A Short Fight

“Yay! Quidditch finals tomorrow! I’m so excited!” Bookworm said happily.
“Yes, Bookworm, I know the Quidditch finals are tomorrow. I’m on a team too, remember?” Ed said, trying to be patient. “Have you finished the Aging Potion?”
“Of course! We can use it later… After I beat you at Quidditch!” Bookworm grinned.
“I don’t think that’s likely to happen. Have you learned to throw the Quaffle correctly yet?” Ed asked, glaring at her.
“Shut up! I beat you last time we played!” Bookworm yelled at him.
“Yeah, but that was just because Harry caught the snitch. You threw the Quaffle in your own goal!” Ed retorted.
“No I didn’t! You must not have seen correctly because you’re so short!” Bookworm yelled back at him.
Keyblade, Al, Genis, Colette, and Lloyd arrived in the library a few minutes later. By this time, Ed had alchemified a large spear and was attempting to stab Bookworm. She was trying to strangle him, despite this obvious danger.
“Bookworm! Ed! Stop fighting! If you talk to each other peacefully, maybe you can be friends again!” Colette suggested.
“No!… She’s evil! She… called me… SHORT!” Ed managed to say while struggling to breathe.
“He said I’m a bad Quidditch player!… Ouch!” Bookworm shouted when she was poked with the spear.
“Lloyd! They’re going to kill each other! We have to stop them!” Colette wailed.
“Umm…” Lloyd tried to think of something to do.
“Lloyd, if Bookworm dies, she can’t give us the Aging Potion. We’ll have to stay longer and write that essay,” Genis said.
“What!?! Nooo!” Lloyd unsheathed his twin swords and hit Bookworm and Ed with them.
“What’s going on?” Shade asked as she entered the library.
“Bookworm and Ed had a fight, but now they’re friends again,” Colette said cheerfully. This was not completely true. They were just too tired and injured to be enemies.
“Okay… Have we started to plan what to do after the Quidditch game?” Shade asked.
“Umm… No, not really. We’re going to take the potion after the game and go to a different world. Where should we go?” Keyblade asked, hoping their next destination had more anime.
“We should go to the Alagaesia next!” Shade suggested. “If we don’t, I’ll kill you all!”
“Death threats aren’t really necessary,” Bookworm said, recovering from her fight. “We don’t even know if the Sorcerer’s Ring can take us to Alagaesia.”
“Can we play DDR before exploring more worlds? I haven’t played DDR in weeks!” Keyblade complained.
“Yes!... I’ll beat Bookworm at DDR… after I beat her at Quidditch!… And I’ll beat you too, Shade!” Ed said, starting to breathe better now.
“What did I do?” Shade asked innocently.
“You made me short!” Ed yelled, his anger helping his speech.
“No I didn’t! You were already short!” Shade protested.
“Okay… Let’s continue this discussion after the Quidditch game,” Al suggested before Ed could react violently to Shade’s comment about his height.
“Did you know this is the first time there’s ever been a four-way Quidditch game at Hogwarts?” Bookworm said. “They’re only doing it now because all the teams are tied and there’s no time for a bunch of tiebreaker games.”
“Yes, Bookworm, we all know that. We’re on the teams too, remember?” Keyblade said. “See you all tomorrow!”
They all said good-bye and returned to their common rooms, excited about the upcoming game.

