Archive of Five Words Stories

Potteraholic Mon Aug 01, 2011 2:43 pm

These stats were first posted by Potteraholic - May 18, 2008 7:29 am (#1036 of 2994) on the World Crossing home of the 'Harry Potter Lexicon Forum'.

Statistics for Story 75
ordered by first contribution to the story

User	# of Submissions
Phoenixfeather	27
Puck	62
Potteraholic	94
Verity Weasley	66
freshwater	17
Anna L. Black	23
Swedish Short-Snout	9
PatPat	15
Snuffles	9

The user in red is the rightful starter of the next story. They are welcome to pass on the privilege to the user who posted the second most number of times, who may in turn pass it to the user who posted the third number of times in the story, and so forth.

Total Submissions: 322
Total Words: 1610
Last Submission Date: #1031, May 18, 2008, 12:10 A.M. (Puck)
Total Time to Create Story: 10 days, 6 hours, 43 minutes.

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Potteraholic Mon Aug 01, 2011 2:46 pm

This story was first posted by Potteraholic - May 30, 2008 12:55 am (#1504 of 2994) on the World Crossing home of the 'Harry Potter Lexicon Forum'.

Potty Five Words: "Dumbledore’s Army: Alive and Kicking"

Neville put down his paintbrush. He was painting the Muggle way. So he wouldn't attract attention, he stayed in the shadows, listening intently for any news about Harry. The common room was quiet and subdued. Ginny, Seamus, and Luna were in a huddle by the fireplace, reading the latest copy of the Daily Prophet. It was a well-known fact that the Prophet was a lying piece of rubbish, not worth the parchment it was printed on. But sometimes it was informative. For instance, last week it reported that the Ministry had started reforms intended to limit the number of Half-blood wizards who could work in the Ministry.

That could only mean, thought Neville, that the Ministry is determined to force people like Tonks out of work. They see her as a threat. "There's a threat to our freedom that grows every day!" said Neville angrily. The other Gryffindors turned to look at him.

"What do you mean? What are you on about?" asked Ginny, a look of confusion on her face.

"I'm just thinking about the Ministry's latest insane reforms," muttered Neville. "How much more can people put up with? It's awful! There's nothing wrong with half-bloods!"

"You're preaching to the wrong people, Neville," advised Seamus. "Remember, I'm one of the half-bloods they're after."

"Agreed," said Ginny. "We've got to get the message out to You-Know-Who's followers that Hogwarts still supports Dumbledore's ideals of tolerance."

"That's why you're painting those banners, isn't it?!" said Seamus.

Luna walked over to have a look. "They're very nice, but I think you should finish them off using magic. Then you can make them faster. And the message, 'Dumbledore's Army: United Against Pureblood Prejudices' in flashing text would make them look even more spectacular."

Seamus smirked, "I think they'll do fine just as they are. Want some help hanging—"

"Seamus, wait," Ginny interrupted, "Luna's idea was really good! I think the banners should stand right in the Entrance Hall. They'll make quite an impact."

Neville regarded his friends warmly. "Great ideas everyone! Let's get working!" An hour later they had made twelve banners. "I think we should put anti-trace charms on them so we don't get caught. Snape won't let it go unpunished." After they had decided where to hang each banner, three teams snuck out into the corridors. The banners were stowed under their robes as they crept stealthily downstairs. The Patil sisters were lookouts, making sure that Filch wasn't lurking nearby. Neville led the way, keeping an eye on everyone.

He was eager to protect them all and was grateful that Parvati volunteered to lead one of the teams. She had asked Padma to perform a tricky Disillusionment spell to hide the banners.

"Until breakfast," Padma had explained, "then they'll be visible to everyone walking by."

"Okay, great!", Neville had exclaimed. Padma joining in, along with Parvati, had reinforced Neville's resolve by meeting's end.

The Gryffindors scuttled back to their common room because approaching footsteps told them that the night patrol had begun their rounds. Luna and Padma headed back to their tower.

