#Sirius is very blank coded..

[remus-poopin]

In a modern muggle au James and Sirius would be one of those left leaning debate bro-esque streamers who spend their time yelling at bigots online but then says some real off the wall shit after talking incessantly for a couple of hours during a stream because they don’t want to actually investigate/interrogate their own prejudices and learned biases/behaviors because they think just because they identify as progressives they therefore can do no wrong.

[floralembarrassment]

hi! i love your writing, and wanted to ask if you'd like to write some wolfstar with fem/genderfluid sirius? have a nice day/night!

So not only did this request come in but today I followed a car blasting the Killers "somebody told me" and because I am in so deep in this fandom all I good think was wow this is incredibly wolfstar coded. Anyway, this is what the combination inspired - enjoy! with love

The Bit (1/1) (wolfstar)

It didn't really matter where they went, they were often the best dressed couple. Remus looked sleek in formal wear, a shiny black suit with velvet lapels. His soft curls in a mop on his head, and a confidence now that drew much more attention than any of his scars.

Remus was a perfect contrast to Sirius, whose shoulder length black hair was flowing, effortlessly smooth and wavy at the same time. Sirius had a sheer black top that hung just off the edge of their shoulders, and matching not-so-see-through pants that waved with every one of her steps.

All eyes were on them as they walked into the restaurant.

"Hello, Reservation for Lupin please," Remus said. His tone sauve, but husky and low, a sound that generally made Sirius go mad. Remus knew it was working, as Sirius gripped his arm tighter.

The host nodded, ran his finger down list, and then turned to grab two menus. "Please follow me," they said.

They were led to a small candlelit table, one Remus had asked for specially, as it was the table where they had their first real date. Sirius noticed immediately, and reached their hand across to intertwine her fingers with Remus'.

The waiter came shortly after, reading them off the specials. Then the waiter turned to Sirius then Remus and back, "anything to drink for the lad... lady?"

Sirius eyes brightened, and a matching smirk appeared on Remus' face. He squeezed Remus hand before pulling away and addressing the waiter, "I'll have a cosmopolitan," they said, voice deep but sickeningly sweet.

It was Remus and Sirius' favourite joke to watch others try to figure out Sirius. Mostly because it took so long for Sirius to figure themselves out, and for her to be okay with who he was. And partly because everyone was still so daft that Sirius never got gendered the same twice.

Remus' chuckle brought the waiter back to reality, who turned away from Sirius quickly to ask, with a very politically-correct pursed lip, "and a drink for you?"

"The house red will do, thank you," Remus said and nodded, dismissing the waiter who was struggling to keep a blank expression.

Sirius used to get upset about it, and she still will when it's people who they care about or who should know better by now. But Sirius is long past worrying about what strangers think about them, and he loves how much joy Remus gets when Sirius fucks with the ignorant.

Remus took Sirius' hand back, turning it over to splay their fingers open and kiss her palm. Sirius swooned.

"Moony," Sirius whined, shamelessly.

Remus looked up and caught his gaze, "my lovely lovely boyfriend, you look absolutely beautiful princess, and I am endlessly thankful that you let me in your life."

And as Remus spoke, the pair fell more and more in love. But Sirius couldn't help but burst out laughing as the waiter shakily placed the drinks on the table after hearing the whole encounter, and then rushing away. Remus joined in the laughter as they watched their favourite waiter, a trans man, smack the current waiter with his order pad.

[musezieren]

RANDOMLY GENERATED HEADCANONS

use this generator to create some randomly generated headcanons for your muse(s)!

Sirius

Sirius has a mary sue oc.

Sirius is a dog person. (he loves all animals... but cat coded people loving dog coded people is chef kiss)

Sirius is oblivous to any and all romantic interest someone may show them. (at least in the beginning lol... like sexual flirting? Yes! Romantic interest? WHAT THAT?)

Sirius fucked your mom. (As DUrge, yes)

If Sirius likes someone, they will give them a pretty rock. (.... or a pretty bone they found, or a spider egg... but... yes)

Gale

Gale cracks their knuckles very loudly. (eh... well yeah after long study sessions)

Gale is very good at walking in platform heels. (No... no sorry... he'd fall blank on his face... this is Sirius' skill lol)

Gale is tumblr famous. (legit)

Gale has been to prison. (prison of his own home and depression)

Gale could easily survive The Hunger Games. (kinda legit... if he gets his magic)

WHY WERE THE ONES FOR SIRIUS SO FITTING AND GALE GETS JUST.... dkslmflksdmf

tagged by: @astralrogue tagging: @demonswcb @karmints @bonegrieve @rosawept @tamedstray

[ess-presso]

hi ess <3

miss taylor: dancing with our hands tied, blank space, & treacherous <3

ty for the fic rec <3 i love texting fics sm i eat em up everytime. here's one for u, operation: toebeans by moonymoment (cute lil wolfstar fic, they fuck around with minnie and shes so tired of them)

chatting <3

id love to see a massive colonel sanders statue irl. it would definitely be significant enough for people to make pilgrimages to it & in fact i think id visit it myself.

fuck san francisco (im sure its lovely) i hate it there (it looks kinda cool tbh). sadly we've already broken best friend code cause she lives in a different city for uni 💔💔 havent seen that bitch since the beginning of january and im losing my mind. but its fine i think i get to see her this month🕺

ah yes the only two requirements to date someone: be hot and funny. (no but fr thats it. the bar is so low)

hozier <3333 (yes canadian money smells like maple syrup!!! just the notes though not the coins. i wish the coins were scented too)

now for the jesus/judas au..... i think peter simply has to be judas. but for jesus i wanna say james because judas revealed jesus' identity = peter revealing james & lily's location (although sirius as jesus would be funny too with his long jesus-like hair & the way he kinda came back to life via escaping azkaban)

american harry styles scares me fr.

fuck seagulls like actually. they always steal my food at the beach while im swimming and i cant swim back in time to stop them. theyre public enemies around these parts.

oh god. an eighteen year old dating a fourteen year old while he has another gf...... so fucking gross. (someone free both those girls rn. actual leonardo dicaprio behaviour)

i got anne carson's sappho fragments book for christmas & i was gonna go ahead and annotate it but now i feel like i should wait until i have someone to annotate it for. or maybe ill just annotate it and then i can give it to my person when they come along <3

ur def right im the opposite of final girl material but i am impulsive and stubborn so i will explore the church if its the last thing i do. (it will be the last thing i do cause im gonna end up getting myself killed)

six cans of monster can cure anything & i truly believe that. even a horrible hangover.

philosopher's stone>>>> sorcerer's stone sounds so bad anyways. im glad canada isnt quite dumb enough to get the sorcerer's stone treatment.

all of my halloween costumes are pretty lame tbh. i was a bee for my first bday (hence my nickname) but ive been a witch, vampire, zombie, ghost, etc. nothing special really

u should definitely tell harvard. theyd be too stunned to deny u entry its foolproof.

i loved blowing things up in chem. truly my only motivation to go to class.

using music apps based on our fav colours thats so real of us.

i may not have gotten wingstop but i did see florida (jumpscare)

joey in season one <3333

infinite bag of money thats a great idea how did i not think of that.

u will be banker one day. im manifesting this for u.

tumblr will forever be the superior social media idc. this website is untouchable.

oh god that guys a mummy's boy...... freud would absolutely lose his mind. a field day.

i understand u. like sometimes ur drunk self has a mind of its own and will do random shit. ive cut my hair drunk and woke up very confused but at least i managed to not botch it!!!

love in the dark is SUCH A JEGULUS SONGGG oh my god. adding to my jegulus playlist right this instant.

omg listening to music while looking at art>>>>>> perfection. makes u feel so peaceful and cool fr. (WENDYS!!! i love wendys so much.)

ur completely right id rather be having a horrible time with liv than be somewhere nice with someone i hate. doesnt matter what we're doing or whats happening it'll just be better if shes there.

i love that taylor likes 13 like yes girl me too. but 13 is actually a lucky number in italy so my family has always liked it!

oh god james and lily im so sorry......im just glad i wasnt born in 1981 or else id be highly suspicious that im the reincarnation of one of them.

american and canadian accents are super similar unless we're talking southern united states or far eastern canada. they literally sound irish over there no joke.

drarry <3 i just love the angst. so many possibilities for them.

jily & jegulus <33 ur right, jegulus for the fics (theres just SO many good ones) but jily for the ships theyre just so sweet.

after that guy i swore to never watch a movie for someone i like ever again. (also mainly because most of the time the movie is SO BAD!!!!) but yes its so cute when ur watching something with someone and they tell u all about it <333

we kinda did have a lot of paint lying around! it was mostly just lil kid art sets with crappy cheap markers and pencils but they were fun. if i was lucky i was allowed to use my parents fancy stuff.

it was genuinely so funny like i wish i couldve seen the sock fall from the audience's perspective i bet it was ridiculous.

literally ezra/aria. it was so gross but at least it wasnt real.

rude old people make me so mad like how have u lived so much of ur life and still carry so much hate in u......get a life old lady!!!!!!

hermione & harry <33

its true dramione fics are better. romione fics are usually just as bland as they are in canon. still cute tho.

tote bags!!!! love em. and omg a pride and prejudice tote thats so cool. i have one with constellations all over it i love it sm. (but also tote bags make my shoulders hurt so bad i swear im gonna get scoliosis one day)

wireless headphones till i die!!!!! how am i supposed to clean my room while watching netflix or something with wired headphones. how am i supposed to cook with wired headphones.

omg a 2! alexa play lover by taylor swift. (im a 5, apparently the investigators. i do love solving a good puzzle so ill take it)

red nail polish 4ever. looks good with anything i swear. my fav is a dark wine red and its just perfect.

wait thats so funny. it sounds straight out of an episode of friends or something. (glad everyones okay!!!!)

THATS SO CUTE!!!!! AHHHHH! top tier gift fr.

also a top tier gift. signed copies of ur fav books + unabridged podg + museums???? a flawless gift.

THE EMMA QUOTE OHHHH MY GOD!! i love that quote so fucking much. those are all so good. quotes that make u feel completely unzipped are the best always.

that poem is so good wtf. "i fear no fate (for you are my fate my sweet)" WHAT THE HELL!!!!!!!! IM UNWELL.

i wanna visit the lake district so bad ohhh my god. it looks so nice. the air looks so crisp there.

the locket that is so cute im crying!!!!!! i have a pic of liv and i from when were like 3/4 grinning at each other and ive wanted to put it in a locket forever so u have inspired me thatll be her bday gift.

tigers are so cool thats an excellent choice. king of the jungle fr.

horror movies & romcoms thats so real of u. the duality of man. & horror movie adrenaline rushes are unlike anything i swear.

not picking between jily and jegulus REAL!!! theyre both so perfect.

answering qs!

im not allergic to anything! (that i know of. so far so good.)

i totally believe in fate, at least to the "everything happens for a reason" degree. i think people need to just live their lives and let things happen cause we cant control everything and it would be impossible to even try. if its meant to be then itll be.

i accidentally fucked up a really good friendship a while ago by not being there for someone when they needed it (to be fair we were both going THRU it so i didnt realize) but we both moved on & they had moved to a different school so we drifted apart eventually. shit happens but theyre happier now so thats good.

i wake up bright and early (its 12pm.) i gracefully get out of bed (i sit on my phone for half an hour before dragging myself out of bed) i go brush my teeth and do skincare (i do brush my teeth but i definitely dont feel like doing skincare) i go make a nice nutritious meal (i make a coffee and some toast if its a good day) i do a wakeup workout (i sit in bed and drink my coffee) i get dressed for the day (im not changing out of my pjs) i do my makeup (im not doing my makeup) i head to campus for my class (my class is online. i stay in bed.)

spiderman or thor!!! ive never read any of the comics so this is purely based on their movies but peter parker i love that man. and thor is a dumb idiot i love him.

i think id switch lives with either elon musk or jeff bezos so i can give away all their money to charity or to pay for important things that they can afford like solving world hunger. i think id also love to switch lives with timothee chalamet like what goes on in that boy's head hes so funny sometimes.

(like which pre-existing fic do i wish i was the author of?) i wish i had written just lovers by zar (also intermission by zar) just because that fic is a masterpiece and to be the author of such a work of art would be an honour.

i wish i had written the iliad and the odyssey cause it would be cool as fuck to be as iconic as homer. (also since homer mightve not actually existed id love to be that much of an enigma too. keep em guessing)

ive never been in love! ive liked people but it never gets past that. i guess im just waiting for the right person to come along. but also, in a way i think i fall in love with everyone i meet. some people are just so cool and ill carry that memory of them forever.

i dance and sing a lot when im drunk. i get loud in general but i will karaoke the shit out of whatever is playing. also i get giggly cause everything becomes funny for no reason.

the worst fight liv and i have had is so dumb, she called me telling me that she was having people over at her place for her bday. i said i wasnt sure if i could make it bc i had 4 papers due that same weekend but i would try bc i obviously wanted to be there for her bday. she called me back a bit later sobbing saying she wanted me to be there and that she was mad i might miss it, i started sobbing because i felt bad and because i was overwhelmed, i told her okay, id be there no matter what, she said okay. we hung up and then she called me back 10 mins later completely fine and we both apologized for the dramatics & everything was fine and i managed to write my 4 papers in time so i could go. (uni and exams were kicking both our asses & we both had a breakdown cause neither of us had slept in like 2 days at that point lmfao)

probably either stargazing and seeing sirius & regulus & that comet, or when i last saw liv in january - we got coffee and walked around a lake for like 3 hours and talked shit abt the bitchy people from high school. it was lovely.

jegulily yes! ive never read any jegulily but i wouldnt mind reading some at some point. again, james has two hands!!! plus i think their dynamic is so fun.

i actually dont watch a whole lot of romcoms so i had to look up which movies would be considered romcoms and from that search my favs that ive seen are: enchanted, easy A, mamma mia, & 10 things i hate about you!

i also dont watch a lot of horror movies but i was fucking OBSESSED with IT in 2017 like fully obsessed. my entire personality was from that goddamn movie.

qs for u!

piercings vs tattoos?

whats your fatal flaw?

if u were any emoji which would u be?

whats ur love language?

fav superhero?

fav fic of all time

fav disney/pixar movie?

whats ur preferred method of annotating books? (like do u add random commentary or do u add deep analysis & thoughts?

what do u think ur animagus would be?

fav aesthetic?

do u prefer to stay in to watch a movie or go to the theatres?

fav day of the week and why

whats your literary archetype? (fun lil quiz, i got the ruler)

thats all for now <3

-bee

bee my darling <333

(first apologies for replying late.I seem to have a knack with doing those kind of things. but now I'm on half-term break , exams are over, so I'm mostly a free bird !!!)

miss Taylor -

dancing with our hands tied - JEGULUS - 'I loved u in secret'. that's all. secret love is theirs , they own it . also also , this is so regulus's line - 'I loved you in spite of Deep fears that the world would divide us'. HIM HIM HIMMMM.

blank space - all the women - I simply couldn't choose between them and since this song is very very female rage to me , I'll say all of them. especially Marlene , because if she's one to sleep around , you just know she was shamed for it.

treacherous - WOLFSTAR - I just really feel the vibe of sirius being like 'I'll follow you home' and remus thinking that the love he feels for sirius is treacherous !!!

chatting ----->

nah imagine being under that statue and you see boxes of free kfc just hanging around . colonel the redeemer would be gods child fr.

everything in the us looks either cool or dangerous. SHE BROKE THE BFF CODE. yta divorce immediately. lu lives like five minutes away from me and it's to and fro from there like everyday. I see him all the time and I haven't even thought about the possibility that one day I might not see him everyday. like that's not happening. peace to u bee , u brave for not tearing the fuck up.

nah fr where are my hot and funny little bitches/bastards. like bro come here and kiss me on the mouth and take me out and we can get married in like an hour.

hosier is bae baeeee. (that's so fucking cool. and I think the coins should so smell like maple syrup. it's fucking unjust that they don't. sue Trudeau.)

Peter = judas and James = Jesus (and I so see ur point with the sirius looking like Jesus parallel. like James (if he was alive) would've so made some jokes about that.

TALKING ABOUT HARRY STYLES - please tell me you saw him at the brit awards yesterday. please. I was in fucking tears when I saw. like broooo he mentioned Zayn??? my boy Zayn ???? my directioner heart is healing for real. (and lewis Capaldi is probably the only person in the world who can among to get the band back together. he has the power.)

I get chased by them whenever I'm at the beach and they've stolen chips from my fish and chips before and it's so fucking annoying like genuinely I wish they'd go fuck themselves.

no genuinely someone should arrest that guy. fucking hate him. piss bag.

ahhhhh annotate it and then buy a new copy for your person and annotate with shit like 'made me think of u' and everything I would cry my fucking eyes out if someone gave me that.

nah bee a nun gonna fly in and drop kick u in the face (now laughing at this image)

it did not cure my hangover ! it made it worse !!! and the worst part was that lu was also hungover so he couldn't work his magic with his hangover potion. and he also emptied his insides out (he threw up) and I was his sick nurse and made him soup and everything. (he was so out of it it was funny as fuck)

canada is smarter than the use for sure (free healthcare and gun control for one.)

bee as a bee oh my god that's so cute (and those costumes aren't lame they're classics)

fr Harvard is so calling.

blowing things up is so so fun. I used ethanol in class recently (there was a big boom) and it was very funnn.

yes pink and green stay winning always >>>

ew not florida ewwwwww.

joey is just bae. I love him so so much. (his funeral fit stays banging.)

I'm just smarter than u bee , let's face it.

update on the banking thing - he said no. he just doesn't like powerful women.

tumblr is so bae , like vanilla extract is so funny to me now

freud would love to dissect that boy fr.

cutting your hair drunk ??? and not botching it ??? you are the chosen one. I bow down to your brilliance.

THE MOST JEGULUS SONG TO EVER JEGULUS. yes yes u must add it. can't believe it wasn't already there in the first place.

it is so perfect. such a vibe honestly. (Wendy's slaps hard. but it wasn't square so I feel betrayed.)

bad times with your best friend so that ten years in the future you can look back and laugh on how stupid and dumb you were.

ahhh no my family has always considered 13 bad luck. but I don't believe it so 13 stays winning <333

can't tell the difference fr (Irish ??? never knew that that's fucking weird (in a good way))

DRARRRRRRYYYYYY the angst is unmatched. unmatched I tell you.

jegulus fics are so so so good I eat them up like soup. and jily is just - perfect. I love them. I love it so so much.

no because those kind of movies are so weird. it annoys me so much. (but watching stuff with someone who's obsessed with the thing you're watching ??? like whatttt. it's so sweet. eg Lu's fucking obsessed with sports and shit and he knows I'm just not - so he always always explains shit to me like when to cheer which team we support and everything.)

