golden studs had been replaced by silver hoops and her dark brown hair was patterned with blue butterfly clips. On her feet he could see a glimpse of a distinctive Shannon characteristic. Whereas almost every female foot in the room- including Hermione's- was clad in high heels of some sort, Shannon was still wearing her everyday trainers, although she'd cleaned them up with a Scouring Charm.  
  
"You, uh, look really nice," he stuttered, hoping that he didn't look like Ron had at the moment. Her grin widened.  
  
"Thanks. You don't look half bad yourself. Do you wanna start off for the Hall now?"  
  
He nodded, and the quartet exited the common room along with several other energized students and began on their way to the Hall. They passed several of the ghosts, decked out in their very best ethereal finery for the occasion, and even almost encounted Peeves, who was cackling down a side corridor as he made his way to wreck havoc in some of the now-deserted classrooms.  
  
Eventually, the chattering multitudes reached the colourful Entrance Hall, where inter-house coupls began to meet up. Harry and Shannon wandered through the students, weaving their way slowly towards the front of the room beside the doors. Suddenly, Shannon stopped and grabbed Harry's hand.  
  
"Wait a moment."  
  
Harry looked back at her, finding her face a mixture of amusement and mock-horror as she began to laugh silently. She gestured helplessly over to the side and he glanced to where she did, wondering apprehensively what he would see.  
  
What he saw was Draco Malfoy, decked out again in his black velvet robes with the high vicar-like collar, with the taller Pansy Parkinson clinging to his arm. Pansy herself was dressed up in the frilliest pink robes that Harry had ever seen in his life, complete with a pink tinsel scrunchie wreathing her high ponytail. He chuckled too as Shannon leaned over and whispered in his ear, "If she had any more frills on that dress, I swear she'd pass for one of my Nana Hope's china dolls."  
  
Looking at Shannon then, he realised that even if she wasn't the belle of the ball, she looked at least a lot more alive than most of the picture-perfect mannequin-like girls around. Her eyes sparkled with excitement still and her grin was probably permanently attacthed to her face.  
  
"Students of Hogwarts!" Everybody turned to see McGonagall, again wearing her old tartan robes, standing in front of the doors, having slipped in unnoticed. She presented them with a very small, rare smile. "I declare this year's Winter Dance open!"  
  
There was a cheer as the doors opened and everybody poured in. The Great Hall had been decorated sometime after their last class, as they now found the walls covered in soft drapes of light blue and white that cascaded from the enchanted ceiling. Very tiny silvery snow flakes, definitely magical (due to them not being at all cold), fluttered slowly from the roof which showed an almost impossibly clear night sky dotted with twinkling stars.  
  
As soon as the doors shut, a song began to play, supposedly coming from all around them- yet another charm. Harry, realising that he was still holding Shannon's hand, turned to her and said, "Do you want to dance?"  
  
"Sure." She shrugged and smiled sweetly as they walked out onto the dance floor together, along with several other couples.   
  
All night they danced or sat and chatted, enjoying themselves immensely. Ron and Hermione they barely saw, Shannon claiming that her matchmaking skills had really paid off this time. The hours seemed to fly by, and in no time at all the final dance had come.  
  
Shannon looked up from the discussion on Quidditch that she, Harry, Dean, Shadella Tolkien (a pretty girl with large green eyes and long mahogany hair), Seamus and Lavender were engaged in as the opening chords struck up and happy recognition shone in her face.  
  
"I don't believe it!" she almost cried. "They're playing Westlife!"  
  
"Who's that?" Lavender asked, eyebrows raised.  
  
Shannon rolled her eyes. "Only the greatest Irish muggle band in the history of anything." To Harry, she asked, "Will you dance?"  
  
"OK." With that, the three couples split to all go out onto the dance floor just as the lyrics began.  
  
So here we stand.  
In our secret place.  
Where the sound of the crowd is so far away.  
  
Harry put his arms around Shannon's waist again and she put hers around his neck.  
  
And you take my hand.  
And it feels like home.  
We both understand  
It's where we belong.  
  
Shannon was singing along quietly to the words, as she obviously knew them by heart. She grinned up at Harry (he was a few inches taller than her) and said, "I love this song. My mate Elsie's always singing it now."  
  
So how do I say, do I say goodbye?  
We both have our dreams.  
We both wanna fly.  
So let's take tonight  
To carry us through  
The lonely times.  
  
Not so far away, Ron and Hermione were dancing together, lost in a secret conversation. Obviously a close moment. Harry wrapped his amrs a bit tighter around Shannon's waist, drawing her closer to him. She rested her head on his shoulder, still singingalong under her breath.  
  
I'll always look back, as I walk away.  
This memory will last for eternity.  
And all of our tears will be lost in the rain  
When I find my way back  
To your arms again.  
And until that day you know you are  
The Queen of my Heart.  
  
For a second time he noticed her prettiness, wondering why he'd only been the second person to ask her here. She'd definitely been more fun than Parvati Patil, who was now glaring at Shannon with narrowed eyes as she danced with Terry Boot.  
  
Shannon noticed Parvati's glower and raised her head from Harry's shoulder briefly to shoot her a sarcastic smile and a small wave. With a laugh she settled back down.  
  
So let's take tonight, never let go.  
Whilst dancing we'll kiss like there's no tomorrow.  
As the stars sparkle down, like a diamond ring  
I'll treasure this moment till we meet again.  
  
The night was undoubtably perfect. The beautiful night sky stretched above the dancing couples, the minute hoary snowflakes still falling slowly. Harry brushed a couple away from where they had settled in Shannon's dark hair. She glanced up at him, an eyebrow quirked, and he showed her the decoration in his hand as a silent explanation.  
  
But no matter how far  
Away you may be  
I just close my eyes and you're in my dreams.  
And there you will be  
Until we meet.  
  
She shook her head with a smile and let her eyes wander around the room to everyone else, not realising that Harry was watching her all the time. She turned her head back and found her face a lot closer to Harry's than it had been previously. They had both unintentionally moved closer.  
  
I'll always look back, as I walk away.  
This memory will last for eternity.  
And all of our tears will be lost in the rain  
When I find my way back  
To your arms again.  
And until that day you know you are  
The Queen of my Heart.  
  
Harry swallowed hard. Her teal eyes were like whirlpools, full of never-ending uncertainty and the slightest hints of awkwardness lurking there. She almost started to shake when he leaned a bit closer, knowing what he was about to do. Harry didn't even know what he was doing himself. He just obeyed his instincts.  
  
I'll always look back, as I walk away.  
This memory will last for eternity.  
And all of our tears will be lost in the rain  
When I find my way back  
To your arms again.  
And until that day you know you are  
The Queen of my Heart.  
  
Shannon pulled herself back from him, not enough for everyone else to notice, but just enough so that he knew she disagreed. She shook her head again, but this time there was no smile.  
  
"Sorry." she whispered. "You don't really wanna..."  
  
The question remained unanswered, but they both knew how it ended.  
  
"Yeah," he agreed. "I didn't mean to..."  
  
The Queen of my Heart.  
  
She smiled, completely at ease again as they broke apart. "That's fine. Forget about it."  
  
*****  
  
That night, when Shannon entered her dormitory, she was met by a scowling Parvati.  
  
A smile pulled Shannon's lips into its customary curve. "Three galleons, I think."  
  
Parvati slammed the money down into the Irish girl's open hand and stormed away. Shannon laughed and started to get ready for bed- because tomorrow, she'd be straight on the Hogwarts Express heading home.  
  
*****  
  
That night, when Harry entered his dormitory, he was cursing himself for being so idiotic. Of all the girls he could have attempted to kiss, why Shannon?  
  
He changed for bed, and as he climbed in, realised that there was a parcel at the end of his bed. When he picked it up, a card fell out. He opened it, finding it to be from Shannon. It read:  
  
Dear Harry,  
  
Happy Christmas! Open this before the 25th, and I'll curse you so bad that you'll not be able to sit down comfortably for the next thirty years. Just kidding, have a great time!  
  
Love, Shannon.  
  
Suddenly, he noticed something that had fallen out of the card. He picked it up and looked carefully at it. A clear plastic bag taped securely around some glittering green dust. Floo powder. Then he noticed another note on the heavily decorated card.  
  
P.S. If you're bored and have nothing else to do, use the Floo to get to my house some time. The name you have to shout is 'Avalon House'.  
  
*****  
  
Hannah Parks bounced excitedly on her tip-toes as she clung to her parents' hands, trying to peer around the crowds for a glimpse of the arriving students.  
  
"Hannah Chira Parks," her father laughed. "You're bouncing around like a little jack-in-the-box. Calm down."  
  
She continued to glance around the packed station, then finally looked up into her father's sea-green eyes, still bobbing up and down. "When's Shanny going to be here?" she demanded impatiently.  
  
With another laugh, Joe Parks looked towards the barrier between platforms nine and ten just in time to see the first Hogwarts students emerging. "They're just coming out now, Hannah, she'll be here in a second."  
  
"Be patient, Hannah," her mother said, shaking her head at the little girl with a smile. Hannah bounced excitedly, occasionally glancing at her father to see any sign that her big sister had arrived.  
  
"Ah yes," he said eventually, "Here she is now!"  
  
Hannah quickly detatched her hands from those of her parents and sprinted off in the direction that her father had been looking as fast as her tiny legs would carry her, yelling out, "Shanny! Shanny!"  
  
Finally, she saw her sister, dressed up in muggle clothes and pushing her luggage trolley. Shannon's eyes skimmed the groups rapidly before she caught sight of her beloved baby sister.  
  
"Hannah!" she yelled in pure delight, scooping up the child in her arms and hugging her tightly. Hannah returned the hug, and after a moment, Shannon took to pushing her trolley once more towards her dad and stepmother, balancing her sister on her hip. She put her down to hug the adults as they did her.  
  
"Shannon Parks, are you not cold?" Mr. Parks said exasperatedly, shaking his head at the battered denim jacket she was wearing. "We're not in Italy now!"  
  
Shannon grinned at her dad and tugged the jacket around her. "What can I say? I just don't feel the cold."  
  
"Did you have a good journey?" Julianna asked, taking the trolley from her stepdaughter.  
  
"Yeah, pretty much. But it's only half done at the moment. Let's go home!" she said. Hannah cheered, clinging tight to her sister's hand. Shannon picked her up again, and together the family left Kings Cross station, Shannon starting on her tale of pranks, homework, and Quidditch.  
  
Nobody had noticed the man standing nearby, listening to every word they said. The man who moved away unnoticed into a remote corner when they left and Disapparated where no eyes could see him.   
  
*****  
  
Phew! Taken me ages, that has. Please review now and tell me what you think- next chapter up by next weekend, I think. Thanx! 


	9. Skating at Christmas.

A/N: Phew! Am I exhausted or what! I have loads of work to do- they're piling it on for the exams- but finally I have completed it and turned my powers to writing! Go me!  
  
Disclaimer: NEWS FLASH! NOT MINE! Didn't expect that, huh?  
  
Dedication: To my auntie.  
  
Harry Potter and the Crystal of Dreams.  
  
Avalon House sat picturesquely in the snow covering the lawns as if it were just another home in the small Kentish town. The new inhabitants were quite well known. The father worked for some London firm (or so they thought), the beautiful mother had a very strong accent, the younger daughter attended the local primary school and the elder studied at boarding school. But a few people were sure that there was probably more to Joe Parks, his young Italian wife and their two daughters than met the eye, but of course they were far too polite to suggest anything.  
  
Their suspicions were correct, although they would never know that. And inside the large home on Christmas Day, the daughters were in the living room.  
  
Shannon was aiding Hannah with one of her favourite presents- a dragon puzzle- and more than occasionally dipping into a bag of chocolate frogs. She sighed, tossing aside her Agrippa card as the little girl slotted the pieces in. She had dressed up in white today to appear quite the angel she wasn't- she'd even fashioned a halo out of flashing gold tinsel. It was starting to get a little lonely. She'd been awoken at daybreak by Hannah leaping about on her bed, yelling that Father Christmas had come, and then had to let in the school owl carrying her presents from her friends. Even just reading the cards made her feel a little sad.   
  
Here...well, it was more than fantastic to see her family (especially Hannah) again, but it just didn't seem like home. She'd been away for so long, whereas she'd not been a boarder at the Carnia Academy. Earlier on, Shannon had received a phone call from her Irish muggle friends, who sounded like they were having a great time. Elsie Doherty, her best friend, had asked loads of questions about how she was getting on at her new school and Roxy O'Rourke had wanted to hear all about the boys. Sarah Custer and Tess Sullivan had filled her in on all the latest gossip from their school, and basically any of the latest happenings and events that they hadn't detailed in their long letters to her.  
  
Shannon sighed again, taking out two chocolate frogs and giving one to Hannah. If her dad wasn't washing up the dinner plates with Julianna, he'd tell her once more that she'd make herself sick on them. She pulled a face and handed her sweet onto Hannah. She had seen the day she thought would never come. The day Shannon Jade Parks got fed up of chocolate.  
  
Just as she was sure the CD playing in the backround (Hannah's allSTARS album that she'd gotten for Christmas) was about the drive her mad (or at least more insane than she already was), a necessary distraction occurred.  
  
The fire in the grate glowed green and Harry Potter rolled out onto the carpet, spreading the ash and soot he was covered in onto the floor and coughing violently. Hannah squealed and Shannon laughed as she stood up.  
  
"Hey Harry," she said. "That was some entrance!"  
  
Hannah ran from the room, shrieking, "Daddy! Daddy! Somebody just came in by Floo!"  
  
"Hey Shannon." Harry eventually managed to reply, taking the hand she offered him and used it to pull himself up. "Sorry about scaring Hannah."  
  
"Ah, that's alright. She won't mind." Shannon looked at his grimy clothes and began to giggle. "Look at you."  
  
Harry looked down at himself, then behind him at the blackened trail across the pale carpet, and finally back at Shannon as she collapsed in near hysterics onto the sofa.  
  
"Somebody should really sweep those chimneys." he said. "Sorry."  
  
"Ah, s'okay." Shannon calmed herself as she dug down the back of the sofa and pulled out her wand. With a wave of it, it was all cleared up. She smiled sweetly and shoved the magical stick back down the sofa. "Dad won't ever know."  
  
"Dad won't ever know what?" came a man's accented voice from the doorway. They looked around to see Mr. Parks standing in the doorway, arms folded and expression torn between amusement and sterness. Hannah stood half behind him, eyes widened in sorry guilt.   
  
Shannon jumped straight to the rescue. "That I want to go skating if I don't ask him." She shot him a winning grin. "And take my friend Harry with me."  
  
Mr.Parks finally let his smile show. "Hello Harry." He turned his gaze back to his daughter, who had decided to start the puppy dog eyes. "Shannon, it's Christmas Day! The ice rink won't be open today!"  
  
"Thought of that already, old man." Shannon hopped up, a cheeky twinkle in her eyes. "Christmas Special, like a party sorta thing. Starts in about fifteen minutes." She turned to Harry. "C'mon, let's go."  
  
She half dragged him out into the hall where she grabbed a jacket and then pulled him from the house with a "Hnnah, you can have my sweets. See ya later!"  
  
As the door banged shut, Joe Parks just realised the full extent of what his daughter had said and his face creased in mock-annoyance.  
  
"Old man?" he asked. "I'm only thirty-seven!"  
  
Hannah giggled almost as wickedly as her sister as she ran over to the abandoned bag of sweets, chanting, "Old man! Old man!"  
  
*****  
  
Outside, Shannon noticed that Harry was watching her as they walked down the drive. She raised her eyebrows and asked, "What?"  
  
"Since when were you an angel?" he asked, shaking his head with a grin.  
  
Shannon looked confused for a moment before she realised what he meant and patted her flashing halo. "Are you saying I'm not a perfectly sweet little cherub anyway?" she questioned in mock-offence.  
  
Harry took one look at her standing there, dressed in snow-white clothes with a golden tinsel wreath in her hair and an artificial saintly expression with her hands pressed together in prayer, he cracked up. She sniggered as well and together they strolled along into the street.  
  
"Can you ice skate?" Shannon queried.  
  
"Not a chance." The Dursleys had never gone skating, and even if they had, Harry wouldn't have been taken with them. Harry was suddenly struck with a mental picture of Dudley wobbling dangerously across a frozen pond of ridiculously tiny skates and snorted with laughter.  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"Just think of my cousin attempting to skate." Harry laughed helplessly now, as did Shannon when she too saw the spectacle in her mind's eye.  
  
"Don't worry if you can't skate," Shannon said. "I'm not all that great myself. I practiced a lot when I first came to England back in August." She rolled her eyes. "It's just about the only thing they have here. You even have to go to the next town to go swimming. So anyways, what's happening back at school?"  
  
"Hermione's reading, Ron's playing chess against Ginny, and I think Fred and George are planning to blow something up."  
  
"Aw, without me?" Shannon's look became disenchanted. "How rude is that?"  
  
"That's not all."  
  
"Why?" Her eyes now sparkled hopefully as her expression brightened. "Tell me!"  
  
Harry began to snigger for the second time in a few minutes. "This is after they jinxed Hagrid's beard scarlet and managed to curse a huge green boil on the end of Professor Sprout's nose."  
  
Shannon shook her head happily. "Man, those guys have a death wish! McGonagall is gonna murder them!"  
  
During their walk, they talked over school matters and shared a whole lot more laughter. Within twenty minutes, they had reached a huge building set slightly apart from the others. It looked a bit like a warehouse, but the sign proclaimed it as their destination and they went in.  
  
As they joined the dwindling que from the counter, Harry realised something. "Shan, I haven't got any money."  
  
"That's OK." she said, pulling out some money from her pocket. "My treat."  
By this time, the group in front of them had moved away. Shannon payed and then led Harry over the reception area to a large staircase by an enormous window that showed them an oval rink of perfect white ice, glinting in the different colours of the disco lights above and reverbrating with the loud music. Shannon beamed.  
  
"Let's go." she said, and led him down to the next counter. Here they traded their shoes for ice skates and strapped their feet in. Shannon was the first done, and didn't find walking over to the ice as awkward as Harry did. He tottered on the blades of the skates, convinced he was about to fall over.  
  
Shannon stepped through the gate in the wall and onto the ice. She glided out three perfect steps before turning back with an excited laugh. "C'mon Harry!"  
  
"I'm going to fall if I step out onto that." he warned, uncertainly letting a young mother with her two children pass first.  
  
"No you won't. I'm right here." She held out her hands towards him and cocked her head. "Please? Just try."  
  
With a sigh, he moved towards the rink and slowly moved out onto it, clinging to the wall. Shannon still held out her hands and slowly he eased himself away from the barrier and moved shakily towards her. She moved closer to shorten the gap and he quickly clutched her hands to stop himself from tripping.  
  
Shannon laughed. "Very good. Now try standing there for a second on your own and skate to me." With that, she turned and glided across the ice almost expertly.  
  
Harry shook his head. "You're just doing this to torture me, aren't you Shannon?"  
  
Her head shook, although the permanent smile remained of course. "Nope. I just like seeing you fail at something for once." she joked.  
  
As she coaxed him on, he slowly made himself start to slide wobbily over to her. Everything was going great; he seemed to be moving smother and smother as he went along. He grinned at Shannon as he came closer-  
  
Just before he slipped and fell straight on his backside.  
  
Shannon laughed so hard that she too toppled over and ended up with wet jeans. They helped each other up and she went back to coaching him until he could skate a short way on his own almost as well as she could. Eventually, she managed to convince him to increase on the speed. He wasn't so sure- falling over at least five times when there were skaters there half his age and twice his skill was not good for his confidence.  
  
"Shannon, why don't you try something for once?" he asked.  
  
She shrugged. "OK." Then went zooming straight off to the other end of the rink and skidded to a halt, catching the blockade. She turned and called over the chatter and music, "Come on, Potter!"  
  
Harry sighed and shook his head, wondering how he had let her drag him into this. He began to move in the direction of his friend, unconciously picking up speed as he did so. He dodged a couple of really fast professionals and eventually crashed next to Shannon.   
  
"Well done!" she said encouragingly, "But come with me."  
  
"What?" he asked, as she grabbed his hands and began to skate backwards towards the centre of the ice, pulling him with her.  
  
She just laughed as they moved into the emptier middle, under the speakers attatched to the ceiling that were pouring out full-blast pop music. It was so noisy that Harry could feel the ice vibrating gently under his skates.  
  
"It's so cool here," she said loudly, staring up at the high ceiling almost in wonderment. Then she glanced down at Harry and, with a chuckle, released his hands from hers. Before he could do anything, Shannon had speed-skated to the end where they had just come from. He turned and watched her looking at him for a moment.  
  
"Hey!" he yelled indignantly. She just shook with pent-up giggles and beckoned him over. Knowing he had no other option, he did as she bade, and concentrated on her as he glided unsteadily on the blades of his skates. Within a moment, he struck the barrier and Shannon let her laughter fit out into the open.  
  
"Well done, mate, you've just skated half the rink unaided!" she told him.   
  
He turned his emerald eyes back the way he had come and realised the feat he had overcome. He looked back at Shannon, and started to laugh as well.  
  
"Come on," she said. "We can get an ice blaster in the café before we head back. Dad'll freak if I'm too late, you saw what he was like when I was out in Diagon Alley."  
  
They stopped by in the café as she had suggested, discussing Quidditch (in low voices of course), pranks, and various ways in which to get Malfoy expelled. Shannon also had a big vendetta against Crabbe, still not forgetting how he had barged into Hannah. She was very amused to her the tale of the white ferret, and considered aloud about getting it recorded on a dictaphone.  
  
Unfortunately, the ice rink seemed to be closing all too soon, and in what seemed like no time at all, they were back at Avalon House. Harry took a pinch of Floo powder from a jar on the mantlepiece and threw it into the fire. It glowed green as he said goodbye.  
  
Just as he put his foot into the flames, he heard Shannon calling, "Hey Harry!"  
  
He turned to see her sitting watching him from the sofa. "Merry Christmas."  
  
He grinned. "Merry Christmas Shan." With a wave, he stepped into the fire.  
  
"Gryffindor Tower! Guardian Angel!"  
  
Shannon shook her head as Harry departed. "What a password."  
  
*****  
  
Heehee...I love ice skating. Haven't been in a while though...anyways, going off track here. Now you've read, plz review! Luv reviews! 


	10. What we found.

A/N: Another chapter! **Gasp** Have I finally got this up and running well? ;-) Gees, I hope so! Thanx 4 ur reviews, their really cool!  
  
Disclaimer: Mine, all mine!!! **Evil cackles** Sue all ya want, I don't care!!!  
  
Dedication: Silvermoon, a.k.a. Skywalker. **Snickers** U readin' this? Also, lilmissperfect (See, you now have 2 dedications!), and also Jewels (continued A.S.A.P!).  
  
Harry Potter and the Crystal of Dreams.  
  
"Is it me, or are we getting more and more work?" Ron asked in a low voice, which unfortunately was heard throughout the silent Potions dungeons. Snape swept over like a lethifold, an unplesant sneer on his lips.  
  
"Please keep your complaints about your own stupidity for after class, Weasley," he hissed acidly. "Ten points from Gryffindor."  
  
Just as he was about to head off to terrorize Neville, there was a gasp of pain next to Hermione as Shannon accidently sliced her finger instead of the Bobotuber roots she was cutting up. Eyes glittering maliciously, Snape turned to her.  
  
"And a further ten points from Gryffindor for Miss Parks's decision to disobey my requests as soon as I had laid them down." The sneer grew until Snape's top lip was in danger of toppling over into his nose. Shannon's eyes narrowed at his turned back as she sucked her cut finger.  
  
Snape was halfway across the cold room to Neville when there came a jaunty knock at the door. He twisted around, look becoming increasingly sour as he glared at the door. Another rally of cheerful knocks.  
  
"Enter!" he shouted angrily. The door opened slowly to reveal a blonde woman no taller than the student he had been expecting to be standing there. Harry was the only one to recognise her as Chloe- with a mischievous glint in her eyes that made the genuineness of her polite smile extremely poor.  
  