Transfiguration and Tryouts

The next few days were fairly uneventful. Dumbledore agreed to let Hagrid take care of Tas. Pansy was stuck in the hospital wing for an undetermined amount of time. Most of the Slytherins were now afraid of Shade, although they would never admit it. Ed discovered that the Hogwarts library contained many books about alchemy, so he and Al spent a lot of time there, studying to prepare themselves for the Philosopher’s Stone transmutation. Colette often visited Hagrid to play with Fluffy and Fang. Bookworm and Hermione hardly left the library. No one was quite sure if they were actually working on the Aging Potion or just reading. Keyblade spent most of her free time either practicing alchemy with Ed and Al or sparring with Lloyd. There hadn’t been much difficult schoolwork or homework that week, but everyone was still relieved when it was finally Friday. Even better, Friday evening was when the Quidditch tryouts would take place.
During breakfast, Keyblade noticed Bookworm kept scribbling on a piece of parchment. “Is that for the Aging Potion?” she asked curiously.
“No, it’s even better!” Bookworm put down her quill pen and showed Keyblade the paper. “Since Shade got to beat up Pansy, I made a list of everyone I want to beat up before we leave here!”
Keyblade read the long list. “Bookworm, how do you plan to beat all these people up? And how will you even find them? Voldemort’s hiding far away, Bellatrix Lestrange is in Azkaban, and Umbridge and Fudge are probably at the Ministry of Magic in London. Are you going to beat up Snape in the middle of Potions Class or something? And don’t forget, if you try to beat up Draco Malfoy, Shade will probably murder you. And Ed told me Cho Chang’s in the hospital wing because of the explosion.”
“Okay, that makes one less person to attack… Hmm… Do you have any ideas for how to get the rest of them?” Bookworm asked.
“No!” Keyblade said in exasperation. “Bookworm, shouldn’t you be working on the Aging Potion instead of plotting revenge?”
Bookworm considered this. “Can’t I at least beat up Umbridge? We could borrow some thestrals and fly to London…”
Before Keyblade could reply, breakfast ended. Their first class was Transfiguration with the Slytherins. This was Hermione’s favorite subject, so she made them hurry to class. Professor McGonagall instructed them to practice turning squirrels into goblets.
“I’ll hit the squirrels with a fireball, then you alchemify the goblets, okay? If we wave our wands and say the correct incantation, McGonagall might not notice,” Shade whispered to Keyblade.
“Yay! I did it!” Bookworm excitedly waved a goblet around.
“How did you do that?” Shade asked, shocked that Bookworm had mastered magic so quickly.
“I memorized a bunch of spells last time I read the Harry Potter books! And Hermione taught me some more!” Bookworm excitedly explained. At the end of the class, she and Hermione were the only ones to perform the spell correctly. Shade and Keyblade’s plan was successful. Some of their classmates might have noticed the tiny explosion and the squirrel-like piles of goo, but no one told McGonagall because they preferred to remain non-goo. McGonagall awarded Hermione, Bookworm, Keyblade, and Shade perfect grades for the class.
Later, everyone gathered on the Quidditch pitch for tryouts. Tas even got Hagrid’s permission to watch. Al volunteered to keep an eye on him because his armor was too heavy to fly on a broom anyway.
Draco slipped his team’s captain a few galleons, earning himself a position as seeker. None of the Slytherins wanted a Muggle-born on their team, but Shade did very well as keeper. Normally, they wouldn’t have let her on the team no matter how well she did, but they had heard some rumors involving explosions and goo… Shade was welcomed as the new Slytherin keeper.
The Ravenclaw team quickly realized that small and speedy Genis would be a good seeker. After checking the rulebook to make sure there was nothing against alchemy or auto-mail, they selected Ed as their new chaser.
Lloyd had some trouble flying. He was more familiar with rheiards and wings than broomsticks. However, his luck changed at the end of his tryout. Both bludgers flew toward him at once! Lloyd grabbed a beater’s bat and, holding it like one of his twin swords, whacked both bludgers. The Hufflepuffs thought this was incredible and selected him for their new beater. Unfortunately, Colette was too klutzy to make the team. She said she didn’t want to be a burden, but seemed really disappointed anyway. McGonagall had a brilliant idea to cheer her up. Lee Jordan, the commentator, had a bad habit of swearing and yelling at the Slytherins during Quidditch matches. McGonagall had been trying to do something about this, but had been unsuccessful so far.
“Miss Brunel! Would you like to help Lee Jordan commentate at the next Quidditch match?” she asked.
“Really?” Colette’s face lit up. “I’d love to! Oh! I have to tell Lloyd!” As she ran off to find Lloyd, she tripped and knocked Al over. Tas took this opportunity to set off a dungbomb he had “borrowed” from the Weasley twins. The terrible stench knocked all the potential Gryffindor players unconscious.
“Look! We’re late! I told you we should have left the library earlier!” Keyblade said as she and Bookworm walked to the Quidditch pitch.
“But I was reading!” Bookworm protested. This was not a very good excuse because she was still reading while she walked.
“Hey! What happened to everyone?” Keyblade asked when she noticed all the unconscious Gryffindors.
Bookworm and Keyblade were the only Gryffindors to tryout, so they automatically became the new chasers, even though Keyblade fell off her broom and Bookworm accidentally hit Harry with the Quaffle. (She was aiming for Keyblade, who was in the opposite direction.)
After the tryouts, Ed asked Bookworm when the Aging Potion would be ready. “Umm… maybe a few more weeks…” Bookworm said uncertainly. “I think I should have it ready by the final Quidditch match.”
“Maybe after the final match, we should take the Aging Potion and leave,” Keyblade suggested. (A few weeks seemed like a really long time to go without any DDR or anime.)
“What? No way! I still have so much magic to learn! And I haven’t even attacked Umbridge yet!” Bookworm complained.
“Bookworm, did you know McGonagall’s going to assign a long essay that will be due the day after the final Quidditch match?” Shade asked, grinning evilly.
“Essay?!” An expression of complete horror appeared on Bookworm’s face. “Okay, we can leave right after the match, even if I haven’t beaten up Umbridge.”
“Wow, she’s just like Lloyd,” Genis shook his head in amazement.
“Thanks!” Lloyd said, thinking this was meant as a compliment.
“And please make sure the Aging Potion is ready by then! I need to get taller!” Ed said. He had apparently forgotten that he hadn’t grown in the past four years, therefore the potion would have no effect on his height. No one bothered to point this out. He would find out soon enough anyway.