I would feel so proud if it was me and I was allowed to use the fancy paints. like so so important and everything I would love it so so much.

I can imagine it now. sock falling in slow motion.

yes thank fuck for that.

get a life of their own frrrr. high time considering their lives are just about to end.

herm and harry are my darlings honestlyyy

yes yes romione is so cute and awesome but I don't personally like fics about them fr.

OH MY GOD A CONSTELLATION TOTE ???? honestly you're so fucking awesome it's fucking coooolllll.

WIRELESS HEADPHONES 5ever fr fr. could never deal with the wires when I'm doing stuff.

LOVVVVERRRRR. ( a 5 ??? that's awesome !!!)

mine's that kind of red or a classic bright red. love them classics and everything I love it <33

it really really really was. (we're all good but we have matching scars now ! hey - tattoos right there ???)

no I loved it so so much I love it so fucking much it's cool as fuck. prize present <33

I'm literally the best friend ever he should bow down to me and my excellence. (no but I just got him all his favourite things and bro got super emotional and everything. )

YES I FEEL SO UNZIPPED WHEN I READ THAT SHIT I FUCKING LOVE IT SOOTHES ME. those kind of confession quotes will always be so dear to me.

YES YES U GET IT. favourite poem ever <33

the air is super crisp and everything feels mega real up there. like I am hyper-aware of the fact that I exist.

yes yes a locket like that is so so cute. she will keep it close to her heart trust <333

YES TIGERS. GO TIGERS.

horror movies & romcoms have my whole heart. rom-coms come first , but horror movies are a close second. (and horror-coms are lovely too !!!)

jily and jegulus are amazing. top-tier always.

reviewing your q's -

god bless u and ur immune system. the chosen 1 fr.

fate fate fate. I believe in destiny and fate and I love it because I really truly believe that I could bump into someone and fall in love. like it could so so happen. It will happen. manifesting the fuck out of it.

friendship break ups make me so so sad. like damn you don't want me anymore???? sad as fuck. (glad you both are doing good now !!!!)

WHAT A FUCING MOOD. same though. I think it's something in the air when I'm getting ready for school. like I get ten times more slugger in the morning I'm getting up for school like I really curse the fuck out of everyone and their mothers.i do it so often.

Peter Parker always <33333. I love them so so so much.(tom and toby and ANDREWWWWW)

(yes yes that's what I meant !!!) I so so need to fucking read it I swear I'll do it. I'm going to do it as soon as I have time honest.

homer is iconic you're so right. keep them guessing always and forever for reals.

I fall in love every time I look in the mirror. no but if we're being honest - me neither. I feel like it's coming though. I love love and I want to be in love too. (meeting the best people and carrying the memory of them forever >>>)

NO HONESTLY. man wearing hat ???? funny as fuckkkk.

not being able to go places because you have exams is so so so fucking annoying. like exams can go to hell (she cried for u ??? that's so sad and honest and sweet honestly best friend GOALS.)

talking shit about bitchy people with your best friend >>>> especially because it's always the darnedest things too and the best friends we have would never expect it and it's always so funny to shock them.

I honestly don't really mind jegulily. I think it's fun , and I might read a couple fics here and there but they'll never be my OTP. I love them , but jegulus and jily stay winning alwayssss.

'I hate the way I don't hate u. not even a little bit , not even at all.' my heartttt. and also Cameron is amazing and needs to be appreciated more.

q's -

now I love piercings (want at least 3 in each ear) but tattoos because to me they can hold much more meaning than a piercing. like it would be amazing and they just .... do stuff piercings can't. piercings still slap though.

loyalty to the people I love. like I've said this before , but I'd absolutely go feral if anything untoward happened to the people I love. i would genuinely fuck the aggressor up. like I genuinely feel like I saw a ten foot tall hunky muscle guy slap lu once , and I was there , I'd get so mad I'm pretty sure my sheer anger would scare him the fuck away. but I'd do it even if they were wrong. like if he says the sky is purple in front of people he doesn't like , then the sky is mf purple until we get home then I ask him what the fuck is going on.

the raising a single eyebrow one. I'm always making that facial expression. (I used to hang out with some pretty sus people and the things they used to say ..... shiver.) and of course the love heart ( where is my pink love heart , apple ?????? where is it ????) simply because I am a hopeless romantic.

acts of service !!! I will always do something like that for someone I love. like you need the groceries ??? not a single word more I'm going rn. also also love love giving gifts. like I really think them out .

SPIDERMANNNN. I love all 3 of them so so much I love the fuck out of them they're my favourites always always.

oh my god I couldn't possibly. but I could. (for each ship I have 1 or 2)

drarry - mental , temptation on the warfront.

jegulus - absentmindedly making me want you

dramione - wait & hope , isolation

wolfstar - of memories and milk thievery , lessen my load

nottpott (harry x theo nott) - rendevouz receipts , lethal combination

btw lethal combination is by the same author as the one who wrote the atlas six !!!! I love it so so much !!1 (nottpott is a guilty pleasure ship)

7. my favourite Disney movie is tangled always always <33333 unmatched. Pixar - UP (I fucking love it. it made me cry so so hard, I love it so so much)

8.i do both. like I have clear post-its , and sometimes I jot my notes down there , other times I have annotated the fuck out of them on the pages. in my copy of Gatsby , I have the word 'gay' written next to a lot of the times nick talks about Gatsby (maybe I'm biased but he was so in love with Gatsby.)

9.i'd love to be a black cat. mostly because I hate how they're said to be bad luck. like they're so sweet and cute and I just love them always. they're amazing. (plus being lazy and thinking they're better than everyone ??? so me honestly.)

10. dark academia !!! I so so so wanna live like that like it's the dream I love it so much. everything about it. the outfits , the scene , the vibes , the feel , the feeling that if I fall in love with someone , it'd kill me to be without them. I just LOVE it.

11. cinemas !!!! I love cinemas so much the vibes , the popcorn , the snacks I've snuck in , the way people clap when famous actors come onto screen >>>>

12. friday !!! end of the week , game night , no alarm to wake upto the next day . Friday has it all always. very dear and near to me <333

13.the lover !!!! no one was surprised by this honestly. it's very literally me. I am very much an idealist always looking for love wherever I can find it !!!

q's for uuuu -

which 1d member is your fave ?

top 5 Taylor songs ?

top Shakespeare quote ?

fave Shakespeare play ?

fave modern family character ?

style vs ootw?

cruel summer vs dress ?

fave tay tay lyric ?

controversial opinion you have ?

famous person you hate (not an obvious one like Kanye or John Mayer we all hate them they don't count) ?

sickest burn you've ever given ?

sickest burn you've ever got ?

moment when you wanted to slap liv's face the fuck off ?

moment you've been horrendously jealous ?

(beee beee beee I love u tonnes. sorry I've been so bad with replying. I'm so going back to normal after this I pinky promise. come back soon <3333333 I missed u!!!)

[darkestdawnhq]

GRETA CATCHLOVE is a 23 year old HALFBLOOD, a former HUFFLEPUFF, and a BOOK SHOP-KEEP who is a CIVILIAN and uses SHE/HER pronouns. They are categorized as CODE THREE. They are currently CLOSED.

Daisies in a finished bottle of wine or soda | True strength lies in persisting in the darkness | Shy glances at your crush | The smell of freshly baked cinnamon rolls | Being underestimated for enjoying the simple things in life | Pressing flowers in notebooks | Muggle music playing from your records 

HISTORY.

Greta Catchlove was welcomed into the world by two loving parents, who were beyond thrilled to have a beautiful baby girl.  Her childhood was almost idyllic – she spent her time doing things that she loved with the people that she loved.  Her parents fostered her creativity. Together, Greta and her parents would paint nonsense on blank canvases, read in the afternoon sun, hike, and spend their summers swimming and kayaking at nearby lakes.  She was always fascinated by the beauty of the world around her, spending hours sitting in the back garden, just taking all of the beauty in. Watching the ladybugs, caterpillars and ants go about their days, marveling at mushrooms and ferns and oak trees. Greta quickly became the kind of person to give bees water or to save a worm from the pavement.  The Catchlove’s never had an excess of money, but they were happy.

Her fascination with the world prompted Greta to start writing at a young age, at first making detailed notes about her observations, but then starting to run away with her imagination. She dreamt up tales of Princesses and Knights, life-sized ladybugs who could sing, tap dancing dragons, and much more, letting her vivid imagination run wild. When she was 11 and she received her Hogwarts letter, she was both excited and terrified. She’d never known anything other than life with her parents, but she was excited to embark on a new adventure, just like the ones that she made up in her imagination.

Tall and gangly, even for an 11-year-old, Greta made her way to Hogwarts, and was immediately sorted into Hufflepuff house. It wasn’t until she got to school that she realized the simple fact that not everyone was nice. She also had no idea how important blood status was becoming in the Wizarding world. Both of her parents were magical, but her Grandma was a Muggle, and Greta didn’t know how anyone could look down on someone as lovely as her Grandma. She never really excelled at her studies, but she never did poorly, either, enjoying subjects like Care of Magical Creatures and History of Magic more than Transfiguration or Charms. Greta enjoyed learning new things, but was never able to stop her imagination from running wild in the middle of her classes. She was friendly and warm, making a few friends, but was always a bit too introverted and sensitive to form any real bonds, worried about rejection from her more outgoing peers.

When the war started to rage, Greta knew that, while she absolutely held sympathies for those who were standing up to He Who Must Not Be Named and his band of bullies, she had nothing to offer the Order. She stayed neutral in the war, not because she didn’t support the cause, or think that everyone deserved to be treated equally, but because she was terrified for herself and her family. Greta was a writer, not a fighter, and didn’t feel strong or brave enough to make a difference. Her neutrality landed her the code three status, and even after the war ended, she has continued to try to keep her head down so as to not draw any attention. She may have been introverted before, but by the time the war ended, she had pretty much cut herself off from everyone, even her parents. They had both gone into hiding with Greta’s Grandma for her safety, and Greta is terrified for them all. She’s afraid that if she steps out of line, that something bad will happen to her family. There have been few who have been reaching out to her, and Greta appreciates it, trying to push herself to really form some deep connections.

After the war ended, Greta started to be plagued by guilt about her inaction, but she is very careful with who she lets her sympathies be known to. It is these sympathies that Sirius Black seems to be very aware of, and though her interactions with him have been pretty few and far between thus far, she’s incredibly worried of the dangers that come with being associated with Order members. It’s flattering that Sirius seems to think she’s capable of more than neutrality, but a small voice in the back of her head can’t help but think that he’s just grasping at straws for an ally. As usual, there’s an internal war raging inside her head - she’s still absolutely terrified of stepping a toe out of line in the new world order, but she’s starting to think that she needs to do more than just sit idly by while injustices happen. Greta is, of course, completely unaware that she’s being closely watched by the new regime, which is probably for the best, as knowing would completely ramp up her anxiety.

If there was one quality that her parents instilled into her, it was kindness. People tend to underestimate Greta because she’s soft spoken, gentle, and kind, but she thinks that there’s a great strength and courage in being kind in a cruel world. She is incredibly observant, noticing things about the world around her that others might miss. Though Greta is very sweet and kind, she tends to be quite sensitive, overly anxious, and overthinks things a lot. She’s more of a dreamer than a doer, letting herself get more lost in her imagination than she is grounded in reality. She has a good sense of humour when you get to know her, tries her best to be hopeful, is very down to earth, and cares incredibly deeply about others. Greta tends to be a bit gullible and naïve, is easily flustered and embarrassed, and certainly isn’t the most skilled witch of the bunch. She is, however, a very talented writer, and hopes that one day, by some miracle, the reign of terror will be over, and she’ll be able to publish one of the many books she’s started writing.

CONNECTIONS.

SIRIUS BLACK: Recruiter. Greta has caught him several times since he went into hiding along with the other newly minted fugitives of the law. She would never turn him in, since she doesn’t agree with the new Ministry or the treatment of muggleborns. However, she does wish he would stop coming to her and looking for her to join their cause. She can’t say how she truly feels about him seeing some strength in her that not many others have, but she doesn’t want to get involved in the dangers of the defeated Order of the Phoenix. She offers him all the help she can each time without accepting his offer to join. 

ASLAN SHAFIQ: New Friend. They met at Flourish and Blotts when both were looking over books on herbology and charms. Truthfully, they both reached for the same book at the same time and their hands hit. Greta started talking to Aslan then and discovered that they had a lot in common in their interests and their views. She’s been keeping in touch with him since then and a new friendship is budding between them. It’s such a relief to her in these new days for her to find a new friend to fend off the darkness of the world with.

MOLLY WEASLEY: Companion. Greta started interviewing Molly for a book she was considering writing before the Death Eaters took over. She’d been playing with the idea of a book on charms one uses in the kitchen or one on herbology for your home. Over the afternoons with tea and little babbling babies on Molly’s knee, Great came to really appreciate the kindness, warmth and knowledge of the older witch. However, all hopes of her ever publishing a book like that, or about any topic, came to an end when the Ministry declared that only code ones could be published. She still enjoys talking to Molly when she can, even if it is no longer in pursuit of her book. 

LUCINDA TALKALOT: Classmate. Though Lucinda was in a different house, Greta always admired her from afar when they were at Hogwarts. The two knew of each other, of course, being in the same year, and Greta always wanted to befriend Lucinda, but wasn’t entirely outgoing enough to know how. Greta always admired Lucinda’s take no prisoners attitude, respecting that she was a fighter who always stood up for herself. Lucinda always had qualities that Greta wished she could have more of – she would have loved to be able to stand up for herself more, but confrontation terrifies her. Since graduating, she’s seen Lucinda around, and always thinks about reaching out. She has nothing to lose, and isn’t quite sure what’s stopping her.

Currently portrayed by NATALIA DYER

[pads-and-moons]

Oct 31st, 1981

Lily woke up feeling uneasy. She often did, these days. The war had certainly taken its toll on them, too many innocent lives had been taken. Strangers and friends, she ached for them equally. Shaking her head to clear the thoughts, she got up and begun to prepare breakfast. On the bad days, the days where she felt restless, she knew it was important to be as productive as possible, to keep herself from going crazy cooped up in their house.

Pushing down the toast, she thought she heard movement upstairs, so she went to go and check on Harry. He was lying in his cot, awake and peacefully watching the mobile above him. The miniature quidditch players zoomed around above him. She smiled watching it, James had gotten it as soon as they found out they were pregnant. Trust him to ensure their baby was as quidditch obsessed as he was. Harry reached his arms up, asking to be picked up and Lily obliged.

She held him and carried him gently downstairs, and finished preparing breakfast for all of them.

James walked down then, his hair still wet from the shower. He came over and wrapped his arms around his wife, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

“Morning beautiful,” he said. “Something smells good, what have you made?”

“It’s just eggs and toast,” she laughed, “yours is at the table.”

He called a thank you and dug in. Lily went to shower and get dressed for the day, James would be okay to watch Harry for the time being.

Half an hour later, she came downstairs feeling much better. Taking a seat on the sofa next to James, she leant on his shoulder and they watched Harry play.

“James,” she began, not sure exactly what she wanted to say.

“What if we don’t survive the war?” her voice broke, and she was staring at a point on the carpet that had suddenly become quite interesting.

She had thought about this all the time, and her and James had discussed the effects of the war on everyone around them but up until this point had not had a serious conversation about what would happen if they didn’t make it. They knew Voldemort was notorious for killing families, and with the prophecy about Harry she couldn’t help but worry herself about it all. Seeing the paper with the news about Marlene’s family in July, and the following Order meeting had been sickening. As well as the numerous other attacks she had sat through meeting after meeting about.

James’s voice startled her out of her thoughts, and he was looking at her with a solemn expression.

“Lily, I know that absolutely nothing is guaranteed in this war, but you have to have hope. It’s just about all we have left. No one on this planet knows where we are except for Peter, and the Death Eaters will never expect us to have him as our Secret Keeper. He isn’t going to break our trust, so they have no hope of finding us unless they find out that it’s him and kill him. And you know that I will do absolutely anything in my power to keep you and Harry safe, anything. I don’t want to say it, but in the extremely unlikely event that something happens to both of us, Sirius and Remus will take care of Harry, you know they will. Legally Sirius is his godfather so Harry will go to him and he will be just fine, even if Remus has to help out. Lils I promise you that I will do whatever I can to make sure you are safe. I love you.”

Lily had begun sobbing around the point he had started talking about Peter, and allowed herself to freely cry. It felt like lately they had tried to keep themselves so numb because dealing with every single attack and death was becoming too much. She rarely cries anymore, but let herself have this. Lying on James’s lap, he stroked her hair and was rubbing comforting circles on her shoulder.

Eventually she cracked a smile as Harry had crawled up to the sofa and had stood up to lean on the edge next to Lily’s face. He blew her a kiss and despite herself she laughed. She lifted herself up, then lifted Harry into the space between her and James.

“My boy, my sweet baby boy,” she whispered to him, pressing kisses all over his face. James then began to tickle him and they were all screaming and laughing. Lily thought this was as close to genuine happiness as she had felt in months, watching the love of her life smiling and laughing with their baby, and watching Harry’s tummy shake with giggles was a new kind of joy.

They spent the day as a family, baking and playing with Harry, and Lily’s unease from the morning had settled. They watched a movie together, as since they had been placed under the Fidelius Charm Lily had insisted they bring in some Muggle entertainment.

It was getting dark, and Lily suggested she go and put Harry to bed. James agreed and kissed them both on the cheek.

“Goodnight Harry, sweet dreams about the Cannons losing the game next week so we can go through to the semi-finals!”

Lily, although she rolled her eyes, smiled at her Quidditch obsessed husband.

“Love you babe, I’ll come back down once I’ve put Harry to bed.”

James nodded his assent, and turned to go and clean up the kitchen from dinner. He knew he had left his wand upstairs earlier but he didn’t mind the washing up the muggle way, the repetitive motions were quite therapeutic.

Not two minutes after Lily had gone upstairs with Harry, there was a banging on the front door. All of the colour drained from James’s face, and he felt his stomach drop.

“Lily,” he called. “There’s someone here.”

He tried to keep the terror out of his voice although he was not very successful. He knew that if Peter were coming by he would have done their code knock so they knew it was him.

The front door swung open, and he immediately regretted leaving his wand upstairs. He cautiously stepped into the front room to see who was there. Unsure of what he was expecting, he was still shocked when he came face to face with Voldemort himself. Wanting to buy as much time as possible, he grabbed a chair from the dining room table next to him, taking a moment to be grateful for the open plan of their house, then realising how bad the situation was he stepped forward, as if to hit Voldemort with the chair. Voldemort deflected this easily and with a flick of his wand the chair had gone flying across the room and smashed a window.

“Now now,” Voldemort said, with an air of calm that definitely did not match James’s current heart rate, “if you just give me Harry we can all move on and I won’t have to kill you.”