Snape was certainly more displeased with the person there than with any student. He swelled up in a mixture of anger and dislike, and Harry wondered if he'd explode. It would definitely make the class more interesting. Unfortunately, the Potions master did not blow up, but instead said something, voice poisoned with the severity of his hatred.  
  
"Miss Taylor, I would appreciate it greatly if you would learn some manners and not interrupt my classes like this!"  
  
Chloe's impish look grew as she replied, "At least I knocked. I have come to ask if I could borrow Mr Potter for a while please? It's important." Her cat-like eyes surveyed the watchful class until they rested on Harry, an instant before she looked back at Snape.  
  
"Potter has another half hour of Potions to complete. As you are not a teacher, I suggest you achieve the permission of an authority before you come barging into classes in progress."   
  
"Alas Sn...Severus," Chloe said sarcastically as she came further into the room, correcting her mistake. "There are indeed more important people than you, and it is the permission of one such authority that I have." She turned from Snape to Harry. "Come along, Harry."  
  
Harry pushed back the bench, the scraping of the legs against the flagstones echoing in the dankness. He exchanged a glance with his friends before sliding his books into his bag and walking out to join Chloe. Her smile was real now as she lead him outside into the corridor. Once the door had shut behind her, she put her finger to her lips, warning him to stay silent. She opened the door again rapidly, gaining the entire class's attention yet again.  
  
Harry could only imagine the pure fury on Snape's sallow face as Chloe said, "Oh, and Severus? It was really great seeing you again. You haven't changed a bit." The door banged shut as she pulled it closed and they began off again.   
  
"Well, I'm pleased with myself," Chloe announced as they started off up the stairs to the next floor. "Twelve years and I can still annoy Snape like hell."  
  
Harry laughed. "Don't think I'm not pleased to see you, Chloe, but...what are you doing here?"  
  
"Ah, you remember the other time we met?" Harry nodded. "About those murders near Rodez in France?" A pause and then another nod. "Well, we'd like you to meet some people who've been researching into that, and we want you to hear the answers. OK?"  
  
"Fine."   
  
There was silence for the rest of the way to the office. Both of them wanted to start a conversation, but didn't know what to say. Eventually, the stone gargoyle loomed up ahead.  
  
"Liquorice allsorts," Chloe said. The gargoyle sprang to life and out of their path, allowing them to go through to the staircase. She shook her head. "Wonder who chooses these passwords."  
  
"Dumbledore I guess." Harry replied. A moment later, they were knocking on the door to the study.  
  
"Come in." Dumbledore called. They obeyed, and Harry found Dumbledore chatting with two women, again about what his mother's age would be now. They watched him with a mixture of reminiscence, delight, and sadness in their eyes.  
  
"Harry," said Chloe, "I'd like you to meet Lucinda Boot and Nina Johnson, also good friends of your parents."  
  
Lucinda was a little taller than Chloe, quite studious-looking with rich brown hair that flowed to her shoulders and bright brown eyes behind black-rimmed glasses. She smiled as she stood up to shake Harry's hand. She said, "Prongs walks again. I'm really glad to meet you again, Harry."  
  
"So am I." The next person to shake his hand was a tall woman with long black hair and light brown skin. He did a mental double-take. Nina- for that was her name- was almost exactly an older replica of Angelina Johnson. In the next moment, the name similarity hit him.  
  
They seated themselves in the row of four chairs in front of Dumbledore's desk once he had also bade Harry welcome. Dumbledore pressed his long fingertips together, light blue eyes surveying his three ex-pupils and one current student. Eventually, he spoke.  
  
"Nina, Lucinda, I believe you have some news for us?"  
  
The two newcomers exchanged a quick glance before facing the other three. Lucinda spoke up first.  
  
"After the reports of the murders in Rodez, as you all heard about, Nina and I were requested to do a little investigating. We went to France as representatives of Professor Dumbledore and we were welcomed at the French Ministry of Magic in Paris."  
  
Nina continued, "They seemed quite polite but almost as if they didn't want us to find out too much about it." She gave a short laugh. "If you ask me, they've been talking too much with Cornelius Fudge. Seem to think that magical people will just eat up the same story the muggles were given- natural causes, possibly carbon monoxide poisoning or whatever. But we then went further down the country to the actual village."  
  
"We told them at the mortuary we were friends of two of the deceased," Lucinda said. "It was easy enough. They didn't ask for proof, but they shouldn't because we seemed perfectly normal. But we viewed both bodies before they were to be taken away for burial by the families a few days later and viewed some records, and guess what we found?"  
  
Three intrigued expressions faced the reporting women. Lucinda sighed tiredly, pushing back a strand of her brunette mane as she took a quick look at Nina. Nina sighed too.  
  
"What we found was absolutely nothing. No marks on the bodies, no abnormalities, absolutely nothing that would seem...well, like a death by muggle causes. All the signs point to a curse. Most likely..."  
  
A silence hung where Nina had meant to finish 'Avada Kedavra'. Thos two words stung bitterly in the hearts of them all.   
  
Chloe broke the uncomfortable stillness. "Well, you certainly did a good job. I think what we need to find out is what reasons Voldemort would have to do something like this and see if they fit the circumstances."  
  
"Very good, Chloe." Dumbledore said, a small smile hovering under his moustache. "Your skills and perception are still as sharp as they used to be."  
  
Chloe's returning smile was a little embittered. "You don't work as an Auror for eighteen years and learn nothing, even if Fudge is convinced that some of us are working against him."   
  
Harry said gloomily, "He thinks I'm lying about seeing Voldemort coming back."  
  
Chloe squeezed his hand briefly, her smile now comforting. "Fudge is an idiot. He believes that if he can ignore a problem, it'll just go away. And it doesn't work that way."  
  
"Despite the rumors," Dumbledore cut in. "The majority of the wizarding world are still doubtful of Voldemort's rebirth."  
  
Lucinda pushed her glasses up a bit. "Three people have been suspended from the Ministry for speaking of such things. Fudge accused them of scare mongering."  
  
"The blindness of one man cannot stall us." Dumbledore said gravely. "We are not against him, for our enemy is a common one, but we shall have to carry out things he will not like."  
  
Nina looked thoughtful. "You know what? I would have thought that Rita Skeeter woman would have picked up on a story like this. She seems to love having a go at anything and anyone."  
  
Harry looked down somewhat guiltily as Dumbledore's eyes flickered briefly to him- almost as if he knew how Hermione had threatened to reveal the atrocious bottle-blonde reporter as an illegal Anamagi if she carried on writing her exaggerated and vicious reports. He didn't feel sorry for Rita, mainly due to the fact he had been her favourite victim for the past year, but it was hard not to feel a tiny bit guilt-ridden when Dumbledore seemed to know already about what had happened. It felt almost like lying to him.  
  
"Ms Skeeter has curiously not been seen since last summer." Dumbledore said, glancing again fleetingly at Harry. "Perhaps it is for the best that she is not involved in this."  
  
"Too right." Chloe muttered under her breath, so that only Harry, sitting next to her, could hear her. But he had the distinct impression that Dumbledore was also listening to her words.  
  
"I suggest that perhaps this meeting is drawn to a present close soon." Dumbledore said. "Unless anyone else has anything to say? Harry?"  
  
Harry shook his head as two pairs of blue eyes and two pairs of brown eyes watched him. "Er, no, I don't have anything to say."  
  
Chloe glanced at her watch and stood up suddenly. "Oh damn, I've said I'd meet Arthur Weasley and some others in about ten minutes. I'd better leave...may I use your fireplace, professor?"  
  
The headmaster nodded. "Of course, Chloe. Travel well."  
  
She smiled. "I will." To Harry, she said, "Keep safe, sweetie, I'll see you soon." To her friends, she said, "I'll catch up with you later, OK?"  
  
"Sure. See you later, Kat." Nina replied. Lucinda nodded.  
  
Chloe went up to the fireplace and drew a small bag from the pocket of her jeans. From within it, she excavated some Floo powder and threw it into the flames. The fire became a scintillating emerald as she replaced the bag and glanced back with a quick smile. Chloe stepped into the fire, yelled, "Auror's Department!", and vanished. The fire returned to its usual scarlet.  
  
"Nina, Lucinda," Dumbledore said, "I assume that you would not pass off the chance to greet your children now that you're here?" Interest sparked in both womens' eyes as they too stood up. "If you hurry you may be able to catch them on their way to lunch."  
  
"Certainly, professor," Lucinda said. "Nina and I will try to look further into this matter, and then report to you as soon as we can." She smiled at Harry, as did Nina. "It was really good to meet you, Harry, as I said before."  
  
"Yeah." Nina continued. "We'll see you soon." She turned to Lucinda. "Here, Luci, can you imagine my Angelina's face when she sees me?"  
  
Harry's wonders were brought back to the front of his mind again. "Do you know Angelina then?"  
  
"Of course," Nina said with a widening of her smile. "She's my daughter. Tells me you're a great Seeker."  
  
"Thanks." Harry didn't know what else to say.  
  
"And Lucinda here is the mother of a boy in your year." Nina said. "Terry Boot, Ravenclaw?"  
  
"Er...yeah, I know him."  
  
"Great. We'll see you later then."  
  
Harry watched them leave before Dumbledore said, "Harry?"  
  
Harry turned back to the headmaster. "Yes, professor?"  
  
Dumbledore watched him gravely before continuing, "Harry, if there is at all anything troubling you, I want you to come immediately to a teacher or to an adult you can trust. Do you understand?"  
  
Part of Harry felt a little indignant. Did they think he wasn't capable, that he couldn't look after himself for five minutes? It made him feel weak.  
  
The other part of Harry felt relief. Relief that he knew that he could come to somebody about things worrying him.  
  
The emotions conflicted for a minute until he replied, "I understand. Thank you."  
  
*****  
  
;-P The next chapter wuz gonna be added onto this, but heck, it'd make it too long I reckon. So, now review. If you're wondering why, here's a chemical equation:  
  
Reading a chapter + reviewing = Happy Shadowz + Quicker writing/uploading  
  
So go 'head! Cheers! 


	11. Illusions of horror.

A/N: About the ice-skating thing. Shannon was definitely no expert, but looked like it compared to Harry. 'K? That was what I meant for it to be like.  
  
Disclaimer: Don't feel like doing this...whatever...  
  
Dedication: To all my lovely reviewers who have encouraged me. Thank you so much.  
  
Harry Potter and the Crystal of Dreams.  
  
Sleep can be a blessing for the weary, a release for the tortured, an aid for the pained...  
  
Torment for the guilty.  
  
What the hell was she doing here? She had no idea. Where was it? Still no idea. She ordered herself to look around, telling herself it was all alright. Under her feet was a carpet. The wall in front of her was painted white and decorated with many framed certificates that prooved the qualifications of one Dr Janus Ives. Was the name familiar? No. But surely his title of 'Doctor' meant that this was some hospital office? Perhaps.  
  
"Why have we been called here?"  
  
A familiar male voice startled her and she spun around quickly, eyes widening guiltily. From how she now stood, she could see a desk infront of a large window that showed what was unmistakably hospital grounds. That was OK then.  
  
What? A hospital? This made even less sense than her Arithmancy homework.  
  
Sitting on one side of the desk were a man and a woman, hands entwined together for emotional support. Although she could only see the back of them, and even that not all that clearly, she wouldn't put their age past about twenty-two or thereabouts. They watched the older man in a doctor's white coat seating himself on the other side of the desk. The doctor studied them gravely and silently.  
  
The woman spoke next, tone confused. "Is something the matter? The nurse who was taking the scan seemed...I don't know." She shrugged. "Worried."  
  
The doctor sighed, and his grey eyes looked worried behind the round spectacles. Eventually, he replied, "There is, I am afraid, a complication."  
  
The woman grew frantic at once. "Is there something wrong with our baby? Is something the matter?"  
  
Her husband put his arm around her shoulders. "Shush, love, I'm sure it's nothing serious and the baby's fine." He met the doctor's sad gaze. "Right?"  
  
"Your child is perfectly healthy and normal." Dr. Ives told them.  
  
"See?" the man said. But the woman shook her head, her long hair rippling in a dark waterfall down her back.   
  
"What's the matter then?" she asked seriously. "I want to know."  
  
Dr. Ives sighed again, his dilema obvious. His voice was forced past the difficulty to say, "I am afraid that there is a complication with the placenta and the womb, madam."  
  
The man covered his mouth with his hand. The woman began to breath harder as she demanded, "What sort of complication? Tell me truthfully."  
  
"I am so terribly sorry." Dr. Ives said. "But if you have this child, you will die."  
  
The man buried his face in his hands at this news, but the woman didn't even quiver as her hands clasped over her pregnant stomach. Finally, she asked in a small voice, "Why?"  
  
"The placenta carries blood vessels from you and the baby. Some impediment means that once your child is born, you will die shortly afterwards, because your blood vessels will malfunction. I am so terribly sorry." He looked it as well.   
  
She glanced around for a door to leave. There was one, but when she tried to move, she found she couldn't. She was rooted to the spot, and there was nothing she could do about it.  
  
The young couple were quite rightly distraught. The doctor now began to talk of 'options' with them.  
  
"There are advances in magical technology," he was saying. "That can enable us to abort the child in a way that is painless for both mother and child."  
  
"Oh no!" the woman said, tightening her grip on her pregnant stomach. "There is no way that I'm going to let my child die because of me! You can't make me!"  
  
"Leeney," said her husband. "Nobody's going to make you do anything. We have to think about this."  
  
"How can you say that?" she asked. "How can you talk about it like that?"  
  
"Leeney, I don't want to loose either of you." He looked at the doctor. "Surely there's some way they can both live?"  
  
"I am afraid not." The doctor shook his head as he stood. "You need some time alone to think about this. I'll leave you for a moment."  
  
The doctor left as promised. As soon as the door clicked shut, the man broke down into silent tears as he held out his arms for 'Leeney'. She leant against him, screwing her eyes shut as he held her close.  
  
Suddenly, she realised what she had just witnessed and gasped in shock. No, no, there was no way she had ever expected to or wished to see this...  
  
With a distressed yell, she sat bolt upright and awoke.   
  
She was alone, in bed. A dream, just a dream. Nightmare, more like.  
  
Trembling in the darkness, she wrapped the blankets tighter around herself and settled back down, trying to get to sleep. It didn't come. And so it was that she dragged herself from bed as the first light of dawn began to glimmer on the horizon.  
  
*****  
  
Yeah, go me! Another chapter up! Review plz, and I'm gonna re-write the first one. Hope that'll stop my flames. Even got flamed by my mate, would you believe! **Multiple death glares sent Skywalker's way** Plz review! 


	12. Divination, messages and bereavement.

A/N: I'd just like to thank my body double, my make-up artist, my scriptwriters, my stunt co-ordinaters, my mum, and everyone else who has helped me to win this award! Thank you!  
  
What? What do you mean this isn't the Oscars??!!  
  
Disclaimer: All hail J.K. Rowling!  
  
Dedication: Everyone who reviews my fics nicely, luv yas! Especially to No name and hpfan1750- your lovely reviews have inspired me to churn out another chapter just for you guys!  
  
Harry Potter and the Crystal of Dreams.  
  
"Is it me, or does Trelawney look more like an overgrown bat every time we see her?" Ron muttered during one particularly lacklustre Divination lesson. Harry snorted and Shannon grinned. Trelawney didn't even glance up from where she was talking with a rapt Parvati and Lavender, pretending to have taken Harry's snort of laughter as some noise of near death.  
  
"D'you think there's some cosmic law that makes these fake Seers put on such an airy-fairy mood?" Shannon asked, twisting yet again to look at the orb in front of her at a different angle. "My old teacher, Professore Mystico, she was just the same."  
  
"Probably," Harry said. "Was she death-prediction obsessed as well?"  
  
Shannon considered, then shook her head. "Not really, unless you can count the number of times she looked ready to wring Dario's neck. I swear I've never seen anyone so mad about a few broken teacups...and a crystal ball or two...and then there was that big planetary globe...long story."  
  
The fifth-years had been forced to revise their practical work with crystal balls, as the Professor had had 'the Fates inform me that the Orb shall concern a large part of your upcoming O.W.L.s, as well as several other aspects we have learnt in both your first and second years of this subject'. This equaled complete boredom for just about every student except Parvati, Lavender, and a couple of Hufflepuff girls.  
  
By the time Shannon was half hanging off of her chair to get a decent look into the misty centre of the ball, Trelawney had swept over, jewellery clanking gently as she peered somewhat disapprovingly at Shannon's choice of position.  
  
"Surely you cannot See like that, my child!" she said. Shannon glanced up and grinned lopsidedly.  
  
"Sure I can, professor. No need to worry."  
  
Trelawney appeared a little put out by this, but managed to keep her numinous aura cloaked around her. "Then perhaps you can tell me what it is that you See?"  
  
The whole class was watching by now as Shannon squinted through the glass surface. Presently, she looked up, a grave expression present on her face, although Ron and Harry recognised a disguised sparkle in her eyes.  
  
"It's gonna be one heck of a foggy day tomorrow."  
  
All the boys and the non-obssessed Hufflepuff girls sniggered at this, although the others looked downright scandalised. Parvati and Lavender sent her simultaneous death glares. Shannon still managed to somehow keep her face completely serious, despite Trelawney's rather annoyed appearance. Even from this teacher, you could only go so far before you were facing extra homework- something Shannon definitely didn't want or need.  
  
"Meaning," she continued. "That due to the damp weather, I may be quite susceptible to a severe cold or perhaps even the flu."  
  
Trelawney's expression immediately cleared to its usual one. "Ah yes, my dear, that was also what I had perceived for you."  
  
Shannon shot the boys a 'yeah, right' glance before sitting back more comfortably and began to let her mind drift onto other subjects as the class started to loose interest again. Trelawney stooped over Harry's shoulder, a string of her heavy blue beads banging against his face as she took his orb closer to her.  
  
"Let me see, my dear," she said, shooting him a sad look before turning back to the ball. She frowned slightly, face illuminated by the light of the softly glowing fog within. "Ah yes, the mists began to part for us..."  
  
Harry knew what would follow next. Coming up! Another way for Harry Potter to die before he turns sixteen! Brilliant.  
  
"I see!" she cried suddenly, causing the rest of the class to look around once more. Shannon pulled a quick sympathetic face in Harry's direction as Trelawney launched into another of her 'prophecies'.  
  
"I see...my dear, your fatal enemy returns." Harry rolled his eyes. "He is intent on destruction of all we hold precious, all we have worked for for the past fourteen years. There will be a battle, a great battle of such we have never seen before, but a battle of a great price. My dear, I am afraid you shall loose your life in such gallantry as you will show."  
  
Most people turned away, having heard it so many times before- of course, there was the odd student or two who found this news as shocking and terrifying as they had done when they first did. Shannon looked a little intrigued, but was too used to having learned this in every Divination lesson she was in since September to be really interested. Ron snorted and looked back into his crystal ball.  
  
Trelawney stood up properly, gazing sadly down at Harry with her seemingly abnormally large eyes. "I am so sorry, my child."  
  
The bell signalling end of class rang just then, meaning that Harry didn't have to answer her. There was a scramble as people packed their books away, shoved the orbs back onto the shelves around the attic classroom, and quickly made their way to the ladder. Once the Gryffindor trio had made it safely away from the stuffy attic, they headed for lunch, none of them speaking because they didn't know quite what to say. Shannon broke the silence.  
  
"Hey Harry," she joked. "Anyone been keeping count of Trelawney's fake predictions? Reckon she can make it to two million by the end of this year?" Raising her voice slightly, she called, "Place your bets now!"  
  
Parvati and Lavender, who were passing, shot her dirty glares of hatred. She blinked innocently and raised her eyebrows in a 'who, me?' face. The other two girls didn't seem to notice that Harry and Ron hadn't minded the joke, but decided it was their place to stop her from saying any more.  
  
"You know what?" Parvati hissed. "Keep that up and you might not have any friends left if you can make fun of such things."  
  
"You know what?" Shannon mimicked almost perfectly. "Keep that up and everyone's gonna realise how weak you must be if you can't control your own life without hanging onto the every word of some fraud."  
  
Harry and Ron exchanged a glance. It was unlike Shannon to be that scathing to anyone, even when someone like Parvati or Malfoy provoked her. Parvati looked just about ready to slap Shannon when Lavender dragged her off so that she could talk to Seamus, who was walking ahead of them with Dean.  
  
They met with Hermione in the Entrance Hall and joined the rest of the students in sitting down for lunch at their house tables, chatting about their lessons. Harry didn't mention the death prophecy, and neither did Ron or Shannon- it wasn't important, just routine. As Harry, Ron and Hermione began to serve themselves from the dishes of hot food, Shannon sat fiddling with her wand and charming various objects.  
  
"Aren't you going to eat?" Ron asked, eyebrows raising as she jinxed a jug of pumpkin juice to rise up on newly-grown legs and start belting out some wizard pop song at the top of its non-existent lungs.  
  
"Nope. Not hungry." Another flick of her wand and the sausages on a nearby first years plate began to play a vicious game of rugby with a baked bean. Shannon grinned at their astonished looks. "Ah yeah, my Auntie Fiona taught me that one. Nice little thing, but it took practice."  
  
Hermione was the first to return to the issue at hand- namely, Shannon's lack of appetite. "Shannon, eat something."  
  
The girl pulled a face. "Don't. You sound like my Dad." She put on a heavy Irish accent almost iddentical to her father's. "You'd better eat something, Shannon Jade, or you'll waste away!" She thought for a moment. "Then there's always my Nanas..."  
  
She was broken off as several whisperings broke out as two lone owls swept through the window- one tawny and one screech. The tawny landed on the back of Harry's chair, holding out its leg to Shannon, whilst the screech descended onto the Ravenclaw table. Shannon unbound the two envelopes on the owl's leg, occasionally returning the glances sent her way. The envelopes fell to her empty plate and the owl took off as she turned them over, a grin crossing her mouth.   
  
"About time too!" she said. "I've been waiting ages for these letters!"  
  
"Who wrote?" Harry asked, swallowing a mouthful of hot potato.  
  
"Dad and my mates in Kilmare." Shannon hesitated and picked up the one adressed to her in large rounded letters, slipped it open and pulled out several sheets of paper, which she began to read avidly.  
  
Hermione frowned in thought. "I've never heard of owls arriving at lunch before. 'Hogwarts, A History' mentions nothing of this."  
  
Shannon didn't even glance up. "Maybe they got a payrise." She giggled at the letter. "Oh dear, Roxanne O'Rourke, what have you done?"   
  
"What'd she do?" Ron asked through a mouth of mashed potato.  
  
"Roxy's boy crazy and decided to play the old 'treat them mean' trick on this guy called Jamie." She gestured to the letter. "The whole story is related here in the gospel of Tess Sullivan."  
  
Hermione decided to try to discuss the matter with Harry. "But it's never happened before in all the time we've been here! Something seems...weird."  
  
"Cremare!"  
  
The noise of the Hall was shattered by the shout and everyone turned to the Ravenclaw table. A curly-haired girl pulled herself as the parchment in front of her burned to nothing, and staggered from the room. As soon as she had left, low pitched murmurs spread across the hall like wildfire.  
  
"Students!" They turned to see Dumbledore on his feet, grave and powerful. The talking died at once. "I ask that you leave Miss Matterson alone today so that she has the time alone that she will need. Please obey my wishes." He sat back down again.  
  
A moment of confusion later, a girl came over from the Raenclaw table and slipped into the seat next to Dean Thomas, her face heavy with sympathy. Harry recognised her as Shadella Tolkien, the fourth year Dean had gone to the Winter Dance with.  
  
"Poor Alyson," she sighed as Dean squeezed her hand.  
  
"What happened?" Harry questioned apprehensively, noticing Shannon stuffing the letters intio her pocket. Shadella turned her eyes to him and shrugged.  
  
"It's already going around the other House tables." She sighed again. "Alyson's parents were killed by You-Know-Who when they were on holiday in France. It must've happened a few days ago, but she's only just found out..."  
  