"Now what?" asked Ginny.

Now we wait here," Neville whispered, standing outside the Fat Lady's portrait. The door swung open and they scrambled inside. Neville turned to Ginny and said, "Let's try again. I wish we had Harry's cloak. We still have one banner to hang. Let's put it outside the Headmaster's office."

Twenty minutes later, they were approaching the gargoyle at the base of the office's hidden staircase. The corridors hummed with menace. "We've got to hurry," Ginny said, as they quickly unfurled the banner, levitated it, and secured it in position above them. They turned to leave but the sound of voices stopped them in their tracks.

"Quickly, in here," whispered Neville, ushering them into an empty room nearby. Snape was talking quietly to Madam Pomfrey. He was asking about an injury of a Hufflepuff student that had been whipped by Filch.

"It's disgraceful! Abominable! I can't believe the students in this school," Madame Pomfrey fumed, "are being treated this way!"

"I'll speak to Filch in the morning, tell him not to strike them so... enthusiastically," Snape replied.

"Now, good night." He turned, faced the gargoyle, and murmured the password, pure-blood. The gargoyle leapt aside and the revolving staircase swept Snape out of sight.

"Neville, did you hear that?” Ginny asked excitedly. "How lucky are we?" she continued.

"What do you mean?" asked Neville. "Oh, wait, I think I see. We now know the password, so we can get into Snape's office whenever we like!"

"Exactly!" agreed Ginny. "We could get the sword for Harry. You know, the one Dumbledore left him in his will? Remember how he used it to save me from the Basilisk?"

Neville nodded. Ginny had been outraged to hear it was in Snape's office. "It's Harry's sword! How dare he keep it?! That traitor's got no right. It belongs to Harry!" she said adamantly.

"You sound just like me earlier," smiled Neville. "Snape's not on my list of favorite people either. It would please me to no end to show him that Dumbledore's Army is stronger than ever! This will take planning and teamwork. Let's go talk to the others." Listening intently for footsteps or voices, they crept quietly back out into the corridor.

Back in Gryffindor common room, Ginny said, "So we can get the sword back, you see? But we'll need your help." Seamus nodded eagerly, and Parvati looked enthusiastic.

"When do you want to do it?" asked Seamus.

Ginny thought for a moment, then said, "How about during breakfast? Everyone will be distracted by all the flashing banners, right? Snape will be downstairs trying to remove them."

"Then, while he's out of the way," said Neville, "we can enter his office, grab the sword, find a place to hide it, and go down to the Entrance Hall and act cool."

Seamus chuckled. "That's all? You make it sound so easy. What if there are other enchantments protecting the office?"

"And those two Carrows?" Parvati added. "If they catch us, it'll be the Cruciatus Curse for sure. I can just imagine how Snape would react."

Neville looked at the faces of his friends as Parvati finished speaking and said earnestly, "Listen, I'll completely understand if anyone would rather remain here—"

"Don't you mean the Great Hall?" interrupted Ginny.

Before Neville could respond, Seamus said, "Everyone will think it was us if we don't show up."

Neville shook his head. "The banners should distract everyone long enough for us to get out in time.”

Parvati suggested they split into two groups. Neville and Ginny would get Luna using Hermione's fake galleons. They were sure she would remember that their designated meeting place was now the hospital wing. Seamus and Parvati would keep Snape and the Carrows busy while the others would be sneaking into Snape's office.

"I wish we had a box of Fred and George's fireworks," Ginny commented. "Then we'd be guaranteed some uncontrolled mayhem."

"Well the banners will create some commotion, but I do happen to have some Wildfire Whiz-bangs, Ginny!" Seamus said eagerly.

"Great! That should give us enough of a diversion to make our absence go undetected," Ginny said. "We'd better get some sleep if we want to do our best tomorrow."