“Never!” James roared, charging at Voldemort and trying to hit and punch him as much as possible.

“LILY, TAKE HARRY AND GO! IT’S HIM! GO! RUN! I’LL HOLD HIM OFF!” he screamed, trying to convey the urgency of the situation.

Hang on, he thought briefly, there is no way that Voldemort could be here unless Peter told him where we were, no way that’s not-

“Avada Kedavra.” Voldemort said simply, and then the green light hit him.

James’s body fell to the ground, lifeless.

Upstairs, Lily had been trying to open the window without Voldemort hearing so they could escape and have a head start without him knowing, but upon hearing the spell and the thud to the ground, she knew exactly what had happened. She knew she had to keep trying to get out and take Harry away but it was too late, footsteps were coming and they were in the hallway just outside Harry’s room.

“Harry my boy, my sweet boy, I love you so much, I’m going to try and get us out of here, okay?” she whispered, more to calm herself down than anything. She had also had the same thought as James, that there’s no way Voldemort could be here unless Peter had betrayed them and was still having trouble believing that poor, meek Peter would do that to them. Not to mention that her husband was currently lying dead on the living room floor.

Voldemort walked in, wand at the ready and disarmed Lily wordlessly before she could react.

“Step aside my dear, I can spare your life if only you’ll give me Harry,” he said, and she would almost think of his tone as pleasant and charming if not for the request he was making and the lack of humanity in his eyes.

“No,” she replied furiously, refusing to ever put her baby in danger. He aimed behind her at Harry and uttered the spell. As if in slow motion, she leapt in front of the awful green light. It hit her chest and her whole world went blank, and then there was nothing.

[luciens-one-and-only-sea-otter]

Five Otome/Romance Game Men I Adore

Hai hai many thanks for thinking of me for this tag game @justine-the-guillotine !!

 I always feel pressure to do these things perfectly, even though it’s just talking about things I like :’) so please bear with me in my, probably, screaming appreciation. I’ve been thinking of a list a characters for a whole day and honestly I’m suddenly blanking,,, who do I adore? lol who knows,,, Well actually you are about to know cause I am going to tell you LOL. OkAY. Enough of this blabbering, onto the list of many mens.

Please know I am excluding Lucien (MLQC) because it is obvious that I adore him to a fucking fault. If you want to see me do a whole appreciation about those him just hmu in my asks or message me and I will go on for days bby

This list is in no way order of most to least adored, I physically could not make that kind of decision jkdfjksdfh. ALSO PLS KNOW I DO SWEAR LIKE A FUCKING SAILOR AND I TALK OF SMUSHING LOVELIES OFTEN. IT”S JUST MY PERSONALITY SO SHHHHH IF YOU DON”T LIKE IT DON”T READ IT BOO, THAT SIMPLE!

Takeda Shingen (Ikemen Sengoku) - Okay, I will be honest, I was very skeptical of sengoku period romance games because I had played some in the past,,, but holy shit, Shingen blew me away. He quickly rose up the ranks of otome men in my heart, and I think about him at least once a day now. I related so much with his MC because it was so hard not to lust and swoon over that man. I have no idea how or when I fell hard for him but it happened and I am not mad at all. I self insert so much with my games,,, and it’s easy for me to slip my real feelings into my fantasies. And honestly I really wish I could have Shingen IRL, ~~though I’m sure I would absolutely freak out and hide under a rock if he ever paid me any attention. He represents the perfect man, lover, and husband to me; he’s on a god level kind of man. Shingen is compassionate, knows boundaries and has never restricted MC from doing anything she loved (without good reason), he’s reliable and strong in a way that makes my heart melt. AND  LET’S NOT FORGET HOW FUCKING BRILLIANT THIS MAN IS, HE IS SO FUCKING SMART AND I WISH CYBIRD LET US SEE HIS EXTREME INTELLIGENCE MUCH MORE,,,, He’s just so damn perfect it is near infuriating how good of a man he is. He fits my normal type so well; me saying “Tall, Handsome, Flirtatious, Sexy as Fuck and Infuriating” might of as well have been about Mr Takeda “I’ll marry you and give you everything for one smile” Shingen. I also really like characters that are loyal to their loved ones (yes in contrast to my bastard villain type kink, I also love those who show loyalty and devotion to the people they love) Shingen does more than enough of all of and I really do look up to him as a person and model for character,,,,, oh gods, and the way I imagine he would make sweet baby making love to ---*cough cough* ALRIGHT LETS STOP HERE BEFORE THIS BECOMES A WHOLE ASS SHINGEN APPRECIATION POST!!!

Sirius Oswald (Ikemen Revolution) - I’m really tempted to just insert a daddy kink meme and leave it at that,,,, He is my absolute top otome man, or rather,,, one of my top “I wish you were real and we were married” men. As much as I whore around and claim to love a new man the most (besides Lucien because they’re on the same level now) every week,,, I will always come back to Mr. Flower Daddy. He holds such a precious spot in my heart, I can only try to explain the things that he makes me feel. Like a giddy school girl in love for the first time, but in this story they end up together. High school sweetheart kind of love that lasts till they’re old and wrinkled with time. Gods, thinking about Sirius makes me sob and my wallet sob harder . I must have a thing for men who keep denying their affections for MC (aka me self insert) because of things like responsibility, friendship, being labelled an old geezer,,etc. I have played his route about eight times over (probably) by now, it’s a little upsetting that his route wasn’t as spicy as his side content. Please Cybird, let Mr. Flower Daddy be the sexy and dramatic man he can be. I love the way he cares for others, how hard he works to achieve the bonds and peace he has now for not only everyone he loves, but for the country they all live in as well. His many layers intrigue me, seeing his reactions as well ughhhh I love this man so fucking much, how do people irl deal with love like this? I’m sitting here dreaming over Sirius Oswald,,, and his,,, big hands,,, Never have I held such large and terrifyingly real emotions and lust for an otome character. The man just screams let daddy take care of you baby but also let daddy wreck your pretty whore mouth, little lady or maybe that’s just me projecting my kinks onto this pure (lol) man. Not only is his body, heart, and morals absolutely stunning, HE IS ANOTHER INCREDIBLY INTELLIGENT BEING AND I CANNOT STRESSSSS HOW MUCH I FIND SMART PEOPLE INCREDIBLY SEXY AND THE WAY HE USES HIS TALENTS TO SUBTLY AID HIS LOVED ONES UGHHHHHH I LOVEEEEEEEEEEEE. GODS PLEASE LET ME BREAK INTO THE SIXTH DIMENSION AND MARRY THIS MAN!!!! 

Kent (Amnesia Memories) - OKAY LET ME JUST SAYYYY HE IS THE BIGGEST BABY AND BIGGEST MAN AT THE SAME TIME AND YOU CAN FIGHT ME ON THIS IDC BUT HIS OUTFIT IS THE SHIT!!! FUCK YOU BELT HATERS!!! His outfit and his love slaps like the wholesome man he is. Absolutely I would love to h*ld his h@nds and give him the best smooches I can give. Because that is what he deserves. I really loved this game, growing to love Kent was easy despite his big brain fucker throwing math questions at me from time to time. I’m not sure what makes me like Kent so damn much, but I do and that’s what matters skjdfdskjfh. He is so damn precious,,, you all know those  “you so fucking precious when you smile” song video thingies? That is exactly how I feel about Kent. He’s so damn precious I want him to be happy always. And I will fight anyone who bullies him hnnn. 

Myeong Hwi aka Theodore Wilson + Lee Gun Wook aka William Harris (Mystic Code) - Mystic Code used to be one of my favs, till they did the whole updating and redoing the story thing, with no full voiced lines etc (I really hope they bring that back). But two stood out to me the most was Captain Wilson and Lieutenant Harris. Both have very strong personalities and care for the greater good, and thick as fuck lets be real with that dom energy . I adore men with strong and noble (?? is this the right word??) personalities and also possess a compassionate heart. As Theo is with the MIU team members and Will is with MC. 

Theodorus Van Gogh (Ikemen Vampire) - whoallowedthismantobethisfuckingattractiveandlegal??????  *insert his magic mike CG* I have played Theo’s route in JP a few times, once to completion but knowing him in the EN version I am already absolutely in love with this man. How this came to be? Maybe it’s his bittersweet personality, the way he cares for MC in the same way Sirius does, but he’s a bit more brash about it than Sirius. I absolutely adored his character growth in his route and as you get to know him better he opens up more and more, ahh the tsundere is quite the cute trait XD. He is strong willed and passionate, he is caring of his loved ones, he is loyal to his family, blood or found, and he is an absolutely attentive loving person. Why ask for more when you can just love Theodorus Van Gogh? He is the absolute softy packed into a large brooding and brash package with a shiny 8-pack abs that I wish to slather maple syrup on and lap up for the love of----  for someone who loves pancakes so much. And I very much admire his drive to do what he wants and needs to do to the absolute best of his ability. His will to thrive for the best he can get has me swooning. He truly is a breath taking man,,, whether that be because he is being a complete sweetheart all of the sudden or he’s whipping you some nasty insult that is itching for a rebut.

Alright, that’s it! I cheated a little lololll but there aren’t any rules so >;3c I can do as I wish. 

I uhhhhhhh don’t interact with many other otome blogs T^T (but maybe you can change that hwehwe) so I won’t be tagging anyone. However, if you do see this and want to join in and tag your friends pls do!!! Share the love, pass it on, scream about more 2D mans.

[halothenthehorns]

THROUGH THE TRAPDOOR

  Harry hesitated before answering him though, asking, "What's the Order? You guys have mentioned it a few times now."

"Oh," they all said, blinking in surprise. Sirius said, "it's an anti-Voldemort group."

Remus gave him a light pop on the head before going into far more detail than that.

Harry nodded along, wondering very much why he had such a sense of Deja vu' of Sirius and Remus telling him these things. He shook it off and thanked them when they had answered all of his questions, and then read on eagerly.

Years later, Harry would never quite understand how he sat through his exams when he kept expecting Voldemort to come charging through the doors at any moment.

"Well, since we managed it every year, I don't think the teachers would accept that," James said lightly, trying to force a joke into a deadly awful moment.

Yet the days kept on, and the exams did come. Before they started, each student was given an Anti-Cheating quill.

"Which work far too well," Sirius laughed.

"Sirius did you-" Lily began, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Oh not me," he said at once, "but I knew this seventh year kid who had written a bunch of

answer's down in invisible ink on his arm, and he got them to come back for his eyes alone during the exam right? Well the Anti-Cheating charm made it so that the ink he used was then invisible to anybody but him on his test to. So he basically turned in a blank paper and made a zero." He trailed off in bits of laughter.

"Is that what happens to all the cheaters?" Harry asked.

"No," Remus responded, his eyes twinkling with mirth, "it's a bit specialized for maximum karma on each cheating student. Thankfully, not that many students are stupid enough to try, so I can't think of many more examples."

Harry smiled and decided to keep going.

They had practical exams first. In Charms they were supposed to make a pineapple dance across a table, and in transfiguration they were to turn a mouse into a snuffbox.

"You're not saying how you did," Lily said, wanting to hear her son's results.

Harry thought a moment and said, "I did alright on the tap dancing pineapple, but it fell off in the end, so I didn't get full marks for it. My snuff box still had whiskers on it, but I got ninety percent of it, so again I didn't get full marks, but I passed." He paused, puzzling for a moment and thinking about his other exams he said, "err, I didn't do that well in astronomy, did awful in potions, did really good on my DADA course, despite Quirrell being an awful teacher really."

"What about Herbology?" Remus prompted.

Harry nodded, saying, "that one I did pretty well in."

"Let's keep going then, since I think that was all of them," Sirius said brightly.

In potions they were set to make a Forgetfulness potion.

"Points for irony," Lily chuckled.

Harry tried his hardest in all of these, despite the near constant prickling of his scar, which had been happening ever since his trip into the forest.

"It's not bothering you now though, right?" James demanded at once, still stuck on the oddity of it paining him at all but since they still had no idea of who or why he'd rather ask this question then one he knew Harry couldn't answer.

"No," Harry said, "and I promise I'll tell you if it does."

They all relaxed at once at that.

Harry had been having nightmares again as well, now accompanied by a hooded figure dripping blood.

"Did not want that mental image," Sirius groaned.

Ron and Hermione didn't seem as worried over the Stone as Harry seemed to,

"They have more confidence I suppose," James offered, having noted several times how little confidence his son seemed to have. Another thing he blamed those Dursley's for.

though Voldemort scared them plenty, but they were both too busy studying to worry about much else.

"And there's that," Remus agreed, those exams were enough to make anyone study, even this lot of trouble makers.

Their last exam was History of Magic.

"Oh yeah," they all said brightly, but it was so easy to forget about this class.

"I did alright on that one," Harry said, shrugging, "not that good, but better than I thought."

"That's all anyone can hope for on that test," Sirius chuckled.

Harry smiled over at him, then felt an odd wincing pain. What was it about a History of Magic exam and Sirius that would cause that? Brushing it off, he quickly hurried on, not really liking the aching feeling that was growing inside of him.

After they left Hermione said this one was easier then she'd been expecting,

"I bet she said that about all of her exams," Lily laughed.

and how she hadn't needed to learn about the Werewolf Code of Conduct from 1637

"That's second year material," Remus rolled his eyes.

or the uprising of Elfric the Eager.

"And so is that," James laughed.

"I'm impressed you guys remember anything from that class," Sirius said, a bit dumbfounded.

She did this a lot, went back through and examined every exam, which only annoyed Ron. The three of them had made it out into the sun by now, and laid out under a tree.

The three friends smiled nostalgically at this, wondering if this happened to be the same tree they always sat under. The odd's made it seem unlikely, but it would still be something if he did.

Fred, George, and Lee Jordan could be seen in the distance tickling the giant squid.

"Be careful with that," James said at once, "that thing pulled Peter in the lake once for doing that."

"He spit him out though," Sirius said, laughing loudly at the memory.

It was a warm and sunny day without a care in the world. Ron was praising that they didn't have to do anymore studying, and that Harry should cheer up more, they wouldn't find out how badly they did for months.

"Now that's the right attitude," James laughed, having told Remus that more than once.

Harry was rubbing at his forehead, his mind not on exams as he told them his scar was still hurting. He claimed he felt it was some sort of warning, that danger was near.

Lily quirked a brow at this, saying slowly, "the last time it happened though, was at the start of term feast. What was dangerous about that?"

Their minds scattered, but they all came back to one idea. They hadn't discussed it yet, but since Harry had told them Snape definitely wasn't the culprit, then the only other person who might be was a stuttering fool who clearly couldn't stand up to anyone.

Easy pickings for Voldemort to control sure, but how? To many questions, not enough patience to wait around and speculate, Harry was already going on.

Ron still didn't seem too concerned, saying that they still had no proof Snape knew how to get past Fluffy, that Hagrid surely wouldn't tell anyone.

"Well, Ron's gotten better at reassuring people," Remus agreed.

Harry agreed, though insisted he felt like he was forgetting something. Hermione told him that was just exam nerves, that she'd woken up last night and gone over her Transfiguration notes, before remembering they'd already done that one.

"I don't think so," Harry muttered to himself, churning everything he had learned so far over in his mind, but then deciding to let the book continue, rather than strain himself again. He really didn't want another memory blast like the last one.

Harry still couldn't make his mind agree, turning everything over as he thought of Hagrid. Hagrid would never let Dumbledore down, would never tell anyone about Fluffy...except- Harry lunged to his feet.

"What did you figure out?" James asked.

Harry wasn't listening, he had figured it out at the same time he had in the book, and he was too panicked to explain so he read on.

Ron startled and demanded to know where Harry was going, and Harry said they had to go see Hagrid, now! Hermione tried to ask why while keeping up with a now running Harry, who explained that it was a bit of a coincidence that Hagrid had just happen to win a dragon egg, when it was illegal to carry them around in pockets.

All four adults sat there like they'd just been smacked in the face.

"Oh bloody hell," Sirius cried.

"How on earth did I miss that," Remus hissed in self-disgust.

"Well we were a bit preoccupied with the dragon itself," James muttered, rubbing his temple in agitation.

"Oh, I really hope Hagrid didn't..." Lily trailed off, looking worriedly at her son who was still

going paler as he kept going.

How it must have been lucky for that wizard to run into Hagrid who wanted a dragon more than anything else.

"I'm confounded, really I am," all three boys were muttering something similar to this, how could they have missed a detail like that?

They reached Hagrid's hut, who was outside sitting in the sun, and Harry began asking about the night Hagrid won Norbert. Asking if perhaps he recognized the stranger who had his egg? Hagrid said he never even saw the face, how he wouldn't take his cloak off,

"And he didn't find that the least bit odd?" James demanded.

but that wasn't so unusual in a place like the Hog's Head.

"Okay, fair point that," Lily agreed, they had all been in there at some point.

It wasn't to out there that he could have been a dragon dealer.

Remus muttered something to himself, yes that's what they had thought at the time, but the timing! It was just too perfect that a dragon dealer would show up when Hagrid had information like that.

Harry wasn't giving them much time for self-pity, he was reading on in too much of a rush.

Harry asked what they talked about, and Hagrid described his job here on the grounds, and the creatures he looked after. Fluffy might have come up at some point, the stranger kept buying Hagrid drinks.

"Oh no," Sirius moaned, wanting to smash his head against the wall.

"Of all the bloody," James trailed off in frustration.

"Did Hagrid not recognize the voice though?" Lily asked.

Remus snorted, saying, "oh please Miss Potion Master, you're telling me you don't know a way to disguise your voice and throw on a hood."

Lily nodded in acceptance of that.

Harry asked if the stranger was interested in Fluffy, and Hagrid agreed he was, three headed dogs were a rarity, but Fluffy was easy enough to handle if you knew what to do with him. Just play him a bit of music and he'd go straight off to sleep-

All four adults face palmed at that.

"It's official," James mumbled, "we are idiots."

"Apparently all you have to do to get information out of Hagrid is just keep him talking for more than five minutes," Sirius agreed.

"Yeah great," Remus said, a bit of anxiety colouring his tone, "now we know you can put the three headed dog to sleep by singing it a lullaby, but Harry you better wipe that look off of your face right now."

They all whipped around to look at their boy, and Harry tried to fix his features, but it was too late.

"Harry, no," Lily begged, "you didn't."

Harry was gnawing his lip to pieces as he struggled to remember, saying slowly, "something happens, I can't for the life of me remember, but something bad happens. So yeah, I'm going to say we did."

All four of them leaned back into their seats, looking on at him in stunned disbelief.

An eleven year old boy went to get past that dog, and probably fifty more enchantments, after a fully grown wizard, possibly Voldemort himself. How on earth was this kid still alive?

Harry decided to keep reading now while they were all still stunned.

