Unofficial Portkey Archive

Chapter 4

(Part of the 'Emerald Spellbook' series)

Harry Potter and all the characters are not mine blah blah blah. The only things/people I own are Wendy Potter, the blue magic flower ball and "The Secret Lives of Spirits". Please do not use them in a story without asking me. Thoughts are in italics.

Here's my review thanks and responses:

JuliaBlack- I am so into wendy/george (=Claps= YAY!)

juggling stars- I'm into Wendy/George (YAY!) and I hope George gets another chance to ask her out! (Don't worry, he will) I'm curious now as to how Esmeralda killed herself, if it was an awful death. (You just have to wait and see. =Wiggles eyebrows=)

simaonie- ...who does Ron get with, he seems so alone with Harry and Hermione dating. (He'll be with Lavender.)

Also thanks to reviewer, Miss Foxxxy.

On Saturday, a month later, Harry and the group sat in the common room studying. Hermione put down her quill and stared off into the distance. Harry looked at her quizzically. "What is it?"

"Why does she have color?" Hermione said, not looking at her boyfriend.

"Who?" Harry asked.

Hermione looked at Harry. "Esmeralda. All the other ghosts have no color to them, but she does."

"You're right," Harry agreed. "That is odd."

"I suggest we take this to the library," Hermione said. The others nodded in agreement and the quartet rose from their chairs and left.

The stack of books on the table grew ever higher and the shadows across the faces of the worn out friends ever longer. There was no one left in the library except the Madam Pince and the quartet. Wendy yawned and laid her head down on the table. "I say we pack it in for the night. It'll be lights out soon," she said as she picked at the peeling skin from the rash on her hand. She sighed. "Damn poison ivy."

Ron echoed Wendy's yawn. "I agree. We can do more in the morning."

Suddenly a loud bang behind the group made everyone jump. They got up and went down the row the sound had come from. A very large book had fallen from the top shelf and now lay on the floor, surrounded by wisps of slowly falling dust.

As Hermione bent down to pick up the book Ron looked up to the spot the book had fallen from to see Esmeralda's face for a split second before fading into nothingness. He frowned in thought. "Did she.......?"

Hermione's eyes creased in disbelief. "This is......"

"What?" Harry said as he looked at the book over Hermione's shoulder. "The Secret Lives of Spirits? That's....just what we needed."

Ron was still staring up at where Esmeralda's face had been. "Esmeralda pushed it off the shelf," Ron said in a half-whisper to no one in particular. "I think she's trying to help us," he said as he looked over at the group.

"How do you know?" Wendy asked, scratching at the back of her hand again.

"I saw her face up there for a second," Ron replied as he pointed to the top shelf.

Hermione re-adjusted the book to a more comfortable holding position. "In that case, we'd better read it thoroughly," she said as she began to walk away. "Let's go back to the common room. We'll start on it first thing in the morning."

Harry and Ron played chess by the fireplace while Hermione leafed through the giant book on her lap. Every once in a while, when she though she'd found something, her eyes would widen a bit, but the she'd realize it was a dead end and go back to grimacing at the pages.

Wendy was sitting on the window sill, reading her latest letter from George.

Oy Wend,

I'll be by the school on Monday so I can post some flyers for the joke shop Fred and I just opened. It's called Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. I'll come see you while I'm there. I have something I wanna ask you.

See ya,

George

Wendy crunched the letter to her chest and smiled. She had a good idea what George wanted to ask her. 'I've found it!' came Hermione's voice from the couch. She turned her body around too quickly towards Hermione and fell straight off the sill.

"Ouchy," Wendy grumbled as she rubbed her now sore hip.

Harry, Ron and Wendy crowded around Hermione. "Okay, according to this chapter," some of Hermione's enthusiasm melted away, "Esmeralda........was a suicide," she said in a regretful tone of voice. She bit her lower lip.

The others looked horrified. "Oh God," Harry said.

Wendy looked like she was going to be sick.

Ron sucked in a breath through his teeth."But why does that make a difference in her color?" he asked.

"This says she's in a temporary limbo until she works out the problems that made her want to kill herself. It's like she's somewhere between being a ghost and being alive," Hermione said softly.

Ron looked down at the floor. "She said she died horribly." He looked up. "Can we help her?" he asked hopefully.

Hermione sighed. "Unfortunately, you would need to talk to her about it. Get her to feel better. But it doesn't look like that thing that carried her away is going to let you do that," she replied as she closed the book.

Ron frowned. "Do you have any idea what it was?"

Hermione shook her head. "No. But I have a feeling we don't want to anger it." She sighed in frustration. "If only we knew more."

"Bloody Hell!" Ron cursed rather loudly as yet another splinter of wood entered the skin of his index finger.

Madam Hooch turned sharply in Ron's direction. "That will be quite enough of that churlish language in my class, Mister Weasley."