The next morning, as students walked into the Great Hall, there was a rustle of excitement in the air. Everyone was looking at the banners. "OUCH!" snapped Pansy Parkinson as a first-year Hufflepuff trod on her foot. "Watch where you're going, idiot!" snarled Pansy. The kid ran off looking scared. The banners flashed their message repeatedly, and caught the attention of the teachers and the staff. Professor McGonagall and Madam Pince appealed for calm as the students became more animated and the Carrows began to shoot stunning spells at random.

"Protego!" Professor McGonagall yelled left, waving her wand. Alecto's spell bounced off the students. Madam Pince ducked just in time. Amycus wasn't quick enough, however. He got hit in the stomach. "HOW DARE YOU HARM THE STUDENTS!" yelled McGonagall, her eyes flashing dangerously as she bore down on them.

"They broke the rules!" Alecto snapped. "They should be punished for their offenses."

Seamus and Parvati were watching the staff table, trying to locate their Headmaster. His seat was ominously empty. "Maybe we should go warn the others," suggested Parvati, looking nervous.

"I think we should wait," Seamus responded. "It might look suspicious if we leave now." Lavender nodded, looking nervous. Suddenly a loud bang erupted around the hall. Snape had entered just as McGonagall sent a door-closing spell behind him.

"What is going on here?" Snape asked angrily. "Who's responsible for these things?"

A silence immediately fell over the Hall. Snape's dark eyes swept around the frightened students, and lingered momentarily on Seamus and Parvati. They tried not to look too concerned and gazed up at the banners, feigning disbelief.

Minutes earlier, Neville and Ginny had entered the hospital wing. They were relieved to see that it was empty, except for Luna. "That's good," said Neville. He and Ginny quickly went over the plan with Luna, before the three headed off to Snape's office.

The gargoyle obligingly slid aside when Ginny said the password. The trio silently glided up the steps. They stood in front of the door, their hearts hammering loudly. "Ready?" Ginny asked, reaching for the handle and turning it. The door swung open. They walked in cautiously, looking around. Ginny spotted the sword and headed straight for it.

Neville wandered over to Dumbledore's portrait, staring at it. "Do you think we should try and wake him? He may be helpful."

Luna gazed dreamily at the portrait. "He is obliged to serve the current Headmaster. All of them are," she answered.

"Who are you?" demanded a dark-haired wizard from one of the portraits. They turned to looked, startled.

"We are here on Professor Snape's orders," Ginny replied.

"Headmaster Snape," said the dark-haired wizard quietly, "would never send students here alone. He is not stupid. He's a Slytherin, after all," drawled Phineas Nigellus, eyeing them disdainfully.

"Let's get the sword and go," said Ginny. "We shouldn't waste time talking to him." She walked towards the glass case which contained the gleaming sword. She looked for a latch to open it. There was nothing. "How do I get this thing out?" she asked the others.

"Try Alohamora," said Neville. "That's what Hermione would do."

"Or we could perhaps smash the case," Luna added serenely.

“Smash it!" Phineas exclaimed. "What gives you the right even to touch a school treasure?! Only the Headmaster may open that cabinet. This is theft!" Phineas Nigellus looked outraged as Ginny proceeded to point her wand at the case and smash it. There was a loud bang.

Downstairs, loud bangs were emanating from the Great Hall as well. Seamus and Parvati had set off fireworks in desperation after Snape had questioned them about their friends' whereabouts. They knew that he didn't believe them and figured that they had to stop him from leaving. Giant fiery dragons were chasing Alecto Carrow around the hall. Amycus was trying to help her, but he was unsuccessful. Snape was silently staring at the banners. He realized that Ginny Weasley was nowhere to be seen, or Neville, or Luna.

"They are up to something,” he muttered, and swept out of the Hall.

The glass case was shattered. The sword was glittering brightly as Ginny bent to pick it up. "Okay, got it! Let's get out of here!" Ginny called out behind her. The three ran towards the door but the next moment, they could hear footsteps ascending the spiral staircase. Phineas Nigellus laughed maliciously while a wary Snape approached the trio. They tried to hide the sword but the pieces of broken glass told Snape everything.