The bench scraped as Shannon got to her feet. Harry, Ron and Hermione all turned to look at her.  
  
"Shannon, sit down." Hermione whispered. "Everyone'll think you've got one too."  
  
Shannon shrugged, voice a tiny bit choked as she said, "Let them. Not my problem."  
  
She walked out of the door without even a backward glance, probably heading for her dormitory. They knew she had to go alone- it was enough to make anyone feel guilty, receiving happy letters at the same time somebody else got news that could destroy their world.  
  
Maybe it was the utter bleakness of that day or maybe it was something else, but that night Harry dreamed of his parents' deaths again.  
  
*****  
  
Once again, review whilst I attempt (and probably fail) to churn out another chapter within the week. To prior warn you- I'm away next weekend at a camp (with archery! Heehee, LOTR fan that I am!) so I won't be writing then of course. Back on Sunday night though...don't think it'll affect anything, just in case though. See ya and thanx for reading! 


	13. Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw.

A/N: This is set two weeks or so after last chapter...just to get that cleared up in case of any confusion. Yep, so now read onto what I'm writing at almost ten o'clock on a Monday night! Hey, I'm tired, give me a break if it sucks...(Head drops onto computer desk) zzzzzzzzz.....  
  
Disclaimer: Still not mine- apart from plots and Shannon, and various backing characters.  
  
Dedication:Fangz (good luck with the Quirrel outfit, lol). Also, hpfan1750 and lilmissperfect, two dedicated reviewers! In answer to ur question, a LOTR fan is a Lord of the Rings fan.   
  
Harry Potter and the Crystal of Dreams.  
  
Lily Potter laughed as she bounced her baby son in her lap. The child giggled too and wildly grasped a lock of her long dark red hair. Her joy turned to pain as the baby yanked hard on her hair.  
  
"Ow! No Harry, please, not the hair!"  
  
James Potter laughed from where he stood watching. "I think he likes you, Lily."  
  
Lily's eyes narrowed at her husband. "Remind me of this and your own hair turns blue."  
  
"As long as it's electric blue like Chloe's that time in third year." He collapsed into an armchair, laughing even harder now. "She didn't even notice! Oh, her face..."  
  
"Yeah, but she didn't see the funny side of it." Lily smiled, detatching her baby's hand from her hair. "Neither did you when you landed up in the hospital wing with a black eye."  
  
James composed himself at this reminder. "It was only a joke. She really had some temper on her that day."  
  
Lily put her son down onto the floor where he sat watching them intently. Suddenly, his emerald eyes flashed brilliantly, a flash of green light that enveloped both of his parents. They both screamed in terrible pain.  
  
And Harry Potter sat bolt upright in bed, sweating and shaking.  
  
Eventually, he calmed himself enough to reach for his glasses. The room cleared into view as he put them on and he realised the digits on his glowing alarm clockread 3:00 a.m. With a sigh, he scanned the dark dormitory in case anyone had woken up; when he knew it was safe, he tried to settle back down.  
  
It was stupid to get worked up about these reoccuring dreams. They'd woken him every night for the past couple of weeks, sometimes twice or more in a night. They weren't real. He knew that. This wasn't how his parents had died, nor how their final night had happened. Thanks to the Dementors in the third year, he knew that.  
  
But this was worse- much worse. This way, he was feeling an overwhelming guilt. This way, it was all his fault. He had killed them.  
  
Don't be stupid, he told himself firmly. You have to get up in a couple of hours for Quidditch. You'll be falling asleep on that broomstick if you don't get some rest.  
  
Harry rolled his eyes as he took off his glasses once more and laid down, thinking how much his mind sounded like Hermione at the moment. Yet still his mind continued to play those pictures to him again and again, in full colour and sound.   
  
His mother's laugh. His father's smile.   
  
Their screams as he killed them.  
  
"That's enough!" Harry hadn't meant to say it outloud as he sat back up, holding his head in his hands. He listened for a second, but the silence was only broken by Seamus's snoring and Ron's incoherent mumbling in his sleep.  
  
It was stupid; it was pointless. Why was he worrying about something that he could not change and actually didn't even happen? But he did worry as he tossed and turned and he could not return to sleep. So it was that he rose and dressed as the first signs of dawn appeared on the horizon.  
  
At breakfast, everyone was trying to get him to eat something, but he was refusing as usual. At least the routine made him feel safer than before, and it was more easy to dismiss the nightmare as nothing during the day.  
  
Only one person wasn't joining in with the clamour, and that was Shannon. She looked lost in her own world as she sat next to Harry stirring her cornflakes around her bowl absentmindedly. To take his mind off of Ron waving a plate of sausages in front of his face, he leaned over and snapped his fingers an inch from her face. A second later she jumped and blinked at him.  
  
"Sorry, what was that?" she asked, lifting her chin from her hand. She attempted a small laugh. "I didn't hear."  
  
"I didn't say anything." Harry shrugged. "Are you OK?"  
  
She shrugged as well. "Sure, fine. Why wouldn't I be?"   
  
Harry scanned her pale face, the purple-black shadows of fatigue under her teal eyes, and shook his head. "No reason. Just wondered."  
  
"Oi, Harry!" Harry looked around to see that Dean had just dumped a plate of fried breakfast in front of him. "Eat up!"  
  
Harry groaned. Shannon smiled faintly, despite looking decidedly green at the sight of the greasy food. Hermione, remembering what had happened before the last Gryffindor Quidditch match, shot her friend a warning glance.  
  
"Don't even consider it, Shannon." She warned. Shannon glanced up, eyes confused and wide.  
  
"What? Oh right, 'Sea Food'. Just looking at that makes me feel sick." She rose from her seat. "I'll see you at the match." With that, she left the room quickly, with Harry watched her leave confusedly. A thump on the table made him turn again to see the Gryffindor fifth years had all set down plates in front of him, each laden high with food.  
  
Harry buried his head in his hands and groaned again.  
  
*****  
  
"I want a good clean game." Madam Hooch insisted as Angelina shook hands with the Ravenclaw captain. "No fouls."  
  
Harry wondered if she realised that it wasn't Slytherin she was talking to- Ravenclaw generally didn't try to cheat. Most of the fouls were accidents for their team, but Slytherin was a law unto itself. In the other line, he could see Cho Chang avoiding his gaze.  
  
"Mount your brooms!" the referee called, whistle in her mouth. They obeyed. "On my whistle. Three...two...one..."  
  
The whistle blew and the fourteen players, seven in scarlet and seven in blue, took to the air on their brooms. Of course, Lee Jordan was commentating again, ever watched by the very stressed McGonagall.   
  
"The Quaffle is first taken in the posession of Gryffindor Chaser Alicia Spinnet. Neat pass there to Katie Bell- no, intercepted by Mandy Brocklehurst of Ravenclaw. Brocklehurst to Ackerley, Ackerley to Quirke, Quirke to- no, the Quaffle is taken there by Angelina Johnson of Gryffindor. She's zooming up the pitch now, ducks a Bludger from Ravenclaw, passes to Bell. Bell to Spinnet and back again- near to goalposts now- she aims, she shoots, she...aw, no, she misses. Saved by Keeper Tolkien of Ravenclaw."  
  
Up in the stands, Hermione was pushed up along the bench where the fifth year Gryffindors sat as someone joined them. She turned to see Shannon next to her with a weak grin on her face.  
  
"Shan! Where were you?" Hermione demanded. Her friend shook her head and shrugged.  
  
"Ah, you know. Around." She concentrated on the game, ignoring Hermione's somewhat worried gaze. "What did I miss?"  
  
"Bryan Tolkien just saved a goal. I think Ravenclaw's in possession now."  
  
As Lee Jordan called out over the magically amplified megaphone a second later, Ravenclaw were.  
  
"Quirke to Ackerley, Ackerley to Quirke. Ducks a Bludger sent his way by a Weasley twin, probably George, can't really tell. He looses the Quaffle to Chaser Johnson of Gryffindor- nice catch, Angelina. She streaks past Chaser Brocklehurst, a Bludger, and Beaters Weasley of Gryffindor and Davies of Ravenclaw. Passes to Bell, who charges past Beater Stebbins and- no, dammit, looses the Quaffle to Ravenclaw."  
  
Harry swooped telve foot above the game on his Firebolt, searching anxiously for the Snitch. Cho Chang wasn't far away but had opted not to tail him this time. And ten minutes into the game, when Geoga let in two goals and Bryan Tolkien one, neither had yet found it.  
  
Lee carried on with the commentary. "So the score is twenty-ten to Ravenclaw, and we're all starting to think that something's very wrong here..."  
  
"Jordan!" McGonagall growled.  
  
He ignored her slightly and continued, "I mean, Ravenclaw are a load of brainboxes, so why should they-" Off of McGonagall's very angry and harrassed glare, he sighed and altered his words grudgingly. "OK, OK, Ravenclaw are a very strong side and deserve to win as much as Gryffindor, blah blah blah. Anyways, back to the match. Brocklehurst in possession, with Spinnet closing in on her. A Bludger sent her way by Fred Weasley, and halting like that has caused her to drop the Quaffle right into the hands of Katie Bell- no, snatched away by Orla Quirke at the last second."  
  
Harry managed a grin as Lee swore loudly and McGonagall, looking just about ready to commit homicide, attempted to yank the megaphone away. Of course, unsucessfully. Still no sign of gold...yet.   
  
"So it's Ackerley to Brocklehurst, who swerves Stebbins and Davies and passes back.Ackley aims, shoots...ha ha, he misses! Keeper Geoga Atkins of Gryffindor blocks his shot nicely there!"  
  
Harry saw the third year Keeper punch the air triumphantly and Angelina take the red ball. Out of the corner of his left eye just then, he caught sight of a flash of gold. The Snitch?  
  
"Johnson to Bell, Bell to Spinnet! We can hardly keep up here at the speed those Gryffindor girls are passing the Quaffle! Ackerley attempts to intercept but fails miserably!"  
  
"Jordan, commentate in an unbiased manner or leave at once!"  
  
The arguments between the professor and Lee sounded so far away now as Harry quickly turned the broom and began to fly in the direction of the gold. But there was no Snitch to be seen- only the reflection off of a Ravenclaw girl's bracelet.   
  
"Johnson shoots...Tolkien trys to...yes! Angelina Johnson of Gryffindor scores! That brings the score even to twenty all! Wait- has Seeker Chang seen the Snitch?"  
  
Harry turned quickly to see Cho on the other side of the pitch, at a greater height than him, nosediving towards a glimmer of gold a few feet above the ground. He quickly turned the Firebolt again and zoomed towards were Cho was. So preoccupied were most of the players that George nearly whacked Fred over the head with his Beater's club instead of hitting the Bludger, and Alicia and Katie both scored, earning twenty more points for Gryffindor.  
  
Cho might have had a head start on him, but his broom was faster, and when he got to the other side of the pitch, they were even. They both plummeted towards the little gold ball, barely an inch between the brooms. Cho tried to knock him aside, a gesture which he returned, but both were without much success.   
  
The Snitch was about two feet away, and Harry let go of the broom with his right hand. Not enough. He released it with both hands and stretched out wildly. Cho did likewise, face grim and determined.  
  
Time seemed to be moving through thick treacle at this moment. The shouts of the students became oddly quiet and blurred, and all he could think about was the minute ball fluttering inches from his hand...inches from Cho's hand also.  
  
He swiped out crazily for it with his right hand, but the lack of grip on his broom made him topple over to the left. His fingers brushed the smooth surface of the ball before he hit the pitch hard. The noise of the crowds became all too real then, as did the pain in his head and left wrist, which he had landed almost fully on. Lee Jordan seemed to be shouting out a stream of obsenities that were almost drowned by the erruption of cheers from one side of the stadium.  
  
Harry slowly opened his eyes and glanced down at his hands. His empty hands.  
  
Then he saw Cho approaching him, emerging from a crowd of Ravenclaws with the Snitch in her right hand and two brooms in her left- hers and Harry's. Harry struggled to his feet and straightened his glasses, clutching his pained wrist to him.  
  
"Here, I caught your broom." Cho said awkwardly, handing it over. There was an uncomfortable pause. "Sorry you fell."  
  
"Doesn't matter, thanks though." He took the broom with a small grin. "Good game."  
  
She turned away and walked back to her supporters as Harry's friends and team members came up to him. Depression setting in, he looked at them helplessly.  
  
"Sorry." he said, knowing that it probably wasn't enough. But Angelina managed a smile.  
  
"One game, that's all. The way the other matches are turning out, we could still win if we beat Slytherin."  
  
Hermione prised Harry's wrist away from him, face becoming downcast as she saw the bruising beginning to appear. "Madam Pomfrey will want to check that over."  
  
Harry nodded but the last thing he felt like doing was checking in with the fanatical school nurse. However, he still let the team lead him away as his friends set off to meet him in the common room.  
  
*****  
  
Shannon yawned widely, setting down her quill beside her long Arithmancy essay. She could barely concentrate on the complicated equations because of her tiredness and it only made it harder than usual.  
  
'Why did I take Arithmancy again?' she asked herself. 'Oh yeah, Frankie wanted someone to be in class with. If only I'd had enough sense to back out like Dario.'  
  
Hermione looked up from her Ancient Runes translations. "Are you OK, Shannon?"  
  
"Yeah, of course, just a little tired." Shannon hastily excused herself, looking down to recheck her homework.  
  
Hermione frowned again and chewed her lip. "Are you sure? Because-" She wasn't quite sure how to word it, but decided for the direct aproach. "Because you don't seem to be sleeping that well."  
  
Shannon's eyes flared up at her defensively. "What do you mean?"  
  
Hermione knew she'd have to tread carefully. "Well, you know, you just seemed to sound a little...uneasy in your sleep. Maybe you were having a nightmare or something, I just wondered."  
  
Shannon hesitated a little, then smiled. "No, sure, I'm fine. Absolutely. I...it's probably just the O.W.L. revision that they're piling on for us. Think we're all a bit stressed." She sighed. "Still, Hogsmeade trip soon. Should do us all good, eh?"  
  
Hermione returned the smile reluctantly, deciding to let the matter drop. "Yeah."  
  
*****  
  
Another chapter! Sorry it wasn't up sooner...camp an' all that. But now I'm on Easter holiday, so my writing should go smoothly for a while. Please review! Happy Easter to everyone! 


	14. Birthdays and Bad News.

A/N: Phew, revision is hell! Just to warn you, this might be the last chapter up for a while. Hopefully not, but just in case. I swear, once my exams are over in May, I'll start to hurry this up. Until then, please bear with me!  
  
Disclaimer: I'm not J.K. Rowling, so don't ask.  
  
Dedication: For all those who've encouraged me to get a move on: fio2, tygir (for your many...many reviews), hpfan1750, lilmissperfect (no, not the stick! Anything but that!), DaRkGoDdEsS024, mira-tazura, Emma and everyone else! Thanks sooo much! And also to Lucy- happy birthday!  
  
Harry Potter and the Crystal of Dreams.  
  
The Easter holidays came quickly and left almost as fast. For Harry, the fortnight of work, chess and helping Hagrid with his new charges (a particularly nasty-tempered group of crossbreeds between Doxies and Fire Crabs called Pyroxes) seemed more like a weekend, and it wasn't long before Shannon returned to school and classes began again.  
  
And then, the first day of April dawned sunny and clear.  
  
Shannon sat bolt upright in bed, glad that she had for once achieved a peaceful night's sleep at last. And also happy for another reason. She pulled back the heavy red hangings around her four poster to see Hermione turning towards her, fully dressed and holding a wrapped present quite like the ones piled at the foot of Shannon's bed. They exchanged smiles.  
  
"Awake at last!" Hermione said, handing over the present. "Happy birthday!"  
  
"Thanks, Hermione." Shannon put the gift with all the others and cocked her head. "How do I open these? Biggest first or what?"  
  
"Does it matter?" the prefect asked, seating herself next to Shannon. Parvati and Lavender were still asleep.  
  
"Guess not." Shannon dived for the nearest parcel, adressed from Hannah, and tore away the glitzy paper.  
  
Hermione sifted absently through the parcels, reading the names. There were ones from Ireland, Italy and from her family down in England, but one name seemed to never appear.  
  
"Aw, cute." Shannon laughed, putting aside a bright blue hair clasp and going for another present. "I'll have to wear it to Hogsmeade today."  
  
Hermione considered her options for a moment before taking the plunge. "So, Shannon," she asked casually. "What did your mum send you?"  
  
Shannon looked up (seeming a little too serious, Hermione thought) from unwrapping a small stack of trashy teen romance novels (courtesy of Sarah in Ireland). "What?" Then she grinned crookedly. "Oh, Julianna sent me some sweets." She gestured to a large bag of chocolate frogs next to a bag of magical pranks from Ron.  
  
Hermione decided to be direct. "No, your real mum."  
  
Shannon's grin disappeared and she glanced briefly over to check that their dorm mates were still asleep. She lowered her voice and replied, "My mam's dead."  
  
"Oh, I'm sorry."  
  
She shrugged. "'S OK. It happened when I was a very, very little girl, so it was ages ago. Just don't tell anyone else, alright? I don't want a load of sympathy, not today."  
  
"Yeah. Sorry."  
  
Shannon laughed. "Let's not get too mundane. It is my birthday after all, and April Fools Day..." She trailed off thoughtfully. "Give me five minutes to finish opening this little lot and then we can pull a festive prank on the sleeping beauties over there."  
  
Hermione gave up on the topic and watched the gossip queens sleep on, oblivious to the conversation about them. "It's still early." she mused.  
  
Shannon's eyes sparkled mischeviously. "Well, yeah, but we know that and they don't. Or, at least, they won't when we put their clocks forward a couple of hours, will they?"  
  
A grin slowly spread over Hermione's face and she shook her head half-despairingly. "You are truly evil."  
  
"I know."  
  
*****  
  
With all the excited black-clad students swarming around Hogsmeade, Chloe felt almost as though she was one of them again. She could almost hear the banter she, Lily, Lucinda and Nina used to exchange with the Marauder Boys on these such trips.  
  
Memories were a painful thing she'd done her best to avoid in the past fourteen years, but returning to Hogwarts after all that time had made her confront those endless months of pain and despair.  
  
She might have been tempted to run away if it wasn't for the severity of her message and for Sirius walking beside her in his large black dog form. His presence at least stopped her from reminising as much as she may have otherwise.  
  
Suddenly, Sirius halted and nudged Chloe's foot with his paw. She frowned away from a passing blonde boy who looked strangely identical to Lucius Malfoy had years ago and looked down at him.  
  
"What?" she murmured quietly. "What is it?"  
  
Sirius motioned ahead and she looked up, smiling despite everything else when she saw who it was.  
  
Harry was laughing with a tall boy who had the distinctive Weasley red hair and freckles and two girls. One had bushy brown hair and brown eyes, whereas the other had dark hair swept back into a blue hair clip and greyish teal eyes.  
  
Without completely meaning to, the pair had stopped so that two seconds later, the approaching quartet noticed them standing there.  
  
"Hello Chloe." Harry said. He grinned at Sirius, knowing how stupid it would be to openly great the 'infamous murderer' on such a crowded street. Sirius barked quietly, also to avoid gaining too much attention, and allowed each of the teenagers to pat him on the head.  
  
"I don't think I know everyone else here." Chloe said. "Anyone going to introduce me?"  
  
"Oh yeah." Harry said. "Chloe, this is Ron, Hermione, and Shannon. Guys, this is Chloe. She was a friend of my parents."  
  
There were various 'hi's and 'hello's passed around before Harry asked, "So, how come you're here? Is it good or bad?"  
  
Chloe sighed. "Bad, I'm afraid." Lowering her voice, she continued, "There's a meeting on with your teachers up at the school. Subject's over there." She nodded her head towards a newsagents shop with a standing board outside advertising the Daily Prophet. The Gryffindors turned slightly to look at it and were met by the headline of the day in bold flashing letters.  
  
"Oh my god..." Hermione whispered.  
  
'TWELVE MUGGLES DEAD IN MAGICAL ATTACKS IN DOVER'.  
  
"Dover?" asked Ron confusedly. "Where's that?"  
  
"Down in England." Shannon replied quietly. "By the channel crossing to France."  
  
"And there were attacks in France." Harry said. Chloe nodded grimly.   
  
"Exactly. It seems that they're closely related, so..." She trailed off and then nodded. "So we're here."  
  
Shannon laughed humourlessly. "Oh, what a thing to happen today." Upon Chloe's questioning look, she explained, "It's my birthday."  
  
"Oh." said Chloe. "Well, it was two days ago it happened. The day after it did, the muggle world heard of it, but the news didn't reach the magical world until today." She sighed again. "Hence the headlines."  
  
Up until now, Sirius had been watching the conversation silently and gravely. Now, he barked slightly and Chloe jerked, biting her lip.  
  
"Oh god, right." She looked apologetically at the younger four. "Speaking of the meeting, we'd better go now. Are you all going to be alright?"  
  
Harry snapped out of his shocked silence at the sound of her voice. "Sure. We'll be fine." The others nodded in agreement, still quite numbed by the words. Part of Chloe mentally slapped herself for being stupid and telling them, but there was something in Harry's green eyes that assured her that it was better coming from her than it would be for them just discovering it.  
  
"We'll be off then. See you later." With another serious look at them all, they left. Harry felt sorry for her- he'd seen the self-reproaching look in her cat-like eyes- and made a mental note to send her a letter via Hedwig later on (if he didn't see her before) to reassure her they were OK.  
  
Shannon shook her head as they started off towards The Three Broomsticks and muttered under her breath, "Birthdays are a bad time for me."  
  
*****  
  
That evening, Shannon sat alone on one of the small window seats, feet up on the wall. Tiah was draped around her shoulders, purring contendly after eating most of Shannon's chocolate frogs, as Shannon wrote avidly into one of the books on her lap.  
  
Harry sidled over from Ron and Hermione's latest fight-flirting match and leaned against the wall, watching her scribble away in black ink in her round letters for a second before he said, "What're you up to, then?"  
  
Shannon started, almost knocking over the small square bottle of ink on the nearby ledge as she turned her head to look at him, eyes somewhat guilty-looking.  
  
"Huh? Oh, not a lot."  
  
He moved around to the other end of the window and she obligingly moved her feet and shifted around so that he could squeeze up next to her. In doing so, she put the lid back onto the ink bottle and picked Tiah up from her shoulders. Tiah slipped out of her hands and capered off, probably to find other feline company.  
  
"What're you writing then?" Harry questioned, peering curiously at the small pages full of her untidy writing. She shut the book with a smile in his direction, hand firmly holding the dusky purple covers shut.  
  
"A story." She shrugged. "I write when I'm avoiding certain teenage gossip queens hungry for my blood."  
  
He laughed. "Oh, right, Parvati and Lavender."  
  
"Who else? Dear old Pansy Parkinson isn't in this house." Her laugh joined his now. "Although she's next on my list."  
  
"We'll look forward to seeing it then." Harry grinned. "You really were born on the right day, weren't you?"  
  
"Don't I know it!" She shook her head happily. "Oh yeah, thanks for that bracelet, it was sweet of you."  
  
Harry prayed he wasn't blushing. "Er, that's OK. What else did you get?" Anything to change the topic.  
  
Shannon rolled her eyes and showed him her other book- one of the ones her friend Sarah had sent her. He raised his eyebrows and she groaned.  
  
"Don't ask. This should provide me with half an hour of slushy teen romance that could be worse torture than that detention I had last week with Snape."  
  
Harry laughed again. "I'll leave you to it then. Unless you want to watch Hermione and Ron argue yet again."  
  
Shannon grinned. "I'll just put these away and consider it done! What do you wanna bet they're engaged by the end of the year?"  
  
*****  
  
The meeting in Professor Dumbledore's office had taken place for hours. Hours of reports, discusssions, debates and arguments. Hours that were finally drawing to a close, the members not much more informed than they had been. Dumbledore was the one to start to wrap up the meeting.  
  
"It seems as though Voldemort is deliberately leading us on a trail," he announced gravely. "Although if it is the correct one, we cannot yet know."  
  