Hagrid stopped himself, but it was too late. The three friends tore off again, heading back to the castle, now looking for Dumbledore's office.

The boys were still too stunned to make a mention of where they knew the office to be, not that it would have made a difference then.

They reached the entrance hall before realizing they had no idea where to go, and didn't know anyone to ask.

Sirius opened his mouth, his mind actually starting to turn on again, and said weakly, "if those Weasley twins are anything like I think, they would know."

"You're encouraging this!" Lily blew up at him at once.

"I'm encouraging them to go find Dumbledore's office," he snapped right back. "Jeez, keep your hair on woman."

Lily deflated and apologized at once.

This argument finally shook Remus and James out of there stupors as well. None of them were happy about what Harry said was fixing to happen, but it had already happened. So they would just try to make the best of it as they went, and try to remember to breathe in the process.

Harry began to say they would just have to- but was cut off by a voice calling out to them.

"What were you going to say?" James asked curiously.

"Go to McGonagall," Harry replied, a small smile twitching his lips as he actually did remember who was about to come down the stairs.

It was McGonagall,

"Speak of the teacher," Lily said, trying to make a joke.

who asked what they were up to. Hermione said that they wanted to see Dumbledore, and she asked them why.

"Well I can't blame her for that," Remus agreed, forcing a smile onto his face, "not many students actually want to go see the Headmaster, since it normally means they're in trouble."

Harry hesitated before saying it was a secret,

The three boys snorted in real amusement at this, James saying, "Harry, you really shouldn't have said that."

Professor McGonagall was not pleased, telling them that Dumbledore left ten minutes ago.

Harry fidgeted hard, while the four people around him cried out in a panic. Before they could really start to freak out, the sensory charm went off, and Lily made a beeline for her baby's room.

She came back down cradling her son, but then noticing how devastated the two boys on the other couch looked, decided to take pity on them and said, "one of you want to hold him while I get his bottle?"

"I'll hold him," Sirius said brightly, forcing the rising panic very far down and focusing on the task at hand.

"I'll get the bottle," Remus said, getting up and making his way into the kitchen before Lily could.

Lily sighed as she sat back down next to her son, and then asked sadly, "is this the bad thing you mentioned?"

Harry nodded, saying, "yeah, sorry I didn't remember that."

"Not your fault," James sighed, running his hand through his hair in agitation.

Remus came back in, and the two boys had a brief squabble who was going to get to feed the baby. Remus won, and Harry decided to keep reading.

He had received a note from the Ministry telling him to go off to London.

"Timing," Sirius muttered snidely, none of them in any way thinking this was a coincidence.

Harry exclaimed his surprise, and McGonagall reminded Harry that Dumbledore was a very important wizard who had many obligations besides Hogwarts.

"True," Lily sighed, "but now? On the day of exams, when all the teachers are the busiest? Perfect opportunity much?"

"To bad McGonagall doesn't agree," Harry said sadly.

Harry tried to reason with her, going all out and admitting this was about the Philosopher's

Stone.

"That'll toss her," Remus said, surprised Harry would admit something like that so quickly, though it only emphasized how much of a panic he was in.

McGonagall began spluttering in surprise about how could they know about that,

"I'll give her that," James agreed, "it would be a shock for a couple of first years to have figured that out."

but Harry cut her off and says that he thinks someone was going to try and steal the Stone. She continued eyeing them with suspicion,

"Suspicious of what?" Lily asked.

"Probably thought this was an elaborate prank," Sirius offered, this being his usual fall back excuse.

but then repeated that Dumbledore wouldn't be back until tomorrow.

"Why?" All of the adults asked in shock.

"He can just go to the edge of the school grounds and apparte," Remus said like it was the most obvious thing in the world, "he'd get there and they would wonder why he was there, then he'd rush back realizing he'd been duped."

"Or the flew network, or a portkey, or bloody anything," James added on.

Harry shrugged, saying weakly, "I've no idea."

All of them sighed in defeat, admitting there was nothing else for it.

She assures them that the Stone is too well protected to be stolen, and tells them to go back outside.

"This is awful," Lily groaned, "I can't even blame her for not believing you, this is pretty out

there, but now you're going to..." she trailed off, too horrified to even say it aloud, and none of them needed her to.

Harry turned unhappily to his friends, telling them that Snape was going to do it tonight, and speak of the teacher, he chose that moment to come up from the dungeons and sneer good afternoon at them.

"Not anymore now that you're here," Sirius said hotly.

"Sirius," Lily snapped, "you're saying you don't believe Harry."

"Of course I believe him," he scoffed, "and I'll admit I was wrong about him wanting to steal the Stone and all that, but it doesn't mean I suddenly like him. He's still been an arse to Harry all year for no good reason."

Lily sighed as she looked up at the ceiling, taking that victory for what it was.

Snape then made a snide comment that they really shouldn't be sneaking around, because Gryffindor really couldn't lose any more points.

"Git," James agreed with Sirius, did he really need to go rubbing that in right now?

Harry waits until he leaves before turning back to his friends and coming up with a plan, saying someone needed to keep an eye on Snape, and asks Hermione if she will.

"That sounds like a horrible idea," Remus said in disbelief, "I can't imagine any of you could follow him without his noticing."

"Hopefully she goes to fetch the cloak, that will make it a bit easier," Sirius offered.

"But Snape didn't do it," James sighed, "so following him is pointless."

"There's that to," Lily chuckled.

Harry was blushing slightly, it's not like he'd known that at the time, so he was just trying to cover all of his bases.

He and Ron would wait outside of Fluffy's door.

"Why?" James demanded this time, "What good would it do you two to hang around out there."

Harry hesitated a moment before answering, "we were hoping if Snape ran into us before he went into the dog, we could stall him long enough someone would arrive. Either that, or go get McGonagall again and force her to come up to see Snape doing something, you know once he'd told us to go away."

"And it's too much to hope none of that happens?" Lily asked without any real hope.

The shake of Harry's head was all the answer she needed, she had already resigned her fate to what Harry had said they were going to do earlier.

That didn't work out so well because McGonagall came around again,

"Maybe she did believe you, and was checking on the Stone herself," Sirius asked.

Harry shrugged, pausing a moment to rub his ears at the telling off he and Ron were about to get.

and told them that if she caught them up in this corridor again she'd take another hundred points away from Gryffindor. Harry and Ron went back to their common room, dejected but at least semi assured Hermione was watching Snape when she came into the portrait hole herself.

"So, that didn't work," James said sadly, wincing when he saw how down trodden Harry looked.

"Cheer up pup," Sirius said bracingly when he noticed this too, "you survive at least."

Harry sighed miserably and said what he had been thinking for a while now, "It's just, looking back, I feel like an idiot. I was wrong about it being Snape, no one believed us even though something really wrong was going on, and nothing we did seemed to have made any difference. For all I know, Voldemort really does get the Stone, and him coming back is all my fault."

"That's nonsense," Remus spoke up first before any of the others could protest, "you were eleven Harry. Think about that for a moment. Yes you were wrong about who was trying to steal it, but three first years figured it out when no one else did. Through a bit of luck yeah, but still, that's more than impressive. As for if," he stressed that word out, "Voldemort did come back, it has nothing to do with it being your fault. I'd blame the bloody school and Dumbledore himself before blaming you for that."

Harry smiled at him, but still didn't look totally convinced, until Lily said, "Harry dear think about all you've done in this year alone. All those things that gave us panic attacks, you got through them on your own, with the help of your friends. You're clearly a very smart, capable boy, who's doing everything he can to do the right thing. We are all more than proud of you, no matter what comes of this."

It seemed to take a while for this to sink in, but then Harry really did begin to smile, until he was beaming around at all of them.

Baby Harry burped in Remus' arms, and the timing of that was so unexpected, they all couldn't help but laugh for a few minutes, just enjoying each other's company.

Sucking in a deep breath, Harry read on with confidence.

She explained that she got caught out there as well, and that they were out of options now. Harry however, said that they were done going around, it was time they go get the Stone themselves. Ron told Harry he was mad.

"Kind of want to agree with him," Sirius rolled his eyes, when he caught sight of Harry's face he quickly added on, "in the best way possible of course."

Harry snorted in amusement at that before reading.

That he refused to sit around and just wait for Voldemort to come back to full power, and possibly turn Hogwarts into a school for the Dark Arts.

"Now there's a horrifying thought," Remus agreed.

Or worse be sent back to live with the Dursleys full time while waiting for Voldemort to come find him.

"No," James said in fear, "that is a horrifying thought."

All five of them shivered in disgust at that idea.

Finishing with the reminder that Voldemort killed his parents.

Then the four adults sighed, unable to argue with him after this little speech.

"Did I mention how proud we are of you?" James asked in a conversational tone.

"It never gets old to hear it," Harry said, smiling around at them all.

"Then we'll just have to say it more often," Lily said, running a hand lovingly through his hair again.

Harry leaned into the touch, feeling relaxed and ready to take on the world, quite the opposite of how he'd been feeling then. Upset and angry at the world for leaving him in a no win situation, or at least that's how it had felt.

Ron and Hermione exchange a small look before Ron voiced whether the cloak would cover all three of them.

"It should," Sirius said brightly, "it covered all four of us, at least our first year. Starting second year, we had to crouch, and after that, it never covered more than two of us at a time."

"Good to know," Lily snorted at this random input.

Harry repeated all three of them in confusion.

"Come off it," Remus chuckled, "you didn't really think your friends would let you go alone after that little speech."

"I didn't want them to be in danger," Harry said sadly.

"Well, if they're anything like my friends, you couldn't stop them if you wanted to," James

laughed.

Hermione pointed out that Harry certainly wasn't going alone. Harry pointed out to them that if they got caught, they were likely to be kicked out of school as well. Hermione chose that moment to say that she'd already heard from Professor Flitwick that she had gotten a perfect score on her exam.

They were all pulled out of the dark path Harry was about to jump down, once again stunned in the face of Hermione Granger.

"Has anyone ever made a perfect score?" Lily asked.

"Guess they have now," Sirius laughed.

Declaring no one was throwing her out for that.

"Going to have to agree with her on that one," Remus chuckled.

The three of them were quite for the rest of the night, to wound up for what they were going to do to talk much. Hermione kept herself apart, trying to read up and hopefully come across a spell they were going to have to get past.

"I would like to repeat that, the teachers of this school set up those enchantments. Unless she's reading past a seventh year level, then I will be truly astounded if she comes across them," Sirius said.

Harry merely shrugged, he had a good feeling that it was only because of Hermione that he had survived this night at all.

When Harry went upstairs to get his cloak, he came across the flute Hagrid had sent him for Christmas and pocketed it.

"Convenient," Lily muttered.

Just as they were leaving for the trapdoor, a voice called out what they were doing.

"Not Percy, anyone but Percy," Sirius was saying to himself. He too had already resigned his fate to hearing about more death threats to his little pup, he really didn't want it to be delayed by a Prefect.

It was Neville, and Harry was quick to try and reassure him they weren't up to anything, and that Neville should go back up to bed.

"You clearly weren't any better at lying then, then you are now," Remus wanted to laugh, but he was still a bit too wound up to really.

Neville doesn't believe them, and instead guesses right that they were going out again. He insists that they shouldn't, that Gryffindor would just get in trouble again.

"Kids got a point," James said.

"Don't suppose you explain everything and he comes along?" Sirius asked.

"No," Harry said, wincing as he did vaguely remember feeling guilty for what was about to

happen.

Harry tries to tell him otherwise, but Neville stands his ground and says he'd fight them not to leave.

"Wow," they all said in surprise, not having seen this coming at all.

Ron snaps that Neville was being an idiot,

"And here Ron was the one telling him not to let people call him an idiot," Lily said, finding even more irony as this went on.

but Neville snaps back that Ron was the one telling him that he should stand up to people.

"I don't think he meant them," Remus said lightly, still very glad Neville had taken those words to heart.

Then he puts his fists up and repeats he wouldn't let them leave, didn't want to see them get into more trouble.

"This is the best Gryffindor student yet," James laughed, then looked at Harry and said, "except for you and your friends of course."

Harry snorted, but still felt feelings of guilt as he kept going.

Hermione apologizes for what she's about to do, then cries out the spell Petrificus Totalus.

"Ouch," all five of them winced in sympathy.

"I suppose, since you were really desperate to get around him, that was the best way to go," Remus said sadly.

"Snape did that to me once," Sirius said in regret, "bastard left me stuffed behind the broom shed for an hour before James found me."

Lily had her lips pursed, forcing herself not to say anything.

Harry still felt really guilty for doing this, but then for some odd reason he pondered why he had this feeling like Neville was going to be rewarded for it?

They felt guilty for it, but still turned and left while slipping the invisibility cloak on.

"Poor kid," they all said one more time before coming back to the ugly realization of where Harry and his friends were off to so fast, and suddenly wishing Neville had really stopped them.

They travelled through the mostly deserted hallways, only coming across Mrs. Norris whostood there for several moments just staring at them.

"Always hated it when she did that," Remus said.

Just before they made it to the door, they also ran into Peeves. He recognized someone was there, even if he couldn't see them,

"I always loved the way he talked to himself," James chuckled.

and muttered to himself that he should call for Filch if someone was creeping around the castle.

"You see Lily," Remus said, bringing up an argument from much earlier, when their biggest fear in the world was Harry getting caught by Filch. "Peeves' first instinct when he doesn't know what's going on is to call Filch. He does want to keep this castle safe as anyone else."

Lily nodded, accepting this logic.

Harry got the sudden idea to try and imitate the Bloody Baron, telling Peeves he had his reasons for being invisible.

"Wow," James said with glee, "I didn't think to do that until the end of my first year to."

"Yeah, but you did a horrible impression of him, and you still got caught," Sirius laughed.

"Peter was the best at faking it," Remus added, laughing at his two friends as they made faces at each other.

Peeves instantly bought it, nearly falling out of the air in his surprise.

"Well he clearly bought Harry's," Sirius said in surprise.

Harry then instructed Peeves to stay away from this area for the rest of the night, which Peeves agrees to at once.

"Bloody brilliant son," James said, clapping Harry on the back, then wincing when he had to remind himself where Harry was sneaking off to.

They finally made it to the door, to find it already left cracked open.

"It's rude not to close the door behind you," Lily rolled her eyes, wishing that was the worst thing about this situation.

Harry offered his friends one more chance to go back, but they both refused.

Harry sighed, missing his two friends more and more the longer this went on. He hoped they were alright, whenever they were.

They entered Fluffy's room to find a harp sitting off to the side, deciding Snape must have

left it there.

Sirius couldn't help it, he cracked up laughing at that. "Sorry," he gasped, getting the stank eye from Lily, "I just couldn't help myself. Picturing that slime ball in a dress, playing the harp," he trailed off, giggling like a child, and even Harry, James and Remus joined in.

Fluffy was not happy to see them, beginning to growl at once, but Harry quickly put the flute to his lips and began playing, putting the dog to sleep instantly.

"Well that was easy enough," Lily said in surprise.

"Wish that was all it took to put all dogs to sleep," James said, throwing a smirk at Sirius.

Sirius put his nose in the air, ignoring that comment.

Ron and Hermione slip around the dog to the trapdoor, Ron offers Hermione if she'd like to go first.

"Chivalry is flattery," Remus chuckled.

She snaps not, so it's Ron who pulls on the ring,

"Guess it would be a bad thing if I said they were lucky the dog didn't just land on the stupid door," James sighed.

which swings the door open.

"Still can't believe these two doors are so easy to get past," Remus sighed.

"Speak for yourself," Harry grumbled, finding being in the room with Fluffy not a very pleasant memory no matter what state he was in.

Hermione asks if Ron can see anything, which he denies, saying it's just a black drop.

"And break your necks cause you're not old enough to know about cushioning charms," Lily muttered.

Harry waved his arm around and then pointed at himself.

"You are getting far too noble for your own good," Lily sighed. If she thought it out logically, she was kind of happy Harry went first, because she knew he was safe and sound. If one of his friends had gone first, she might be afraid they would get really hurt, or worse. It still didn't have to make her happy though.

Harry passes the flute on to Hermione so she can continue playing and then goes around to where Ron is, lowering himself down a bit, before turning to Ron and instructing that if he didn't hear from Harry, to go to the owlery and send an owl to Dumbledore, telling him what was going on.

All four adults balked at this, Sirius demanding, "you couldn't have thought of that hours ago?"

"It was too late by then," Harry defended, though really he hadn't thought of it until that moment. At their still disbelieving looks, Harry half shouted, "You didn't think of it either."

That cooled them all down.

Ron agreed, and Harry muttered that he'd see him in a minute then, he hoped.

Remus snorted slightly, not really wanting to think 'famous last words' but the thought flitted across his mind anyways.

Then Harry let go and fell through the air before landing with a flump.

"Better then squish I suppose," Sirius muttered, keeping a protective eye on the Harry reading for any sign of injury he might remember.

He seemed to have landed on something soft.

"Soft?" Remus asked, "Why would you go past a three headed dog, down a long drop, just to land on something soft?"

All of them noticed the edge of unease going into Harry's voice as he shrugged before continuing.

He felt around a bit, though his eyes weren't properly adjusting, and decided he must have landed on a plant.

"Not good, very not good," Sirius said at once, going slightly bug eyed.

"I'm agreeing with you on that," Harry said, readjusting himself, "I don't like this plant, it-" he

broke off in agitation, letting out a huff of frustration before going.

He called back up to his friends, who were quick to jump down next to him. Ron landed first, noting it was lucky the plant was there, but as Hermione landed she screamed in fear that they should take a look at themselves.

All four of the graduates were going over every deadly plant they had learned while in school, and the longer this dragged on, the worse it was getting.

She tried to get to her feet and struggled toward the far wall,

"Struggled?" James asked weakly.

because the moment she landed the plant came to life and began trying to wrap itself around her.

"Devil's Snare," Lily groaned.

"That'll suffocate you unless you light it on fire!" Remus yelped.

"Still not helping," Sirius snapped at them, then he turned to Harry and said, "keep going, I want to see which one of you remembers that."

Harry and Ron had been still too long, and were now wrapped up tightly.

"How do you not notice that?" Lily winced in disgust.

Hermione was quick to recognize what it was, Devil's Snare,

Lily was genuinely shocked that she knew that, it wasn't a common plant and wouldn't normally be learned until much later in life because of just how dangerous but inconspicuous it looked. She wondered how Hermione had come across this, but couldn't work up the nerve to ask Harry if he even knew.

and Ron's response was to say that he was so glad that he now knew the name of what was killing him.

The boys couldn't help it, they all released a weak laugh. All of them could appreciate sarcasm in the face of danger.

Hermione told them to shut up so she could remember how to kill it, which Harry asked her to hurry up with as he was having problems breathing.

"While I understand the need for urgency," Lily muttered, suddenly wishing Harry wasn't the one reading so she could clutch his hand again, "when does yelling ever help?"