Zelos vs. King Arthur

“Stop trying to cut off my arm!” Zelos yelled as he dodged King Arthur’s sword blows. He was not doing very well. Arthur was quite good at cutting off his opponent’s limbs. Zelos was getting tired and wasn’t dodging as well as he had earlier. Despite this, he still continued to fight. “Don’t worry, hunny! I’ll save you, even if I do lose my arm!” He thought about that for a moment. “Hey Raine! If I lose my arm, can you still heal it?”
“No, if it’s completely cut off, I can’t do anything about it,” Raine informed him.
“WHAT!?! I could really lose my arm here?!” Zelos wailed.
“Stop talking! Concentrate on the fight!” Kratos shouted.
“But if I lose my arm, I won’t be so sexy!” Zelos said, horrified at the idea. He decided he needed a better fighting strategy. “Hey Mithos! Do you have another one of those exploding things you used on the bunny?”
“No…” Mithos tried to think of a way to defeat Arthur and save Sheena. Suddenly, he had a great idea! “Zelos! I know how to defeat him! We have to say ‘ni’!”
“Ni?” Zelos said uncertainly.
“No! Anything but that!” Arthur moaned.
“Ni! Ni! Ni!” Zelos and Mithos yelled. Arthur fell over, moaning in pain.
“Hey! The witch’s cursing the king!” said a peasant who had returned with plenty of wood.
“What king? I didn’t vote for a king!” said another peasant who had returned with some torches.
The first peasant ignored the second peasant. “She’s cursing the king! Burn her! Burn her!”
“Zelos! Hurry! Activate the Mage’s Ring!” Sheena yelled as more peasants arrived with wood and torches.
“But I just saved your life! Would it hurt you to give me a kiss or two before yelling at me?” Zelos asked hopefully. When he noticed Sheena’s death glare, he shut up and activated the ring. Soon, they arrived back in Derris-Kharlan.
“You idiot! They were going to kill me, but you still wanted to wait for a kiss before leaving! What is wrong with you?” Sheena screamed at Zelos.
“Sheena is right. If you cannot behave more responsibly, you should not have the Mage’s Ring,” Kratos said.
“I’ll take it!” Mithos volunteered.
“Are you sure you are responsible enough?” Kratos asked, remembering the incident at the DDR machine.
“Sheena, Kratos, I think you both should be a little nicer. Zelos saved Sheena from King Arthur and Mithos saved us all from the killer rabbit,” Rin said.
“Very well, he can take the Mage’s Ring. But if he ever behaves like that again…” Kratos gave Mithos a threatening glare. Mithos took the Mage’s Ring from Zelos and made a mental note never to cry like a little baby in front of Kratos again.
“Yeah, sorry Zelos. I guess I was being a little harsh… Thanks for saving me,” Sheena said awkwardly.
“No problem, hunny! But are you sure you don’t want to kiss again?” Zelos asked.
Sheena was about to attack Zelos again, but was still too tired from last time. She just shook her head instead. Zelos, who had completely forgotten how much power she had used up in her last attack, decided she must be starting to like him a little more. Maybe next time I save her, she’ll date me! he thought happily. Surprisingly, he had enough sense not to say this aloud.
“So now where do we go?” Mithos asked.
“Now we go home!” Sesshomaru said angrily. His death glare made everyone, even Kratos, agree to return them home before continuing their quest. Mithos changed the ring’s function and sent everyone to feudal Japan.
“Look, Lord Sesshomaru! There’s Inuyasha!” Jaken pointed to a nearby half-demon who was leading a group of humans and demons.
“Come! We must get the Tetsaiga from my brother,” Sesshomaru said as he and Jaken hurried after the strange group.
“Bye everyone!” Rin waved at Mithos and the Symphonians before following Sesshomaru and Jaken.
“Bye Rin!” Mithos said as he activated the Mage’s Ring and returned to Derris-Kharlan. He looked at all the function-changing devices. “Now where do we go?”
“Let’s just pick one randomly,” Raine suggested.
“Okay,” Mithos selected one and changed the ring’s function. He activated it and sent them all to another world…