His bright blue eyes ran over those assembled, mainly Aurors, but all powerful in their way. Some were old, like Arabella Figg and Mundungus Fletcher, some were young, like Bill and Percy Weasley. Some had suffered more at the hands of Voldemort than others- all of the remaining Marauders had attended.  
  
"Surely there's something we can do to find out." Mundungus Fletcher suggested. "The Ministry could help or something."  
  
"Mundungus, you know as well as we do that Fudge is trying to cover it all up." Nina Johnson laughed humourlessly, pushing back some of her long black hair. "It doesn't tarry with his perfectly-ordered world."  
  
"He's got a point Nina," Remus said. "Although we don't have the support of everyone in the Ministry, there must be some other way."  
  
"There is." Dumbledore said, and all eyes turned to him. He continued. "As most of you already know, we do have a spy working for us against Lord Voldemort. Some of you know who he is, and some will find out later, but this is how we shall find out of the intentions of our enemy- with luck."  
  
For that was why Severus Snape was not present at that meeting.  
  
*****  
  
Thinking of putting a bit of Snape in the next chapter, y'know, just to see what else is going on. Would you like? Hope so. Please review now, I love your reviews! 


	15. A bad night for all.

A/N: Writer's block sucks. **pout** Damn, AND my holidays are just over! Oh well, at least I have my writing! And I did have my computer wallpaper, which was the cast of Angel, until SOMEBODY happened to change it! **Death glares at younger siblings** Anyways, hpfan1750- the Marauders are the gang who wrote the Marauders Map! You know- James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter (die, Wormtail!), but included in that are some of Lily's friends I made up- Chloe, Nina, and Lucinda. They were mentioned earlier. And to gotta B writin- **cheeky grin** You'll have to wait 'n see!  
  
Disclaimer: No profit is being made, and all the stuff I don't own is property of J.K. Rowling.  
  
Dedication: All my reviewers- you guys rock! Thanx again!  
  
Harry Potter and the Crystal of Dreams.  
  
No sooner had Harry fallen asleep in his four poster that night than he found himself standing on a gentle slope that seemed to be quite high up, probably somewhere in some mountains. The grass was long, beginning to yellow from the fierce heat of the sun, and it buzzed with grasshoppers. This had to be another country, he told himself, nowhere in England was this hot.  
  
How he knew that, he couldn't tell. He'd never been to another country in his life- of course, the Dursleys preferred to send him round to Mrs Figg's house when they went on holiday. Also, if this was a dream, why did it all feel so real? The heat, the sounds, the approaching children from a large white building to his left. It looked a little like a foreign church, with its arched windows and slanted tiled roofes, but the amount of people dressed mainly in muggle clothing or a uniform of white robes, and the books and wands they carried, told him this had to be a magical school.  
  
Then he felt his eyes drawn to a trio a way off, two girls and a boy. His legs began to walk in their direction before he even knew what was going on. He knew for sure it was a foreign country now, because the chatter was nothing more than a babble to him. He reached the three just as they sat down, two on the ground, and one on a large rock.   
  
Then he looked closer at the dark-haired girl and realised who it was.  
  
She looked younger and skinnier than he knew her to be, and she had a fixed brace and longer hair, but it was unmistakeably Shannon.  
  
And for some reason, he could understand every word she was saying with her friends.  
  
"I can't believe you did that!" the girl seated on the rock exclaimed despairingly, shaking back her raven coloured braids. "In front of Valentina and all the others..."  
  
"Valentina can go to hell for all I care." Shannon grinned crookedly. "Did you see her face?"  
  
"Yeah, it was priceless." The boy next to them laughed. "Come on Francessca, lighten up. Shannon only did it for shock value."  
  
"Dario! You're supposed to be on my side!"  
  
"Frankie, it's not as though it'll make much difference. I just wanted to annoy Queen Valentina the Popular. Remember, she was saying such awful stuff about you the other week?" Shannon said. Francessca bit her lip, still looking worried.   
  
"Shannon, do you realise what could happen after this? You're going to be the talk of the entire third year!"  
  
"Come off it!" Shannon pulled a face. "It was one little kiss with Enrico, that was all."  
  
Harry, watching them unnoticed, felt like two ton of lead had dropped into his stomach, and he had no idea why.  
  
The curly-haired boy called Dario raised his eyebrows until they were in danger of disappearing off the top of his head. "Sorry, Shannon, I have to agree with Francessca here. 'One little kiss' is NOT an apt description for almost a minute of your tongue halfway down his throat!"  
  
Another supposed ton of lead dropped into Harry's intestines. Shannon's grin grew, mischevious and slightly coquettish.  
  
"Yeah, but their faces! They didn't think one of the most popular boys in the school would kiss an outcast, did they? Be thankful he didn't have a brace as well, or it could have hooked up to mine and we'dve been stuck for much more than a minute!"  
  
Francessca shook her head, smiling. "You are unbelievable, Shannon Parks."  
  
Shannon bowed slightly. "Why thank you."  
  
Then the scene disappeared and Harry awoke, finding himself sitting bolt upright in his bed. Feeling terrible.  
  
*****   
  
Severus Snape grimaced behind the snow-white Death Eater mask covering his face. Words couldn't express how much he hated this, being back here, back where he had started at as an eighteen-year-old fresh out of Hogwarts.  
  
Back to the old routine of murder, torture, and risking his own life.  
  
But even more so on the third now.  
  
An hour or so after dinner that night, the Dark Mark emblazoned on his arm began to burn horrendously, just as he had expected it might. He had Apparated to where Voldemort waited for the supporters and received the task that he knew had been coming his way for so long.  
  
To crush, to kill, just as he had done willingly those years and years ago.  
  
This time he had been asked to prove his loyalty (as all Death Eaters were from time to time) by slaughtering a random Muggle family that Voldemort had chosen on pure whim. Severus's mind insisted on showing him the way Voldemort had informed him of the family- the way his red eyes had sparked maliciously as he had mentioned the newly-wed parents, the way his lips had widened in a thin grin of vindictive amusement as he told him of their infant daughter, a little girl of not more than three years old. It was them that Severus was to kill and take their bodies to Voldemort to prove his worth.  
  
With him were three escorts, to keep him in check and to ensure he did as told. Severus knew them well. Haversham, a tall and heftily-built man a year older than Severus, was notoriously dense, had been since school. Rosen was a thin little woman who had been in the class below Severus's at school, scornful and spiteful. Finally, there was Newman, a shifty-eyed man who had been in Severus's class and was always out for himself.   
  
Severus knew that Voldmort's place of hiding wasn't far from the village that they entered now. If his directions were to be believed, the house they were looking for was the fourth on the right of the main street. As they approached it silently, Severus wondered if this was something reminisent to that fateful Hallowe'en when Harry Potter had been made an orphan. He pushed the thoughts determinedly away and tried to focus on his dilemma. Now was not the time to start thinking of Lily again, as he so often did. Recently he had become reminded of her and James nearly every day- it was hard to try to forget when you teach a boy who could be James Potter but for those unique emerald eyes and have your old enemies walking around the school.   
  
With every second that passed, they neared the house and Severus's dread grew. It wasn't that they were muggles- he didn't care for them because they weren't of his kind. No, his dread grew because he'd not be able to commit a needless murder as was required.   
  
He had a plan though.  
  
Rosen clicked on the silver lighter-like apparatus in her bony hand twelve times. Twelve balls of light from each of the lamp posts down the street flew into it, plunging the place into darkness. Then they reached the place, a quaint little house with a neat front garden that they passed up to the door. Newman, who was leading, stepped back from the front door and Severus could tell from his tone that he was smirking.  
  
"Well, Severus, we'll let you do the honours."  
  
Knowing exactly what they meant, Severus moved forward without a word. Bracing himself mentally, he drew out his wand and levelled it to where the lock was situated on the other side of the door.  
  
"Alohomora!" he hissed.  
  
The door flew open with a loud click. Severus glanced back briefly at his associates before gesturing them forward. They strode into the house to murder confidently.  
  
*****  
  
The place she found herself in was familiar. Of course it was familiar. It was part of her old house, the place where she had lived for the first eleven or so years of her life.  
  
The sound of breathing made her turn around from her inspection of her surroundings to see a young man of about twenty or so sitting on a chair outside one of the bedroom doors. Her dad.   
  
Her dad, but younger.  
  
Voices came from inside the room, and the door opened as a plump lady in the uniform of a St. Mungo's midwife came out. Her dad leapt to his feet as the woman gestured for him to enter, which he eagerly did. She alone saw the lady shaking her head sadly as she began to walk away.  
  
Without meaning or wanting to, she found her feet carrying herself into the room and the old wave of familiarity struck her again. She found herself walking to the side of a bed. Sitting propped up on the pillows of the bed was a young woman with grey-blue eyes, long dark brown hair and a large smile. A small red-faced newborn baby lay in her arms. Her dad came around to the other side of the bed and sat next to the woman.  
  
"How're you feeling, Leeney?" he asked. There seemed to be a strange mixture of joy and sadness in his tone.   
  
"It's a girl, Joe." she said, ignoring the question. "Our own beautiful baby girl."  
  
Almost in wonderment, he held out his finger to the baby. She clamped her tiny fist around it and attempted to suck it. He smiled and the mother laughed.  
  
"I think she likes you, Joe." she teased gently, provoking a small laugh from him.  
  
"What're we going to call her, Eileen?" he mused. "We never did decide on a name."  
  
The woman shifted slightly so that her head rested on the man's shoulder. "I have an idea." she said.  
  
"Go on then. Whatever you want."  
  
"Now then, I'll have none of that," she said, tone gently reproaching and struggling with sorrow. "We knew almost from the start what was going to happen and we can't change it. And I wouldn't."  
  
"If only there was some way..."  
  
"There isn't, there's no use thinking like that." The woman called Eileen swallowed hard and gazed down at her new daughter. "Do you want to hear my idea or not?"  
  
"Go ahead."  
  
"You know when I was little? Before...?" She trailed off on that, but Joe nodded, saving her from having to go through it all again. "Yes. Well, we used to live down on the edges of county Galway. Right down near the River Shannon." She smiled. "I'd like to call her Shannon."  
  
Shannon watched her parents fawning over her much younger self, biting her lip hard enough that if this was not a dream, it would easily draw blood.  
  
"Shannon," her father repeated, trying out the name. "I like it. What about a middle name?"  
  
Her mother considered. "What do you think of the name Jade?"  
  
"Shannon Jade." Joe considered for a second then nodded. "It's a pretty name. It suits her."  
  
"Yes." Eileen laughed and cradled the baby close to her heart. "Little Shannon Jade Parks."  
  
Then the older Shannon awoke with a yell of pain and fright. For a moment she just sat there in her bed, breathing hard and listening carefully. Hoping that nobody had been awoken.  
  
Then a voice broke through the darkness and silence of the girls' dormitory from the bed to her left.   
  
"Shannon?" Hermione asked. "Are you alright?"  
  
At that moment, Shannon realised that something sticky was running down slowly from her lip and across her chin. She wiped it off and realised what it was even though in the dark she couldn't see it.  
  
She had bitten her lip hard enough to make it bleed.  
  
"Shannon?" Hermione prompted.  
  
She snapped out of her thoughts and replied hastily, "Yeah, sure, I'm fine. Go back to sleep."  
  
She guessed that Hermione did as she was asked, but Shannon knew she wouldn't sleep for the rest of the night.  
  
*****  
  
The house was dark and silent. Somehow, Severus knew that nobody was in. Was this what Voldemort had planned? Did he think of the four he had sent as dispensable in case something happened?  
  
"Nobody's here." Snape muttered to them, turning so that he was the only one facing the open door. "I can feel it." He could also feel the relief coursing through his veins.  
  
"Nonsense." Newman snapped bitterly. "There's got to be someone here. Our Lord said it was so."  
  
"Oh, someone's here all right." a voice said from the doorway. "Just not who you expected."  
  
They turned then to see three Aurors standing in the doorway. Severus recognised them immediately as Remus Lupin, Chloe Taylor and Mundungus Fletcher. All of them had their wands pointing straight at Haversham, Rosen and Newman. And at exactly the same time, they all yelled out, "Petrificus Totalus!"  
  
Haversham and Newman were too slow to block the Full Body Bind and their limbs snapped to their bodies with such force that they toppled over immediately. Rosen, however, managed to dodge and whipped out her wand at Mundugus Fletcher.  
  
"Crucio!" she yelled. Mundugus, with the reflexes of an expert Auror, managed to dodge as Remus put the leg locker curse on her. As soon as she was distracted by being frozen on the spot, they simultaneously disarmed her. She flew back against the wall, hit it with a crack and slid down to the floor, unconcious. Remus caught her wand.  
  
Chloe had leapt over Newman's body to face Severus. For a few seconds, they just glared at each other and an understanding passed between them. Chloe gave him a small, grudging nod that only he could see before she cried out, "Expelliarmus!"  
  
Snape moved quickly and pointed his wand at her. "Petrificus Totalus!"  
  
Chloe didn't block the curse or dodge as she would otherwise. Instead she faced it bravely and was prepared for the same fate as the two male Death Eaters on the floor. She fell down with a thud.  
  
Remus and Mundungus supposedly attempted to stop him but failed- it was all an act for the two watching Death Eaters in case they should be able to report back at any stage. But Severus ran off into the night, preparing to put the next part of the plan into action- trying to transfigure something so convincingly that it would seem that he had taken a human life on that night. It was hard, but he had to do it.  
  
Remus removed the curse on Chloe and helped her to her feet. She didn't look too pleased.  
  
"One got away." Mundungus growled, surveying their three captives in distaste.  
  
"We'll get him later." Remus said, raising his wand again. "In the meantime, let's move this lot before the family returns."  
  
*****  
  
That was my measly attempt at Snape spying and nightmares for two of the Gryffindor quartet...hope you liked it! Hey, Silvermoon- if you want to keep nagging me to update, why don't you review? It makes no sense! So everyone else, review please and I'll appreciate it forever! Thank you! 


	16. What's wrong with everyone?

A/N: WOOHOO! Oh yes! Your authoress has is finally done with exams and can concentrate on actually updating once in a while! Praise me people! **Takes bows** Lol, OK, seriously. Sozz it took so long to update, exams suck, but at least it's here now! And I don't have any more tests for a couple of months, so this should get running along smoothly!  
  
Disclaimer: Lives in the previous chapters!  
  
Dedication: All my reviewers and Silvermoon (Hello, I am Professor Alan Rickman, and I shall be taking you for Potions for the next year!). Also to Shelley annd Craig for the new arrival (can't wait to see her!). And, of course, my other friend Rainbow Dreamer- welcome to fanfiction.net!  
  
Harry Potter and the Crystal of Dreams.  
  
The sunshine poring through the latticed windows highlighted every dust mote floating around in the History of Magic classroom. It made Professor Binns droning seem even more lengthy and boring.  
  
Ron frowned in deep thought at the parchment in front of him beofre slowly lowering his quill to it and making an X mark on the nearly full grid. He slid it along to Harry next to him. Harry grinned and quickly drew a O- signalling his victory for the fiftieth time in a row. Ron groaned, not bothering to keep his noise low, and earned himself a reproaching glance from Hermione on his other side.  
  
"Is it me, or does this get more boring every year?" he asked. Harry snorted in laughter and even Hermione cracked a tiny smile, although she tried to hide it. Shannon, however, kept her watch out of the window. Something she'd been doing for the past half hour.   
  
Ron leaned over Hermione towards her. "You know, Shannon, you'd better point out whatever it is you find so interesting, because we sure as hell could do with some stimulation."  
  
Shannon started and whirled around quickly in her seat. Her eyes were wide and almost guilty, as if she'd just pulled a prank- except much more so. "I didn't do it." she stated, then blinked as his words started to make more sense. "Sorry. What?"  
  
"What's up Shannon?" Harry asked as Ron rolled his eyes at Shannon's answer. "You've been staring out of that window for just about the whole lesson."  
  
Shannon paused for a second, blinked, then shook her head with a small smile. "Like I'm supposed to be listening?" She gestured slightly towards Professor Binns at the front of the room. The ancient ghost was droning on about some battle between vampires and hags in the twelth century. This comment alerted Hermione, the only one of the quartet who seemed to be at least half listening to the lesson.  
  
"It might not be the most interesting of lessons, but how're you going to do the homework if you don't listen?" she whispered. This was met by three blank pairs of eyes.  
  
"Do. Home...work?" Shannon asked, pretending to be confused by the concept, thus earning a supressed laugh from both of the boys as well as a frown from Hermione.  
  
"Come of it Herm," Ron said to the girl next to him. "What's an essay on this going to be entitled? Bloodsucking leeches versus crumbling old women?"  
  
"I was leaning more towards 'Murderous monsters and Children-eating old bats' myself." Harry remarked. Hermione rolled her eyes irratatedly as Ron and Shannon grinned.  
  
"You may not think that this is important, but what about when the exams come around?" Hermione demanded. Shannon attempted to supress a genuine yawn and failed.  
  
Harry looked closely at her. Her eyes had lost some of their sparkle, and were heavily undershadowed with purple-blue and lines of tiredness. He knew he didn't look too great himself, and the other two also appeared a little worn-out, but Shannon the most so. She yawned a second time, then caught his eye and smiled.  
  
"'Scuse me," she said. "Must be all that late revision I'm doing."  
  
"But your O.W.L. notes have hardly been touched!" Hermione protested confusedly. Shannon stared at her blankly.  
  
"Who said I was revising O.W.L. work? Nah, I've got much more important work to do."  
  
"Yeah, Hermione," said Ron, somewhere between pretend outrage and mock-exasperation. "She's planning on blowing up Trelawney's tower next week! How can you expect her to revise schoolwork now?"  
  
"Exactly," said Shannon, giving Ron a smile and a nod. Then her face went blank again. "No! Not yet, anyways- first things first. Cornish pixies loose in Potions tomorrow."  
  
The boys laughed, but Hermione was, as usual, much more serious about it.  
  
"The way you're going, you'll probably get expelled by the end of the year!" she said despairingly. Shannon shook her head.  
  
"Nah, they wouldn't do that. With Fred and George leaving this year, they need me to liven the place up a little!"  
  
Hermione would have replied but the bell sounded then for the end of the lesson. The triumphant fifth years stampeeded out into the corridor, hardly bothering to pay attention to the homework essay on the lesson that Binns was explaining, oblivious that he was the only one listening. Everyone began to head off into the direction of the Hall, except Shannon.  
  
"Where are you off to, Shan?" Harry called. "The Hall's this way!"  
  
She turned back, eyes a little too wide for normal. She met managed to meet Harry's gaze and eventually smiled.  
  
"Ah, not hungry. As I said, revision. I'll meet up with you guys in Care of Magical Creatures, OK? We'll see what monstrousities Hagrid's cooked up now for us, eh?" She didn't wait for a reply, but headed off down the corridor at such a fast pace that she nearly collided with some first years headed for lunch. The original trio set off as well.  
  
"I'm a little worried about her." Hermione remarked as they served themselves with casserole.   
  
"Who?" Ron managed to question through a mouthful of food. Hermione raised an eyebrow but it was Harry who came back with the reply.  
  
"Short Irish girl by the name of Shannon Parks, ring any bells?"  
  
"How come?" Ron asked, frowning slightly.  
  
Hermione hesitated. "Let's say that I don't think she's been getting much sleep lately. Or at least, she keeps waking up."  
  
"How'd you know?" Harry asked.  
  
"I couldn't sleep the other night, so I was reading in bed." She squirmed slightly. "I know I shouldn't because of the O.W.L.s only being a little way off, but..."  
  
"Get to the point, Hermi." Ron said, although not unpleasantly.  
  
"Well, anyway. I was reading, and it must have been about two in the morning, when I heard Shannon start to toss and turn. This went on for about five minutes, then she screamed and woke up. It was so loud that I'm surprised Parvati and Lavender didn't wake up."  
  
"Told you she had a right pair of lungs on her." Ron remarked, shovelling more casserole into his mouth.  
  
Harry shrugged. "Maybe she had a bad dream or something." He didn't want to say that he had been experiencing nightmares about his parents. Terribly vivid dreams that racked him with inexpressible guilt and a fear of falling asleep in case he had to see them again.  
  
"But it wasn't just a one-off. It's happened before, quite a few times, but I didn't say anything till now." The prefect shook her head. "Maybe we should talk to her. If she suffers from nightmares, there's things Madam Pomfrey can give her. A sleeping draught or something."  
  
"Hey, if she wants to say anything to us, I'm sure she will." Ron said, helping himself to seconds.   
  
"I don't know," Hermione said, still concerned. "I'm not sure she would."  
  
"We'll go catch up with her in the library later on then," Harry suggested. The conversation died for a few minutes until the boys began to discuss Quidditch and Hermione chose to re-read her Charms O.W.L. notes.  
  
*****  
  
The common room looked so strange when it was empty at lunchtimes. Shannon glanced around it as she passed through and made her way up to her dormitory. As soon as she pushed open the door, Tiah opened one eye from where she dozed on the sunny windowledge and mewed in greeting. Shannon pressed a finger to her lips at the Kneazle and crossed over to her four poster. She crashed on it, face buried in the pillow.  
  
She nearly cried then, but managed to hold it in. She didn't deserve to cry- that's why she never had. A few deep breaths, a swallow, and then Shannon sat up, lips pressed tightly together. She reached over to the bedside cabinet and roughly pulled open the drawer, reaching in and removing her small dark purple book, a quill and a half-full bottle of red ink. She sniffed slightly, flipped to where her last entry ended and began to write in what had happened the night before.  
  
'I see her face so clearly sometimes. Sometimes I don't. I feel so bad because, every time, I don't want to see her, to hear her, to stand close to her. Because it's hard, very hard, to do that. It's my fault, and I feel so guilty. But I deserve it...'  
  
*****  
  
The fifth years were having another difficult lesson with some of Hagrid's new creations. After the Pyroxes turned cannibal and eliminated themselves, he had chosen to breed 'safer' creatures, thereby creating a mean-tempered cross between a Crup and a Tebo. Only Hagrid could find three-foot high, fat monsters with stumpy hooves, eight inch tusks protruding from a dog's snout and wart-covered ash-coloured hide adorable. The fifth years were at the end of their tether-  
  
AND it was only ten minutes into the lesson.  
  
Hagrid sidled over to where Harry, Hermione and Ron were attempting to avoid the choas yet look involved. His brow was somewhat furrowed in thought.  
  
"Had a quick count up," he said. "Think one's missin'. Where's Shannon?"  
  
"Here I am!"  
  
They all turned around to see Shannon, slightly red in the face from running from whever she had been. She pulled an apologetic face to Hagrid. "Sorry I'm late."  
  
"S'okay Shannon, s'long as yer here now." He gestured to the creatures, which were running rampant admist the class. "Cute, aren't they?"  
  
Shannon's eyebrows looked in danger of disappearing over her hairline. "Er...yeah."  
  
When Hagrid turned away, Ron muttered, "Yeah, we're having the time of our lives here."  
  
Shannon laughed in reply as she took up some of the Flobberworm lavae they had to try to get the creatures to eat.  
  
"Where were you?" Hermione asked. "We dropped by the library, but you weren't in there."  
  
Shannon looked at her and paused. "Uh...ill. I wasn't feeling too good, so I decided to go back to the dorm to rest."  
  
"Why not see Madam Pomfrey?"  
  
"Probably just 'girlie problems'." Shannon replied, using her fingers for the airquotes. "She'd want to keep me in for three months or something."  
  
The subject was promptly dropped.  
  
It was a good five or ten minutes before Harry decided to ask Shannon something away from the others.  
  
"Are you sure you're all right?" he murmured to her as they picked out frog brains from one of the huge barrels of possible food types. She raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Why wouldn't I be?" She sounded a little too defensive, even to her own ears.  
  
Harry shrugged, trying to keep casual. "You just seem pretty tired, you know. Exhausted."  
  
"O.W.L. stress." She shrugged as well. "After the exams, I'll be fine."  
  
She left then, attempting to grab a passing crup/tebo cross, leaving Harry alone and still in the dark.  
  
