Unofficial Portkey Archive

Harry Potter and all the characters are not mine blah blah blah. The only things/people I own are Wendy Potter, Esmeralda Carney, the spell creation course, the mermaid language course, the broom making course, the blue magic flower ball, and "The Secret Lives of Spirits". Please do not use them in a story without asking me.

I appreciate all you guys. Every time someone reviews my fics it totally makes my day! :)

Please read and review. Thanks!

Harry, Hermione and Ron were trying desperately to get to their next class while ignoring Peeves; who kept hovering behind them, pelting them with sunflower seeds. Harry'd had enough. He wasn't in the best of moods. He had put the whole team through a particularly hellish practice. Seamus had told him that he swore he was getting worse than Oliver Wood had been. He was starting to wish he hadn't accepted the offer when the team asked him to be captain. He stopped in his tracks and rounded on the annoying poltergeist. "Sod off, Peeves, or I'll get the Bloody Baron!" he hissed.

Unexpectedly, Peeves smiled in a superior way. "Oh, I'm afraid our dear Baron has left us," he said with fake, overdramatic sadness. He was not very convincing.

The trio looked at each other. "Left us?" Ron said disbelievingly.

Peeves did a flip of delight through the air. "Oh yes, and the other ghosts are gone too," he said as though it were the best news in the world. "The teachers are ever so upset," he said smugly. "Had a long meeting bout it last night too," he said with a horrible grin. He threw another handful of seeds at the trio and flew off through the ceiling, cackling with laughter.

Hermione turned to Harry. "Do you think he's telling the truth?"

Harry scowled. "Come to think of it. I haven't seen any of the ghosts today."

Hermione sighed and glanced at her watch. "We'll have to worry about it later. It's almost time for class."

Everyone nodded in agreement and continued on down the hall.

Defense against the dark arts had turned into Harry's favorite class since Sirius had taken over. He had even let Harry lead the class in a few of the lessons. This made Hermione proud. It was nice to see Harry excel in an academic field. Not that his grades were horrible, but there weren't any classes that he seemed to be one of the top students in.

"Well boys and girls. Since I'm feeling lazy today," Sirius paused and gave the class a lopsided grin, "we're just going to take care of the boggart in Mister Longbottom's desk," he said as he pointed in Neville's general direction.

Neville's eyes went wide as he half fell, half ran from his desk. The rest of the class broke out into laughter as he toppled onto the floor. Harry couldn't remember ever seeing Neville move that fast.

Sirius managed to keep in the laugh that was threatening to escape his lips. "Right then." He ahemmed. "Lavender, you're first."

Lavender Brown stepped up to the desk and Sirius opened the top. ::CRACK!:: Out came a fierce looking dog. "Riddikulus!" she shouted. The dog became a tiny puppy.

"Paravati, you're next," Sirius said as he waved a hand at the desk.

Paravati gave a little squeak of fright and raised her wand. ::CRACK!:: The desk was opened and a monster made of thousands of wriggling maggots appeared. "Riddikulus!" The monster sprouted flowers all over it's disgusting body.

"Harry. I understand from Professor Lupin that you didn't get to face the boggart last time," Sirius said with a warm smile.

Harry nodded and, grinning, moved to the front of the crowd. He took a moment imagining a dementor wearing a clown nose and wig before giving Sirius a nod to continue. "Ready," he said. Sirius opened the desk. ::CRACK!::

Nearly everyone in the class screamed. It wasn't a dementor. Harry just stared in wide-mouthed horror. "Ri.......ri......ri," his voice began to break up, "Ri......ri.....ri....ri..ri........," he just couldn't make the word come out. Lying on the floor was Hermione's dead body. Her hair was matted with blood from a nasty head wound. Blood was trickling from her nose and mouth. There was a giant hole in her chest and the front of her uniform was dark red from it. Her eyes were wide open, sporting a terribly empty look. To top it all off her right arm was broken and bent the wrong way, which made the bone stick out ominously through her skin.

"Ri....ridi...OH GOD!" He fell to his knees next to the false Hermione and began to sob.

Once over the shock Hermione kept trying to tell Harry she was right there, and perfectly alright, but he had gone into some kind of trance.

Sirius suddenly shouted. "Everyone out of here now!"

The class was quick to comply with their Professor's wishes. Once they were gone Sirius, with Hermione's help, dragged Harry away from the horrible image. Sirius stepped in front of the boggart. CRACK! Sirius' mother appeared. "Riddikulus!" she was wearing a fluffy bunny costume. Sirius forced himself to laugh and the boggart was destroyed.