Classmates

“What’s our first class?” Bookworm asked Keyblade during breakfast.
Keyblade looked at the schedule for Gryffindor first-years. “We’ve got Herbology with the Slytherins.”
“WHAT!?! But Harry’s supposed to have Herbology with the Hufflepuffs, not the Slytherins!” Bookworm protested.
“But we all just got added to the classes. They probably had to change a lot,” Keyblade said.
“Keyblade! Bookworm! What does ‘Quidditch’ mean?” Lloyd came to the Gryffindor table to ask.
“Quidditch is a sport played on flying broomsticks,” Bookworm explained.
“Oh… Someone was just yelling at me and Colette for injuring some people from the Quidditch team. I think it might have had something to do with the explosion last night… And then I saw a sign saying people got injured in the other explosions too, so there’s going to be Quidditch tryouts for all four houses this weekend,” Lloyd said.
“Really? We should all try out! That would be so awesome!” Bookworm said excitedly.
“One more question. Where’s Potions class? Colette and I have that first, but we can’t figure out where to go,” Lloyd said.
“It’s in the dungeons. Good luck!” Keyblade said, remembering how unpleasant Professor Snape was to all his non-Slytherin students. Lloyd and Colette headed for the dungeons. Bookworm, Keyblade, and Tas walked to the Herbology greenhouses. Overall, this class went well. The Gryffindors and Slytherins were avoiding each other mostly. The only one who had a really bad time was Professor Sprout, who spent most of the class trying to keep Tas away from all the dangerous plants. When Herbology ended, everyone walked across the Hogwarts grounds to return to the castle for their next classes.
“Did you hear? Three mudbloods just got sent to Gryffindor! That house gets more pathetic everyday!” a sneering Slytherin boy told his cronies in a loud voice.
“Shut up, Malfoy!” someone said angrily.
Hearing this voice, Bookworm abruptly stopped walking and turned around. The three Gryffindors behind her did not stop in time. They crashed into her, causing all of them to fall down.
“Wow! I didn’t realize the mudbloods were that stupid!” said Pansy Parkinson, one of the Slytherins with Draco.
“I told you already: stop insulting muggle-borns like that,” Shade said as she approached.
“Why should I?” Pansy sneered. She had either forgotten the previous night’s explosion or she was just trying to look cool. Shade recited a powerful spell that left Pansy resembling a large pile of scorched goo.
Draco stared at her. Normally, he would never hang out with a muggle-born, but Shade was clearly more powerful than any of the other first-years. Powerful friends were always useful…
“Wha’s goin’ on?” Hagrid had heard the noise and hurried from his hut to investigate.
“Hi Hagrid!” said one of the people Bookworm had knocked over. He and his friends stood up. Bookworm quickly followed, still staring at them.
“Hullo Harry! Wanna tell me what happened ’ere?” Hagrid said.
“Malfoy was being a jerk to some muggle-borns, so I told him to shut up. Parkinson said muggle-borns are stupid. And then that girl cursed her.” Harry said, pointing at Shade.
Hagrid stared at the goo-like Pansy. “Crabbe! Goyle! Take ’er to the hospital wing!” Crabbe and Goyle dragged Pansy away in the direction of the school.
Shade decided to distract Hagrid before he could punish her for injuring her classmate. “Hagrid! Have you met Tas? Professor Dumbledore decided we need more diverse students, so he let Tas enroll here. He’s a kender, a very dangerous creature.”
“He is?” Hagrid stared at Tas in amazement.
“Yes, just ask Professor Sprout. She can tell you how dangerous he is,” Shade said, remembering Tas’s behavior during Herbology.
Tas decided to introduce himself. “Hello! My name’s Tasslehoff Burrfoot. I’ve never seen anyone as big as you, Hagrid. Except maybe Caramon… Caramon’s my best friend. Did I ever tell you about him?” he said.
“Hmm… I’m not sure it’s such a good idea to let a dangerous creature stay in the school. I’ve gotta go see Professor Dumbledore. I’ll talk to ye later, Tas!” Hagrid ran away to visit Dumbledore. Hopefully, the Headmaster would let him take care of this “dangerous creature”.
“Hey Shade! I thought you said we shouldn’t cause anymore explosions,” Keyblade said.
“I didn’t explode anything. I just turned Pansy into goo,” Shade grinned. “And how’s that Aging Potion coming, Bookworm?”
“You’re making an Aging Potion?!” Hermione, one of Harry’s friends, gasped. “But we don’t learn that until third year!”
Bookworm had finally recovered from the shock of meeting her favorite book characters. “Yeah, I know. Do you think maybe you could help me?”
“Of course! I’ve been dying to brew an Aging Potion since I read that third year textbook!” Hermione said excitedly. Her friend, Ron, rolled his eyes.
“Great! We’ve still got some time before next class! Let’s go to the library!” Bookworm and Hermione ran to the school, eager to begin reading.

Witch!

“How many times do I have to tell you?! I AM NOT A WITCH!” Sheena yelled at the angry crowd.
“But we saw you do magic! You cursed a poor helpless knight!” one of the peasants shouted back at her.
“No I didn’t! I summoned spirits to attack an idiot! I’m a summoner, not a witch! There’s a big difference!” Sheena yelled.
King Arthur glared at her. “You can explain at your trial. Then I, Arthur, King of the Britons, will decide if you are guilty of witchcraft.”
“You decide? What happened to the trial by jury? Or the voting system?” someone demanded.
“What trial by jury? When have we ever had a voting system?” Arthur asked in confusion.
“See? No voting or trial by jury! I told you we live in an oppressive dictatorship!” a rebellious peasant yelled.
“This is not a dictatorship! It’s a monarchy! And as king, I get to decide the guilt of convicted witches!” Arthur said, very irritated.
“When is this trial?” Sheena asked. She didn’t think she could stand to spend much more time with these crazy people.
“We will have the trial when we arrive at the village. It’s just up ahead,” someone answered.
A little while later, Mithos and friends arrived in the village. They joined the crowd at its center and watched as King Arthur and one of his knights forced Sheena to get onto a scale with a duck.
“I knew it! She weighs less than a duck! She’s a witch!” a peasant yelled.
“Burn her! Burn her!” the crowd screamed.
“I do not weigh less than a duck! There’s a bunch of bricks with the duck! I’m not a witch!” Sheena yelled.
“Burn her!” King Arthur shouted. The crowd cheered and ran to get wood and torches.
“STOP! You can’t burn my hunny!” Zelos yelled.
Arthur stared at him. “You travel with the knight who slew the killer rabbit, but I have not met you before. Who are you?”
“I’m Zelos Wilder, the Chosen of Tethe’alla and the prettiest guy in all of Symphonia!” Zelos introduced himself.
“Umm… Zelos, I don’t think he knows about Tethe’alla or Symphonia,” Mithos pointed out.
Zelos pretended not to hear. “So are you going to let Sheena go or not?”
“No! She is a witch!” Arthur said angrily. “And if you keep disagreeing with your king, I shall have to kill you!”
Zelos unsheathed his sword. “Go ahead and try! I won’t let you burn her, even if she is a witch!”
King Arthur unsheathed his sword too. “So be it. You will die, Sir Zelos.”
“Should we help him?” Rin asked Mithos.
He shook his head. “No, let’s just watch first. This should be an interesting fight...”

An Explosive First Day At Hogwarts!