Harry just gave her an exasperated look.

All Hermione could seem to remember was that this plant liked living in the dark and damp, and Harry told her to light a fire then.

"The Bluebell Fire she conjures all the time should work," Remus said swiftly, then winced when James and Sirius glared at him for that interruption.

Hermione agreed this was a good idea, then wailed that there wasn't any wood!

"No wood," Sirius said, looking faint, "bloody hell I suppose we should just be grateful she didn't shrink against the wall and freeze up again."

Ron lost it and shouted at her that she was a bloody witch! Hermione came to her senses and conjured the Bluebell Flame again, which the plant began cringing away from at once. When they were free, Harry praised that it was lucky Hermione payed attention in Herbology.

"Lucky that girl reads more than any other human," James huffed, Merlin were they only past two obstacles? "Devil's Snare is advanced that is. Easy enough if you have its weakness around, but still a hassle."

While Ron said it was lucky they didn't lose their heads in a crisis, then repeated back mocking Hermione that there was no wood around.

"I only hope her freezing doesn't become a habit," Sirius said sadly.

"I hope they don't keep getting into situations where she has to freeze up," Lily snapped.

Harry convinced them to press on then, and they began heading down a dark passageway. Harry couldn't help but be reminded of the underground of Gingtott's, and then his mind leapt to what would happen if they found a dragon down here.

"Don't," Sirius said at once, going almost white, "don't you dare say there's a fully grown dragon hanging around down there."

Harry paused for a moment, before shaking his head slowly, no he felt like he wouldn't run into another dragon that soon, before reading.

He was listening hard, and instead heard something rustling and clinking ahead.

Sirius shivered, remembering the clankers, this wasn't getting any better.

They reached the end of the passage and instead saw the chamber was full of jewel bright birds.

"Not dragons then," Remus said bracingly to Sirius.

"What are they then?" Lily asked, "jewel birds? I've never heard of anything like that."

None of them could think of what they could be, so didn't stop Harry as he read.

Harry watched them for a moment, but they didn't seem to harmful, so he put his hands above his head and decided to sprint across and try to get to the next door.

All four of them held their breath slightly through this, not wanting to mention how dangerous that could have been.

Nothing happened, he reached the opposite side untouched.

"I'm going to have grey hair by the end of your first year," James said miserably, for some reason hearing his son make it through all of these horrible problems weren't getting easier the more he heard about them.

Ron and Hermione were quick to join him, but all three pulling together couldn't open the door, not even Hermione with her Alohomora charm.

"They couldn't have used that spell on Fluffy's door," Lily huffed to herself.

Harry turned his attention back to the birds, knowing they couldn't just be there for

decoration, before he took a closer look at them individually and realized they were keys.

"Charmed keys, of course," Remus said, rolling his eyes.

Looking around the rest of the room more properly, he also noticed some brooms off to the side. He realized they would have to catch the key to the door.

"And they're all going be identical, and you've got to know a seventh year charm to figure out which key goes to the lock," Lily said, not really able to hide the hope in her voice that even Hermione wouldn't know that spell.

Ron looked from the keys to the door handle and decided that the one they were looking for was probably silver like the door handle.

"They weren't all the same colour?" Lily asked in disbelief.

"No," Harry said, "they were every colour you could think of, and they all had different wing

colours to."

The three of them went over to brooms and began swooping through the storm of keys, Harry managing to spot the one they were looking for.

James couldn't help but give a slow clap in applause for his son noticing something like that, the other two Quidditch nuts in agreement.

Lily wanted to smack them all again.

Harry pointed it out to the others, and Ron went speeding in that direction, nearly crashing into the ceiling in the process.

Sirius couldn't help the snort that came when he heard that. He was so stressed, any small amount of humour was welcome.

Harry changed tactics and instead told them to stay where they were, block of the key's path while he chased after it.

"You're really taking charge of them," James said in surprise.

"I can recall more than one occasion where you gave us the game plan on the spot," Remus told him.

Harry managed to catch it and quickly went back to the ground, stuffing the key in its whole and letting it fly off again.

"What if the door locked behind you?" Lily yelped, "you should have kept that key."

Harry shrugged, for some odd reason he had no feelings whatsoever about going back through all of this. He had no idea why that was, perhaps there was another exit where the Stone was being kept?

"How come Quirrell didn't keep it," James pointed out.

"Maybe there's some charm, preventing it from leaving that room," Remus offered. "After all, they weren't traveling along the open passage either."

They were able to pull that door open now and went through into the next chamber.

"Anyone want to take a guess?" James offered weakly, his knee bouncing in both fear and

anticipation, he couldn't help it. Despite the real danger Harry was walking towards, he and his friends had made it pretty far, farther than anyone would have given them credit for.

When no one answered him, Harry just read on.

They had come across a humongous board squared off with black and white sections, with huge chess pieces taller than they were stationed in their correct locations.

"And guess who's the excellent chess player," Remus said in disbelief.

Lily blinked, then blinked again, before whispering, "no way."

"Something wrong Lily?" James asked her.

She pursed her lips for a moment, before shaking her head saying, "Just anxious for this to be over." Privately she was thinking about coincidences, and how she didn't believe in them...

Harry and Hermione were stunned, but Ron pointed out it was obvious, they had to win the game to get across.

"Glad that's so obvious," Sirius snorted.

Then he deduced that they would have to be chess pieces.

"Be the chessmen," Remus demanded, "you just said they were how big? No offense Harry, but I don't really think just because you take the places of the pieces, you get their ability to break apart don't really think just because you take the places of the pieces, you get their ability to break apart the other pieces."

Harry was suddenly looking very nervous, fidgeting all over, and Sirius smacked Remus lightly for worrying the kid. Harry was feeling odd for a different reason though, he wasn't worried about himself. Ron, something to do with Ron here, he huffed and kept going.

"Did you at least try to walk past them," Lily asked with almost a hint at sarcasm, as she knew as well as anyone that wouldn't work.

"Yes," Harry shrugged, "but they blocked us. Don't know why that wouldn't be mentioned."

Ron walked up to the knight piece and touched the rider's horse, which came to life with a stamp of its hoof and looked expectantly at Ron.

"They're transfigured then," James sighed, running his hand through his hair.

Ron quickly came to the decision of what pieces they should be, Harry a bishop and Hermione next to him as a castle,

"The castle and bishop aren't next to each other," Lily pointed out.

"He meant on the same side of the king, not on opposite ends," Harry smirked.

and Ron would be a knight.

"I think he seems to rather be enjoying this too much," Remus said a little weakly.

The three pieces Ron had indicated walked off the board.

"Oh good," James said, brightening at Remus' earlier words, "I'm hoping that means the white pieces will just walk off as well."

They got into position and waited for the white to move first, while Harry couldn't help but fear, what if they lost?

"Not helping Harry," Lily muttered. She wanted them to lose, to be stuck in this chamber until a teacher came down for them, or preferably Dumbledore.

The bad part came when Ron sacrificed a piece which the queen demolished, slamming it to the floor as hard as it could, and dragging it off the board.

"Great," Sirius muttered, trying to stop a shaking feeling beginning in his legs, "just what I wanted to hear."

Ron was an excellent chess player though, and managed to take as many pieces as he lost, still managing to keep Harry and Hermione out of the game as much as possible.

"That's got to be the most complicated game of chess ever," James breathed, "having to go the whole game without losing three particular pieces."

The end of the game came near, and the Queen's piece turned a blank, expectant look on Ron.

All five of them shuttered at this, not liking that mental image one bit.

Ron whispered to himself that he would have to let himself be taken.

"NO!" Harry yelped so loudly, baby Harry began crying again.

Harry shuddered, then apologized, James ignored that and said quickly, "but he's alright yeah? I mean..." he trailed off, Harry looked pretty frightened, and none of them could stand it if Harry's best friend was killed like this.

"I-" Harry began weakly, looking around at all of them miserably, "I want to say yes, but I can't remember and-"

Lily leaned forward, smoothing the hair down on his head for a brief moment, then his hair sprang back up again and Lily forced a smile onto her face saying, "don't push for the memory. Just trust your gut, it's been right so far yeah?"

Harry sucked in a deep breath before he concentrated, not on his pounding head, but exactly where his mother had said. After a moment, Harry opened his eyes again, and they could all see that he had calmed down. He nodded, whispered, "yeah, he's going to be fine," and then read on quickly wanting to get past this, what he felt, was the worst part of the book so far.

Hermione and Harry tried to protest, but Ron convinced them it was the only way to get forward and keep the Stone safe. It took some persuading, but he did convince them, and then stepped forward to let the queen pounce on him.

Harry's voice was stuttering worse than he remembered Quirrell's voice, so hoping to distract him and calm him back down Remus asked, "one step? He didn't mean that literally? Knights can only move three paces?"

Harry was instantly distracted, his thoughts breaking away from that horrid mental image of his best friend falling to the ground without getting back up, and answered, "err, yeah when I say he stepped, I meant he stepped two forward, and once to the left. Right into the Queen's sight," he finished in a mutter.

They all exchanged upset looks, but it had worked. Harry was marginally calmer, enough that as he read his voice was intelligible.

She came forward and knocked Ron to the ground, where he stayed, clearly knocked out.

Harry was shaking by the end of this, he could have done without that memory being restored, but it was over now, and he trusted his gut. Ron had to be fine, otherwise any permanent injuries he had would be all his fault.

Harry still took three steps forward to the left,

"I thought Hermione was the castle," James blurted.

"Three spaces diagonally to the left," Harry corrected himself, feeling out of sorts, and not

knowing why the book wouldn't have mentioned that detail.

and claimed checkmate. Harry and Hermione were free to pass, though they hesitated and

continued staring at Ron for a moment longer before Harry comforted the both of them

that he would be fine.

"Did it work then?" Remus asked.

Harry shrugged, he had to believe it then as he had to now, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to live with himself.

They forced themselves to go on, trying to figure out what could be next as they went down the list of teachers, realizing all that was left was Snape and Quirrell. They reached the next door, and Harry pushed it open.

"Please be potions," Lily muttered, "I can deal with a potions test." She had remained quiet

throughout most of this, fearing she might throw up if she thought to hard about where her son was.

They came into a room with a troll in it,

"Another troll?" James said in surprise.

"That must have been Quirrell's thing," Sirius pointed out.

"Well, at least now you have practice taking that out," Remus said brightly.

Lily was frowning, puzzling over it, before saying slowly, "if that troll's been down there since the beginning of the year, and put down there by Quirrell most likely, why on earth wouldn't that troll on Halloween make anyone suspicious of him."

"Furthermore," Remus agreed, going wide eyed at what he realized Lily was saying, "none of them would have found it the least bit off he fainted at it? It's clearly what he put down there, since there's no other subject except potions, and for some reason I don't see Snape doing this."

"I think Dumbledore did know," Harry muttered, speaking without thinking, "he just didn't have any proof, so he put Snape on him to watch him, ouch!" he finished, pressing his hand to his temple.

All four of them gave him upset looks, but Harry came back quickly enough. Blinking and

rubbing his temple still, he huffed, "anyways, yeah, I've no idea why he didn't get sacked, cause you guys make an excellent point."

The four of them gave each other agitated looks, but didn't stop Harry as he kept going.

which was already unconscious.

"Well that made it easier," Sirius muttered.

Harry muttered how happy he was they didn't have to deal with that one as well,

"Yeah, wouldn't want more troll boogies on your wand," James agreed.

as they finally made it to the last room which seemed the barest of all. It only held a single table, with seven different vials on it.

"Snape's," Remus sighed, this might not be good.

The moment they stepped into the room, a purple fire sprang up behind them,

"Oh," Lily said at once, "that's a really difficult potion you have to make. If you get one thing

wrong, you'll be poisoned before you finish swallowing," ignoring the agitated looks the boys were giving her, and she said they freaked her out, she continued, "but it takes weeks to prep that potion correctly. How on earth..." she trailed off when she saw Harry giving her a small smile, then she blushed when she realized she'd done it again.

Almost laughing at the look on his mom's face, Harry kept going, feeling very calm all of a

sudden.

at the same time that a black flame went up in front of them, blocking the next doorway.

"That's a completely different potion," Lily said, unable to stop herself, "but very similar to the purple flame, only one ingredient is different, so this just got even more difficult."

James snorted, he loved his wife.

Hermione noticed a slip of paper that held a riddle on it, detailing how to find the correct potions bottles to get through each fire.

"Oh I get it," Lily said brightly, "the potions are already brewed in the different bottles, and you've got to use logic to figure out which ones. Very clever."

"I'm rather insulted you're so impressed with this," Sirius told her honestly.

Lily sniffed, suddenly wishing she were in the room with Harry then so that she could have a proper look at this riddle herself. If she really wanted to, she might even be able to figure it out right now just from these clues, but she allowed Harry to go on.

Harry felt stumped, but Hermione exclaimed she could do this. Claiming that a lot of the greatest wizards couldn't because this was purely logic.

"Sirius," Lily coughed under her breath.

"Aw," Sirius cooed at her, "you just called me one of the greatest wizards."

Lily twisted her face in annoyance at him, while the other three boys laughed at the exchange.

Harry asked if they'd be stuck as well,

"Nah," Remus said, the happy feeling gone at once as a knot began forming in this throat when he remembered what was behind that door, he pressed on anyways, "Hermione's the most logical witch at that school. You're in safe hands."

and Hermione promised she could work it out. After reading over the riddle several more times, she came up with the solution, saying that the smallest bottle was the one that would lead them forward, towards the Stone. Harry looks in it and sees that it is hardly one swallow's worth.

"Why wouldn't Quirrell have just drank it all?" James asked.

"It probably magically refills itself after you go through," Remus suggested.

Then Harry asked which would take her backwards.

"You're sending her back?" Sirius demanded.

"Yes," Harry said stoutly, he didn't regret this decision one bit.

"You think she'll go?" Remus asked, Harry's friends seemed very loyal to him, something they all

"You think she'll go?" Remus asked, Harry's friends seemed very loyal to him, something they all treasured deeply.

"Oh, she left," Harry said quietly, though he read for them.

Hermione pointed out the correct bottle, and Harry convinced her that she should go back. Get Ron, and go get a message to Dumbledore, while Harry admitted that he couldn't hold Snape off for long, recognizing he wasn't really a match for him.

"You recognize this now?" James asked, feeling faint, "after all that?"

Harry shrugged, he really didn't have a plan when he had walked into this, and yeah he had to admit he felt rather lucky to be alive right now.

Instead of letting all of them get a comment in about how stupid he felt right now, he kept reading loudly.

Hermione pointed out that what if You-Know-Who was in there with them?

They all shuddered in disgust at the idea of that, while Harry fought off the impulse to agree Hermione wasn't too far off.

Harry reminded that he'd gotten lucky the first time, while pointing at the lightning scar on his forehead, and hopefully he'd get lucky again.

"Luck?" Lily muttered, looking faint, "I very much doubt what happened then was luck."

Harry gave her a puzzled look, wondering if his mother might have an idea what did happen that night, but he was too eager to hear about Ron being okay.

Hermione was getting teary by this point, telling Harry that he was such a good person and that he should be careful as she gave him a hug.

"You two are adorable," Remus said weakly.

"I almost burst into tears at that little speech," Sirius snickered, he agreed with Hermione, but it made it easier on him if he just picked on his little Harry. It was how he coped.

Harry told Hermione to drink her potion first, asking if she was positive of which it was?

"I wouldn't lose faith in her now," James said, he had full confidence in the girl.

Hermione took her drink and shuddered, saying it felt like drinking ice.

Lily nodded, she had faith in the girl to, but the description of the correct potion felt reassuring.

Harry watched her go back through the purple flames before drinking his own and going into the final chamber. What he found inside was not Snape, it wasn't even Voldemort.

"Well the no Voldemort part was reassuring," Remus muttered as Harry passed him the book.

[bookspark]

Can I have a friendly Harry and Hermione with "everything feels miles away from me"? (Sorry if it's not the exact prompt, couldn't get it to copy :-( )

Ohhh yes! Okay so this is set in OotP, I wanted Angsty!Harry because he's one of my faves. (This may be slightly non-cannon as it's been a little over a year since I read OotP...)-----DADA had been particularly hard that day, and while Hermione had gotten the tricky spell he'd been teach- no trying to teach, that didn't really say much for his teaching ability did it? After the DA meeting, Harry had sent Ron and Hermione on without him, saying he had to send a letter to Sirius. He hadn't had one written, but he'd figured he'd write one in the Room of Requirement and then walk to the Owlery. Harry wasn't quite sure how long ago that was, except that his eyes felt heavy and he was yawning. He wasn't sure how long he was staring at the mostly blank parchment in front of him. Umbridge was checking the mail, and so he had to be smart about it... but mostly, he wasn't sure what to say. Harry didn't know how to explain the growing hole inside him, or even if it mattered. He wasn't sure how to code a letter to Sirius that everything felt pointless and it was harder and harder to get out of bed on days there wasn't Quidditch or DA meetings. He-"Harry!" Hermione's voice broke through his thoughts and he startled, pointing his wand at her before he even fully realized someone was in the room with him."Bugger," he said and lowered his wand. "What'd you want, Hermione?" Hermione crossed her arms and looked at Harry, one eyebrow raised so high it almost disappeared into her kinky black hair. "What I want, Harry James Potter, is for one of my best friends to be okay." Hermione put her wand in her bathrobe pocket and walked toward Harry. She sat on the floor by his chair and looked up at him, biting her lip. "Since that's not going to happen, I'll take him talking to me about it," she said, sharp voice soft for once.Harry sighed and forced a smile on his face. "I'm fine, Hermione. I just lost track of time.""Don't you bloody lie to me, Harry," she snapped and the line showed up between her eyebrows. "I came looking for you after you didn't come back to the tower before curfew!""Hermione!""Oh, don't you 'Hermione!' me," she said and put a finger in Harry's face. "I am quite sure you're suffering from some sort of post-traumatic stress and I'm very worried about the lack of mental health in the Wizarding World!"Confused, but touched, Harry tried to again push the concern away. She wouldn't get it. "Really, Hermione-""Listen, Harry," she interrupted, "I get that you're mad about this summer, and I honestly can't believe you were left at the Dursley's so long, and I'm sorry, honestly, but you need to talk about it-""You don't get it!" Harry shouted, the words virtually exploding from him. "You'd never get it! I'm so bloody alone Hermione! You weren't there in the graveyard! You didn't fight Voldemort! You didn't see your parents, or bring Ced-" he gasped, voice breaking on the name of the dead boy who haunted his nightmares and stalked his days. "No one thinks your crazy," he finished softly. "Come here, Harry," a soft voice said and suddenly dark hands were pulling him off the chair and onto the floor and Harry was crying. Hermione held him as great wracking sobs were pulled from his chest and tears and snot fell down his face. She rocked him and murmured nonsense as she rubbed his back and played with his black hair. After a while, Harry's energy faded and his tears stopped.Softly, so soft Harry could have missed it, she said "I don't have any Muggle friends at home."Harry sniffed and asked her a very watery "What?"Hermione took the edge of her robe and wiped off his face before going back to to running his back. "At home? I don't have any friends. I spend time with my parents, or at the library, or at home. Sometimes I wander the village or take a bus to one of the bigger cities, but after I left for Hogwarts? Well... all the other children decided they could stop pretending to be my friends, I guess. I've even heard them call me 'the crazy Granger girl'."Harry didn't know what to say. Instead he took Hermione's slightly darker hand in his own and gave it a squeeze. "So," she said, and Harry wondered if he heard tears in her voice too; and who they were for. "So... I do know Harry. I know what it's like to be lonely, and have everyone who you thought liked you, turn away." Harry felt Hermione squeeze his hand back as he took a deep breath and said softly, "Everything feels miles away from me, Hermione..."