*****  
  
As soon as Hermione's heavy eyelids had dropped that night, she found herself standing on the wet concrete of a school playground. She glanced confusedly around and then, as her bearings improved, the old fear slowly set in.  
  
Oh god, she thought, I hoped I'd never see this place again.  
  
The building that was Heath Park Primary School for Girls loomed over to one side of her. Her old school. Her old prison of pain, of torment for her seven years there.  
  
"Hey Granger!"  
  
Hermione's complete body froze like she was a marble statue. Of course, the prison wouldn't be complete without the guards.  
  
Louise Bardot and Erica Lambert had advanced into her view, sadistically evil smiles on their eleven-year-old faces. Hermione blankly registered in some distant chamber of her numb mind that she herself seemed to feel smaller; weaker. She too was eleven. The bullies sniggered at her obvious fright as they halted inches from her.  
  
"We heard you got another set of full marks in the tests last week." Louise said silkily. There was a deadly pause and suddenly she lashed out, the sharp nails of her right hand scraping at the flesh of Hermione's cheek. Hermione tried to scream, but her voice couldn't be found.  
  
"Teacher's pet." Erica added. "Stuck-up little cow!"  
  
She punched Hermione so hard in the shoulder that she was knocked over, hitting the floor with a horribly jarring thud that sent shock waves up and down her outstretched hands and arms. Hermione tried to cower, to make her attackers pity her helplessness. Instead, they crowed with delight and moved in for the kill, with suddenly many more as back up, crowding to help hurt her. Classmates. Girls from all years, people she recognised, people she didn't. Everyone and anyone who hated her.  
  
Blows rained down upon her, bruising her arms, slashing her legs. Her hair was yanked around so roughly that her neck bones clicked unevenly and her vision swam in a nauseating dizziness. She couldn't scream as she was beaten; couldn't call for help as she bled.  
  
Just how it used to be before Hogwarts, except that then her voice, when she allowed herself to scream, could be found.  
  
And the worst thing was, her eyes wouldn't shut to let her attempt to try to ignore it. As much as she willed it, she couldn't not see the glow of malicious, feral glee in their eyes as they advanced.  
  
Then she felt a hand on her shoulder and a familiar voice calling her name.  
  
"Hermione? Hermione!"  
  
It was only then that she could phsyically look away. She sat bolt up right suddenly, shaking and gasping and sobbing...  
  
To find herself sitting in the empty common room with her Transfiguration essays strewn across the table in fron of her and Ron standing beside her, a hand on her shoulder and a concerned expression on his face.   
  
"Hermione? What's wrong? You fell asleep so I woke you up. It's half one in the morning."  
  
Taking deep and shaking breaths between her convulsive sobs, Hermione looked around the almost completely dark room. The familiarity should have comforted her, but the images still flashed in front of her. Without really thinking, she leapt to her feet and flung her arms around Ron.  
  
"Oh god, they...and they...just like before." She started to cry for real now, tears pouring down her cheeks. "Oh my god..."  
  
Ron was quite taken aback by the prefect flinging herself at him, but not in a completely bad way. He had no idea what was wrong, but he just held on to her and comforted her.  
  
"Who did what?" he asked, voice low and soothing. "you can tell me, it's alright."  
  
"I can't!" she sobbed. "They were going to kill me, they wanted to kill me..."  
  
He shushed her and let her cry her tears until there were no more left to cry.  
  
*****  
  
That was for all the R/H shippers out there. :-) And once again, I'd like to apologize majorly for the delay in updating! Argh, my disk deleted loads of work for the sake of it, then I have even MORE exams up...I'd go insane if I wasn't already! Anyways, enough excuses. Please review and tell me what you think! Toodles. 


	17. Intrusion.

A/N: Oh yes, another chapter! Whoohoo! **Does the dance of joy** Thanks to all who reviewed the last chapter and I don't really have much more to say but...enjoy! Oh, hang on a sec. Small note to my reviewers: No Ashley, I will not quit this story, so don't worry about it. hpfan1750- you will find out everyone's problems as it goes along, I promise.  
  
Disclaimer: If I owned the concept of Harry Potter, there would have been no film. It sucked, man!  
  
Dedication: Rainbow Dreamer (Hurry up and update already!) and Silvermoon (You too! I'm not taking no Internet as an excuse!). Lol, also everyone else who r/r this. You guys make my writing worth the bother of skipping revision! ;-D  
  
Harry Potter and the Crystal of Dreams.  
  
As the days dragged on, Harry noticed how gradually depressed everyone had become. Hermione seemed to immerse herself further into her revision, Ron in various activities like Exploding Snap and ignoring his revision, and Shannon spent ages writing in her small purple book. She wouldn't let anyone read it, and if somebody spoke to her during her process of scribbling down whatever it was, she appeared very startled.  
  
He was starting to wonder if he was the only sane person around.  
  
But what with homework and Quidditch practice still piling on into steadily growing heaps of work to be done, he knew that this sanity probably wasn't going to stick around much longer. It seemed to be a case of enjoying it whilst he could.  
  
Despite the best efforts of the prefects, the Gryffindor common room was still, as usual, a centre of chaos and noise. Maybe not to the degree it was in non-stressful-exam time, but it was still not exactly the best place to revise. In one of the centric tables sat Harry with Ron, Hermione and Shannon. Of course, Hermione seemed to be the only one truly frantic about the O.W.L.s, sorting through her stacks of revision notes, rifling past neatly organized piles of assignments, and generally looking stressed. Shannon was a little more laid-back about it all- she didn't panic when she couldn't remember all the details to something, and the only order her class notes were is was severe disorder. Harry seemed to slot in somewhere between the girls' states of minds, and Ron was seemingly the most indifferent of them all, taking his time to play yet another wizarding chess match against himself.  
  
"OK." Shannon said, flipping through the pages of her Defence textbook. She stopped at random and opened it fully up, skimming the information before looking back up with a grin at Hermione opposite her. "Hermione Granger, for a million galleons, tell me all you know about Imperio Phial Necklaces."  
  
Hermione took a deep breath and began to recite, "Imperio Phial Necklaces are a type of dark jewellery used to control the mind of the wearer for longer than a normal Imperius curse could probably be held for. They come in many different shapes and sizes, although they primarily consist of an imprisoned Imperius curse in a glass phial on a chain. These weapons for practitioners of the Dark Arts were banned in the year 1218, although it is believed that several Dark leaders, including Grindelwald, have used such artefacts to enlist supporters." There was a pause before Hermione added worriedly, "Was that right?"  
  
Shannon raised her eyes from the book, her grin long gone. In its place was an expression of pure horror and distress. Hermione winced at first, then clapped a hand to her mouth.  
  
"Oh no! I got it wrong, didn't I? Professor Delacour's going to fail me now!"  
  
"No." Shannon frowned at her. "I just wanted to know if you swallowed that textbook whole or chopped it into little pieces first, because-" Here she dumped the book onto the table and folded her arms. "You just recited it word perfect!"  
  
Hermione sighed in relief, and Harry and Ron laughed. Shannon pouted and turned to the boys.  
  
"How are we going to stand a chance if she's this good?" she demanded.  
  
"Here, I'll test you." Hermione offered, reaching for the textbook. However, Shannon merely shrugged.  
  
"Nah, don't worry about it. I didn't actually revise this one yet."  
  
"What?" Hermione almost yelled, but just managed to control her voice at the last moment. "Shannon, the test is in two weeks."  
  
"Hermione, look. The four key elements to passing a test are: quill, ink, notes and arm." She demonstrated by baring her arm and pretending to write on it.   
  
"Shannon! You can't cheat on your O.W.L.s!" Helplessly, she turned to Harry. "Harry, tell her."  
  
Before Harry could say anything though, Shannon had snapped, "Come off it Hermione! I was only joking!"  
  
Shannon's annoyed scowl faded slightly as she realised that all the people at their table were looking at her. With a small sigh, she put her hand to her forehead, then said, more quietly, "Sorry. I...I'm just really stressed is all."  
  
"Maybe we should do something other than revision." Harry suggested to break the silence. "We're all strung out. We could go play Quidditch or something."  
  
Hermione looked slightly disapproving, but said nothing and nodded. Ron glanced outside.  
  
"Too dark." He announced. "Shame we don't have those muggle things Dean was on about the other day...floodlights or whatever he called them...hey, why don't we play chess or something."  
  
Shannon stood up. "I appreciate it guys, but I should really get some sleep." She yawned. "Night."  
  
They all replied in a similar fashion, and Shannon wove her way through the crowds to the girls' dormitory staircase, which she then began to climb. As soon as she was out of sight, conversation resumed- with her as the topic.  
  
"I think she's worrying about something at home." Hermione said. Chewing her lip and contemplating briefly, she leaned in and lowered her voice to say, "Did you know her mum was dead?"  
  
The boys blinked in simultaneous surprise, then shook their heads. Hermione sighed and added, "Don't tell her I told you, because I wasn't supposed to. Just don't mention it, OK?"  
  
They agreed, just before Ron asked, "Why weren't you supposed to say anything?"  
  
Hermione sighed, running a hand through her bushy mane. "She just told me that she doesn't want unnecessary sympathy for something she can't even remember." She shrugged. "She seemed OK with talking about it, just a little hesitant. I don't think that's what's bothering her, though."   
  
"She's getting really withdrawn just lately." Harry said. "If she won't tell us what's wrong, what else can we do?"  
  
"Maybe." Hermione sighed. "Look, maybe she'll be OK soon. Sure, it's weird, but if she's the same after the O.W.L.s, we'll check it out, yeah?"  
  
Ron agreed and so, rather reluctantly, did Harry. But not even thirty seconds had fully gone by when Harry was suddenly struck with an idea.  
  
*****  
  
Deep within the broken, rundown old house that had become the hideout for evil, Lord Voldemort paced before the few assembled Death Eaters, an evil smirk twisting his chalky features.  
  
"Soon, my loyal Death Eaters, soon we shall have our chance." Voldemort told them in his low hissing voice. "Within the following month, I shall kill Harry Potter and resume my conquest! For," Here he laughed, a hideous, rasping sound. "Did I not take from him that flimsy protection his mudblood mother provided him with when we first met last year at my rebirth?"  
  
"Yes, master." the assembled chorused in an eager unison.  
  
"But," Voldemort continued. "For the fish to be caught, is bait not needed? We shall get the bait we need in the form of one close to him; anyone he cares greatly for. Potter, the noble Gryffindor filth, is surely not going to allow one of his friends to suffer a horrible fate at our wicked hands, is he?"  
  
The Dark Lord's servants laughed along with him. Voldemort himself turned to the table on which his weapon sat, cushioned on a dark velvet cloth.  
  
"And then," he hissed, eyes glowing ruby in vindictive delight . "We shall crush first the two sixteen-year-old brats then the rest of the mudbloods and muggle lovers up in that castle. And it's all thanks to this new toy."  
  
He lifted it closer to his face, about level with his eyes to study it closer. Only he, Nagini, Wormtail and a few of his oldest and most trusted Death Eaters knew of it. For there were spies in the ranks, spies he knew existed yet was not absolutely sure of whom just yet. Soon he would though. Those who were suspected were not of his innermost circle and so could not betray his plans. But still they would pay the ultimate price for daring to even think that they could rebel against he, Lord Voldemort, the Dark Lord himself.  
  
A gruesome and painful death was in store for them.  
  
Gathering up all of the power his brilliant mind held, he concentrated on his weapon hard. He began to chant in a language so slippery and hissing he may have been speaking Parseltongue.  
  
A few wisps of a hellish black smoke, tinged with red, began to rise within the prismatic surfaces of his weapon...  
  
*****  
  
It was a good thing that the Invisibility Cloak over his head prevented anyone from seeing him to question why he was headed for the girl's dormitory staircase.  
  
Harry didn't even really know why himself anymore.  
  
It seemed stupid, he realised as he crept up the staircase, to think that Shannon's distant behaviour required investigation. Especially at quarter to three in the morning, when the fifth year girls were currently all in there asleep. He had, at first, thought to come up during a class or something, whilst nobody was around.  
  
But something had driven him here now, to pace along the landing corridor until he reached the carved oaken door with a sign proclaiming "Fifth Year Girls" in elegant gold letters. He paused, ear close to it, listening. Nothing from inside.   
  
Gingerly, he twisted the knob and began to edge the door open. There was no scream; no bolt of lightning; to sudden apparition to drive him back.  
  
Courage strengthening, he pushed the door open wider, slipped into the room ahead, and shut the door behind him with a very slight click.  
  
The only illumination in the room came from a sliver of moonlight falling across the floor through a large chink in the thick draperies hanging at one of the open windows and a dim glow from under the door of the en-suite bathroom. The room looked almost like a mirror image of his own dormitory, except for the changes in posters and pictures, and the fact that there were only four beds here instead of five. He began to move closer to the beds. The hangings on all of them were drawn completely shut.  
  
He used what was around the beds to judge who slept where. Lavender's hesitant sleep talking also eliminated the first bed on the left. The stacked-up copies of Teen Witch and excessive cosmetics and jewellery took out the next bed as Parvati's, whereas the bed right on the other end seemed to be Hermione's due to the extensive schoolwork. Which left the bed in between these to be Shannon's. He approached it.  
  
There wasn't a lot on top of her bedside cabinet. A half-full bottle of black ink. A few used and broken quills. A hairbrush with a few hairbands tied around the handle. Then two photographs. One was of Shannon and Hannah outside a strange, foreign-looking house, smiling happily. He realised that the Shannon here was the skinny twelve-year-old with braces, whilst Hannah in the picture was little more than a toddler. Obviously it was a couple of years old- probably taken in Italy.  
  
He thought the second picture was of Shannon too, at first. It looked more like the one he knew anyway. The girl was laughing at something the picture didn't show, her dark brown hair falling in a long river behind her, her blue eyes twinkling.  
  
Blue eyes?  
  
It wasn't Shannon then- her eyes were a teal mix. Now that he thought of it, the girl seemed a bit too old to be Shannon. Closer to twenty than sixteen. He remembered what Hermione had told him and Ron earlier, and realised it could be her mother. He took his eyes away from the girl and slowly pulled open the drawer of the cabinet.  
  
This was more full- a hastily thrown in pile of notebooks and half-finished assignments, letters in both English and Italian and discarded stationary. And lying on top of it...  
  
Bingo.  
  
Shannon's small battered purple book of writing lay on top of the pile.  
  
Pausing briefly, he listened for noise and then, hearing none, lowered the cloak so it rested over his shoulders and took the book gently into his hands. He realised then what the golden lettering on the cover read.  
  
Dream Book.  
  
Opening it near the beginning, he started to read an entry dated from the tenth of September.  
  
'It seems just as though I haven't been away.' the entry began. 'Everything seems just the same, apart from the workload. That, of course, is steadily increasing.  
  
'I found myself talking to Joe again today. Strange that we never really knew each other that well until we came here, despite both living in Kilmare. Eileen, I told myself, it's one of those things.'  
  
Harry broke off then. Eileen, the girl had called herself, and referred to a boy called Joe. Then he saw the handwriting was smooth and flowing, quite unlike Shannon's untidy scrawl. His eyes slid involuntarily to the laughing girl in the picture. Eileen must be Shannon's mother.  
  
Feeling immensely guilty at his prying, he somehow didn't put the book down as he so desired. Instead, he flipped through chunks of the pages until he reached a familiar looking place, thankfully filled with Shannon's unmistakable writing. He began to read again, halfway down the entry for the third of May. Not that long ago.  
  
'I think I'm going mad. These dreams, they're getting almost too much. Sometimes I just wish I was back at Venzone with Dario and Francessca, when it was all really quite simple. Or even back in Kilmare, when everything was even simpler. I miss all the girls back in Ireland. Can't wait to see them next time we visit.  
  
'But I'm going off track, even though the fact that I miss them is probably what's causing it. Last night I dreamed that I was back in primary school in Kilmare. At first, it was OK. I was hunting around the playground for my friends when Elsie came up, looking unhappy. When I asked what was up, she asked angrily why I hadn't told her. When I asked what she meant, her only response was, "You know what, Shannon. What you did."  
  
'That scared me because I knew what she meant. I tried to run, but I was faced by Sarah, Tess and Roxy, all just as grim as Elsie. Turning around, I could see Frankie, Dario, all the cousins and relatives from both sides of my family, and even Hannah. Then they all asked, in one horrible voice, "Why you k-"'  
  
"What the heck are you doing in here?" a low voice asked from his right. He started, dropping the book and whirling around to face...   
  
Shannon.  
  
She stood half in the moonlight, an expression of tired confusion on her face. Her dark hair was wildly toloused around her head, and she was already in her nightclothes. Harry realised she must have been in the bathroom the whole time. And as she came towards him, he couldn't move.   
  
"Harry, what are you-" Her voice trailed off as she looked down at the book on the floor and recognised it. She halted and raised horrified eyes to his. Horrified and angry.  
  
"What the hell were you doing? Tell me you weren't...you were, weren't you?" Her voice was slowly rising and it was all she could do just to not try to awaken anyone else. Still, she almost shrieked her next words.  
  
"How dare you? You have no right to go through my stuff, and especially no right to read that!" Swooping down, she snatched up the book and clutched it tight in her left hand until her knuckles went white. "What did you think you were playing at Harry?"  
  
Two beds away, Lavender mumbled something in her sleep and shifted over. Both of them looked fearfully towards the bed of the gossip queen, relieved when nothing more happened, and then returned to the confrontation.  
  
"Shannon, I didn't mean...I'm sorry, I just wanted to..." He couldn't explain the worry he had felt about her, or how he just wanted to halp. He realised that Shannon's right hand was clenching and unclenching as she struggled not to hit him.   
  
Her voice low and poisonous, she hissed, "Get out of my sight, Harry Potter. I hate you!"  
  
He had no choice but to obey.   
  
As he arrived back in his own dark, quiet dormitory, the only thing he felt was the numbness of regret.  
  
*****  
  
Not exactly a cliffhanger, but oh well. Review please and I'll update ASAP! Thank you! 


	18. A Quidditch Final and Reconcilliation

A/N: Oh yes, go me! Holidays are finally here! And so is the next chapter of this wonderful (yeah right!) story! Feel special, people! OK, one of my reviewers called animorph suggested about the rating. Iam going to ask some friends' opinions, and the rating may possibly go up to PG. It will not go any higher than this! Really it's just between those two ratings, so just to make sure...but I hope this won't put any of you off.  
  
Disclaimer: Me no do disclaimers!!!  
  
Dedications: Oh heck, all my reviewers again. To hpfan1750- I agree, they are kinda depressing, aren't they? Well, for the moment anyways. I really do apologise for lack of updates.  
  
Harry Potter and the Crystal of Dreams.  
  
Somehow, and Harry swore he'd never know how, the teachers managed to squeeze the Gryffindor/Slytherin Quidditch final into the busy schedule. When the Saturday before the pending exam week dawned, Harry felt as though a mass of Slytherin serpents were writhing full-heartedly in his guts.  
  
It didn't help that his mind was torn between the final, the weird dreams, his O.W.L.s, and the fact that the newest member of their quartet was no longer speaking to him. For the last week or so, Shannon had ignored him completely, not listening to or responding to what he had to say, and looking right through him when he was in front of her. Hermione said that she just needed time to cool down, which was (she said, with a small frown of disapproval at him) perfectly reasonable. Harry despaired because, no matter how many times he tried to apologise, his actions were automatically spurned. Ron thought that everything would sort itself out soon enough, although Harry noticed his friend's confidence in this gradually diminishing every day that passed with the rift still intact.  
  
And then there were the dreams. Harry didn't want to even admit it to himself, but they had been becoming steadily more horrific. He saw his parents, his friends, even people he hardly recognised from around school, dying painfully and slowly...either at his own hands or the hands of Voldemort, unable to stop it. And every time he saw the torturous deaths, he would awake with his scar blazing in a pain that threatened to burst open his skull.   
  
So, thanks to this ever-growing mound of problems the Fates had decided to dish up for him, it was no surprise that he wouldn't eat. However, due to extensive protests, he picked at a piece of toast, shooting occasional looks across at Shannon, working her way methodically and steadily through a plate of fried food. She kept her eyes firmly averted to her plate and her concentration outside of the Quidditch talk. Eventually, just as he was about to raise enough courage to speak to her, she stood up abruptly, turning to leave.  
  
"Shannon?" he asked. She ignored him. Hermione looked up at this.  
  
"Shannon, aren't you coming with us to the stands?" she asked. "Are you going to catch up with us later?"  
  
"No, I have some Arithmancy work to do." She shrugged. "I'll skip the match."  
  
"What?" Ron yelled, horrified at the mere thought. "You can't miss a Quidditch final, especially not one between Gryffindor and Slytherin! It goes against...well, everything good in the world! You're getting worse than Hermione!"  
  
"Ron!" Hermione snapped.  
  
Shannon laughed slightly. "Sorry guys, Dad is gonna kill me if my grades for the O.W.L.s aren't high enough, and I'd really like to see my next birthday. Catch you later."  
  
They watched her leave, the doors banging shut behind her. At that moment, Malfoy halted briefly in walking past, flanked by his usual cronies and an additional gang of Slytherins. He sneered at the Gryffindors, all chattering animatedly.  
  
"Enjoy this whilst you can, Potter," he said coldly. "You're about to make an idiot of yourself in front of the whole school."  
  
Harry met his eyes levelly and smiled with equal coldness. In a hostile voice, he replied simply, "Don't count on it."  
  
*****  
  
Angelina gripped the hand of Kurt Baddock, the new Slytherin captain, quickly before dropping it again. Madam Hooch was darting quick glances between the two, ignoring the roaring crowds in the surrounding seats.  
  
"I want a good clean game, as always," she said simply, making sure her every word was clear. "No fouling at all, under any circumstances."  
  
Baddock leered at Angelina, and she didn't attempt to hide her disgust. Harry glanced across at Malfoy, who smirked hatefully at him before looking away.  
  
"Mount your brooms..." Madam Hooch was saying. "On my whistle. Three...two...one..."  
  
There was a short, sharp blast on the silver whistle in her hand and the fourteen players rose into the sky. Harry looked around, slightly giddy with excited nerves, at the huge banners and streamers admist the colourful supporters. Anyone decked out in red, blue or yellow was cheering the Gryffindors on, whilst those in green were Slytherin fans.  
  
And, of course, no match, final or not, would be complete without Lee Jordan's commentating.  
  
"So here we are," he yelled via the magical megaphone. "At the Quidditch final in which Gryffindor are totally going to kick Slytherin's a-"  
  
Harry grinned as he faintly heard McGonagall scream, "Jordan!"  
  
"Alright, fine. Gryffindor will kick Slytherin's PROSTERIOR, as my human rights to freedom of speech are being mauled...no, sorry Professor, just kidding!"  
  
Immediately, Harry began to scan the pitch for any sign of the Golden Snitch. The best thing to do, he decided, is to take Angelina's advice in the changing rooms and end the match as quickly as I can. His grin widened as he remembered the twins' protests that they wanted to beat the Slytherins as long as they could.  
  
"OK, the Quaffle is in Gryffindor possession at once, taken by Chaser Katie Bell. She passes neatly to Alicia Spinnet, who shoots straight back. Pass to Angelina Johnson, who takes aim and...dammit! She misses, due to a save on the part of Keeper Avery. Is it just me, or does this guy look like a gorilla more every year?"  
  
The roar of positive response from the mixed crowd of Gryffindor supporters almost drowned out McGonagall's fury. Avery scowled in Lee's direction.  
  
"The Quaffle now seized up by Chaser Strakus of Slytherin. He passes it to Bornholm, who throws to Pritchard. Pritchard to Strakus and back...whoohoo! Nice interception there by Katie Bell! You go, girl! She passes to Johnson, Johnson to Bell. Spinnet- Johnson- back again- no! Pritchard of Slytherin snatches it away. He zooms up the pitch there...damn, ducks the Bluder Fred Weasley sent his way, and...oh no! Slytherin score!"  
  