Ron shrank into his chair. "Sorry M'am." After Madam Hooch had returned to making her rounds, Ron turned to glare at Harry, who was snickering his little head off. "Shut up, Harry."

After Harry had managed to stop laughing he returned to carving his broom handle. He stopped for a moment and frowned. He was trying so hard to make an origional handle design, but it seemed to be slowly taking the shape of a Nimbus 2000. He sighed in frustration.

Ron looked up from working with the needle he was using to remove the splinter. "What's wrong?" he asked Harry.

Harry made a sound that was like a mix of a sigh and a growl. "Nothing. I just can't get this thing to look like I want it."

Ron pursed his lips. "At least your hands don't look like," he held up his hands. There were at least twenty tiny Bandages on his fingers, "this," he finished.

Harry couldn't help it. He started laughing all over again.

George walked toward Hogwarts castle with flyers in his hands and butterflies in his heart. He had been wanting to ask Wendy out for a long time now. He was still kicking himself for not doing it while they were in school together. He was glad Fred wasn't with him. He knew if his twin started up with the usual jokes he would lose his nerve.

Harry was heading toward the Quidditch pitch. He was now captain, and had insisted they practice for three hours before the coming match the next day. He was so very glad the Quidditch season was starting.

"Oy, Harry."

Harry turned toward the main doors of the school. George was waving to him. "Alright there, George?" Harry said with a smile.

George jogged up to Harry. "You got a minute?" George asked hopefully.

"Sure, but you'll have to talk on the move. I need to get to the pitch," Harry said as he began walking.

"What do you reckon Wendy thinks of me?" George asked.

Harry cocked an eyebrow in surprise, but dropped it quickly. "You've got no worries mate. She fancies you loads," Harry said with a smile.

George sighed in relief. "Good that makes my job easier."

"Finally pluck up the courage to ask her out did you?" Harry said with a lopsided grin.

George brushed a fly away from his face and turned a little pink. "Yeah."

"There's the pitch. I've gotta go. Good luck," Harry said as he ran to meet the members of his team.

George watched Harry go and then headed back to the castle. Harry had said Wendy liked him, but for some reason the butterflies in his heart were now accompanied by a knot in his stomach.

Wendy was walking to her herbology class. She hated herbology. She purposely dragged her feet because she had plenty of time since her transfiguration class had ended early. Something small, round and blue whizzed past her right ear. It hit the floor and a blue tulip immediately sprang from it. She reached down and picked the lovely flower. "What the heck.....?" she wondered out loud. She turned around to see a certain Weasley standing behind her. "George!" she yelled- then jumped up and wrapped her arms around his neck in a hug. Suddenly, realizing what she had done, she dropped to the floor and turned a ferocious shade of pink. George, for his part, was grinning like a Cheshire cat.

"Glad to see you too," he said.

Wendy's blush faded and she turned her attention to the flower in her hand. "I like the flower. Nice trick," she said with a congratulating grin.

George's face fell. He'd been hoping Wendy would have realized that the tulip was a romantic gesture.

Wendy looked at him quizzically. "What?"

"Nothing, never mind," George replied in a off-handed tone of voice. "You going to class?"

Wendy frowned slightly. "Yeah."

"Something wrong?" George asked.

"Nothing really. I just hate herbology. I'm terrible at raisin' plants. I could kill a plant by lookin' sideways at it," she said irritably.

"You can't be that bad."

"George, I killed an air fern once," Wendy said, embarrassed.

George tried not to laugh, but it was useless. "I'm...sorry," he said through his snickering as Wendy gave him a mock look of death. "I...just...How did you kill...an air fern?"

Wendy looked at the floor. "A friend of mine gave me one as present. I....um....didn't know you weren't supposed ta water it," she replied.

This was more than George could stand. His barely contained snickering turned into uncontrollable laughter. Wendy just stood there, waiting for him to finish. She was annoyed that he was laughing, but she had expected it and, frankly, she couldn't blame him. If it'd happened to someone else she would have been laughing just as much, if not more.

Once George had stopped laughing he stood to his full height. "I'm sorry," he said, a smile still on his somewhat handsome, freckled face.

Wendy sighed and rolled her eyes up to the ceiling. "S'okay. It is kinda funny." For the first time she noticed the papers in George's hand. "Are those the flyers?" she asked.

"Yup," George replied, handing her one.

"They look great!" Wendy exclaimed. The flyer had a wizard in an outrageously colored outfit (She guessed it was the wizarding world's version of a clown) riding one of the Twin's fireworks.

George decided it was now or never. "Um, Wend. I wanted to ask you something..." he began.

The bell rang on a nearby grandfather clock. Wendy looked up and her eyes went wide. "Oh shit! You'll hafta ask me later. I'm late!" she said as she bolted for the staircase.

Downtrodden, George sighed. "Great job there, Georgey boy." He started for the great hall. He still had to post his flyers. "Fred is just gonna eat this up," he said out loud to no one.

.........TO BE CONTINUED