"Give me that sword," he demanded angrily.

"It's not your property!" Ginny blurted out boldly.

Snape looked at her for a moment before speaking. "The sword belongs to Hogwarts as you should know perfectly well, given the fact that it was used to save you, Miss Weasley.” Snape's eyes darkened angrily.

The students returned the stare. "If Dumbledore left it to Harry, then it is Harry's," said Neville confidently.

"Quiet!" demanded Snape. "The Ministry has decided that the sword should remain in the school, and so, give it to me! Now!" He pointed his wand at the sword. "Expelliarmus!" Snape shouted and the sword flew across the office towards Dumbledore's portrait. But Snape quickly intercepted it, shouting, "Accio sword!" The sword fell neatly into his hand. Snape turned towards the trio.

"What's goin' on 'ere then?" Amycus asked. He'd followed the Headmaster to his office and come upstairs unnoticed. Snape swiftly hid the sword under his cloak. Amycus didn't notice anything. "You caught the trouble-makers then, Headmaster?" asked Amycus.

But Snape, staring at the trio intently, ignored him. "You three will get detention for this," he explained. "For this grave transgression, you must go into the Forbidden Forest and help Hagrid for as long as he needs you."

Amycus sneered. "That place is no picnic, but surely the Cruciatus Curse would be a better punishment."

"No, Amycus, I'll decide what's best, but I do appreciate your concern. As Headmaster, I have the last word, however." Snape turned to address Neville, Ginny, and Luna. "Classes start in five minutes. Don't be late. Now get out of my office. Goodbye, Amycus." The three students turned and fled quickly down the stairs. They didn't stop until they had reached the third floor.

"Detention with Hagrid?!" a gobsmacked Neville exclaimed. "How did we get away so easily?"

Ginny shrugged. "I don't know. It is strange."

Now Luna spoke. "Well, my father thinks Professor Snape is following Dumbledore's secret instructions encoded in song from Celestina Warbeck." She smiled and Ginny and Neville nodded in bemused agreement.

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Potteraholic Mon Aug 01, 2011 2:48 pm

These stats were first posted by Potteraholic - May 30, 2008 12:59 am (#1506 of 2994) on the World Crossing home of the 'Harry Potter Lexicon Forum'.

Statistics for Story 76
ordered by first contribution to the story

User	# of Submissions
Verity Weasley	85
Potteraholic	158
Puck	52
azi	59
Anna L. Black	20
Swedish Short-Snout	8
freshwater	21
geauxtigers	15
Julia H.	43
Orion	1

The user in red is the rightful starter of the next story. They are welcome to pass on the privilege to the user who posted the second most number of times, who may in turn pass it to the user who posted the third number of times in the story, and so forth.

Total Submissions: 462
Total Words: 2310
Last Submission Date: #1499, May 29, 2008, 10:21 A.M. (Potteraholic)
Total Time to Create Story: 11 days, 1 hour, 37 minutes.

* Five Words – Volume 7 Index *

* Five Words - Volumes Index *

* Five Words - Main Archives *

* Five Words - Stories Index (by topic) *

Potteraholic Mon Aug 01, 2011 9:03 pm

This story was first posted by Potteraholic - Jun 6, 2008 9:33 pm (#1934 of 2994) on the World Crossing home of the 'Harry Potter Lexicon Forum'.

Potty Five Words: "Minerva's Mistake, A Lesson Learned"

Minerva's fourteenth birthday was approaching. She was planning to spend the day, a Sunday, practicing charms. Her teacher had set an exam for next week and she was determined to get an Outstanding on it. Minerva even planned to skip Quidditch practice, where she was a Chaser. She did not expect practice to go ahead anyway. It had been raining for two weeks nonstop and the weather was unusually gloomy.