Harry's stomach dropped a notch at this announcement, and the disappointment of three quarters of the school was obvious. Still no sign of the Snitch for either him or Malfoy. Malfoy glared at him at this point, smirking viciously.  
  
"Give up now, Potter!" he called. Harry scowled back.  
  
"And miss the chance to beat you? Not likely, Malfoy!"  
  
"You never had the chance in the first place!"  
  
Harry turned away them, determination to find the Snitch renewed greatly.  
  
*****  
  
Shannon stood at the largest window in the Gryffindor Tower, squinting out in the direction of the Quidditch pitch. It was partially obscured, and she could barely make out the players zooming around apart from their brightly-coloured robes. She sighed and pressed her face closer to the glass, her breath making steamy clouds on the cooler panes.  
  
I must be the only person up here, she thought. How stupid am I?  
  
Not very, a second voice in her mind replied. You could be down there if Harry hadn't come up into the dorm and read your dream book...  
  
What did he read though? Shannon asked herself. I don't know, and the only thing he's bothered me about all week is getting me to talk to him.  
  
But it was still wrong, the second voice added. He still...well, he went up there and read it. If you hadn't have found him...  
  
Well, I'm not suffering because of him, Shannon decided as she pulled back from the window. I can still go there and watch a match and support my House, and I don't have to talk to him or cheer for him specifically.  
  
Resolved, Shannon left the room.  
  
*****  
  
If Harry had thought the Gryffindor/Slytherin Quidditch final in his third year was a dirty game, it was nothing compared to how this match was turning out. Fifteen minutes on and neither Seeker had found the Snitch, but Slytherin had found two more goals and Gryffindor only one.  
  
"so here we are," Lee groaned. "The score is thirty-ten to Slytherin, and the Quaffle is in possession of Bornholm. He passes to-wait! Katie Bell of Gryffindor intercepts and zooms away! Nice one, Katie! Passes to Spinnet- passes to Johnson- Johnson dodges Beaters George Weasley and Bole, swerves Strakus. She's approaching the goalposts now- COME ON ANGELINA! She prepares, she- THAT WAS DELIBERATE!"  
  
Samuel Bornholm had swooped down on Angelina just as she prepared shoot, slamming his broom into her so hard that she dropped the Quaffle and very nearly fell off of her broom, which was sent spinning dangerously away from her previous position. She looked badly winded, from Harry's position at the other end of the pitch, and Madam Hooch was flying over, looking as outraged as Lee Jordan sounded.  
  
"YOU CHEATING SCUMBAG! YOU ROTTEN, LOW-DOWN...WHOO! GO FRED!"  
  
Fred Weasley had shot down as Madam Hooch awarded a penalty to Gryffindor and slammed his club so hard into the back of Bornholm's head that he fell of of his broom, only clinging on by his fingers. The screech of the woman's whistle was heard by everyone present and probably some not.  
  
"A penalty to Gryffindor for the attack on their Chaser, and one to Slytherin for the attack on THEIR Chaser!" she yelled, as Bornholm clambered back onto his broom.  
  
Angelina easily scored past the Slytherin Keeper, causing much whooping from Lee that was only beaten by the noise when Bornholm's shot was deflected by a spectacular save from Geoga.  
  
Harry knew that he had to get the Snitch soon. The Slytherin team were good, and steadily getting better. He was still staying near to Malfoy, observing his every move as closely as he could whilst still aware of his surroundings enough to look for the golden ball himself. Not an easy task even if you cut off the rest of the match as he had.   
  
In an obvious attempt to loose him, Malfoy twisted his direction off quickly towards the Gryffindor stands. Harry followed, intent on Malfoy until, out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a dark-haired figure weaving their way to the front of the stands. It could have been anyone at all, but, for some reason, his senses told him different...  
  
"Shannon?" he wondered aloud, voice no more than a whisper to himself. Suddenly, Lee's loud, frantic voice cut into his hesitation.  
  
"And Slytherin Seeker Malfoy makes a dive! HAS HE SEEN THE SNITCH?"  
  
Harry automatically jerked his broom around to see, horror seeping through his veins, Malfoy already about twelve feet below him, a malicious smirk twisting his pale features.  
  
  
Immediately, Harry pushed his broom into a dangerous nose-dive angle and sped off, pushing his Firebolt to its limits to catch up with his blonde counterpart.  
  
"And Gryffindor Seeker Potter is steadily catching up on Malfoy..."  
  
The noise of everyone around him seemed to blur as much as the scenery as he whizzed past. The only things that were clear to him were Malfoy and the golden glimmer of the Snitch ahead.  
  
He was five foot from Malfoy...two foot...level...  
  
Malfoy suddenly slammed his broom against Harry's to try to knock him aside. Harry clung on grimly and returned the jolt, with the same lack of success.  
  
"Prepare to loose, Potter!" he hissed. Harry ignored him, forcing his broom even further.  
  
He reached out for the Snitch just as Malfoy did. They were completely equal: both about half an inch from victory, both too obscured by the other to succeed. Then Malfoy's arm shot out, reaching as far as possible, and his fingers...  
  
Just brushed the surface of the ball.  
  
Past the Snitch, Harry could see the ground hurtling towards them at a terrifying speed. Then suddenly, he had an idea...  
  
As the earth neared them even more, he jumped.  
  
Jumped from his Firebolt, although still clutching it in his left hand, and threw himself towards the Snitch. His right hand felt the smooth, cool gold, and then he fell to the ground. The Snitch beat its tiny wings feebly against his palm.  
  
The match was over.  
  
The crowd was in an uproar. Harry could barely think, the reality of what had happened scarcely dawning as his team landed, launching themselves on him in a laughing, sobbing heap. He ached horribly from the fall, but it didn't stop him grinning as they helped him up to the stands, through the waves of supporters streaming down to congratulate them. Through the confusion of bodies and noise, they made it to the stands, to lift the Quidditch Cup, victorious once more.  
  
And when Harry looked down for his friends, he saw all of them there. All of them. Even Shannon.  
  
And he grinned even wider.  
  
*****  
  
Shannon sat huddled on a chair, viewing the celebrations filling the common room with a happy smile. She'd never actually seen anything this big before: in her old school, the muggle town just below them at the foot of the mountains meant that Quidditch matches were usually few and far between as a precaution. Everybody here was just so...euphoric. People were laughing and chatting and dancing. Fred and George had even disappeared down to the kitchens to get some food for them (although she was staying well away from anything that looked like a prank).  
  
A small thud alerted her and she looked around to see Harry placing a bottle of Butterbeer on the table in front of her. He was watching her with an expression almost like a worried animal: fearful and ready to run at the sign of danger. Without thinking about it, her heart softened in pity for him, although she kept her voice at a not-so-friendly tone.  
  
"Hello."  
  
"Hi." He gestured to the seat next to her. "Is anyone sitting here?"  
  
She shook her head. "No. You can sit there if you want to."  
  
He did so, with a small smile, and there was a silence between them for a few moments. Shannon took to offered drink and opened it, taking a few swigs before talking again.  
  
"Nice win." she congratulated. He seemed to be relaxing just slightly.  
  
"Thanks." Then he took a deep breath. "Look, Shannon, I'm so, so s-"  
  
"Sorry." she finished for him. She nodded at his surprised look. "Yeah, I know."  
  
"I really mean it, Shannon. I...I know I shouldn't have been up there, but I wanted to see if there was anything I could do to help you-"  
  
"By reading something of mine that was private?"  
  
"I- I wanted to understand what was happening. I was wrong, and I'm sorry, but please, please can you try to forgive me?"  
  
Shannon studied him for a long while before cracking a small smile. "Alright. I guess I can try. Although I'm not promising anything immediate."  
  
Harry looked immensely relieved, and happy as well. "Thank you so much, Shan."  
  
"Although..." she said slowly, causing him to glance rapidly at her, which made her grin. "If you were to do me a favour...say, get me some of that chocolate over there, it might help how fast I forgive you."  
  
*****  
  
Lord Voldemort stroked Nagini's head almost lovingly as he sat upon his throne, musing whilst devoid of human company. The great acid-green snake hissed to him.  
  
"Soon, Nagini," he replied. "As soon as an opportunity presents itself, we shall take it."  
  
Nagini stared up at her master, making a noise as if to ask when such a thing should be.  
  
"We must be patient, my friend." the Dark Lord replied. "Without patience, this plan will not work. But I swear that, when one of his friends is alone and can be seized for bait, Potter will come to his fate. And then," Here he broke off briefly, grinning evilly down at the snake, "You shall feast upon his corpse."  
  
Nagini's large eyes sparked with wicked delight and anticipation.  
  
*****  
  
OK people, another chapter done! Review please! And please be patient for new chapters, I promise I'll update as soon as I can, but I'm usually really busy. Again, major apologies! 


	19. Nobody said Exams were Easy

A/N: Howdy! Yep, I'm back, and here's another chapter...enjoy! ;-D  
  
Disclaimer: Most of it is property of J.K. Rowling the supreme ruler/dictator of everything!  
  
Dedication: All my reviewers once again- you guys are what keeps me writing! Oh, and Ashley, I hope you didn't hurt yourself by nearly falling out of your chair. Lol, it wasn't that shocking, was it? OK, maybe it was, but I do try to update as much as possible! Blame my workload...  
  
Harry Potter and the Crystal of Dreams.  
  
The exam week cast a shadow of silence and solemnity over the school, dampening any form of high spirits whatsoever. The fifth years were finding things exceptionally tough as they reached the peak of all the pressure that the teachers had placed on them for the entire year, and they certainly didn't envy the seventh years, who (including Fred and George) were under about twice the strain. However, the twins and Lee didn't seem to be showing it as much, still managing to charm a sign reading 'KICK ME' in glittering capitals to follow Snape around and to blow up Filch's broom closet with Dungbombs, causing a smell so bad that people found it hard to breath in the entrance hall for the entire day.  
  
And that was just on the beginning Monday.  
  
The gang emerged from their Transfiguration exam last thing on Monday, as worn out and despondent as the rest of their class after the two and a half hour exam. Not only was there a theory paper, filled with a good twenty pages of difficult questions, but the practical task of turning a cushion into a cat was horrible.  
  
"Well," Shannon said carefully. "At least my cat was unique."  
  
"What happened?" Harry asked, thinking of his own cat, furred in plush red velvet.  
  
Shannon grimaced. "Have you seen a cat with tassels for claws?"  
  
"No."   
  
"Let's just say that I don't think McGonagall will forget it in a while."  
  
That day had also heralded a Defense Against the Dark Arts paper on several Dark magic tools, as well as revisions on creatures and other topics from the four years before this one. Harry's mind had been a seething, confused mass of werewolves, strange crystals and curses. He was already dreading the next few days.  
  
History of Magic was no big surprise- they had about an hour and a half to complete an essay on the formation of the Ministry of Magic, expected to be at least six feet long.  
  
"Six feet!" Seamus moaned afterwards. "I don't think my hand's ever going to be the same again!" Several agreed readily.  
  
Care of Magical Creatures was one of the easier tests, with an hour to care for a Krup/Tebo cross each as well as a short theory paper. As Hagrid knew little about this species he'd invented, the questions were very simple and they all completed them very quickly. And Charms, with their test on temporary infatuation spells, turned out to be the funniest when Neville accidentally put his spell on Trevor the toad. It had to be the only time Trevor hadn't been keen on hopping away on a bid for freedom, Harry decided when he saw the fight the animal gave when Flitwick tried to remove him from the classroom.  
  
Their moods were soon sobered during the Potions exam, when Snape called upon them to concoct a 'Disorientation Draught'- something the fifth years were certain that he'd just invented to spite them. And when they had to test them on each other...it seemed that Harry had overdone his potion in nerves when Hermione looked ready to faint any second and had to visit the hospital wing immediately after the exam as Snape refused to provide any antidote for anyone.   
  
The girls emerged from their Arithmancy room first thing on Thursday morning, and Harry was sure he'd never seen Shannon looked so shell shocked in all the time he'd known her. Hermione was white-faced in the aftermath of nerves as well, and they both refused to speak of the exam past the words, 'number charts'.  
  
"Wish I'd never taken this stupid subject," Shannon muttered, then shook her fist at the ceiling. "Damn you, Frankie!" She then proceeded to flee from the scene of the exam, gaining some very weird looks from passers by.  
  
The last exam for Ron, Shannon and Harry was Divination again, whilst Hermione headed for Ancient Runes. The students were called up one at a time alphabetically to the attic-like room for a one-on-one Tarot reading assessment. Each student seemed to have about five minutes to do this, and so the trio had a good while to check through their textbooks for a quick revision. As her surname was Parks, Shannon was the first of the three to be called up.  
  
"Wish me luck." she observed grimly before she climbed the ladder through the trapdoor. The boys waited with baited breath until she eventually emerged again, looking quite relieved.  
  
"Thank god that's all over." she told them as Parvati went up. "Whoohoo!" She punched the air in triumph. "No more O.W.L.s!"  
  
"Alright, no need to gloat!" Ron muttered, shaking his head as she grinned at them.  
  
After Parvati came down the ladder, it was Harry's turn. He had a hard time keeping up the mantra in his mind ('One more exam then it's all over') once the sweltering heat and strong perfumes of the classroom hit him. He walked over to the desk that Trelawney sat at, staring up at him with her outsized eyes, and seated himself in the armchair opposite her.  
  
"Ah, Harry," she murmured airily, as she motioned to the Tarot deck to her right. "To pass this exam, you must complete a simple formation reading for yourself, and explain to me what it means. You may begin when ready."  
  
Harry drew the cards into his hands and shuffled them a little as he remembered, before starting to lay out one of the basic formations. Eventually, he lay down the unused ones and turned over the first card. An ancient skeleton grinned up at him as it clutched an hourglass.  
  
"It's Death," he told her. "Uh, that means change."  
  
Slightly unerved by the realistic picture, he continued. However, the bony hands and bare teeth kept creeping into his mind, and he found concentration difficult. It was no surprise that he was glad when he was done with the last card and sat back in the chair.  
  
"Yes, thank you my dear," Trelawney said, seeming preoccupied. Not that that was anything different- Harry had a good idea what was coming next. And if he'd ever made an accurate prediction, it was this one.  
  
"I myself completed a reading before this exam began, and do you know what I saw?" She pulled her jangling shawl tighter around herself and peered at him in a mystical type of fear. "There will be a death soon! Within these walls!"  
  
Harry supressed a roll of his eyes and a sarcastic comment, instead nodding and saying, "Well, there are more people waiting for their exam, so I'd better leave."  
  
Trelawney studied him long and sadly. "It is my unfortunate duty to bear such news. Yes, you may leave."  
  
Harry did so, and eagerly too.  
  
After him, there was one more person until Ron's turn. Harry sat next to Shannon on the top stair of the set leading down from the Divination room as they waited for their friend to finish.  
  
"Ever wonder why you took this up?" Shannon asked with a raised eyebrow.  
  
He shrugged. "Sometimes, when I'm having my particularly nasty death predicted at me every two minutes."  
  
She laughed slightly. "Surely she should know when we don't believe a word she says?"  
  
"Evidently not." They both laughed, until it settled into a companionable silence. Shannon settled her gaze out of the window onto the sunny lawns out there, and Harry found himself looking at her, thoughts absorbed in her. He didn't notice himself moving a little closer to her...  
  
Suddenly, there was a clatter as Ron stumbled down the ladder and jumped the last few rungs. The noise made both of them look round suddenly, and Shannon was the first to stand.  
  
"Have fun?" she asked, in a slightly teasing tone.  
  
Ron rolled his eyes. "I don't think she believed my answers."  
  
"Was it the old Divination stand-by?" Harry asked, with a mock-serious expression.  
  
The redhead grinned. "Yeah."  
  
"And you wonder why..."  
  
They started off towards the Ancient Runes corridor, chattering and laughing until Shannon made a noise of pain and put her hand to her head. Harry was the first to ask if she was alright.  
  
"Yeah, I'll be OK soon." She grimaced. "Are you sure that's insence she burns in there?" This earned her a laugh. "Listen, I might go out on my broom for a while actually. Y'know, just to clear my head. I'll see you later."  
  
The boys nodded and bid her goodbye before she set off in the opposite direction, off towards the common room and her dormitory.   
  
*****  
  
Shannon hummed a little tune to herself as she made her way down towards the lake, near the Forbidden Forest. For the first time in ages, she was starting to feel really happy. The exams were over and she had a while till the results came in, so for now at least she was free. She laughed quietly to herself, sighing contentedly and wondering where she should fly.   
  
There's just so much space in the sky, she mused. Wait a moment- am I starting to sound sane?  
  
I hope not.  
  
By this time, she had reached the gently sloping bank of the lake closest to the Forest. At the moment, nobody was around, but they might appear later on. There was barely a moment in between when she stopped and when she mounted the broom, so eager was she to begin flying. When she kicked off and began to rise, she felt the exhilration rise in her stomach; the elation of just being able to comply to nobody's rules but her own.  
  
So absorbed in flying was she, that Shannon Parks didn't notice the incantation hurled from the Forbidden Forest until it was too late.  
  
*****  
  
"Didn't she say where she was going?"  
  
Harry shrugged at Hermione's question. "She said she wanted to go out on her broom for a bit."  
  
"Harry, that was at least two hours ago! Are you sure?" The prefect chewed somewhat worriedly on a lock of her curly hair.  
  
"Yeah. I..." Harry tried to ignore the sense of dread in his stomach, which had grown thanks to Hermione's incessant questions. He shook his head. "I'm sure she's fine."  
  
"Yeah Hermione," Ron replied. "She probably met up with the twins and went to blow up a toilet or something..."  
  
"I don't know..." Hermione chewed her lip absently, then shook her head. "Maybe we should check. Where might she go?"  
  
"Out on her broom?" Ron said in a sarcasticly slow way. To Harry, he said, "You'd think she'd pick it up after the first hundred times or so, wouldn't you?"  
  
Hermione narrowed her eyes at this but said nothing in reply. "I'll check the library. Harry, you look outside on the lawns. Ron, you can check the kitchens."  
  
Ron rolled his eyes at this but didn't take much convincing. Hermione was blatantly concerned, and Harry was starting to feel the same...  
  
So this was how, fifteen minutes later, he found himself wandering the grounds. He'd checked the Quidditch pitch, checked with Hagrid (and avoided whatever he was now breedding), and checked almost everywhere except down by the lake- which was where he was headed now. He'd encountered quite a few students, none of whom had seen Shannon, but down here it was quiet and empty. He scanned the ground and the air as he made his way closer to the water, shimmering in the early evening sun.  
  
"Shannon!" he called. "Hey, Shan, where are you?"  
  
Then he saw it.  
  
A small shape further off, carelessly heaped in the grass. With a frown, he picked up sped and half-jogged towards it. He recognised it immediately.  
  
A broomstick.  
  
Looks a bit like Shannon's, he thought. Hmm, I wonder...  
  
He crouched beside it to get a better view, and reached out towards it, intending to pick it up to take a closer inspection. His fingertips just brushed the smooth wooden surface of the handle...  
  
When there was a sudden lurching in his stomach as the broom dragged Harry Potter from the ground into a confusing whirl of colour.  
  
*****  
  
Ooh, almost Voldie time! Review please- again, sorry for no updates lately, I have been really busy! But hopefully there'll be more soon...so please, click the button below and tell me what you think! 


	20. Battle

A/N: Whoo! Chapter 20! Go me! (Yeah, I updated, sorry for the wait! Writer's block sucks!)  
  
Disclaimer: rettoP yrraH now n'tod I. Hah, work that one out!  
  
Dedication: Megan, Faye and Jessica, as well as my friends Silvermoon, Rainbow Dreamer and Lil'Smartass. BTW, Silevrmoon, you're evil! So very, very EEEEVIIILLL!!! Funny, but evil!  
  
Harry Potter and the Crystal of Dreams.  
  
When Harry landed, it was so sudden and heavily that he found himself jolted face-down to the ground. For a dazed moment, he remained there before lifting his head to peer at his surroundings. What he saw made him rise dizzily to his feet.  
  
He appeared to be in a clearing of a Forest- probably the Forbidden Forest. The branches of the trees around were woven so thickly that they allowed no light in; in fact, the only part of the sky that could be seen was the patch of darkening dusk above where he stood.   
  
The broomstick...no, the Portkey...it had rolled from his grap as he had landed and rolled to a gentle halt. Trying to squash down all of his nervousness into a tight ball in the pit of his stomach, he brushed off the leaves and pine needles from his robes and slowly began to turn to look around.  
  
A slight noise, a moan of pain, alerted him to turn faster and he gasped at what he saw.  
  
"Shannon!"  
  
She was slumped against the trunk of one of the trees, half-sitting, half lying. As he ran to kneel beside her, her eyes opened, and he could see a light in them that made her look half-crazed. As he took in everything, he realised that her ankles and wrists were bound on heavy rope, and he tried to tear away the thick knots.  
  
"No!" she hissed, and then he saw the tears which had started to dry on her cheeks. "No! Harry, run back to the school quick! Get out of here!"  
  
She was rushing her words until they tripped up into a barely coherent garble. He shook his head.  
  
"No, I'm getting you out of here!"  
  
Shannon moaned again and let her head flop back so she looked upwards. "You don't understand...he's HERE, Harry!"  
  
Harry was about to reply when a cold voice cut into the backround silence, making him jerk around.  
  
"I couldn't have put it better myself."  
  
Standing there, tall and thin in sweeping black robes, red eyes glowing in a chalky face constructed from nightmares, was Lord Voldemort. The long fingers of his right hand played idly with a long wand and a horrific grin split his lipless mouth, a grin which he directed at the teenagers.  
  
"Welcome, Harry."  
  
"Voldemort." he said, voice filled with hatred and venom as he rose slowly to face the wizard. He made sure that he was slightly in front of Shannon, ready to block any curses against her. Tied up and quite hysterical, there was no way that she could defend herself.  
  
Voldemort laughed, high and cold. "I hope you don't mind my inviting a few more people along?" He clicked his left fingers, and a previously summoned ring of Death Eaters stepped out from the trees. Harry stared around at each cloaked person, each blank white mask. They were trapped.  
  
He made himself look back at Voldemort, now flanked by a cringing Wormtail on the right and his enormous acid-green snake, slithering on his left. Through gritted teeth, he demanded, "What do you want?"  
  
This caused a laugh to ripple around the circle, started by Voldemort, who spoke next.   
  
"Lots of things, Harry Potter. Firstly, you dead."  
  
"Why did you bring her into this?" Harry glanced back briefly at Shannon, now watching the confrontation with wide, fearful eyes.  
  
"Ah, Harry, Harry," Voldemort spoke as if chiding a young child. "It's not polite to speak to your elders like that. Maybe you need a lesson taught to you. Crucio!"  
  
Harry threw himself below the force of the curse, down against Shannon should she get hit. The spell blasted the tree trunk instead, spraying splinters of wood out everywhere. Voldemort tutted as Harry rose once more.  
  
"That wasn't polite, was it Harry? I was only attempting to teach you some manners. It's a very informative lesson which I'm sure Miss Parks here can fill you in on sometime."  
  
Harry drew his wand out immediately. "I'm only going to ask you one more. Why did you do this to her?"  
  
"Well, we couldn't get you here without some bait, could we Harry?" That lipless mouth smirked. "And Miss Parks just happened to walk along to help us out. She learnt some manners, didn't you?"  
  
Harry felt sick at the thought of Shannon under the Cruciatus Curse. She, meanwhile, screamed out, "Burn in hell!"  
  
Voildemort tutted again. "Little girls should be seen and not heard. Wormtail, gag her."  
  
Wormtail started to come forward, flinching at his master's voice. A second later, his limbs had snapped to his torso and he had toppled over to the ground. Harry lowered his wand.  
  
"Resourceful, Harry, but not an intelligent move." He laughed icily. "It annoys me enough to propose a duel, but after last year's little incident, I think it would be better for all concerned if I didn't, don't you think? You might both end up the way of Diggory, mightn't you?"   
  
Harry tightened the grip he had on his wand, concentration split between the wizard in front of him and his friend's heavy breathing behind him. "I won't let you."  
  