“I didn’t steal anything! I’m not a thief!” Tas said angrily.
“Umm… Bookworm, I think Tas is in trouble,” Keyblade said. Bookworm did not seem to hear her. She had started reading the books she had gotten from the library. Bookworm never paid attention to what was going on when she was reading.
“Liar! You stole George’s dungbombs!” Fred Weasley accused. “I saw you take them! They’re in your pouch!”
Tas looked in his pouch and discovered that the dungbombs really were there. He gave them back to George. “You must have dropped them. You’re really lucky I found them or someone might have stolen them.”
“I didn’t drop them! Fred saw you take them right out of my bag,” George said, stuffing the dungbombs back in his bag.
“No! I’m just really good at finding things!” Tas persisted.
“Are you sure he stole the dungbombs, Fred?” Percy asked. “No one else saw him. You had better not be saying this just to bother first-years… And you’re not supposed to have dungbombs anyway! I’m confiscating those.” He snatched the dungbombs away from George.
“Nice going! You got us caught!” George glared at Tas, then turned to Fred. “And that was the last of my dungbombs… I need to go to Zonko’s. When’s the next Hogsmeade trip?”
“Not until next month. We’ll have to use the secret passage,” Fred whispered.
“I could find those dungbombs for you!” Tas offered.
At this point, they were interrupted by a loud explosion.
For the first time, Bookworm looked up from her book. “What’s going on?”
“That sounded like it came from near the dungeons… That’s where the Slytherin Common Room is. Do you think Shade’s okay?” Keyblade asked. She got no answer because Bookworm had started reading again. Keyblade poked her to get her attention. “Hey! Do you want to go to the dungeons and find out what happened?”
“Okay,” Bookworm reluctantly put down her book and followed Keyblade out the portrait hole. They walked down to the dungeons where all the Slytherins were trying to explain what had happened to the teachers. Everyone was telling a different story and thought it was definitely not their own fault.
“Shade! What happened?” Keyblade asked when she found her friend.
Shade grinned evilly. “Some of the other Slytherins said a Muggle-born couldn’t do magic as well as a Pureblood. So I showed them some of the spells Raistlin taught me.”
“You exploded your Common Room!?!” Bookworm asked in amazement.
“Shade, do you think maybe you could try not to kill anyone while we’re here?” Keyblade asked.
Before Shade could answer, there was another explosion. This one came from the direction of the Gryffindor Common Room.
“Where’s Tas?” Shade asked suspiciously.
“We left him in the Common Room… I think he was going to help Fred and George get some dungbombs…” Keyblade said, realizing what had caused the second explosion.
“And you accuse me of trying to kill people! You left a kender unsupervised! He probably set off the Weasleys’ whole collection of dungbombs!” Shade yelled at them.
“Should we go see if everyone’s okay?” Keyblade asked uncertainly.
“No, if dungbombs caused the explosion, we should wait awhile first. We won’t be able to breathe in that Common Room for at least an hour… While we wait, we could go to the library!” Bookworm said excitedly.
“No! You already went to the library. You’ve got enough books for now. Maybe we could see how Ed, Al, and the Symphonia people are doing,” Keyblade suggested.
Bookworm reluctantly agreed. Shade decided to come too. (It was best if the teachers didn’t see her at the scene of the first explosion.) Hufflepuff was closest to the Slytherin Common Room, so they decided to visit Lloyd and Colette first. Halfway there, Colette flew right into them, knocking Bookworm down.
“Why aren’t you in your Common Room?” Bookworm asked in confusion as she stood up.
Lloyd flew after her and started to explain. “Colette tripped and knocked over someone’s Potions project. There was a little explosion and some people started to change colors…”
Colette continued his explanation. “Lloyd saved me! He hit the cauldron with his sword so none of the potion got on me. It hit some other students instead. They were getting a little angry, so we decided to leave.”
“You used your sword in front of everyone?! Please tell me you left before using your wings,” Shade said.
“Of course! And why shouldn’t I use my sword?” Lloyd asked, confused.
“This is a school. That means no swords allowed,” Bookworm explained.
“But I got to bring my sword to school in Iselia!” Lloyd protested.
“I think Raine was too busy making sure you stayed awake to complain about your sword,” Keyblade said.
Lloyd ignored her. “So why aren’t you in your Common Rooms?”
“I blew mine up,” Shade said proudly.
“Tas set off a bunch of dungbombs in ours,” Keyblade said.
“Since Colette blew up that potion, that means Ravenclaw is the only House that hasn’t been exploded yet,” Bookworm observed. “Let’s go see Ed, Al, and Genis!”
As they neared the Ravenclaw Common Room, a fourth explosion shook the school.
“I wonder who did that,” Bookworm said sarcastically.
“ED! What did you do?! We agreed we’d wait until later to try to get our bodies back!” Al yelled.
“That wasn’t what I was doing…” Ed muttered.
“Then what were you doing?” Genis asked angrily.
“I was just trying to use the Philosopher’s Stone to make myself a little taller,” Ed said, his voice barely audible.
“WHAT!?!” everyone screamed.
“But you said we’d only use it to get my body and your arm and leg, Big Brother! You know how dangerous human transmutations are!” Al shouted.
Ed yelled at him. “That’s easy for you to say! You’re a tall suit of armor! It was bad enough before, but now Shade cast that spell…”
“I have an idea!” Bookworm said. “I was reading something earlier about an Aging Potion. If I can make that, we can return to our real ages when we’re ready to leave Hogwarts.”
“Wow! That’s a great idea, Bookworm!” Colette said happily.
“Okay, you can make the Aging Potion, Bookworm, but make sure you keep an eye on Tas too. We don’t want anymore explosions,” Shade said.
“Fine,” Bookworm agreed reluctantly. Keeping an eye on a kender was a nearly impossible task, so she wasn’t expecting much success.
Later, Shade cast memory spells on the teachers so they wouldn’t remember who caused the explosions and everyone returned to their Common Rooms. While Keyblade and Bookworm were gone, Tas had become the Weasley twins’ new partner. (They thought the dungbomb explosion was great!) Now Filch would have to deal with a kender, along with Fred, George, and Peeves. Bookworm almost felt sorry for him. Almost. She read more about the Aging Potion. It didn’t sound too difficult, but she wasn’t sure she could do it correctly… Suddenly, she had a brilliant idea! She could ask Hermione to help!