"I wish this rain would stop," said a voice behind her. "I want to go flying, and at this rate," whined Augusta, "I won't be able to practice until Spring." Minerva looked out at the darkened sky. It reminded her of the potion she had made in class on Friday. It was supposed to be blue but instead it turned a sludgy dark grey exactly like the sky was now. Sighing, Augusta slumped into the chair and said, "Minnie, your birthday is coming up. Are you going to just sit here? I think you should have a party! Algie knows how to get hold of some butterbeers. Maybe we could—"

"No, don't bother. I would rather study for Charms," Minerva stated flatly.

Augusta rolled her eyes. "Charms is easy," she declared. "I never study." A noise made them look up. They were surprised to see a handsome eagle owl, pecking at the window, a large silhouette against the sky.

"What's that owl carrying in its beak?" asked Augusta. Minerva approached the window and opened it. The owl hopped onto the window ledge and waited patiently for Minerva to remove the small leather pouch that was hanging securely from its beak. She opened the letter and smiled. It was from her mother. Writing tiny letters was her signature style. Dad always sent voluminous scrolls tied with tartan ribbons, but this one had a neat little bow. Minerva put the letter aside. Inside the pouch was a small silver hourglass.

"Wow," whispered Augusta. "That's beautiful. What does it do? What does the letter say?"

"It's from my Mum. I wonder where she got this? These things are very rare," Minerva pondered.

"Is that what you wanted for your birthday?" Augusta asked. She absent-mindedly offered the owl some of her pumpkin juice. "Well, if it is, you're lucky!" she continued. Minerva wasn't listening. She was writing a thank-you letter to her mother on a piece of personalized parchment. She finished it quickly, then attached it to the patient owl sitting quietly on Minerva's table. "Here, have some owl treats," she said softly. When the treats had been eaten, the owl left.

"You haven't told what that thing is yet," said Augusta. "I've never seen anything like it before." She reached out to touch it, but Minerva pulled it away. Augusta, sulking, stormed off towards the portrait hole of the Gryffindor common room.

"Wait! Don't get upset! It's just a family heirloom. I didn't mean to be selfish," called Minerva. Augusta's curiosity got the better of her, so she slowly returned. Minerva held out the delicate hourglass for her friend to see. "It's a special kind of hourglass. My great-grandmother got this when she was in Paris, on her honeymoon. It's a time-turner."

Augusta looked at Minnie in disbelief. She reached out to touch it. This time, Minerva allowed her friend to hold the delicate, yet powerful, object. "How does it work?" Augusta asked.

"It's got to be worn around the neck," Minerva began, displaying the chain. "Then, you turn it back to go back one hour in time." Augusta's eyes widened with excitement. "You mean, you can relive your life?" she asked excitedly.

"Well, sort of," Minerva replied. "But you've got to be very careful how you use it, because you can change things for the worse easily."

"Hang on, you said, 'I wonder where she got this', but then you said it's an heirloom of your great-grandmother's!"

"Oh, right. You see, my aunt had it and my mother couldn't convince her to give it up. She doesn't have any children of her own and Mum wondered what would happen to it after she died. She thought it was lost or had been hidden somewhere. Her note didn't explain." She shrugged and put on the necklace. "Want a demonstration?" Minerva asked.

"Yes, of course!" exclaimed Augusta.

Minerva put the chain over Augusta's head. "Listen, it's really important that we stay hidden when we go back in time. If we see ourselves, we run the risk of going mad or worse! My aunt came very, very close to that once."

"Understood! Let's go!" Augusta said.

"Is there anything we would like to see again, Auggie?" In reply, Augusta took hold of the hourglass and turned it over twice. Minerva gasped but it was too late and the room dissolved in a whirl of color. The pair landed in the library. "Come! Behind those shelves! Quickly!" Augusta and Minerva dashed over to a dark corner nearby. "We are over there!" whispered Minerva, pointing to a row of desks not far from where they stood. They also saw Walburga Black, sitting with a curious-looking book on her desk. Some other Slytherins were hovering around her. Minerva stood on tiptoe looking around cautiously, peering through the shelves to get a better view of Walburga.