Voldemort's tone was mocking. "You won't let me? Harry, a great wizard dosen't need to be allowed, as if he were a child. No, a great wizard has his own rules and regulations. What a shame that you won't grow up to know this." Before Harry could even speak or move, Voldemort swung up his wand and yelled out, "CRUCIO!"  
  
Harry's eyes were filled with the blaze of red light rushing his way and then it hit him. All he knew was the pain, even worse, even more intense than he remembered, and the yells that clouded his ears: both his and Shannon's, at seeing him suffering. And then he felt the stabbing and shooting pains leave him, leave him with the horrendous aches in his joints and brain. He forced himself to stagger to his feet, pushing his glasses back on properly.  
  
"I'll make a deal with you, Harry," Voldemort hissed. If Harry wasn't so set against leaving Shannon, they may have been circling. "Give up your life, and she will be spared."  
  
"No!" Shannon whispered behind him, obviously horrified.  
  
"How would I know that you'd keep your word?" Harry flicked his wand sharply. "Petrificus Totalus!"  
  
Voldemort blocked easily. "Come now, Harry. I have honour."  
  
Harry shook his head. "That means nothing to me, because it's a lie."  
  
"Not so, Harry. I don't kill babies." His ruby eyes slid back to Shannon. "Do I, Miss Parks? Of course, you wouldn't be here today if a mistake hadn't been made on your mother, would you?"  
  
Harry dared a glance back. Shannon was trembling slightly, although her expression showed an almost wild anger.  
  
"Don't you dare speak about my mother." she hissed.  
  
The Death Eaters laughed, as did their leader. He shook his head derisively at the teenagers.  
  
"But you've been dreaming about her, haven't you? Just as Harry," Here his gaze switched once more. "Has been dreaming of his. Coincidence?"  
  
"Obviously not." Harry forced out, despite the horrible sense of dread in his stomach. Voldemort cackled and then reached inside his robes to draw out...something. In the gathering dusk, Harry couldn't quite make out what it was from this distance. It looked prismatic, transparent, apart from...something trapped within...  
  
"This, children," Voldemort told them in a voice not unlike a schoolteacher's. "Is the Crystal of Dreams."  
  
Harry strained his eyes, still unable to see the object very clearly. It was large, almost completely filling Voldemort's long hand, and whatever was inside it was swirling and dancing every second. Harry took half a step forward, unwilling to leave his friend, but at the same time wanting, needing, to get a closer look at the Crystal.  
  
"When someone powerful enough channels their magic through it," Voldemort continued, "The Crystal of Dreams can be used for countless possibilities. It feeds off of two of the most powerful sources of energy possesed by humans: knowledge and imagination. I use my knowledge of people's pasts, which I can also gain through use of the Crystal, and my imagination of what they fear most to send them the dreams." He snorted disdainfully. "You could say that I'm doing you all a favour by helping you to face those fears."  
  
The Death Eaters chortled. Voldemort continued with a sigh.  
  
"But I'm sure the ins and outs of what happened in those dreams won't interest you as much as the second deal I'm about to put forward to you." When Harry made no reply, Voldemort asked, "Aren't you in the least bit curious to learn how you can save your friend's life?"  
  
Harry was immediately wary, trying to crush the tiny flicker of hope in the pit of his stomach. "Talk." he bit off.  
  
Voldemort laughed for what seemed like the hundredth time. "Eager, aren't we? Harry, you're going to agree to a duel with me. Win, and nobody shall stop you and Miss Parks escaping back to the school."  
  
"And if I lose?" He spoke each word slowly and carefully.  
  
"If you loose, you'll both die."  
  
So there it was. One chance, and one chance only. Life or death, survival or not. Fight or...submission.  
  
But something here wasn't going to work.  
  
"You seem to be forgetting last year." he sneered.  
  
"Not so, Harry. You see..." There was a note of sadistic amusement in that voice. "This will be a test of reflexes. Now be polite and bow." Voldemort dipped his head mockingly, eyes still on Harry's face, set in hatred. "Come now, boy. You wouldn't want to disgrace you parents, would-"  
  
"EXPELLIARMUS!"  
  
The Dark Lord blocked easily. "I see those mudblood relatives of yours never taught you any manners...no matter...CRUCIO!"  
  
Harry threw himself to the ground, and the stream of red light smashed into the tree trunk, spraying splinters and bark everywhere. Shannon shrieked.  
  
"Harry, be careful!"  
  
Harry was on his feet immediately. "STUPEFY!"  
  
His enemy dodged again, seemingly exhilirated by the battle. "Is this all that you can do? I must say that I would have expected you to be stronger than this, a much more worthy opponent. But then...you are only a little boy..."  
  
The rage was building, swelling in Harry's chest. He unconciously gripped his wand tighter as he shouted out hex after spell after incantation. Nothing worked. Voldemort blocked or avoided everything with a frustrating ease. The after-effects of the Cruciatus Curse were still fresh enough to slow Harry so much that, as he ducked a shot, he felt his hair stir with the force of the spell. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Shannon struggling with the bonds restricting her wrists and ankles.  
  
I'm not sure she can do it, he thought dismally. Those are probably magical ropes...  
  
Suddenly he had an idea.  
  
He dived over towards her with all the reflexes of a Seeker, and pulled her hands upwards.   
  
"Get your wrists apart quick!" he hissed. She obeyed as much as was possible, wide-eyed as he held his wand up. "Slittorous!"  
  
The ropes fell onto her lap, sliced through. Her gaze jerked from his face to Voldemort's as the Dark Lord screamed at his followers.  
  
"STOP HIM!"  
  
"Harry, run!" she told him urgently. Forcing calm enough to keep her voice low, she added, "Get the broom! It's a Portkey, so it should get you b-"  
  
"Stupefy!"   
  
Shannon flung herself over Harry, knocking them both into a roll out of the path of the spell, yelled by someone who could well have been Lucius Malfoy. Almost immediately, she yanked herself up off of him, tearing at the knots around her ankles.  
  
"Run!" she yelled. He got up, but it was into a kneeling position to repeat the spell for the ropes on her ankles. They fell apart, and he yanked her up to her feet.  
  
"Get to the broom, get to the school and tell Dumbledore." he hissed, then shoved her in the direction of the broom. He drew out his wand, firing random hexes and jinxes at the robed people approaching. Noticing her faltering, he shoved her again. "Get out of here!"  
  
Then Voldemort emerged from his Death Eaters, grinning with insane malice. "How noble of you, Harry. Trying to save the girl. But it won't work."  
  
Shannon had been backing away, wondering what she was going to do. How could she just leave Harry here? He didn't stand a chance, and there was no way Dumbledore could save him.   
  
If only I had my wand...she thought. But it's in the dorm...how could I be so stupid? What am I going to...  
  
Voldemort flicked his wand in an almost absent gesture. "Fragora!"  
  
Both teenagers turned as the branch which the spell had hit groaned...tilting at an increasingly crazy angle. Shannon cried out in shock as it crashed to the ground...  
  
Right on the handle of the Portkey.  
  
Harry launched himself at Voldemort. He didn't even consider the foolishness of the idea until he was in mid-air, and that didn't leave much time before he landed hard on top of the Dark Lord (a/n: shuttup, Silvermoon!), knocking him to the ground. In one furious motion, he wrenched the Crystal from those long spider-like fingers and rolled up in a move he'd practiced in a Quidditch session just a few weeks ago. Then he was running, running hard towards the Portkey. Shannon caught on and followed as fast as she could, catching up with him at the broom.  
  
Behind them, Voldemort was screaming. Curses were being fired.  
  
Harry dropped to the ground, squinting in the growing darkness. About five or so inches had been snapped off of the handle. Shannon grabbed his wrist and then the broom. The world span and whirled, and Harry felt himself sucked towards the object.   
  
Then everything stopped.  
  
The pair of them landed hard, and Shannon struggled up almost as soon as they did. Kneeling, her grip tightened on Harry's wrist.  
  
"Harry? Harry!" Her tone was urgent.  
  
He raised his head, scrabbling for his glasses and shoving them back onto his nose. One lense was veined with deep cracks, and his vision was still blurry. "What?"  
  
She was shaking her head. "This isn't Hogwarts."  
  
Those three words brought back awareness with an all too clear abruptness, and he sat up. She was right.   
  
They were still in the forest. Another place, true, but still the forest.  
  
"Oh no..." Harry began to get to his feet, pulling Shannon up with him as he did so and putting the Crystal into his robe pocket. It was then that they heard the whoosh and crack as an incantation hit a tree behind them. That got their attnetion.  
  
"They're still here!" Shannon was starting to verge on hysteria again, which was something Harry knew he had to keep her from.  
  
"We're going to run." he said.  
  
They glanced at each other and then tore off in the direction away from the Death Eaters.  
  
Harry could hear, far off, Voldemort speaking to his snake in Parseltongue in between firing spells and barking out orders. His breath was tearing at his throat and lungs, and he was sure that the spells were getting closer all the time.   
  
Shannon, however, wasn't as fast as Harry. She had shorter legs and wasn't really in shape anyway. But she didn't want to call out in case that made him stop for her.  
  
"Impedimenta!"  
  
"Stupefy!"  
  
"Fragora! Fragora! FRAGORA!"  
  
There was a horrible crash and Shannon screamed.   
  
Harry spun around instantly to see Shannon sprawled on the forest floor, face twisting in pain. He ran back up to her and offered his free hand.  
  
"Come on! We have to run!"  
  
"Get out of here now!" she hissed. "I...I can't move."  
  
Harry didn't ever know why he didn't see the fallen branch beforehand, but that was how it was. One of the curses had caused it to snap off, falling to trap Shannon's right foot underneath. He saw this as he moved around and began to tug at it in a futile attempt to shift it.  
  
Shannon let out a choked cry of pain mixed with fear. "Harry, run! Get going!"  
  
Harry said nothing in reply, but pointed his wand at the log and cast the banishing charm which blast it backwards, away from Shannon to shatter on its bumpy route back into the path of the nearing Death Eaters. Without even thinking, Harry hoisted Shannon up, her arm around his shoulders and his around her waist, half carrying her as he set off. Tears of pain were running down her face, mingling with those already dried there. She was asking him why he didn't just let her stay where she was. He still had the Crystal. He needed to run.  
  
Then Harry had a sudden idea.  
  
He spun round fast, whirling his wand up in the air and thinking of the Quidditch victory against Slytherin that Gryffindor had had just last week.  
  
"EXPECTO PATRONUM!"  
  
He saw the brilliant silvery stag burst from his wand and then ran back the way he had been headed. Of course, the Patronus wouldn't have an effect on the Death Eaters, but hopefully it would startle them long enough for him to regain some advantage.  
  
It seemed to work. He heard shouts of surprise from behind him as he blundered on through the trees. And eventually, he caught sight of a sliver past all the woodland. He ran on towards it as though it were a lifeline, and it grew larger, larger...  
  
And then they were out of the Forbidden Forest, speeding across the lawns by the lake. Harry was being driven now only by pure adrenaline, his muscles screaming in pain. By the time they had passed the lake and were about halfway up to the school, he had slowed to a stagger, and it was only a few more metres before Shannon groaned.  
  
Straining his ears as he carried on, he decided that there really was no noise behind them or around them except for that that they made. Glancing over his shoulder, he was sure that there were no followers, and he stopped, heaving Shannon down onto the ground, where she fell back into a lying position. Her eyes were half closed and she looked as though she was dropping off to sleep.  
  
"Lumos." He muttered, aiming the wand at her injured foot. Even in the poor light from the end of the stick, he could see the dark blood staining her trainer and the cuff of her jean leg. Well, he thought, there's only one way to see what state her foot's in...  
  
He made to take of her trainer, but she made a unexpected movement, as thought to sit right up. "No. Don't."  
  
He looked up. "Shan, I have to see what's happened. I swear I'll try not to hurt you."  
  
She shook her head drowsily. "Doesn't hurt."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Doesn't hurt. But I think that my shoe's the only thing holding it all together." The awareness was dimming in her eyes even as she said this. "Just get me to the hospital...wing..." She flopped back onto the ground.  
  
Harry stared at her for a second, horrified, before standing again and heaving her into his arms. It wasn't easy- Shannon was a lot heavier than she looked- but he managed to finally get up the steps and into the school. From here to the hospital wing was just a blur of corridors and steps to Harry in his weakening state.  
  
Madam Pomfrey was folding blankets when the door burst open to reveal a dishevelled Harry with an unconscious girl in his arms. She gasped and dropped the blanket as Harry heaved the girl onto the nearest bed.  
  
"She...she's hurt..." was all he got out before he collapsed too.  
  
*****  
  
PHEW! Finally! I am SO, SO, SO SORRY about the wait, but I've had writer's block for ages! I'm typing this on Christmas Day, so feel honoured! (I just feel ill, how lousy is that!) Please consider it my Christmas present to all you brilliant reviewers out there, and please review! I am a review junkie! 


	21. Faults

A/N: OK, I'm gonna try to be more responsible about updating, but what with all the work I get, I'm afraid I can't promise anything. But I promise I will try!  
  
Disclaimer: I put 'the rights to Harry Potter' on my Christmas list, but it didn't come true. **Bursts into tears**  
  
Dedication: All my reviewers for putting up with me!  
  
Harry Potter and the Crystal of Dreams.  
  
When Harry came round, it took him a while to realise where he was. He tried to sit up and found he was in a bed in the hospital wing. His body felt heavy and just wanted to sink back and go to sleep again, and he suspected that he'd been given some sort of potion to induce sleep.  
  
Then, as everything began to get clearer to him, he realised that there were two very familiar voices talking outside the area sectioned off by the curtains around his bed.  
  
"I'm sorry, but you can't." That was Madam Pomfrey. "Mr. Potter is asleep at the moment. He needs rest."  
  
"Well, with whatever you've drugged him up with, I doubt I'll disturb him. Please! Just five minutes!"  
  
Madam Pomfrey hesitated, then sighed irritably. "Oh, very well! But only five minutes!"  
  
"Thanks!" There were footsteps approaching his bed, and then the curtains drew back. Chloe started when she saw him sitting up and watching her.  
  
"I didn't think you'd...never mind." She moved over and took a seat next to his bed, clasping her hands in her lap. "How are you?"  
  
He studied her face. It was pale and drawn in worry, blue eyes tired. "I...don't know. Tired."  
  
Chloe nodded. "But you're not hurt? You're not in pain?"  
  
"No." Suddenly, a thought struck him. "Where's Shannon?"  
  
"Asleep, I think." Quickly, she put a hand on his shoulder to stop him as he tried to get up. "No, just leave it be. I should think she needs rest, after what's happened." She clutched her hands together again, this time leaning on the mattress. Voice lower, she added, "Is there anything you want to talk about?"  
  
"How...how did you know what's happened?"  
  
"Dumbledore owled me as soon as he found out. I was only in Hogsmeade, so it didn't take long at all. As for how he knew...well, it's pretty obvious that you've had a run-in with something. You-Know-Who being the most obvious choice."  
  
There was a silence. Chloe lowered her eyes to her hands and gave a small, humourless laugh. "I'm sorry, Harry."  
  
"Sorry?" Harry was surprised by this. "Why?"  
  
She looked up, eyes oddly emotional. "Sorry I'm a useless godmother."  
  
"You're not a-" Harry blinked when what she'd said hit him fully. "Godmother?"  
  
She nodded and smiled in a slightly bitter way. "Yeah. I don't do a very good job, huh?"  
  
"You do! I just...I didn't know I HAD a godmother."  
  
"Oh yeah." She cast her gaze around before finally settling on Harry's eyes. "You see, your parents knew how dangerous the position that their work put them in was. Obviously, being an Auror is always dangerous, but they were two of the very best in a very dark time, so it was even worse.  
  
"When you were born, they decided that Sirius and I should be your godparents. The idea was that we'd be the ones to look after you should anything happen to them.  
  
"Well." She paused and snorted. "We both know what happened next." She swallowed hard. "W-when your parents d-died, Sirius was the second to arrive on the scene. He realised what had happened. How that...that..." Chloe's anger was growing just at the thought of Peter Pettigrew, and she used some words that Harry was sure he'd never heard before. "Had betrayed all of us and framed him. The next morning, he was taken to Azkaban." She choked slightly, trying not to cry. Instinctively, Harry reached out to squeeze her hand, which comforted her a bit. Enough to carry on.  
  
"Harry, I tried to get custody of you, I swear I did. I knew what Petunia was like. I knew how she treated Lily- her own sister! But...they wouldn't let me. See, Sirius and I, we were going to get married. After he...well, people thought I was involved. Give the Boy Who Lived to the girlfriend of the man who betrayed the Boy's parents? You can see how it looked."  
  
Harry squeezed her hand in again sympathetically. "But it's not your fault Chloe. You tried, but it's not your fault. There's only one person to blame here, and that's Wormtail."  
  
Chloe sniffed and nodded gratefully. "Thank you Harry. That means a lot to hear you say that."  
  
There was a pause before she continued. "I daresay that Dumbledore will want to talk to you in the morning. I'd better leave soon, let you get some rest. Hey, Harry?"  
  
"Yeah?" He raised his eyebrows.  
  
"This summer...you will write to me, won't you? If you want to, that is. I'll come say hi to Petunia again."  
  
He grinned. "Of course I will. I'm sure she'd be glad to see you again."  
  
Chloe smiled as well. "I'm not so sure." They both laughed.  
  
Madam Pomfrey popped her head around the curtain at that moment, frowning in exasperation. "Miss Taylor, you've been here for much more than five minutes now! Mr. Potter needs rest! I must ask you to leave."  
  
Chloe stood up with another nod. "OK." She glanced down at Harry. "If I don't see you before the holidays...stay safe, OK?"  
  
Harry nodded. "Yeah. See you later Chloe."  
  
"Bye." With a small wave, she followed Madam Pomfrey through the curtains. As she disappeared, Harry sank back onto the pillow and into a deep sleep.  
  
*****  
  
Harry awoke again a few hours later, again to the sound of voices immersed in discussion. However, there were more of these and none of them were Madam Pomfrey or Chloe. Harry rubbed the sleep from his eyes and lay there listening as Dumbledore's voice became clearer to him.  
  
"...should be better in a few days. Madam Pomfrey is an excellent nurse and she has done a good job."  
  
"But there's more issues at hand here." That was a man's voice, heavily Irish. Harry blinked. It sounded like Shannon's dad. "What I want to know is why this was allowed to happen at all."  
  
"It doesn't hurt, Dad." Harry recognised Shannon immediately, although she sounded a bit meeker than usual.  
  
"Poor Shanny." Those words sounded as though they came from a tired Hannah. "Poor Shanny."   
  
"That's not the point, Shannon." Mr. Parks said. "The point is that this should not have been allowed to happen."  
  
"This was not 'allowed', Joe," Dumbledore said. "Far from it. As we speak, the Forbidden Forest is being scoured by the few Ministry officials who will disobey Cornelius Fudge to agree that anything extraordinary is occurring, but I severely doubt that anything will be found. Voldemort will have disbanded his followers and vanished as quickly as possible to some other location."  
  
"My daughter is lying there injured! Are you telling me that nothing can be done?"  
  
"Dad!" Shannon cut in. "It's nobody's fault but mine that I went out alone! My foot doesn't even hurt, and Madam Pomfrey really helped and...Dad, if you're looking for someone to blame, it'd have to be me."  
  
Dumbledore spoke. "This was nobody's fault."  
  
"Look." Mr. Parks sounded slightly calmer, but also firmer. "If something like this can happen here, then I'm not sure I want Shannon continuing her education here."  
  
Harry sat up sharply at this, feeling around for his glasses on the bedside table. It took him a few seconds to find them, put them on and to push back the covers of the bed. He swung himself up and found a crack in the curtains between the beds to watch through. Shannon was propped up on her bed, looking absolutely horrified, with Hannah curled up next to her, half-asleep. Dumbledore, Mr. Parks and Julianna were standing around the bedside.  
  
"What?" Shannon yelled. "Dad!"  
  
Mr. Parks looked at her. "Shannon, it'd only mean moving back to Italy. You could go back to Carnia Academy."  
  
"You can't keep doing this!" Shannon snapped. "I've only just gotten settled in here! You can't keep moving me around!"  
  
"Joe, I think you should listen to Shannon." Julianna said. "I think the choice should be up to her."  
  
"If Hogwarts isn't safe, Julianna, then nowhere is." Mr. Parks said, in a tone that made it clear he thought the matter was pretty much closed.  
  
Dumbledore looked graver than ever at these words. "If nowhere is safe, then what makes you think that Italy will be any safer? Once Lord Voldemort has gotten control of England, then what's to stop him expanding to Europe? America? That is why we stay here and fight, to make sure that he never has the chance."  
  
Mr. Parks ran a hand through his hair, at that moment looking confused and tired at the same moment. "I don't mind staying here and continuing with my work against You-Know-Who- I WANT to. But I also want my wife and children to be safe. They could go back and-"  
  
"I'm not going!" Shannon argued loudly. "I don't care what you do, but I'm not! And what about Hannah? Did you ever even think about her? She's loving it there at her school, she's made so many friends...and you want to take that away from her?"  
  
"No! I just want what's best for you. Both of you..."  
  
Dumbledore lay a hand on Mr. Parks's shoulder. "I think that it is time we left Shannon to get some sleep. The little one is nearly there anyway."  
  
Shannon helped to bundle the dozing Hannah, who was now sucking her thumb, into Julianna's arms. Julianna followed Dumbledore out, leaving Mr. Parks to look once more at his daughter with a type of deep sadness in his eyes. Shannon narrowed her own to glare at him.  
  
"I'm not leaving Hogwarts, Dad," she repeated. "No matter what you say."  
  
He sighed heavily. "Good night Shannon. Please get better soon."  
  
Harry moved back from the curtain, sitting back on his own bed, wondering if Shannon's father really meant what he had said.  
  
*****  
  
You like? That's great, really it is. Review please! 


	22. Eileen

A/N: I've had a few questions about Shannon's mum, and here is the chapter with the answers. Hope you enjoy it! And no, Silvermoon, she's not a Death Eater!  
  
Disclaimer: Yadda yadda yadda, blah blah blah.  
  
Dedication: Happy birthday to Fangz!  
  
Harry Potter and the Crystal of Dreams.  
  
Harry left Shannon to rest for about half an hour, even though he knew she hadn't gone to sleep. Madam Pomfrey had tried to give her some medicine to knock her out, but Shannon had spat it out into an empty cup on her bedside cabinet as soon as the nurse left.  
  
Eventually, Harry got out of bed again and pulled back part of the curtain tentatively. "Shannon?" he whispered.  
  
Her head jerked round immediately, expression relaxing when she saw who it was. "Hey."  
  
"How are you?" he asked, pulling a chair up beside her bed. She shrugged.  
  
"OK. You?"  
  
He nodded vaguely. "What about your foot?"  
  
"I'll show you if you want." She smiled somewhat impishly and tossed back the duvet awkwardly, pulling her feet up until the injured one came into view, heavily bandaged. Seeing his shocked look, she shrugged and covered it back up. "Doesn't hurt. Madam Pomfrey did a good job even though...well, the bones were a little more than fractured."  
  
Harry nodded. "Shannon, I heard earlier. About your dad saying he was going to get you to go back to Italy. I didn't mean to eavesdrop, I just overheard it."  
  
"Oh." Her eyes darkened, and she shook her head. "That's OK. He's not sending me anywhere."  
  
"What if he tries?"  
  
She shrugged again. "It's not so much the fact I'll have to go back to Carnia. I mean, I do have friends there, good friends, but it's that he keeps moving me around. I only just really got settled here and then he expects me to move again? Not happening."  
  
"Maybe he's right. Maybe it would be safer."  
  
Shannon snorted. "I don't care. Did you hear what Dumbledore said anyway? What's to stop You-Know-Who trying to take over Italy or anywhere once he's gotten in control here?"  
  