Killer Rabbit!

“Is this world peaceful enough, your highness?” Zelos asked Raine.
“No! Can’t you see all the bones? We need to go somewhere peaceful to save Mithos! Get us out of here, you idiot!” Sheena yelled at Zelos.
“Lord Sesshomaru does not run away from piles of bones!” Jaken announced.
“Raine, heal Mithos. I will protect you all from the monster responsible for these bones!” Kratos unsheathed his sword and looked around for some frightening monster. He completely ignored the fluffy little bunny.
“We do not need your protection! Lord Sesshomaru will kill the monster!” Jaken glared at Kratos.
“RESURRECTION!” Raine shouted. Her staff began to glow and a magic circle appeared beneath her. Light surrounded Mithos as he stood up, fully healed.
“What’s going on?” Mithos asked in confusion. “Where are we?”
“We do not know where we are. We came here because Raine needed a peaceful place to heal you after the DDR machine exploded. Kratos and Sesshomaru are looking for the monster that killed these people,” Presea explained, pointing at the bones.
“Monster?...” Mithos looked around curiously. He noticed the cute little rabbit and screamed. “It’s the killer rabbit! We’re in the Monty Python world! Run!”
Everyone stared at him. “I think his brain may have been damaged in the explosion. It is beyond my skill to heal. Hopefully, he will return to normal after some time,” Raine said worriedly.
“No! I’m okay! But that rabbit’s dangerous! It will jump up and bite our heads off! It can kill us all!” Mithos yelled as he ran away. Everyone stared at the bunny, which looked cute and harmless.
“Hmph! Humans are such cowards!” Jaken said. “Lord Sesshomaru and I are not afraid of rabbits!”
Once he was a safe distance away from the killer rabbit, Mithos started to look for a way to defeat it. He had seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail enough times to know that the only way to kill the rabbit was to use the Holy Hand Grenade. But where could he find the grenade?
Then something very random and convenient happened, as it usually does in Monty Python movies. A group of monks walked by, carrying the box with the Holy Hand Grenade.
Mithos ran up to them. “Hey! Can I use that? I need to kill a monster!”
The head monk handed him the grenade while the other monks chanted. “Do you need to hear the holy instructions?” he asked. Mithos shook his head. “Very well, but remember you must count to three, not five. Three!” Mithos nodded and ran back to his companions.
“I can’t believe Mithos is scared of this!” Zelos laughed as he poked the rabbit with a stick. The rabbit opened its mouth to reveal nasty big pointy teeth! It jumped high in the air and bit Zelos’s throat.
“ZELOS!” Sheena screamed in horror and dismay. “PYRE SEAL!” She threw her magic cards at the ferocious little monster, forcing it to let go of Zelos.
“Thanks hunny… I knew you liked me…” Zelos said before he lost consciousness.
“No I don’t!” Sheena protested. “But don’t you dare die!” Rin and Presea carried Zelos away from the rabbit. Raine hurried after them to heal him. Sheena, Kratos, Sesshomaru, and Regal continued to attack the killer rabbit. Jaken shouted encouragement at Sesshomaru from a safe distance.
“Get out of the way!” Mithos yelled as he ran toward them. He pulled the pin from the grenade. “One! Two! Three!” He threw the grenade as hard as he could. The explosion annihilated the rabbit and gave minor injuries to the four who had still been fighting it. Raine easily healed these wounds. Everyone was very worried about Zelos. Raine had healed his wound, but could do nothing about the blood he had already lost.
“I told you not to die!” Sheena screamed at him.
Zelos was just barely conscious. “Sheena… I’m sorry… I don’t think I can survive…”
“Stop talking, you idiot! You need to save your breath!” she shouted.
“No… I need to tell you…” Zelos’s voice kept getting quieter. Sheena leaned closer to hear his last words. “Thanks hunny!” His voice seemed to have miraculously healed. And now that she had moved within his reach, Zelos was able to hold Sheena still long enough to kiss her! Clearly, he was not dying… yet. Everyone ran for cover, even Kratos and Sesshomaru. They felt the land shake from many huge explosions, as if Sheena had just summoned all her Spirits and commanded them to attack Zelos. When they finally came out from their shelter, everyone saw Sheena stomping furiously on a pile of goo that somewhat resembled Zelos.
“He deserved that. Wait until Sheena calms down before you heal him,” Regal told Raine. She nodded in agreement.
“Excuse me!” A man wearing armor and a crown ran towards them. “I am Arthur, king of the Britons. I seek knights to join me in my court at Camelot. Who was it that slayed the terrible beast with the nasty big pointy teeth?”
“Uhh… I did,” Mithos said uncertainly. He did not want to go with King Arthur to Camelot. (It was a very silly place.)
Before Arthur could invite him, a crowd of excited peasants ran to them. “She’s a witch! A witch! We saw her summon terrible monsters to kill a poor helpless knight! She’s a witch! Burn her!” They crowded around Sheena, accidentally stepping on the pile of goo that had once been Zelos.
“A witch?” King Arthur gasped and stared at Sheena in amazement. “We must take her to the nearest town for her trial!” The crowd cheered and followed King Arthur away from the cave of the killer rabbit. They dragged Sheena along with them. She had used all her magic powers attacking Zelos, so she could do nothing to stop them.
“That was… very odd,” Presea said, staring after the crowd. Everyone nodded in agreement, still confused by this strange turn of events. Raine took this opportunity to resurrect the pile of trampled Zelos-goo.
“We have to help Sheena! She’s innocent, but they’ll probably burn her anyway!” Mithos said.
“What?! I won’t let them burn my hunny!” Zelos shouted, trying to look heroic as he stood up, but failing miserably because he was not fully recovered. He fell flat on his face. “I will save Sheena! And then she’ll be so grateful, she’ll finally go on date with me!” Zelos eyes became heart-shaped at this thought.
Mithos didn’t think Sheena would be quite that grateful, but he didn’t argue. “Come on! We have to find that town quickly and save Sheena!” He led the way away from the killer rabbit’s cave and toward a village where a crowd of excited peasants waited to see a witch burning.