[ciathyzareposts]

Missed Classic 78: Crash Dive! (1984)

Written by Joe Pranevich

For the era that we study, Brian Moriarty is one of the giants. He brought us three of Infocom’s classics, starting with Wishbringer, and jumped over to LucasArts to create Loom, one of my favorite adventure games of all time. Before we move on to Trinity (1986) and start the story of Infocom-under-Activision, I’d like to reverse course and fill in the final blank from his early career. In the early 1980s, Moriarty worked as a writer and eventual technical editor for Analog Computing magazine, celebrating the Atari personal computers that he loved. In that role, he wrote his first game, a tepid Adventure in the Fifth Dimension (1983) that failed to foreshadow the fantastic designer he would become. The following year, he penned Crash Dive!, his final Atari game before joining Infocom. Does that game show his potential? That’s what I would like to find out.

Inspiration can strike from just about anywhere, but Crash Dive! has perhaps one of the more unusual origin stories that I have ever heard. It starts with a failure: in 1982, Analog’s Jon Bell and Tom Hudson wanted to make a submarine action game. Bell and his team even toured two submarines (the Nimitz and Dace) for inspiration and historical accuracy. Cover art was commissioned, the game was announced, and even the back-of-box copy was written… but it evaporated into thin air. Despite the time and expense, it was never released. That would be the end of the Crash Dive! story, if it wasn’t for its “inspirational” cover art and a very special issue of Analog Computing.

Eye of newt, and toe of frog. For a charm of powerful trouble, like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

In April 1984, Analog planned a special issue to highlight adventure gaming on the Atari. This was early days in our industry and their definition of an “adventure” doesn’t quite match up to our own, but they found joy in narrative games (including what we would call “RPGs”) as distinct from action games. To celebrate these adventures, the editorial staff commissioned reviews of many such games available for the Atari. According to Moriarty’s introductory note, so many reviews were planned and penned that they had to spill over into the next issue.

I do not want to get too sidetracked from our Crash Dive! story, but it’s worth a moment to consider just what Atari adventures were highlighted that April:

Ultima I had finally been ported to Atari, three years after it debuted for the Apple II. Reviewer Steve Panak called it “quite possibly one of the most addictive” role playing games ever made, although he disliked the space segment and found the ending disappointing. (Ultima was covered by our friend the CRPG Addict back in 2010.)

Skipping the direct sequel, Ultima III was reviewed by Cliff Chaput and he had a lot of nice things to say about the title screen and about the first fifteen minutes of gameplay. Although he describes the game as a “must-have”, he admits that his copy (and many of the copies shipped for Atari) doesn’t actually work due to a “glitch”. How he could so glowingly review a product that might not even be playable, I have no idea, but he liked the bits that he saw. (Ultima III was covered by the CRPG Addict only a few months after the previous game.)

Gruds… in… Spaaaaace! (Apple II version)

Gruds in Space is a graphical text adventure game by Sirius Software, but not one I had ever heard of. Patrick J. Kelley reviews it and I’ll let his words speak for themselves:

“This is the most detailed and animated graphics/text adventure that I’ve ever seen, and belies a lot of love in its creation. Blinking eyes, twinkling stars, flashing lights and leering monsters fill every frame with a real character, and the continuity of shape and color are truly amazing. This game sets a standard that many other so-called ‘graphic’ adventures fall far short of, both in concept and execution. In some cases, the animation is so well integrated that it becomes more than just an enhancement to the adventure, but a feature unto itself.”

Saigon: The Final Days was reviewed by Ray Berube and he seems to have hated its puzzle design and the overall execution of the game. He writes, “I can’t recommend Saigon. Invest a little more money and buy an Infocom adventure, or even one of the original Scott Adams titles. You’ll enjoy your investment rather than railing at your monitor.” Our own Will Moczarski seems to have enjoyed the game more than Ray did!

The Return of Heracles was reviewed by Michael Des Chenes and he enjoyed the game very much, although it hardly seems like either an adventure or an RPG. The CRPG Addict shares his enthusiasm for Stuart Smith titles and had a lot of fun with this so the review seems on point.

Planetfall was reviewed by Carl Firman and he waxes on so much about the extras and the setting that he doesn’t even remember to tell us how much he liked the game, although it appears that he liked it very much. I agree! I cannot believe that it’s been two years since my review. Time flies!

These six games hardly account for the state of adventure gaming in 1984, but it’s not a bad mix of styles and genres. Was there really only one Infocom release they could have looked at? Were there no Scott Adams games? Except for Gruds in Space, these are all titles that are somewhat well-known today, at least to people that read our site and sites like it. I’m half tempted to play the game just so we can complete the set!

Some time either during the development of this issue or just before, Moriarty stumbled onto the abandoned art that had been created for the unfinished 1982 Crash Dive! Maybe something clicked then, or maybe he already had submarines on the brain, but that bit of art inspired him to create his own submarine-based text adventure. To save money, he could even use the original title and artwork! Moriarty finished the game in time to be included as a type-in for Analog’s special adventure issue. He explained in his introductory note that most commercial adventures didn’t work on 16K Atari systems, and that we wrote this game to scratch that itch for those owners. (It required 32K to be typed in, but once loaded onto a disk it could be played on a 16K system.)

It was the captain, in the galley, with a butter knife?

Crash Dive! Is by far the largest feature in the issue, no doubt thanks to Moriarty’s role as technical editor. With four pages of documentation and eleven pages of tiny-print source code, I’m glad that we don’t have to type it all in anymore! The documentation includes a half-page image containing the “feelies” for the game, although we’re not supposed to peek at them yet.

The story is well-done over all: we are a maintenance worker stationed on the USS Sea Moss, an experimental submarine in the middle of the cold war. It’s tough to remember that in 1984, the Cold War wasn’t just a genre, it was a lived-in reality. The sub is armed with nuclear missiles and has an advanced cloaking system which renders it invisible to the enemy. All of our greatest foes want to get their hands on the technologies in this sub. While we are doing some routine repairs, the unthinkable happens: sabotage! Everyone else on the ship has been killed by poison gas but we survived thanks to being in an air-tight torpedo tube. Our mission will be to find and defeat whomever killed the crew and keep the submarine from being captured. The manual provides a clue that we will need to get it underwater as soon as possible and that the only solution may be to destroy this priceless technology to keep it out of enemy hands.

Playing the Game

This style of start screen was reused by several Analog Computing games, but I am unsure which is the first.

An interface so cluttered that it is easy to forget that there isn’t much text.

The game opens with us in the “escape tube” that we were repairing when all hell broke loose. The hatch is closed, so I open it. Big mistake! Poison gas fills the room and I’m dead already. We have to start over. Nothing says “fun” like an adventure where you can die in the first move! It doesn’t take me long to realize that the solution (in Adventure International fashion) is just to “hold breath”. That lets you leave the tube and explore.

This game has a punishing start. You can only hold your breath for five turns. That gives you barely enough time to do anything so I save and commit myself to fast exploration-dashes and restoring when I die. For simplicity, I’ll just summarize what I found. The submarine is longer than it is wide with a hallway leading north-south and rooms off to either side. It is arranged on two floors and the room that we start in after emerging from the hatch has stairs down.

We find on the current level:

To the north of our starting position is an access tunnel with a sign warning of radiation. Heading farther north kills you immediately.

West is a locked door with a “very secure” lock.

Further south is a long corridor. Off that corridor to the west is a radio room (with a pair of cable cutters) and to the east is the sonar room. We can activate the sonar to discover that there are enemy ships approaching.

At the end of the corridor is the “command station” with a periscope. Looking through the scope, we can see those same enemies. To the west is a ballast room; we can press a button to make the sub descend and then watch a gauge to see how deep we go. To the east is the navigation room containing a manual and a readout of our current position in X/Y coordinates. I discover in my frequent restarts that the numbers change each game.

Not tremendously easy to read without the original issue.

The submarine manual instructs us to look at the photo in Analog #18. That is easier said than done because while I do have the PDF, it’s not completely clear and I wish I would have been able to find (and afford) the original issue. Nonetheless, we learn that the X and Y coordinates are scrambled through some magic so that they will not relate in any way to real-world latitude and longitude. It also warns that the values are recalculated every several seconds except when the sub is at rest. The remainder of the page describes targeting the sub’s weapons (using the same “simplified” coordinate system) and arming the warhead by radio. We’ll need to find a “Delta-Q Coordinate Decoding Ring” to be able to aim the missiles at the enemy.

Keep in mind that is already twenty or more reloads! With no breathable air in sight, I explore downstairs:

Below the command room is the missile bay. An airlock to the south requires an ID card.

West of the missile bay is the fan room. A traitor who “looks dangerous” there, holding a gun. Doing anything to try to hurt him just gets me shot. How is he breathing?

East of the bay is an equipment room with a radiation suit. I do not have enough breath to pick it up and get it back to the room with the radiation.

The north end is the crew quarters where I find a “card” on the floor. I am excited that it might be the ID card that I need, except that it is a playing card, the ace of spades.

West is a shower and ventilation grate. I try to unscrew it with the screwdriver, but my screwdriver is the wrong size! I also pick up some shampoo.

East of the crew area is a galley with a dull knife. I try to take that to the shower grate, but there’s not enough time.

In the far north is a torpedo room with a wrench. More importantly, there’s a weapons locker to the east containing a gas mask. I can breathe again!

In little 5-turn increments, I explored most of the sub and only found a gas mask in the last possible room. What was the odds of that? With the mask on (just picking it up is sufficient; “wear”-ing it just tells you that you are already holding it), I can explore the rest of the game and start smashing the puzzles. Except, I’m a liar because I only have around 10-15 more turns before the enemy ships (that I saw on the scanner and periscope) catch up to us. I am trading one time limit for another, but at least I have wiggle room. What can we do in 10 turns?

My first puzzle is the grate in the shower room. I theorized before that I could use the dull knife, but I could not get there before I ran out of breath. This time when I use “unscrew grate”, the game knows that I intended to use the knife and it opens! I can crawl south into a ventilation duct and see an opening down into the fan room. Obviously, this has something to do with the traitor who has parked himself there, but I don’t see anything I can do yet. I end up restoring when the enemy captures the sub and I’ll have to come back to this puzzle later. As an aside, the “traitor” has to be a “him”, even though the game doesn’t say so. The US Navy did not allow women to serve on subs until 2011, as sad as that statement sounds today.

My next trick is to check out the radiation area. I grab the radiation suit from the equipment bay and head back upstairs. The radiation-filled room is used by the sonar. There is a “bolted-down” sonar system as well as a power cable here. I spend more time than I care to admit trying to find the right verb to unscrew the bolt, but I fail anyway because they are rusty and too tight. We haven’t found any oil, but the shampoo might be slippery enough. I try it and the bolts come loose! I don’t get to do anything else because I run out of time again.

Oh, duh. I am on a submarine! I restore and head to the ballast room. I set the ship to dive. A few turns later we have a “bang!” when we hit the bottom of wherever we are, but it doesn’t seem to be an issue.

Where was I? The sonar system! I do that all over again and notice that while the system is clearly labeled “radioactive”, I cannot pick it up because the power cable is stuck. I use the cable cutters from the radio room and solve that problem easily. Now what? I take my radioactive prize to the ducts by the shower and drop it down into the fan room below. When I run down to investigate, I discover that he died of radiation poisoning! I pick up his gun, but what I am supposed to do next?

Let’s take stock of what puzzles remain:

Two locked doors, one near the beginning of the game and an airlock to the south that requires an access card.

Some enemies are chasing us and could have depth charges. Can I blow them up with our super advanced missile systems?

The “escape tube” that I started in seems the best avenue for leaving the sub, but I don’t see how to do that yet.

Of these, the most promising is the locked door at the start. I didn’t find a key, but I discover that I can shoot the lock! That door leads to the captain’s quarters. He’s dead, but he didn’t die of the poison gas. Instead, he left a suicide note:

Suicide is painless? Maybe only in the Korean War.

There’s a nice little detail on this note, placing the submarine as SSCN-718. These are US Navy hull classification numbers and a good sign that Moriarty and the Analog team researched for the game. There is no SSCN classification in real life, but the designation would likely indicate that this is a coastal-waters submarine (the SSC) classification with nuclear weapons (the trailing N). I also like that the captain’s name is Captain R. D. Avatar. This game predates Ultima IV and Moriarty was probably thinking of the more generic “avatar” rather than the Ultima variety.

Searching his body, I uncover his ID card which opens up the airlock to the south. That leads us to a missile bay in two sections: the lower section contains a locked arming switch, while the upper bay contains a digital display. That display also has X and Y coordinates, although they are different than the ones in the navigation room. Pushing buttons nearby adjusts the coordinates. I do not have a way to get the coordinates of our enemy; the sonar system didn’t give those to me even prior to when I dropped it on a murderer’s head. Am I supposed to use the coordinates of our own ship? That sounds vaguely like suicide. Since those are the only coordinates that I have seen in the game so far, I set the missiles to those. It takes a long while since the numbers only increment by eight for each button press.

Now, I need to find the key to unlock the firing mechanism… but I cannot find it anywhere. I eventually take a hint which tells me that I need to look at the radiation suit again after wearing it. Some idiot left the firing key in the suit! I do my thing and the firing mechanism is activated. There’s one more button in missile control to push and… boom?

Fade to white.

There’s no text that explains what happened, at least none that I can see before the screen clears, but we don’t need to have it spelled out: we nuked ourselves. Worse, that is apparently the correct answer because we kept the sub and all of its technologies out of enemy hands. Yay? This is the “win” screen so I’ll just end the game right here. I suppose it’s a better “you die!” ending than Infidel.

Time Played: 1 hr 45 min

Final Rating

That was a fun little game, although we must emphasize “little”. Type-in games can never be tremendously large and Moriarty did a good job with narrative efficiency. Let’s see how that comes out in our PISSED rating system:

Puzzles and Solvability – The game’s central mechanic for at least the first half is to die frequently and try again. Needing to discover the gas mask within five turns, then realize that you need to dive (which itself is not difficult) in ten to fifteen more, takes up most of the game’s thought-space. After that, we have a few clever things like dropping the radioactive sonar thing on the traitor and nuking ourselves to keep the sub out of enemy hands. I needed to take one hint. I almost want to bump it up one point, but my first instinct is that this is only worth two points. My score: 2.

Interface and Inventory – The interface is boxy and takes up a lot of space, which is good because otherwise we’re realize just how little text is in this game. Other games used the “windowed” approach for an interface by 1984, but I see little value in having an always-visible inventory and other features. The parser itself wasn’t great but it worked well enough with two-word commands only and no intelligence for the noun selection. You had to “push green” instead of “push button”, for example, because the game isn’t smart enough to know if there is only one button in the room. My score: 2.

Story and Setting – This score is likely going to be the best of the game. The story and feelies are great! The captain’s suicide is relatively unexplained, as is the traitor’s motivations and identity, but the overall idea of a submarine so secret that it has to be kept out of enemy hands at all costs is a good one, especially in 1984. The space was also designed well and the small number of rooms added to a feeling of claustrophobia which benefited the setting. My score: 4.

Final map of the game with only 22 rooms.

Sound and Graphics – I almost want to give points here because of the screen design and the use of the “feelies” to augment the object descriptions, but I really cannot. We have never given points in this category just because a game has a nice manual and I won’t start now. My score: 0.

Environment and Atmosphere – While I did not enjoy the timers for their puzzle-factor, the constant racing to beat the clock made the game tense. The small size of the ship and even the “bang” as we strike the bottom of whatever shallow waters we are exploring help sell the claustrophobia of the situation. Even with the limited text, Moriarty writes well enough for some kudos. My score: 3.

Dialog and Acting – Alas, the game is limited when it comes to game text and occasionally it’s not even clear what you are doing. The game also cuts to white for the ending so quickly that you only realize in retrospect what just happened. My score: 1.

Adding up the scores: (2+2+4+0+3+1)/.6 = 20!

This isn’t a huge score, but higher than Fifth Dimension’s 13. That is understandable given the challenges of writing a type-in, but I suspect there was something else involved. Both of Moriarty’s games for Analog were as much “challenge exercises” for him as they were games. Moriarty first challenged himself to create a BASIC game that worked even on the smallest systems. He then forced himself to re-use a name and cover art from an abandoned project. Even Wishbringer was a challenge to craft a story into an existing universe and that turned out amazingly well. Maybe Moriarty was just the type of guy that thrived under adversity, but I cannot help but think that he could have made even better games if he had fewer strings attached. Is that what we will find with Trinity?

With the last of his pre-Infocom games out of the way, we’ll be looking at Trinity next, probably at the beginning of January. I am playing a stubborn Christmas game right now and have a deadline coming… See you soon!

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/missed-classic-78-crash-dive-1984/

[sergiokrm2825-blog]

Know Digital Photography! Photography Tips And Techniques For The Novice And Amateur Photographer.