There was a silence for a few long moments, during which something started to nag at the back of Harry's mind. Eventually, he asked, "Shan?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"You know when...with Voldemort..." Shannon seemed a bit paler at the mention of the name, but she nodded slowly. "What did he mean when he said about your mum?"  
  
Shannon's body tensed. "My mam? It's...it's kind of complicated..."  
  
Harry paused as she stared at her hands. "Do...you want to talk about it?"  
  
She gave him a long sideways look, obviously thinking intently before she said, in barely a whisper, "OK. But...bear with me. This is kind of hard to tell because I actually haven't said before."  
  
He nodded. "It's alright. I'll listen. Take your time."  
  
So, taking a deep, calming breath, Shannon began in a voice that was quiet and sad.  
  
"My mam...she was born in County Galway, down near a river called the Shannon." She made a sound halfway between a laugh and a sob. "Her name was Eileen. Eileen McKinnon."  
  
Harry blinked. The surname sounded familiar.  
  
"You see, at this time, You-Know-Who had just started to get really powerful. Lots of supporters, that sort of thing. And he decided that to prove his strength, he was going to start killing off some of the oldest wizarding families around. And first on his list were the McKinnons.  
  
"My mam was only a baby at the time, just under a year old I think. One night, some Death Eaters burst into the house and killed the entire family. Grandparents, parents, children..." Shannon trailed off, looking at her lap and appearing very ill. "They never found out who did it. But all that was left was my mam in her crib, and she must have been woken up by the noise and started crying or something because the Death Eaters found her. And...and WHY, nobody knows, but they must have thought it was great fun, because...because they put the Cruciatus Curse on her."  
  
Harry understood why Shannon looked sickened now. He thought of a baby under the Cruciatus Curse and felt exactly the same.  
  
Shannon swallowed hard, gasping for breath a bit now as she rushed on. "Of course, she was only little, and the Cruciatus does enough damage to an adult as it is without..." She shut her eyes. "Anyway, it left her problems. She used to have really bad pains in her joints for years after. She had to have all kinds of operations just to sort things out when she was little.  
  
"What happened was that the Death Eaters must have thought that the Cruciatus would kill her, or that it wasn't important, or something, because they left her there. When they saw the Dark Mark over the house, some of their magical neighbours came running and found what had happened. My mam was given to friends of her family, who adopted her and moved to another County. So You-Know-Who didn't know that she was still alive, they gave her their last name, and she grew up as Eileen Hope."  
  
Shannon was faltering now, twisting her hands in her lap. The same instinct which had led him to comfort Chloe kicked into Harry again, and he hesitantly reached out to put a hand on her shoulder, which made her look at him again with a sigh.  
  
"Well, anyway, my mam grew up and got accepted into Hogwarts, which is where she really got to know my dad- they went to the same school before. A while after they left school, they got married, and they were living in Kilmare, which is where I grew up, when they found out that Mam was pregnant. They were really happy about it, but...then they got some bad news...  
  
"There were some complications, really bad ones. Basically, they were told that if Mam carried on with the pregnancy and gave birth, she was going to die." Shannon choked slightly, bringing her hands up over her face as her shoulders shook slightly. Harry, unsure of what to do, rubbed her shoulder slowly in a comforting way. She swallowed hard and uncovered her face, hugging her elbows instead as she quickly glanced at him, then back to her lap.  
  
"Well," she said quietly, so quietly that he had to strain to hear her voice. "I'm here now and she's not, so I guess that says it all. And that's the end of the story." She snorted in something like a laugh, only much sadder.  
  
"Shannon..." Harry sighed, wondering what he could say that might help. "Shannon, none of it's your fault. You know that, right?"  
  
She gave a tiny nod, then looked at him. "My Nana Hope was the one who told me most of this, and she said it's nobody's fault but the Death Eaters'. But that doesn't stop me feeling guilty, does it? It's still true that if I hadn't been born, maybe Mam would have been alive today."   
  
"You shouldn't think like that." Harry hesitated for a moment, thinking. "Maybe you should talk to your dad."  
  
Shannon raised her eyebrows. "Yeah. Even though he hasn't mentioned Mam in years. He has Julianna now. I don't think he'd want to talk about her."  
  
Harry shrugged. "Give it a go."  
  
Shannon pursed her lips. "I don't know, Harry..."  
  
"You don't know unless you try, right?"  
  
She sighed. "I guess not. Alright then."  
  
"Thank you."  
  
There was a longer silence now, before Shannon suddenly started. "Harry?"  
  
"What is it?" He frowned at her tone.  
  
"The Crystal...what happened to it?"  
  
Harry blinked. "I put it in my robes. It's in my pocket."  
  
"Are you sure?" She grabbed his arm suddenly. "Just...check. Please. Just make sure."  
  
Harry wondered at her nervousness as he got up, Shannon detatching her grip on him to allow him to walk back through the curtain into the section around his bed. He was in nightclothes now, but his robes, still torn and dusty, were folded neatly on one of the bedside chairs. He began to search through them.  
  
"Is it there?" came Shannon's hushed voice.  
  
Harry put his hand into one of the pockets at this moment, colliding with something solid and oddly shaped. He clasped it and drew it out, finding himself staring straight at the Crystal. The smooth faces of its sharply prismatic form glinted in what little light there was available in the hospital wing, and he could just about make out some type of smoke moving within it...  
  
"Harry?"  
  
His gaze snapped up to the slight gap in the curtains. "Yeah. Yeah, it's here, Shannon."  
  
"Dumbledore said he'd want to see you tomorrow." She replied. "Make sure you keep that safe and give him it."  
  
Harry nodded, even though he knew she couldn't see it. "OK. We'd better sleep. Are you going to be alright?"  
  
"Sure." There was a pause as Harry made his way over to his bed again and sat down, Crystal still tightly clasped in his hand. "And...thanks. For listening, I mean."  
  
He smiled at the awkwardness in her voice. "That's alright. Any time. Go to sleep."  
  
"I will." She gave a laugh that wasn't all genuine. "No dreams, I hope."  
  
"So do I." Harry murmured as he lay back down.   
  
Silence fell as the pair drifted off into peace and the sky gradually began to lighten with the approaching dawn.   
  
*****  
  
Thanks for all the nice reviews I've been getting! Here's a few lil' notes:  
  
Shrimpo/Jewels: First off, interesting penname! Also, don't worry about not reviewing in 12 chapters...I have a habit of forgetting what I'm reading too!  
  
I Am A Sly Slytherin: It's like how she pronounces it. Just how in America it's 'mom' and in England it's 'mum'...so for her, it's 'mam'.  
  
Silvermoon: Thank you so much for updating Rinoa Heartilly- finally! Also, don't let those poor imploding shrimps go to your head, lol! Oh, and you're still eeeeeeeevvvvvviiiiiilllllll!!!!! 


	23. Talk

A/N: A whoo and a hoo! Finally! The 5th book is due out on 21st July! **victory dance around room** Let's just worth it's all the hype, eh...?  
  
Disclaimer: In the words of my good friend Silvermoon, "Ass."  
  
Dedication: Everyone out there **taps screen** who encourages me with this. Thanks guys!   
  
Harry Potter and the Crystal of Dreams.  
  
Madam Pomfrey certainly didn't look too happy about discharging Harry in the morning. In fact, Harry was quite sure he'd never seen her quite so annoyed in all the five years he'd been at the school.  
  
"Can't see what Dumbledore thinks he's doing, demanding to see you like this." She clucked as Harry got changed into clean robes and stepped out from behind the curtains around his bed. "Absolutely outrageous...no concern for my patients whatsoever..."  
  
Harry glanced over at Shannon, who was watching him as she absently stirred her cornflakes around the bowl on the tray in in front of her. She blinked when she realised he was looking at her, then smiles slightly, looking back down at her breakfast.  
  
"You'd better leave now then." The nurse said, flapping her hands at him. "Let me at least care for my other patient."  
  
As Harry exited, he just saw Shannon roll her eyes at Madam Pomfrey's back, making him leave faster so that neither heard him crack up into a laughter fit. However, this soon ceased when he thought of the Crystal, stowed safely in his pocket, and of how he was going to be expected to explain everything.  
  
All too soon, he found himself approaching the now familiar gargoyle...to see Dumbledore waiting for him. That surprised him, and he unconciously slowed, apprehensive at the grave expression on the headmaster's face.  
  
"Harry." The man nodded. "How are you feeling today?"  
  
"Uhh...OK, I guess." Harry wasn't exactly sure what he was expected to say or do. He slipped his hand into his pocket, gripping the Crystal tightly, as though scared it would disappear.  
  
"Follow me, please. I think we need somewhere possibly less public to talk." Dumbledore turned to the gargoyle at this point, which leapt aside when he gave the password ('Spearmint Polos'). No more words were exchanged during their ascent of the winding stairs, or during their entrance of Dumbledore's office. In fact, the silence remained even after they sat in the two chairs on either sides of the desk, and for several long moments as Dumbledore surveyed him from over his glasses. Eventually, it was the headmaster who broke the silence.  
  
"Harry, you understand that I already have Miss Parks's version of the events that happened last night. However, I also need yours to verify with the details." Harry nodded. "Take all the time you need to explain, but please make sure that there is nothing omitted or left out."  
  
And so Harry began to tell the Professor about the encounter, starting with how he had found the Portkey broom abandoned by the lake.  
  
(A/N: I swear Silvermoon, you twist this and I'm gonna kill you! Nyah!Hehe...)  
  
*****  
  
Shannon was staring up at the ceiling, counting the cracks in the paint out of sheer boredom. One...two...three...by the time she'd gotten to fifty, she figured it was pointless and that she should probably suggest redecoration to save any more fed up patients the trouble.  
  
It was then that she heard footsteps and looked around quickly to see Madam Pomfrey approaching with an irate expression. Shannon made a sensible decision for once and chose not to say anything. This proved lucky, because the nurse's bad temper was even more pronounced by her words.  
  
"You have a visitor, Miss Parks, although I do hope you'll keep it short. You need rest."  
  
She nodded. "I'll try not to run over time. Thanks very much."  
  
The nurse merely pursed her lips and moved back over to the main door, opening it to allow someone to enter before she stormed into her office.  
  
Shannon's face darkened as she watched her father close the door and approach, even though she could see the regretful expression he wore as he pulled up a chair.  
  
"How are you?" he asked quietly, probably not wanting to disturb the peace of the ward.  
  
"Just fine." she snapped, still annoyed with him. Then just for spite, she quoted, "Madam Pomfrey is an excellent nurse."  
  
He had the grace to look guilty. "Look, Shannon, I'm sorry if I seemed...harsh, earlier on, but I want you to understand that I only have your best interests at heart. I couldn't bear to loose you, you know that. Especially not to someone like You-Know-Who."  
  
Shannon looked at him, frowning slightly as she watched him run a hand through his hair. "Dad? Can we talk?"  
  
"Of course, Shannon. What's the matter? We're all here for you."  
  
There's no point in stumbling over this, she thought. Now or never...  
  
"I want to talk about Mam."  
  
Her father froze, lowering his hand, and blinked. For a second, he was motionless in apparent shock, but then he managed to say shakily, "Shannon, maybe we should discuss this some other-"  
  
"No." She remained firm and resolute. "I want to talk about her now. I..." She lowered her voice slightly. "I NEED to talk about her now, Dad. Please?"  
  
She watched him for a moment, until he sighed and ran his hand through his hair again.  
  
"OK." he said. "Where shall we start?"  
  
*****  
  
"...and then I became uncioncious and...that's it."  
  
Harry sat back in his chair, running his tongue over dry lips and feeling a little drained. It had taken him more effort than he had thought it would to explain, but he was sure he hadn't left anything out.  
  
Dumbledore had remained silent and still throughout this talk, never once removing his gaze from Harry's and rarely blinking. However, now he stood, face even more grave than ever as he paced away from the desk before suddenly turning back to Harry.   
  
"And the Crystal now?"  
  
Harry pulled it out of his pocket at this request. "I've still got it." He hesitated when Dumbledore did nothing but watch him, and hesitantly set it on the desk. With a flicker of what Harry thought could have been weariness darting through his eyes, Dumbledore sat back down and took up the Crystal. He examined it briefly, turning it over with his long fingers, before setting it back down and resting his chin on clasped hands to watch Harry.  
  
"Harry, look at this object and tell me what you see."  
  
That question confused Harry, but he did as he was told and stared at the Crystal. It was just as it had appeared to be earlier- a fairly small, roughly cut prism of clear, hard crystal imprisoning smokey wisps of magic...  
  
Which seemed to be growing bolder and darker right in front of his very eyes.  
  
He gave a small, startled cry, looking back up at Dumbledore with wide eyes. "The...the smoke in it. It's getting more powerful."  
  
Dumbledore nodded slowly. "Correct, Harry. This is one of the things which makes it so dangerous."  
  
Harry looked back down at it, noticing with even more shock that the smoke was growing paler now.  
  
"You see, the Cristal de Reves- or, in English, the Crystal of Dreams- contains a physical magic. It has so much of this that it almost has its own mind- it can direct, to some extent, what becomes of it and the way it is used. And right now, I would safely guess that it is attempting to find its way back to Voldemort for even more ill use."  
  
Harry took in a sharp breath. "Can it do that? Find Voldemort again, I mean."  
  
"It depends on whether or not Voldemort would intend to use it again. I am sure that the Crystal could find him again and that he could soon find it, although if he would want to or not would remain to be seen."  
  
"So what do we have to do?"  
  
"There are...certain spells which could be used to withdraw the physical magic and either weaken or destroy it- we hope for the latter. However, these spells are extremely dangerous and require the teamwork of many skilled Aurors. After all, without its magic, the Crystal is just any other crystal."  
  
"But..." Harry frowned. "If it can cause this much trouble, why wasn't it destroyed years ago?"  
  
Dumbledore look more solemn than ever, and there seemed to be an unusual sadness about him as he replied, "Humans are strange beings, Harry. They are driven by their greed and lust for power, and through this they allow many things to happen which will, perhaps without them meaning it to, affect others in terrible ways."  
  
Harry looked around the office, feeling as though this was all too much to take in at once. He was still tired from the lack of sleep he had gained, worn out from explaining, and worried over too many things. He looked back at Dumbledore.  
  
"What's going to happen then?"  
  
"I shall see that the Crystal is destroyed as soon as possible- preferably within the next few days. It is urgent that I call together all of my most trusted and skilled Aurors to see to the task. There will, of course, have to be a meeting about what we propose to do, so I shall have to arrange that for today."  
  
Harry wondered if Chloe would be among them, and hoped that she was alright.  
  
"As for now..." Dumbledore sighed, looking at Harry seriously. "I think it would be best for you to go and see your friends, Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley. They are most worried about both you and Miss Parks, and it would do them good to be reassured that you are both alright. You also need to get some more rest- I daresay that you are extremely tired."  
  
Harry remembered Ron and Hermione and felt a sudden wave of guilt. "Oh...yeah, I really should." He made to stand then paused. "Professor, are you sure that the Crystal can be destroyed?"  
  
Dumbledore gave the tiniest hint of a smile. "Yes. Anything is possible. We just have to find the most suitable method."  
  
Harry nodded and then stood up. "OK then."  
  
He walked over to the door, ready to open it, when Dumbledore suddenly called, "Harry? A final word."  
  
Harry turned with a dreadful apprehension. "What is it?"  
  
Dumbledore was grave again. "Harry, you must remember that as one of, if not the most, Voldemort's prominent targets, anyone in association with you is at danger. Please understand that I am not saying that you must cut all ties with everyone you have ever spoken to and go into hiding, but if the time were ever to come that you did need to hide...well, I am saying that if it was vital for safety all round, you must do what is necessary. Do you understand?"  
  
Harry nodded, frowing in confusion. "Er...yeah. I think so."  
  
The headmaster nodded. "Good. Now head to your common room and talk to your friends. They are desperate to see you, I am sure."  
  
"Thanks." Harry exited, shutting the door behind him and leaving Dumbledore alone in the relative quiet of his office. The man sighed and drew a blue quill towards him, which he stood point upright on a piece of parchment. It stood there and began to scribble down the words he dictated.  
  
*****  
  
Phew! That took me an entire night to write after Silvermoon told me to "update your story, dammit!" Heheh, so there ya go. Review please...I have been seriously review deprived lately, and the next chapter is gonna take a lot of encouragement to write, believe me! **chews nails nervously**  
  
Oh, and Silvermoon? Did ya get the polo reference? Lol. What can I say, I'm an addict! 


	24. Two Different Sides

A/N: Hey, I realised something in my physics class the other day about the Weasleys. OK, so they have seven children. If each of those seven have another seven, then there'd be 49 grandkids, and if each of those 49 had 7, then there'd be 343 great-grandkids! And if each of them had 7...my mind gave up at this point! Can you imagine how long the Sorting would take, with most of them just Weasleys?! The Gryffindor tower would just split with all the excess students! AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!.........OK, stupid pointless a/n over now. On with the story.  
  
Disclaimer: Hi, my name is Shadowz, and I am a polo-a-holic...whoops, sorry, wrong speech! I mean, My name is Shadowz, and I only own what I own. The rest? All J.K. Rowling's.  
  
Dedication: I guess the dedication has to go to J.K. Rowling in congratulations on the birth of her new son...but WHY didn't you call him Harry?!  
  
Harry Potter and the Crystal of Dreams.  
  
Harry could have sworn that any more indignant swelling on Madam Pomfrey's part might well lead to Filch complaining about cleaning up exploded school nurse from all over the hospital wing. She was bustling about, muttering darkly and shooting frequent dirty looks at him, which he did his best to ignore as he waited for Shannon.  
  
She emerged from the curtains around her beda few minutes later, dressed and ready to leave, propped up on crutches. She grinned at him and limped over.  
  
"Hi," he said, standing up. "Ready to go?"  
  
She nodded. "Sure am." She looked over at the nurse. "Madam Pomfrey? Can I leave?"  
  
The woman stalked over, pursing her lips as she said, "Not so fast, Miss Parks. I still need to make sure you're completely ready to be discharged!"  
  
She eventually let them leave after a further ten minutes of unnecessary pulse takings and temperature readings, as well as giving Shannon strict instructions on when to come back for checks and medicine.  
  
Shannon rolled her eyes as they took off down the corridor at the highest speed possible on crutches. "Honestly, the way that woman goes on, you'd think I had the Plague or something, not just a broken foot!"  
  
Harry laughed and gestured to the crutches. "Why've you got those anyway?"  
  
"Oh, dramatic effect." She giggled slightly. "but seriously, it's because of the way that it has to be mended. It'll take a few days, 'cause of it not being exactly a clean break, so..." She trailed off, giving an uneasy cough. Harry sensed a change of topic was in order.  
  
"Well, at least you don't have crowded corridors to fight your way through." he pointed out. "It being a Hogsmeade trip and all."  
  
"Yeah, I guess." She slanted him a sideways glance. "Why didn't you go, anyways? You've been free of Madam Pomfrey's clutches long enough."  
  
Harry shrugged. "Didn't feel like it. besides, it wouldn't really be fair to leave you suffering in the wrath of the hospital wing, would it?"  
  
"I don't mind. At least I'm out of there now!"  
  
"Yeah, that's definitely good!"  
  
"So...Ron and Hermione went to Hogsmeade?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Together?"  
  
"No, of course not." Harry said sarcastically. "Ron went with Malfoy and Hermione is going around with Parvati and Lavender. Of course together!"  
  
Shannon grinned. "Well, we all know what THEY'LL get up to..."  
  
Harry smiled, raising his eyebrows. "Argue?"  
  
"Well, yeah, that as well. No, I'm referring to the OTHER possible thing they'll get up to."  
  
They both halted and stared at each other for a long moment, frowns crossing their faces as realisation dawned. Shannon blinked.  
  
"Ugh, not that far! At least...I don't think so...are you disturbed?"  
  
"Very."  
  
No more was said as they hurried down towards the lake, seating themselves under a tree at the end nearest the castle, their backs to the building. The conversation started again, going to Quidditch, pranks, schoolwork, and occasionally subsiding into a friendly silence as they watched the Giant Squid playing about in the water. It was in one such lull that Shannon turned her head to look at Harry.  
  
"Hey, Harry?"  
  
He glanced over at her. "Yeah?"  
  
"Uhh..." she frowned slightly, avoiding his gaze. "I wanted to say...I mean...umm..." She focused on an interesting spot on the ground. "Thanks."  
"What do you mean?"  
  
She looked at him directly then. "I mean...thanks. for rescuing me and all. It means a lot to know my friends are there for me, even if I was acting pathetic..."  
  
"You weren't." he said. "And...it's alright. I mean, I'll always be there for people who're important to me." He flushed when he said that, but she didn't seem to notice.  
  
She laughed slightly. "Hey, I made the 'important' grade with one of the world's most famous superheroes. I can't be doing too badly then."  
  
He raised his eyebrows. "Superhero?"  
  
She laughed again, wrinkling her nose. "Yeah, well, y'know..."  
  
He snorted a bit, making her giggle again as she looked away at the lake. For some reason, he found himself staring at her.  
  
"Shannon?" he asked before he even thought about it. she looked around immediately.  
  
"Yeah?" She frowned and cocked her head when he didn't reply. "What?"  
  
"Uhh...doesn't matter." He tried to look away, but she shifted slightly closer to make it difficult.   
  
"No, really. What were you going to say?"  
  
"I..." harry hoped he wasn't blushing as much as he thought he was. "I can't really explain."  
  
She shrugged happily. "We've got all day. So go on."  
  
"Uhh..." he wasn't sure how he was meant to say it, or even exactly what he was trying to say. She was watching him silently and patiently with wide, expectant eyes, and in that moment, he suddenly came up with an idea.   
  
He leant down and kissed her gently, smoothing back some of her loose her behind her ear as he did so. Then, when his brain kicked in a few seconds later, he pulled away, watching her apprehensively as her eyes opened and she stared at him in something like shock. There was a long silence and she broke the gaze first, cheeks flushing.  
  
"Well...umm...that was unexpected..." she said uncertainly. Harry had a terrible feeling in his stomach, as if someone had pumped it with lead.  
  
"Shannon, I...sorry. I didn't mean-"  
  
"No, it's OK." She interrupted, looking up at him with a lopsided smile. When he blinked in surprise, she laughed and leaned in closer, whispering, "I liked it." just before she kissed him again.  
  
*****  
  
Chloe huddled into her jacket, face grim as she watched the Aurors working about ten feet away, using every powerful spell they knew to drain the Crystal of Dreams of its dark magic.  
  
A familiar pair of arms wrapped themselves around her, and she didn't even flinch in shock. Instead, she leaned back against the person and said, "I though you weren't going to show."  
  
"Got held up." Sirius said, kissing the top of her head. "I had to come."  
  
"Mmm."  
  
There was a silence which Chloe eventually broke with a small, humourless laugh.  
  
"It's so ironic, you know?"  
  
"What is?"  
  
"Everything." She sighed heavily. "All this, over some lump of rock. All these problems caused by one person and his supporters."  
  
"Yeah." He rested his chin on her hair and she sighed again, lowering her voice to barely a whisper.  
  
"It's unfair."  
  
This time, he knew exactly what she meant. Life.  
  
"It always is, Chloe."  
  
A silence hung between them as they both contemplated identical ideas. If life was fair, Voldemort wouldn't exist. Lily and James would still be alive. Harry would have grown up in a proper family enviroment, instead of with his uncaring Muggle relatives. They wouldn't have spent all those years apart. They might have been happy.  
  
Might have.  
  
Chloe eventually turned around, reaching up to kiss him. She drew back after a moment, meeting his dark gaze seriously.  
  
"As much as I'd love to stay like this...we'd better go do our job."  
  
He nodded, slowly letting go of her. "OK. Let's go."  
  
They both began to walk down to the other Aurors, and Chloe reached out to grab his hand, trying not to show her fear.  
  
*****  
  
Ack! I hate this chapter. It sucks- and no, Silvermoon, don't finish that sentence! Oh, and btw, that whole hentai interpretation was for you. Lol.  
  
Anyways, an epilogue is coming your way very soon, so please stay tuned! 


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Harry Potter