Sorting Hat

Eventually, Snape did manage to get everyone to stop killing each other and listen to him. Now Bookworm, Keyblade, Shade, Colette, Lloyd, Genis, Ed, Tas, and Filch all watched as Snape opened the secret door to the Headmaster’s office. (Hagrid stayed with Fluffy and Mrs. Norris decided to continue to roam the school in search of troublemakers.) They followed him into Dumbledore’s office.
“Hello Severus,” Dumbledore said as they entered. “What is going on?”
“I just caught these children fighting in the forbidden corridor on the third floor. They claim they are not students,” Snape said dubiously.
“Really?” Dumbledore frowned and turned to the group of children. “Then who are you? And why were you in that corridor?”
“My name’s Shade,” she introduced herself. “These are my friends: Keyblade, Bookworm, Lloyd, Colette, Genis, Edward, Alphonse, and Tas… Tas! No! Put that down!” Tas moved away from Dumbledore’s pensieve, trying to look innocent.
Bookworm took over the explanation while Shade yelled at Tas. “We missed the train at the beginning of the term, so it took us a while to get here. When we finally arrived, we got lost and had to ask for directions. Someone named Peeves told us the Headmaster’s office was in the third-floor corridor.”
“I KNEW IT! I knew it had to be Peeves’s fault! I’ll get him this time!” Filch ran out of Dumbledore’s office in search of Peeves.
“We didn’t know that corridor was forbidden. We’re really sorry,” Keyblade said.
“Can we still enroll at Hogwarts?” Shade asked hopefully.
Dumbledore considered what they had said. Something didn’t seem quite right… He decided he would just have to keep a close eye on this odd group of new students. He picked up the Sorting Hat and handed it to Lloyd.
“HUFFLEPUFF!” the hat yelled after a moment. Colette had the next turn and was also sorted into Hufflepuff. Then Genis, Ed, and Al were sent to Ravenclaw.
Tas put on the Sorting Hat. “Wow! This hat’s talking to me! This is amazing! I’ve never met a talking hat before! I wonder if Flint will believe me when I tell him about it?”
“Shut up! You’re in Gryffindor!” the hat snapped at the chatty kender.
Keyblade excitedly took the hat from Tas, who had tried unsuccessfully to sneak it into one of his pouches. “Hmmm… GRYFFINDOR!” the hat shouted.
“My turn!” Shade snatched the Sorting Hat from Keyblade. The Hat paused to think for a moment, then yelled, “SLYTHERIN!”
“Haha! You’re in Slytherin! You’re evil, Shade!” Bookworm laughed.
“So? I asked the hat to send me here. Slytherin is great!” Shade said, not at all bothered that she was in the most notorious house in Hogwarts.
“My turn now!” Bookworm said, jumping up and down in excitement. She tried on the hat and mentally argued with it for a few moments. Finally, it announced, “GRYFFINDOR!”
“YES!!! I’m in the same house as Harry, Ron, and Hermione! Come on, Keyblade! Let’s go find the Common Room!” Bookworm was so happy, she forgot she was angry at Keyblade.
“Hey Bookworm! Don’t forget Tas is in Gryffindor too! Have fun babysitting the kender!” Shade said with evil grin. But by this time, Bookworm had already run out of Dumbledore’s office, leaving both Keyblade and Tas behind.
Dumbledore stared after her. “How does she expect to enter the Common Room? She didn’t stay long enough to get the password.”
“Don’t worry. She’ll probably stop at the library first anyway. I’ll find her and tell her the password,” Keyblade said.
Dumbledore told everyone their passwords and directions to their Common Rooms. They left his office and headed for the Common Rooms. Keyblade and Tas stopped in the library first. Bookworm already had a pile of books and was trying to figure out how many she could carry back to the Common Room without collapsing from the weight. Finally, she decided to just take the risk and bring them all. On the way out of the library, a few books flew out of Tas’s pouch and starting pounding him on the head. He thought this was the greatest thing that had ever happened to him, but Bookworm and Keyblade managed to stop him before he could steal more library books. They walked to the portrait of the Fat Lady, told her the password, and entered the Gryffindor Common Room.