Sirius hurried back to his trembling Godson and shook him gently. "Harry. Harry!" Harry took a rickety breath and managed to glance up. "Harry, I am SO sorry. I thought it would be a dementor. If I'd known it was going to be......," he trailed off.

Harry closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "It's....it's al-right Sirius. I........wasn't expecting it either," he said with a shaky voice. He suddenly pulled Hermione into a crushing embrace. "Mione.........you're safe."

Hermione returned the hug. "Yes. Yes of course I am." She ran her hand over the back of his head. "Shhhhhhh," she said soothingly. Inwardly, Hermione shuddered. It was disturbing enough, seeing one's own dead body, but she noticed immediately what those specific injuries were supposed to reflect. Especially the hole in her chest. It was meant to be the end result of her being impaled by a javelin made of rock. It had all been an illusion, of course, made by Selene, but it was very clear that it was still on Harry's mind. It was a good thing defense against the dark arts had been their last class of the day. She didn't think Harry was in any shape to be dealing with lessons.

Over the next few hours Harry never left Hermione's side, and every once in a while his face would cloud over with a far away look. Hermione's heart went out to Harry, but there wasn't much she could do. It wasn't possible to battle nightmares after all. So she decided to try and get his mind on something else. "Who are you playing against today?"

Harry blinked back his day-nightmares and responded. "Slytherin," he said with mild interest. Inwardly he sighed. He knew he wouldn't have the concentration to deal with a match against Slytherin. "I can't stop thinking about it," he sighed mentally. "Maybe the match will clear my head."

Hermione frowned. She had been hoping for a response she could use to strike up a conversation. "Is Seamus giving you a hard time?" she prodded.

Harry snorted. "A hard time? If I didn't know better I'd swear he thought Wood was using the imperious curse on me," he said with a wry smile.

Hermione couldn't help herself. She giggled. This loosened Harry up a bit and he began to laugh a little too.

"You'd better get going," Hermione said. Harry nodded. "I'm going to go find a good seat," she said as she smiled and gave him a quick kiss on the lips.

Harry smiled and nodded. "Love you, Mione," he said as she began to walk away.

"Love you too!" Hermione happily called over her shoulder as she ran for the Quidditch pitch.

The noise of the crowd rang clearly though the crisp November air. As everyone chatted happily about the coming game George stood at end of the Gryffindor section of the stands scanning the crowd for Wendy. He finally spotted her sitting next to Hermione about halfway up. His resolve crumbled a little. How was he supposed to ask Wendy out with Hermione right there.

The girls were talking about something that made Wendy smile. "Blimey, she's beautiful," he thought as he watched her raven black hair being blown around in the breeze, gently caressing her face.

Suddenly, George felt like he had lead weights instead of feet. "What if I mess up again?" he thought miserably.

The crowd stood on their feet and began to cheer loudly. The teams were flying out into the pitch. He decided this was his chance and maneuvered himself toward her though the crowd. Eventually, he made it as close as he could to his destination and took a deep breath. "Oy, Wend!" he yelled over the crowd.

Wendy turned her head to see who was yelling for her. A huge grin spread over her face at seeing George standing less than six feet away. She wove her way through the masses to his position. "What's up?" she said loudly.

George smiled and held out his hand. "Come with me for a sec," he said.

"Okay, but make it quick. I don't wanna miss too much a' the game," she said as she took his hand.

George nodded and lead her down the steps. Once they reached the bottom he moved out onto the grass and sat down. Wendy followed suit. "I wanted to talk to you about something," he said with a slightly choked voice.

"Okay," Wendy said. She cocked her head to one side, waiting for his reply.

George, for his part, chewed on his thumb, then tapped his fingers on his leg, looked off into the sky......

"George?" Wendy prodded, wanting him to say something.

George cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck. "Gimme a second would you? I'm...I'm not good at this kind of thing." He took another deep breath. "Would....would you be my girlfriend?"

It took less than a half second for Wendy's face to break out into a huge grin. "Of course I will, you dork! If you didn't say somethin' soon I was gonna do it for ya."

It was as though George had been held upright by invisible strings that someone had just cut. He simply fell over backwards onto the grass, sighing in relief as he went.

Wendy laughed and held out her hand. "C'omon. Lets go watch the game."

George chuckled lightly and clasped his girlfriend's hand. They walked back to the stands, barely hearing the roar of the crowd over the thundering beat of their hearts.

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

Wasn't that cute? Hope that made the Wp/Gw shippers happy. :) Part of the reason I'm going so full force with this couple is that I love the twins and I really wanted to do something that showed more than the comedic side of at least one of them. Plus they aren't featured in fics very often.

I know the boggart thing was kinda graphic, but I felt it was necessary to get the desired effect out of Harry.

See ya soon guys!

Songbird21