"What are you two doing, playing hide-and-seek?" called Madam Parch, the librarian.

"Sorry," they whispered in unison, but she proceeded to usher them out of the corner and to the door at the far end of the room. The girls quickly pulled their robes up around their necks as they followed behind Madam Parch. Out of the corner of her eye, Minerva saw that her earlier library self was getting up to find another Charms book. Reaching out quickly, she pulled a book off a shelf, but Augusta pushed her behind another shelf. Minerva opened the book to hide her face and nudged Augusta, pointing to the title of a chapter called 'Hex-Deflection'.

"You two! What are you doing again?" Madam Parch demanded, shooing them out from behind the shelves. Trying to avoid attracting attention, they managed to get past their other selves and into the corridor.

"That was close!"

"Minerva!" They heard Walburga shouting behind them. They looked at each other in alarm. Walburga was staring at them with undisguised shock and confusion. Her eyes slid from the pair in the corridor to the pair at the next table.

Augusta grabbed Minerva by the arm and yelled "Polyjuice Potion!" Before Walburga's astonished gaze, they turned, and quickly walked away.

Two floors above, they found an empty classroom. "Imagine what would have happened if we had been seen by a teacher? We're lucky that Madam Parch has the I.Q. of a cow, and didn't notice our other selves," Minerva said. "That idea of Polyjuice Potion," she continued, "please explain how it'll help. You know Walburga will see our other selves and tell Madam Parch."

"Yes, and they'll think we used Polyjuice Potion, figuring some other kids are impersonating us, so then—"

"Auggie, my head's spinning! We're going to the dormitory and staying there," Minerva said. "It's just too dangerous!" She was absolutely horrified.

Augusta looked disappointed. "But we got away with it, didn't we, Minnie?"

"That's not the point, Auggie!" Minerva couldn't believe how reckless Augusta was being. Suddenly, they heard voices from the corridor.

"... has clearly gone mad. What nonsense she was talking! I..." Two Ravenclaws, Miranda Goshawk and Carlotta Pinkstone, were walking past Minerva and Augusta's hiding place, chatting loudly as they walked. The panic-stricken girls, hiding in trepidation, listened to this passing conversation in silence. Finally, the pair had a better sense of what was going on.
"Did you hear that? Miranda said Walburga's gone crazy!" Augusta smiled.

"It's not funny, Auggie. This is why my aunt probably hid this thing from my mother. Messing with time's dangerous." She paused. "Carlotta said that Madam Parch threw us out after Walberga stormed up and started ranting and raving."

"But she made you return that book first. That's funny!" Augusta giggled despite the stern look Minerva was giving her.

"How are we going to get back without being seen?" Minerva said.

"Don't worry," Augusta reassured her. "If we don't run into ourselves, everything will be just fine!"

Two more sets of footsteps attracted their attention suddenly. Minerva and Augusta drew closer to the room where the other Minerva and Augusta, the future pair, were listening eagerly to the noises in the corridor. They held their breath and listened.

"What was that?" said the Augusta outside the room.

"I have no idea. Now, hurry," library Minerva said nervously. She looked around, worried that Madam Parch might've said something to Professor Dumbledore. "Suppose Professor Dumbledore hears about this madness. We can't even explain it ourselves! There we were, quietly studying, and next thing we know, Walburga, that cow started to go on..." Her voice faded as the pair walked down the hallway.

"Nice language, Minnie," future Augusta said, looking rather amused. Minerva smiled sheepishly and shrugged. "We should really get back, shouldn't we Minnie?"

"Yes, we've had enough excitement for one day." They moved furtively along the corridor back towards the staircase. Professor Dumbledore's sudden appearance startled the pair, who quickly tried to appear nonchalant.