Spells, Spears, and Snape

“So now what do we do?” Keyblade asked. “Are we just going to wait here for Filch to catch us?”
“Yeah, I think so,” Bookworm nodded. She had just used all the Symphonians’ Life Bottles and Apple Gels to recover from her horrifying experience in the Mirror of Erised.
“I’m bored!” Tas announced. This was an absolutely terrifying thing to hear from a kender, but there wasn’t much anyone to do about it.
Suddenly, the wall exploded! Three enormous dog heads appeared through the giant hole. Everyone started running around screaming. Fluffy watched all the noisy little people run. He hadn’t gotten to eat the intruders earlier and was feeling very hungry.
“No Fluffy! Bad dog! Don’t eat my friends!” Colette ran to try and stop Fluffy. The giant dog ignored her. A large glob of drool fell from his mouth and landed on Tas’s head.
“Wow! This is great! I’ve never been drooled on by a three-headed dog before! I can’t wait to tell Flint about being eaten by a three-headed dog! Do you think it really will eat us?” Tas asked excitedly.
“Not if I can help it!” Shade said. She stopped running around screaming and recited a spell that she hoped would prevent Fluffy from eating them. Unfortunately, the spell did not work the way Shade hoped. As a powerful magical creature, Fluffy naturally had an immunity to some spells. Shade’s spell bounced off him and shot off in all directions around the room. It hit Shade, Bookworm, Keyblade, Ed, Al, Lloyd, Genis, Tas, and Colette. Instantly, they all grew a lot younger.
“WHAT DID YOU DO?” Bookworm screamed. From inside the Mirror of Erised, her reflection fell over laughing.
“Oops… sorry,” Shade said. “That spell was supposed to turn Fluffy into a little puppy.”
“So now it made us younger instead?!” Keyblade complained.
“Yeah, I think we’re all about eleven now,” Shade said.
“Waah! Now we’re short!” Bookworm whined.
“Hey! I don’t think Ed got shorter… but he does look younger,” Keyblade said. “Does this mean Ed hasn’t grown at all since he was eleven?”
“No! There must have been something wrong with that spell!” Ed said, alchemifying a spear to kill Shade.
“What is going on here?” demanded Snape. He walked through the large hole Fluffy had made in the wall, followed by Filch and Hagrid. They stared at the group of crazy eleven-year-olds trying to kill each other. Mrs. Norris meowed loudly. Fluffy drooled on little Tas’s head again. Filch went to Mrs. Norris to congratulate her for catching all the rule-breaking students. Hagrid fed Fluffy some large dog biscuits. Snape snatched the spear from Ed, who was still trying to stab Shade.
“I love your doggie, Mr. Hagrid,” Colette said, patting Fluffy. “I knew he’d be able to bring us to Lloyd and my friends.”
Snape glared at everyone. “Using dangerous Muggle weapons in the forbidden part of the school… I think you can all expect expulsions and many points taken from Gryffindor,” he said with an unpleasant smirk.
Filch laughed. “Pesky students! They think they can get away with their stupid little pranks! I’ll bet you all thought it was really funny to sneak into the forbidden corridor… If I had my way, you’d all be whipped while hanging from your ankles in the dungeons!” A huge grin spread across his face at the thought of it. An equally large grin spread across Tas’s face. He had never been hung from his ankles in a dungeon before! What an interesting experience!
“No! You can’t torture us! And you can’t expel us either! We aren’t students here!” Bookworm protested. Tas stared at her in disappointment.
“Not students? What do you mean by that?” Snape glared at them. Ed decided this would be a good time to snatch his spear back from Snape. It might have worked if he hadn’t tried to fight Snape and stab Shade at the same time. Shade easily moved out of his reach. She recited a spell that made Snape, Filch, Hagrid, and Mrs. Norris freeze momentarily.
“What did you do now?” Bookworm asked. She had had enough of Shade’s spells.
“It was a powerful memory spell. They were getting too suspicious of us. Now maybe they’ll listen to our excuses,” Shade explained, dodging Ed, who had now successfully gotten the spear away from Snape.
Keyblade hit him with her alchemified keyblade and took the spear. “Can’t you wait to kill Shade until later? If you keep doing this, we’ll just get in more trouble with Snape.”
Ed muttered something like “you’re expelled… not my apprentice… probably taller than me anyway…”
“Don’t worry, Keyblade. Big Brother doesn’t really mean that. But I don’t think you need any more training anyway. Congratulations! You’ve passed your alchemy training!” Al said.
Keyblade got really excited at this news. “YES!!! I rock!” She said, jumping up and accidentally hitting Shade with the keyblade and Bookworm with the spear.
When Snape and the others finally recovered, they were completely confused. They could not remember what was going on. For some reason, they were in a forbidden room where two first-years were trying to kill another, very excited, one. This made no sense whatsoever. Snape realized they were obviously breaking school rules and were probably Gryffindors. That was more than enough reason to try to get them the strictest punishment possible. “Stop! All of you, come with me! You’re going to explain this to the Headmaster!” Snape smirked unpleasantly at them, but no one really noticed because they were too busy trying to kill each other.