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[readbookywooks]

The Second Task

"You said you'd already worked out that egg clue!" said Hermione indignantly. "Keep your voice down!" said Harry crossly. "I just need to - sort of fine-tune it, all right?" He, Ron, and Hermione were sitting at the very back of the Charms class with a table to themselves. They were supposed to be practicing the opposite of the Summoning Charm today - the Banishing Charm. Owing to the potential for nasty accidents when objects kept flying across the room. Professor Flitwick had given each student a stack of cushions on which to practice, the theory being that these wouldn't hurt anyone if they went off target. It was a good theory, but it wasn't working very well. Neville's aim was so poor that he kept accidentally sending much heavier things flying across the room - Professor Flitwick, for instance. "Just forget the egg for a minute, all right?" Harry hissed as Professor Flitwick went whizzing resignedly past them, landing on top of a large cabinet. "I'm trying to tell you about Snape and Moody...." This class was an ideal cover for a private conversation, as everyone was having far too much fun to pay them any attention. Harry had been recounting his adventures of the previous night in whispered installments for the last half hour. "Snape said Moody's searched his office as well?" Ron whispered, his eyes alight with interest as he Banished a cushion with a sweep of his wand (it soared into the air and knocked Parvati's hat off). "What...d'you reckon Moody's here to keep an eye on Snape as well as Karkaroff?" "Well, I dunno if that's what Dumbledore asked him to do, but he's definitely doing it," said Harry, waving his wand without paying much attention, so that his cushion did an odd sort of belly flop off the desk. "Moody said Dumbledore only lets Snape stay here because he's giving him a second chance or something...." "What?" said Ron, his eyes widening, his next cushion spinning high into the air, ricocheting off the chandelier, and dropping heavily onto Flitwick's desk. "Harry...maybe Moody thinks Snape put your name in the Goblet of Fire!" "Oh Ron," said Hermione, shaking her head sceptically, "we thought Snape was trying to kill Harry before, and it turned out he was saving Harry's life, remember?" She Banished a cushion and it flew across the room and landed in the box they were all supposed to be aiming at. Harry looked at Hermione, thinking...it was true that Snape had saved his life once, but the odd thing was, Snape definitely loathed him, just as he'd loathed Harry's father when they had been at school together. Snape loved taking points from Harry, and had certainly never missed an opportunity to give him punishments, or even to suggest that he should be suspended from the school. "I don't care what Moody says," Hermione went on. "Dumbledore's not stupid. He was right to trust Hagrid and Professor Lupin, even though loads of people wouldn't have given them jobs, so why shouldn't he be right about Snape, even if Snape is a bit -" "- evil," said Ron promptly. "Come on, Hermione, why are all these Dark wizard catchers searching his office, then?" "Why has Mr. Crouch been pretending to be ill?" said Hermione, ignoring Ron. "Its a bit funny, isn't it, that he cant manage to come to the Yule Ball, but he can get up here in the middle of the night when he wants to?" "You just don't like Crouch because of that elf, Winky," said Ron, sending a cushion soaring into the window. "You just want to think Snape's up to something," said Hermione, sending her cushion zooming neatly into the box. "I just want to know what Snape did with his first chance, if he's on his second one," said Harry grimly, and his cushion, to his very great surprise, flew straight across the room and landed neatly on top of Hermione's. Obedient to Sirius's wish of hearing about anything odd at Hogwarts, Harry sent him a letter by brown owl that night, explaining all about Mr. Crouch breaking into Snape's office, and Moody and Snape's conversation. Then Harry turned his attention in earnest to the most urgent problem facing him: how to survive underwater for an hour on the twenty-fourth of February. Ron quite liked the idea of using the Summoning Charm again - Harry had explained about Aqua-Lungs, and Ron couldn't see why Harry shouldn't Summon one from the nearest Muggle town. Hermione squashed this plan by pointing out that, in the unlikely event that Harry managed to learn how to operate an Aqua-Lung within the set limit of an hour, he was sure to be disqualified for breaking the International Code of Wizarding Secrecy - it was too much to hope that no Muggles would spot an Aqua-Lung zooming across the countryside to Hogwarts. "Of course, the ideal solution would be for you to Transfigure yourself into a submarine or something," Hermione said. "If only we'd done human Transfiguration already! But I don't think we start that until sixth year, and it can go badly wrong if you don't know what you're doing...." "Yeah, I don't fancy walking around with a periscope sticking out of my head," said Harry. "I s'pose I could always attack someone in front of Moody; he might do it for me...." "I don't think he'd let you choose what you wanted to be turned into, though," said Hermione seriously. "No, I think your best chance is some sort of charm." So Harry, thinking that he would soon have had enough of the library to last him a lifetime, buried himself once more among the dusty volumes, looking for any spell that might enable a human to survive without oxygen. However, though he, Ron, and Hermione searched through their lunchtimes, evenings, and whole weekends - though Harry asked Professor McGonagall for a note of permission to use the Restricted Section, and even asked the irritable, vulture-like librarian. Madam Pince, for help - they found nothing whatsoever that would enable Harry to spend an hour underwater and live to tell the tale. Familiar flutterings of panic were starting to disturb Harry now, and he was finding it difficult to concentrate in class again. The lake, which Harry had always taken for granted as just another feature of the grounds, drew his eyes whenever he was near a classroom window, a great, iron-gray mass of chilly water, whose dark and icy depths were starting to seem as distant as the moon. Just as it had before he faced the Horntail, time was slipping away as though somebody had bewitched the clocks to go extra-fast. There was a week to go before February the twenty-fourth (there was still time)...there were five days to go (he was bound to find something soon)...three days to go (please let me find something...please)... With two days left. Harry started to go off food again. The only good thing about breakfast on Monday was the return of the brown owl he had sent to Sirius. He pulled off the parchment, unrolled it, and saw the shortest letter Sirius had ever written to him. Send date of next Hogsmeade weekend by return owl. Harry turned the parchment over and looked at the back, hoping to see something else, but it was blank. "Weekend after next," whispered Hermione, who had read the note over Harry's shoulder. "Here - take my quill and send this owl back straight away." Harry scribbled the dates down on the back of Sirius's letter, tied it onto the brown owl's leg, and watched it take flight again. What had he expected? Advice on how to survive underwater? He had been so intent on telling Sirius all about Snape and Moody he had completely forgotten to mention the egg's clue. "What's he want to know about the next Hogsmeade weekend for?" said Ron. "Dunno," said Harry dully. The momentary happiness that had flared inside him at the sight of the owl had died. "Come on...Care of Magical Creatures." Whether Hagrid was trying to make up for the Blast-Ended Skrewts, or because there were now only two skrewts left, or because he was trying to prove he could do anything that Professor Grubbly-Plank could. Harry didnt know, but Hagrid had been continuing her lessons on unicorns ever since he'd returned to work. It turned out that Hagrid knew quite as much about unicorns as he did about monsters, though it was clear that he found their lack of poisonous fangs disappointing. Today he had managed to capture two unicorn foals. Unlike full-grown unicorns, they were pure gold. Parvati and Lavender went into transports of delight at the sight of them, and even Pansy Parkinson had to work hard to conceal how much she liked them. "Easier ter spot than the adults," Hagrid told the class. "They turn silver when they're abou' two years old, an' they grow horns at aroun four. Don' go pure white till they're full grown, 'round about seven. They're a bit more trustin' when they're babies...don' mind boys so much....C'mon, move in a bit, yeh can pat 'em if yeh want...give 'em a few o' these sugar lumps.... "You okay. Harry?" Hagrid muttered, moving aside slightly, while most of the others swarmed around the baby unicorns. "Yeah," said Harry. "Jus' nervous, eh?" said Hagrid. "Bit," said Harry. "Harry," said Hagrid, clapping a massive hand on his shoulder, so that Harry's knees buckled under its weight, "I'd've bin worried before I saw yeh take on tha Horntail, but I know now yeh can do anythin' yeh set yer mind ter. I'm not worried at all. Yeh're goin ter be fine. Got yer clue worked out, haven' yeh?" Harry nodded, but even as he did so, an insane urge to confess that he didn't have any idea how to survive at the bottom of the lake for an hour came over him. He looked up at Hagrid - perhaps he had to go into the lake sometimes, to deal with the creatures in it? He looked after everything else on the grounds, after all - "Yeh're goin' ter win," Hagrid growled, patting Harry's shoulder again, so that Harry actually felt himself sink a couple of inches into the soft ground. "I know it. I can feel it. Yeh're goin' ter win, Harry." Harry just couldn't bring himself to wipe the happy, confident smile off Hagrid's face. Pretending he was interested in the young unicorns, he forced a smile in return, and moved forward to pat them with the others. By the evening before the second task. Harry felt as though he were trapped in a nightmare. He was fully aware that even if, by some miracle, he managed to find a suitable spell, he'd have a real job mastering it overnight. How could he have let this happen? Why hadn't he got to work on the egg's clue sooner? Why had he ever let his mind wander in class - what if a teacher had once mentioned how to breathe underwater? He sat with Hermione and Ron in the library as the sun set outside, tearing feverishly through page after page of spells, hidden from one another by the massive piles of books on the desk in front of each of them. Harry's heart gave a huge leap every time he saw the word "water" on a page, but more often than not it was merely "Take two pints of water, half a pound of shredded mandrake leaves, and a newt..." "I don't reckon it can be done," said Ron's voice flatly from the other side of the table. "There's nothing. Nothing. Closest was that thing to dry up puddles and ponds, that Drought Charm, but that was nowhere near powerful enough to drain the lake." "There must be something," Hermione muttered, moving a candle closer to her. Her eyes were so tired she was poring over the tiny print of Olde and Forgotten Bewitchments and Charmes with her nose about an inch from the page. "They'd never have set a task that was undoable." "They have," said Ron. "Harry, just go down to the lake tomorrow, right, stick your head in, yell at the merpeople to give back whatever they've nicked, and see if they chuck it out. Best you can do, mate." "There's a way of doing it!" Hermione said crossly. "There just has to be!" She seemed to be taking the library's lack of useful information on the subject as a personal insult; it had never failed her before. "I know what I should have done," said Harry, resting, face-down, on Saucy Tricks for Tricky Sorts. "I should've learned to be an Animagus like Sirius." An Animagus was a wizard who could transform into an animal. "Yeah, you could've turned into a goldfish any time you wanted!" said Ron. "Or a frog," yawned Harry. He was exhausted. "It takes years to become an Animagus, and then you have to register yourself and everything," said Hermione vaguely, now squinting down the index of Weird Wizarding Dilemmas and Their Solutions. "Professor McGonagall told us, remember...you've got to register yourself with the Improper Use of Magic Office...what animal you become, and your markings, so you can't abuse it..." "...Hermione, I was joking," said Harry wearily. "I know I haven't got a chance of turning into a frog by tomorrow morning...." "Oh this is no use," Hermione said, snapping shut Weird Wizarding Dilemmas. "Who on earth wants to make their nose hair grow into ringlets?" "I wouldn't mind," said Fred Weasley's voice. "Be a talking point, wouldn't it?" Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked up. Fred and George had just emerged from behind some bookshelves. "What're you two doing here?" Ron asked. "Looking for you," said George. "McGonagall wants you, Ron. And you, Hermione." "Why?" said Hermione, looking surprised. "Dunno...she was looking a bit grim, though," said Fred. "We're supposed to take you down to her office," said George. Ron and Hermione stared at Harry, who felt his stomach drop. Was Professor McGonagall about to tell Ron and Hermione off? Perhaps she'd noticed how much they were helping him, when he ought to be working out how to do the task alone? "We'll meet you back in the common room," Hermione told Harry as she got up to go with Ron - both of them looked very anxious. "Bring as many of these books as you can, okay?" "Right," said Harry uneasily. By eight o'clock. Madam Pince had extinguished all the lamps and came to chivvy Harry out of the library. Staggering under the weight of as many books as he could carry, Harry returned to the Gryffindor common room, pulled a table into a corner, and continued to search. There was nothing in Madcap Magic for Wacky Warlocks...nothing in A Guide to Medieval Sorcery...not one mention of underwater exploits in An Anthology of Eighteenth-Century Charms, or in Dreadful Denizens of the Deep, or Powers You Never Knew You Had and What to Do with Them Now You've Wised Up. Crookshanks crawled into Harry's lap and curled up, purring deeply. The common room emptied slowly around Harry. People kept wishing him luck for the next morning in cheery, confident voices like Hagrid's, all of them apparently convinced that he was about to pull off another stunning performance like the one he had managed in the first task. Harry couldn't answer them, he just nodded, feeling as though there were a golfball stuck in his throat. By ten to midnight, he was alone in the room with Crookshanks. He had searched all the remaining books, and Ron and Hermione had not come back. It's over, he told himself. You can't do it. You'll just have to go down to the lake in the morning and tell the judges.... He imagined himself explaining that he couldn't do the task. He pictured Bagman's look of round-eyed surprise, Karkaroffs satisfied, yellow-toothed smile. He could almost hear Fleur Delacour saying "I knew it...'e is too young, 'e is only a little boy." He saw Malfoy flashing his POTTER STINKS badge at the front of the crowd, saw Hagrid's crestfallen, disbelieving face.... Forgetting that Crookshanks was on his lap. Harry stood up very suddenly; Crookshanks hissed angrily as he landed on the floor, gave Harry a disgusted look, and stalked away with his bottlebrush tail in the air, but Harry was already hurrying up the spiral staircase to his dormitory....He would grab the Invisibility Cloak and go back to the library, he'd stay there all night if he had to.... "Lumos," Harry whispered fifteen minutes later as he opened the library door. Wand tip alight, he crept along the bookshelves, pulling down more books - books of hexes and charms, books on merpeople and water monsters, books on famous witches and wizards, on magical inventions, on anything at all that might include one passing reference to underwater survival. He carried them over to a table, then set to work, searching them by the narrow beam of his wand, occasionally checking his watch.... One in the morning...two in the morning...the only way he could keep going was to tell himself, over and over again, next book...in the next one...the next one... The mermaid in the painting in the prefects' bathroom was laughing. Harry was bobbing like a cork in bubbly water next to her rock, while she held his Firebolt over his head. "Come and get it!" she giggled maliciously. "Come on, jump!" "I can't," Harry panted, snatching at the Firebolt, and struggling not to sink. "Give it to me!" But she just poked him painfully in the side with the end of the broomstick, laughing at him. "That hurts - get off - ouch -" "Harry Potter must wake up, sir!" "Stop poking me -" "Dobby must poke Harry Potter, sir, he must wake up!" Harry opened his eyes. He was still in the library; the Invisibility Cloak had slipped off his head as he'd slept, and the side of his face was stuck to the pages of Where There's a Wand, There's a Way. He sat up, straightening his glasses, blinking in the bright daylight. "Harry Potter needs to hurry!" squeaked Dobby. "The second task starts in ten minutes, and Harry Potter -" "Ten minutes?" Harry croaked. "Ten - ten minutes?" He looked down at his watch. Dobby was right. It was twenty past nine. A large, dead weight seemed to fall through Harry's chest into his stomach. "Hurry, Harry Potter!" squeaked Dobby, plucking at Harry's sleeve. "You is supposed to be down by the lake with the other champions, sir!" "It's too late, Dobby," Harry said hopelessly. "I'm not doing the task, I don't know how -" "Harry Potter will do the task!" squeaked the elf. "Dobby knew Harry had not found the right book, so Dobby did it for him!" "What?" said Harry. "But you don't know what the second task is -" "Dobby knows, sir! Harry Potter has to go into the lake and find his Wheezy -" "Find my what?" "- and take his Wheezy back from the merpeople!" "What's a Wheezy?" "Your Wheezy, sir, your Wheezy-Wheezy who is giving Dobby his sweater!" Dobby plucked at the shrunken maroon sweater he was now wearing over his shorts. "What?" Harry gasped. "They've got...they've got Ron?" "The thing Harry Potter will miss most, sir!" squeaked Dobby. "'But past an hour-'" "- 'the prospect's black,'" Harry recited, staring, horror-struck, at the elf. "'Too late, it's gone, it won't come back.' Dobby - what've I got to do?" "You has to eat this, sir!" squeaked the elf, and he put his hand in the pocket of his shorts and drew out a ball of what looked like slimy, grayish-green rat tails. "Right before you go into the lake, sir - gillyweed!" "What's it do?" said Harry, staring at the gillyweed. "It will make Harry Potter breathe underwater, sir!" "Dobby," said Harry frantically, "listen - are you sure about this?" He couldn't quite forget that the last time Dobby had tried to "help" him, he had ended up with no bones in his right arm. "Dobby is quite sure, sir!" said the elf earnestly. "Dobby hears things, sir, he is a house-elf, he goes all over the castle as he lights the fires and mops the floors. Dobby heard Professor McGonagall and Professor Moody in the staffroom, talking about the next task....Dobby cannot let Harry Potter lose his Wheezy!" Harry's doubts vanished. Jumping to his feet he pulled off the Invisibility Cloak, stuffed it into his bag, grabbed the gillyweed, and put it into his pocket, then tore out of the library with Dobby at his heels. "Dobby is supposed to be in the kitchens, sir!" Dobby squealed as they burst into the corridor. "Dobby will be missed - good luck, Harry Potter, sir, good luck!" "See you later, Dobby!" Harry shouted, and he sprinted along the corridor and down the stairs, three at a time. The entrance hall contained a few last-minute stragglers, all leaving the Great Hall after breakfast and heading through the double oak doors to watch the second task. They stared as Harry flashed past, sending Colin and Dennis Creevey flying as he leapt down the stone steps and out onto the bright, chilly grounds. As he pounded down the lawn he saw that the seats that had encircled the dragons' enclosure in November were now ranged along the opposite bank, rising in stands that were packed to the bursting point and reflected in the lake below. The excited babble of the crowd echoed strangely across the water as Harry ran flat-out around the other side of the lake toward the judges, who were sitting at another gold-draped table at the water's edge. Cedric, Fleur, and Krum were beside the judges' table, watching Harry sprint toward them. "I'm...here..." Harry panted, skidding to a halt in the mud and accidentally splattering Fleur's robes. "Where have you been?" said a bossy, disapproving voice. "The task's about to start!" Harry looked around. Percy Weasley was sitting at the judges' table - Mr. Crouch had failed to turn up again. "Now, now, Percy!" said Ludo Bagman, who was looking intensely relieved to see Harry. "Let him catch his breath!" Dumbledore smiled at Harry, but Karkaroff and Madame Maxime didn't look at all pleased to see him....It was obvious from the looks on their faces that they had thought he wasn't going to turn up. Harry bent over, hands on his knees, gasping for breath; he had a stitch in his side that felt as though he had a knife between his ribs, but there was no time to get rid of it; Ludo Bagman was now moving among the champions, spacing them along the bank at intervals of ten feet. Harry was on the very end of the line, next to Krum, who was wearing swimming trunks and was holding his wand ready. "All right. Harry?" Bagman whispered as he moved Harry a few feet farther away from Krum. "Know what you're going to do?" "Yeah," Harry panted, massaging his ribs. Bagman gave Harry's shoulder a quick squeeze and returned to the judges' table; he pointed his wand at his throat as he had done at the World Cup, said, "Sonorus!" and his voice boomed out across the dark water toward the stands. "Well, all our champions are ready for the second task, which will start on my whistle. They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three, then. One...two...three!" The whistle echoed shrilly in the cold, still air; the stands erupted with cheers and applause; without looking to see what the other champions were doing, Harry pulled off his shoes and socks, pulled the handful of gillyweed out of his pocket, stuffed it into his mouth, and waded out into the lake. It was so cold he felt the skin on his