He gave them a curious glance. "Why, Miss Featherstone and Miss McGonagall, how fortuitous that I should meet you, again, so soon." His eyes lingered on Minerva's time-turner, dangling from the chain around her neck. "I heard the most astonishing anecdote involving the two of you," Dumbledore declared, "whose veracity seems almost improbable." He smiled at them. "I would have thought, Miss McGonagall, that your understanding of the potential consequences of your family's very powerful heirloom, would warrant a little more caution on your part."

Minerva blushed. She hesitated for a second, then stammered an apology. Dumbledore seemed to understand the predicament and waved the apology aside. "No lasting harm has been done yet. However, you may want to limit your use of your time-turner in the future."

Minerva nodded in agreement. Now, if I only knew where the other me is at the moment, I—

Augusta interrupted Minerva's thoughts with a poke to the ribs. "Minnie, maybe Professor Dumbledore can tell us how to get back to normal, with just a simple spell."

"I'm afraid there is no such spell. The way to rectify this is to return to the place from where your journey began," Dumbledore stated with an encouraging smile. "Return just after your other selves depart."

Minerva heard this news with dismay. There were still forty minutes left before their past selves would disappear. What would they do until then and where could they go?

Professor Dumbledore seemed to sense that they needed additional advice, more practical in nature. "Why don't two wait with me for a while until you can return. How much more time do you have to wait?" he asked. When he heard how long it would be, he nodded. "Splendid! We'll chat over tea and hot buttered rolls." He led them down some stairs to his office. A house-elf delivered a tray of refreshments after the girls were comfortably seated. Dumbledore hummed contentedly as they ate, staring affectionately at Fawkes. Minerva felt ill at ease, but Augusta was thoroughly enjoying Dumbledore's story about the Animagus who did incredible aerial stunts.

"It's time to go," Minerva stated, standing suddenly. "Sorry, Professor, for interrupting your story," she apologized nervously. "But we only have ten minutes to get back."

"No apology needed," he replied. "Timeliness is a valued trait, Miss McGonagall. Now, Lachlan the Lanky may provide a convenient vantage point to witness the departure of your fellow Gryffindors." They nodded gratefully and left. The pair sprinted upstairs to the seventh floor. They rushed to the statue near the Fat Lady's portrait and hid behind it. While waiting to time their entrance into the common room, Augusta remembered that she had seen Algie lurking there, by the door, just before they left. A few minutes later, they saw him climb out of the portrait hole.

"Psst! Minnie," whispered Augusta. "Algie's just left. That means that our past selves are just about to disappear. We should head back in now." The girls emerged from their hideaway and scurried over to the portrait hole. After gaining entry, they ducked behind the wing-backed armchairs by the back without making a sound. Peering cautiously over the chairs, they saw library Augusta turn over the time-turner. They watched their past selves disappear immediately.

With immense relief, Minerva sank to the floor, smiled, and said, "I am never doing that again."

"Agreed," sighed Augusta.

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Potteraholic Mon Aug 01, 2011 9:04 pm

These stats were first posted by Potteraholic - Jun 6, 2008 9:48 pm (#1936 of 2994) on the World Crossing home of the 'Harry Potter Lexicon Forum'.

Statistics for Story 77
ordered by first contribution to the story

User	# of Submissions
Potteraholic	147
azi	48
Verity Weasley	100
Julia H.	57
Puck	62
Anna L. Black	4
geauxtigers	3

The user in red is the rightful starter of the next story. They are welcome to pass on the privilege to the user who posted the second most number of times, who may in turn pass it to the user who posted the third number of times in the story, and so forth.

Total Submissions: 421
Total Words: 2105
Last Submission Date: #1932, June 6, 2008, 12:42 P.M. (Puck)
Total Time to Create Story: 7 days, 1 hour, 49 minutes.

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* Five Words - Main Archives *

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Potteraholic Mon Aug 01, 2011 9:06 pm

This story was first posted by Potteraholic - Jun 13, 2008 10:42 am (#2191 of 2994) on the World Crossing home of the 'Harry Potter Lexicon Forum'.