legs searing as though this were fire, not icy water. His sodden robes weighed him down as he walked in deeper; now the water was over his knees, and his rapidly numbing feet were slipping over silt and flat, slimy stones. He was chewing the gillyweed as hard and fast as he could; it felt unpleasantly slimy and rubbery, like octopus tentacles. Waist-deep in the freezing water he stopped, swallowed, and waited for something to happen. He could hear laughter in the crowd and knew he must look stupid, walking into the lake without showing any sign of magical power. The part of him that was still dry was covered in goose pimples; half immersed in the icy water, a cruel breeze lifting his hair, Harry started to shiver violently. He avoided looking at the stands; the laughter was becoming louder, and there were catcalls and jeering from the Slytherins.... Then, quite suddenly, Harry felt as though an invisible pillow had been pressed over his mouth and nose. He tried to draw breath, but it made his head spin; his lungs were empty, and he suddenly felt a piercing pain on either side of his neck - Harry clapped his hands around his throat and felt two large slits just below his ears, flapping in the cold air....He had gills. Without pausing to think, he did the only thing that made sense - he flung himself forward into the water. The first gulp of icy lake water felt like the breath of life. His head had stopped spinning; he took another great gulp of water and felt it pass smoothly through his gills, sending oxygen back to his brain. He stretched out his hands in front of him and stared at them. They looked green and ghostly under the water, and they had become webbed. He twisted around and looked at his bare feet - they had become elongated and the toes were webbed too: It looked as though he had sprouted flippers. The water didn't feel icy anymore either...on the contrary, he felt pleasantly cool and very light....Harry struck out once more, marveling at how far and fast his flipper-like feet propelled him through the vater, and noticing how clearly he could see, and how he no longer seemed to need to blink. He had soon swum so far into the lake that he could no longer see the bottom. He flipped over and dived into its depths. Silence pressed upon his ears as he soared over a strange, dark, foggy landscape. He could only see ten feet around him, so that as he sped throuugh the water new scenes seemed to loom suddenly out of the incoming darkness: forests of rippling, tangled black weed, wide plains of mud littered with dull, glimmering stones. He swam deeper and deeper, out toward the middle of the lake, his eyes wide, staring through the eerily gray-lit water around him to the shadow beyond, where the water became opaque. Small fish flickered past him like silver darts. Once or twice he thought he saw something larger moving ahead of him, but when he got nearer, he discovered it to be nothing but a large, blackened log, or a dense clump of weed. There was no sign of any of the other champions, merpeople, Ron - nor, thankfully, the giant squid. Light green weed stretched ahead of him as far as he could see, two feet deep, like a meadow of very overgrown grass. Harry was staring unblinkingly ahead of him, trying to discern shapes through the gloom...and then, without warning, something grabbed hold of his ankle. Harry twisted his body around and saw a grindylow, a small, horned water demon, poking out of the weed, its long fingers clutched tightly around Harry's leg, its pointed fangs bared - Harry stuck his webbed hand quickly inside his robes and fumbled for his wand. By the time he had grasped it, two more grindylows had risen out of the weed, had seized handfuls of Harry's robes, and were attempting to drag him down. "Relashio!" Harry shouted, except that no sound came out....A large bubble issued from his mouth, and his wand, instead of sending sparks at the grindylows, pelted them with what seemed to be a jet of boiling water, for where it struck them, angry red patches appeared on their green skin. Harry pulled his ankle out of the grindylows grip and swam, as fast as he could, occasionally sending more jets of hot water over his shoulder at random; every now and then he felt one of the grindylows snatch at his foot again, and he kicked out, hard; finally, he felt his foot connect with a horned skull, and looking back, saw the dazed grindylow floating away, cross-eyed, while its fellows shook their fists at Harry and sank back into the weed. Harry slowed down a little, slipped his wand back inside his robes, and looked around, listening again. He turned full circle in the water, the silence pressing harder than ever against his eardrums. He knew he must be even deeper in the lake now, but nothing was moving but the rippling weed. "How are you getting on?" Harry thought he was having a heart attack. He whipped around and saw Moaning Myrtle floating hazily in front of him, gazing at him through her thick, pearly glasses. "Myrtle!" Harry tried to shout - but once again, nothing came out of his mouth but a very large bubble. Moaning Myrtle actually giggled. "You want to try over there!" she said, pointing. "I won't come with you....I don't like them much, they always chase me when I get too close...." Harry gave her the thumbs-up to show his thanks and set off once more, careful to swim a bit higher over the weed to avoid any more grindylows that might be lurking there. He swam on for what felt like at least twenty minutes. He was passing over vast expanses of black mud now, which swirled murkily as he disturbed the water. Then, at long last, he heard a snatch of haunting mersong. "An hour long you'll have to look, And to recover what we took..." Harry swam faster and soon saw a large rock emerge out of the muddy water ahead. It had paintings of merpeople on it; they were carrying spears and chasing what looked like the giant squid. Harry swam on past the rock, following the mersong. "...your time's half gone, so tarry not Lest what you seek stays here to rot...." A cluster of crude stone dwellings stained with algae loomed suddenly out of the gloom on all sides. Here and there at the dark windows, Harry saw faces...faces that bore no resemblance at all to the painting of the mermaid in the prefects' bathroom.... The merpeople had grayish skin and long, wild, dark green hair. Their eyes were yellow, as were their broken teeth, and they wore thick ropes of pebbles around their necks. They leered at Harry as he swam past; one or two of them emerged from their caves to watch him better, their powerful, silver fish tails beating the water, spears clutched in their hands. Harry sped on, staring around, and soon the dwellings became more numerous; there were gardens of weed around some of them, and he even saw a pet grindylow tied to a stake outside one door. Merpeople were emerging on all sides now, watching him eagerly, pointing at his webbed hands and gills, talking behind their hands to one another. Harry sped around a corner and a very strange sight met his eyes. A whole crowd of merpeople was floating in front of the houses that lined what looked like a mer-version of a village square. A choir of merpeople was singing in the middle, calling the champions toward them, and behind them rose a crude sort of statue; a gigantic merperson hewn from a boulder. Four people were bound tightly to the tail of the stone merperson. Ron was tied between Hermione and Cho Chang. There was also a girl who looked no older than eight, whose clouds of silvery hair made Harry feel sure that she was Fleur Delacour's sister. All four of them appeared to be in a very deep sleep. Their heads were lolling onto their shoulders, and fine streams of bubbles kept issuing from their mouths. Harry sped toward the hostages, half expecting the merpeople to lower their spears and charge at him, but they did nothing. The ropes of weed tying the hostages to the statue were thick, slimy, and very strong. For a fleeting second he thought of the knife Sirius had bought him for Christmas - locked in his trunk in the castle a quarter of a mile away, no use to him whatsoever. He looked around. Many of the merpeople surrounding them were carrying spears. He swam swiftly toward a seven-foot-tall merman with a long green beard and a choker of shark fangs and tried to mime a request to borrow the spear. The merman laughed and shook his head. "We do not help," he said in a harsh, croaky voice. "Come ON!" Harry said fiercely (but only bubbles issued from his mouth), and he tried to pull the spear away from the merman, but the merman yanked it back, still shaking his head and laughing. Harry swirled around, staring about. Something sharp...anything... There were rocks littering the lake bottom. He dived and snatched up a particularly jagged one and returned to the statue. He began to hack at the ropes binding Ron, and after several minutes' hard work, they broke apart. Ron floated, unconscious, a few inches above the lake bottom, drifting a little in the ebb of the water. Harry looked around. There was no sign of any of the other champions. What were they playing at? Why didn't they hurry up? He turned back to Hermione, raised the jagged rock, and began to hack at her bindings too - At once, several pairs of strong gray hands seized him. Half a dozen mermen were pulling him away from Hermione, shaking their green-haired heads, and laughing. "You take your own hostage," one of them said to him. "Leave the others..." "No way!" said Harry furiously - but only two large bubbles came out. Your task is to retrieve your own friend...leave the others..." She's my friend too!" Harry yelled, gesturing toward Hermione, an enormous silver bubble emerging soundlessly from his lips. "And I don't want them to die either!" Cho's head was on Hermione's shoulder; the small silver-haired girl was ghostly green and pale. Harry struggled to fight off the mermen, but they laughed harder than ever, holding him back. Harry looked wildly around. Where were the other champions? Would he have time to take Ron to the surface and come back down for Hermione and the others? Would he be able to find them again? He looked down at his watch to see how much time was left - it had stopped working. But then the merpeople around him pointed excitedly over his head. Harry looked up and saw Cedric swimming toward them. There was an enormous bubble around his head, which made his features look oddly wide and stretched. "Got lost!" he mouthed, looking panic-stricken. "Fleur and Krum're coming now!" Feeling enormously relieved, Harry watched Cedric pull a knife out of his pocket and cut Cho free. He pulled her upward and out of sight. Harry looked around, waiting. Where were Fleur and Krum? Time was getting short, and according to the song, the hostages would be lost after an hour.... The merpeople started screeching animatedly. Those holding Harry loosened their grip, staring behind them. Harry turned and saw something monstrous cutting through the water toward them: a human body in swimming trunks with the head of a shark....It was Krum. He appeared to have transfigured himself - but badly. The shark-man swam straight to Hermione and began snapping and biting at her ropes; the trouble was that Krum's new teeth were positioned very awkwardly for biting anything smaller than a dolphin, and Harry was quite sure that if Krum wasn't careful, he was going to rip Hermione in half. Darting forward. Harry hit Krum hard on the shoulder and held up the jagged stone. Krum seized it and began to cut Hermione free. Within seconds, he had done it; he grabbed Hermione around the waist, and without a backward glance, began to rise rapidly with her toward the surface. Now what? Harry thought desperately. If he could be sure that Fleur was coming....But still no sign. There was nothing to be done except... He snatched up the stone, which Krum had dropped, but the mermen now closed in around Ron and the little girl, shaking their heads at him. Harry pulled out his wand. "Get out of the way!" Only bubbles flew out of his mouth, but he had the distinct impression that the mermen had understood him, because they suddenly stopped laughing. Their yellowish eyes were fixed upon Harry's wand, and they looked scared. There might be a lot more of them than there were of him, but Harry could tell, by the looks on their faces, that they knew no more magic than the giant squid did. "You've got until three!" Harry shouted; a great stream of bubbles burst from him, but he held up three fingers to make sure they got the message. "One..." (he put down a finger) "two..."(he put down a second one) - They scattered. Harry darted forward and began to hack at the ropes binding the small girl to the statue, and at last she was free. He seized the little girl around the waist, grabbed the neck of Ron's robes, and kicked off from the bottom. It was very slow work. He could no longer use his webbed hands to propel himself forward; he worked his flippers furiously, but Ron and Fleur's sister were like potato-filled sacks dragging him back down....He fixed his eyes skyward, though he knew he must still be very deep, the water above him was so dark.... Merpeople were rising with him. He could see them swirling around him with ease, watching him struggle through the water....Would they pull him back down to the depths when the time was up? Did they perhaps eat humans? Harry's legs were seizing up with the effort to keep swimming; his shoulders were aching horribly with the effort of dragging Ron and the girl... He was drawing breath with extreme difficulty. He could feel pain on the sides of his neck again...he was becoming very aware of how wet the water was in his mouth...yet the darkness was definitely thinning now...he could see daylight above him.... He kicked hard with his flippers and discovered that they were nothing more than feet...water was flooding through his mouth into his lungs...he was starting to feel dizzy, but he knew light and air were only ten feet above him...he had to get there...he had to... Harry kicked his legs so hard and fast it felt as though his muscles were screaming in protest; his very brain felt waterlogged, he couldn't breathe, he needed oxygen, he had to keep going, he could not stop - And then he felt his head break the surface of the lake; wonderful, cold, clear air was making his wet face sting; he gulped it down, feeling as though he had never breathed properly before, and, panting, pulled Ron and the little girl up with him. All around him, wild, green-haired heads were emerging out of the water with him, but they were smiling at him. The crowd in the stands was making a great deal of noise; shouting and screaming, they all seemed to be on their feet; Harry had the impression they thought that Ron and the little girl might be dead, but they were wrong...both of them had opened their eyes; the girl looked scared and confused, but Ron merely expelled a great spout of water, blinked in the bright light, turned to Harry, and said, "Wet, this, isn't it?" Then he spotted Fleur's sister. "What did you bring her for?" "Fleur didn't turn up, I couldn't leave her," Harry panted. "Harry, you prat," said Ron, "you didn't take that song thing seriously, did you? Dumbledore wouldn't have let any of us drown!" "The song said -" "It was only to make sure you got back inside the time limit!" said Ron. "I hope you didn't waste time down there acting the hero!" Harry felt both stupid and annoyed. It was all very well for Ron; he'd been asleep, he hadn't felt how eerie it was down in the lake, surrounded by spear-carrying merpeople who'd looked more than capable of murder. "C'mon," Harry said shortly, "help me with her, I don't think she can swim very well." They pulled Fleur's sister through the water, back toward the bank where the judges stood watching, twenty merpeople accompanying them like a guard of honor, singing their horrible screechy songs. Harry could see Madam Pomfrey fussing over Hermione, Krum, Cedric, and Cho, all of whom were wrapped in thick blankets. Dumbledore and Ludo Bagman stood beaming at Harry and Ron from the bank as they swam nearer, but Percy, who looked very white and somehow much younger than usual, came splashing out to meet them. Meanwhile Madame Maxime was trying to restrain Fleur Delacour, who was quite hysterical, fighting tooth and nail to return to the water. "Gabrielle! Gabrielle! Is she alive? Is she 'urt?" "She's fine!" Harry tried to tell her, but he was so exhausted he could hardly talk, let alone shout. Percy seized Ron and was dragging him back to the bank ("Gerroff, Percy, I'm all right!"); Dumbledore and Bagman were pulling Harry upright; Fleur had broken free of Madame Maxime and was hugging her sister. "It was ze grindylows...zey attacked me...oh Gabrielle, I thought...I thought..." "Come here, you," said Madam Pomfrey. She seized Harry and pulled him over to Hermione and the others, wrapped him so tightly in a blanket that he felt as though he were in a straitjacket, and forced a measure of very hot potion down his throat. Steam gushed out of his ears. "Harry, well done!" Hermione cried. "You did it, you found out how all by yourself!" "Well -" said Harry. He would have told her about Dobby, but he had just noticed Karkaroff watching him. He was the only judge who had not left the table; the only judge not showing signs of pleasure and relief that Harry, Ron, and Fleur's sister had got back safely. "Yeah, that's right," said Harry, raising his voice slightly so that Karkaroff could hear him. "You haff a water beetle in your hair, Herm-own-ninny," said Krum. Harry had the impression that Krum was drawing her attention back onto himself; perhaps to remind her that he had just rescued her from the lake, but Hermione brushed away the beetle impatiently and said, "You're well outside the time limit, though, Harry....Did it take you ages to find us?" "No...I found you okay...." Harry's feeling of stupidity was growing. Now he was out of the water, it seemed perfectly clear that Dumbledores safety precautions wouldn't have permitted the death of a hostage just because their champion hadn't turned up. Why hadn't he just grabbed Ron and gone? He would have been first back....Cedric and Krum hadn't wasted time worrying about anyone else; they hadn't taken the mersong seriously.... Dumbledore was crouching at the water's edge, deep in conversation with what seemed to be the chief merperson, a particularly wild and ferocious-looking female. He was making the same sort of screechy noises that the merpeople made when they were above water; clearly, Dumbledore could speak Mermish. Finally he straightened up, turned to his fellow judges, and said, "A conference before we give the marks, I think." The judges went into a huddle. Madam Pomfrey had gone to rescue Ron from Percy's clutches; she led him over to Harry and the others, gave him a blanket and some Pepperup Potion, then went to fetch Fleur and her sister. Fleur had many cuts on her face and arms and her robes were torn, but she didn't seem to care, nor would she allow Madam Pomfrey to clean them. "Look after Gabrielle," she told her, and then she turned to Harry. "You saved 'er," she said breathlessly. "Even though she was not your 'ostage." "Yeah," said Harry, who was now heartily wishing he'd left all three girls tied to the statue. Fleur bent down, kissed Harry twice on each cheek (he felt his face burn and wouldn't have been surprised if steam was coming out of his ears again), then said to Ron, "And you too-you 'elped -" "Yeah," said Ron, looking extremely hopeful, "yeah, a bit -" Fleur swooped down on him too and kissed him. Hermione looked simply furious, but just then, Ludo Bagman's magically magnified voice boomed out beside them, making them all jump, and causing the crowd in the stands to go very quiet. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached our decision. Merchieftainess Murcus has told us exactly what happened at the bottom of the lake, and we have therefore decided to award marks out of fifty for each of the champions, as follows.... "Fleur Delacour, though she demonstrated excellent use of the Bubble-Head Charm, was attacked by grindylows as she approached her goal, and failed to retrieve her hostage. We award her twenty-five points." Applause from the stands. "I deserved zero," said Fleur throatily, shaking her magnificent head. "Cedric Diggory, who also used the Bubble-Head Charm, was first to return with his hostage, though he returned one minute outside the time limit of an hour." Enormous cheers from the Hufflepuffs in the crowd; Harry saw Cho give Cedric a glowing look. "We therefore award him forty-seven points." Harry's heart sank. If Cedric had been outside the time limit, he most certainly had been. "Viktor Krum used an incomplete form of Transfiguration, which was nevertheless effective, and was second to return with his hostage. We award him forty points." Karkaroff clapped particularly hard, looking very superior. "Harry Potter used gillyweed to great effect," Bagman continued. "He returned last, and well outside the time limit of an hour. However, the Merchieftainess informs us that Mr. Potter was first to reach the hostages, and that the delay in his return was due to his determination to return all hostages to safety, not merely his own." Ron and Hermione both gave Harry half-exasperated, half-commiserating looks. "Most of the judges," and here, Bagman gave Karkaroff a very nasty look, "feel that this shows moral fiber and merits full marks. However...Mr. Potter's score is forty-five points." Harry's stomach leapt - he was now tying for first place with Cedric. Ron and Hermione, caught by surprise, stared at Harry, then laughed and started applauding hard with the rest of the crowd. "There you go. Harry!" Ron shouted over the noise. "You weren't being thick after all - you were showing moral fiber!" Fleur was clapping very hard too, but Krum didn't look happy at all. He attempted to engage Hermione in conversation again, but she was too busy cheering Harry to listen. "The third and final task will take place at dusk on the twenty-fourth of June," continued Bagman. "The champions will be notified of what is coming precisely one month beforehand. Thank you all for your support of the champions." It was over. Harry thought dazedly, as Madam Pomfrey began herding the champions and hostages back to the castle to get into dry clothes...it was over, he had got through...he didn't have to worry about anything now until June the twenty-fourth.... Next time he was in Hogsmeade, Harry decided as he walked back up the stone steps into the castle, he was going to buy Dobby a pair of socks for every day of the year.