Potty Five Words: "Marauder Rescue"

Sirius pulled a small mirror out of his pocket, and held it up to his mouth. "James," he whispered, "can you see me? I need to talk to you." He was watching the mirror intently as a foggy image began to emerge. Black untidy hair and hazel eyes: Sirius Black's best mate was grinning at him from the mirror.

"What's up, Padfoot? Filch catch you out of bounds again?" James asked, grinning from ear to ear.

"Yeah," Sirius replied. "Filch said if he caught me anywhere near the Whomping Willow he would tie me up and whip me with a cactus."

James grinned in amusement. "Sounds like you got off lightly then! Filch once threatened to stop me from playing Quidditch by sitting me on a knarl for a couple of hours but Hagrid talked him out of it. Anyway, what are you doing in detention?"

Sirius' grin widened further. "I'm supposed to be cleaning Filch's chains without magic, but I'm using "Scourgify!" every time he looks away. He's an idiot." Sirius looked over his shoulder to check what Filch was up to, but he was nowhere in sight. Turning back to the mirror, he spoke again, more seriously this time. "Listen James, it's a full moon tonight and I would like to join in the fun you've got planned," Sirius said. "The problem is that I think Filch intends to keep me here all night. A little 'Marauder Rescue' would really help me out here!"

"One 'Marauder Rescue' coming right away!" said James with a smile on his face. Sirius smiled back and disappeared in a fuzzy blob in the mirror. James opened his trunk and removed his invisibility cloak. After checking in his pockets for his wand and getting Peter from the library, he went to the Great Hall to carry out his plan.

Taking a piece of parchment from his bag, James spread it out in front of him. Peter asked, "What are you doing? Homework?" James rolled his eyes.

"No Wormtail. I'm trying to draw a map which will show us where Filch is. That way, when we get Padfoot, we can see exactly where that old rat-face is."

"Hey!" yelled Peter. "What's wrong with rats?"

James smirked but did not say anything to placate his friend. He tapped the parchment with his wand. "Perhaps the 'Four-Point Spell' can be used to bring this map to life," James muttered. Peter watched with awe as tiny black lines snaked quickly across the page.

"Now to see where Filch is lurking. "Point Me Filch!" James whispered, prodding the map with his wand. Peter gasped. A black dot appeared momentarily on the parchment before fading away. James looked disappointed, and tried to perform the spell again. Concentrating even harder this time, he repeated the spell with his wand laying flat against the paper. It didn't do anything.

"Physical contact. A wand needs to have physical contact with the caster in order to work," Peter said firmly. He wasn't the best at magic himself, but he did understand that rudimentary principle.

"Homenum revelio!" whispered James, holding the wand, his face just inches away from the paper. This time, lots of black dots appeared in the Great Hall where they were.

Peter gazed at the map. "Wow, James! That could really come in handy!" exclaimed Peter. James looked surprised at his own handiwork.

"I couldn't have done it without you, Wormtail!" James admitted, clapping his friend on the back. "But I still can't see Filch on here," he frowned, thinking. "This is going to take some time. There are loads of rooms to get through. We need to put this map aside for now and concentrate on arranging the 'Marauder Rescue' I promised Sirius." He turned to watch Lily walking out of the Great Hall in front of them. He accidentally bumped into Peter as he got back to the task at hand.

Peter suggested that they use the invisibility cloak and head down to Filch's office. "Let's take some Dungbombs, too, he really hates those," Peter added. They left the Great Hall and found a secluded classroom – they had hidden some Dungbombs there, in a cupboard. Stashing them in their pockets, they headed towards Filch's office. A few minutes later, Peeves appeared.

"Perfect," whispered James. "We can leave the Dungbombs to him, and concentrate on getting Sirius out of detention." Peter nodded in agreement. They placed several bombs around Filch's office, in the hope that Peeves would see them and set them off. Hiding under the invisibility cloak, the boys crept closer to the door when suddenly some Slytherin fifth-years turned the corner. Peeves chose that moment to detonate the Dungbombs. Severus stopped dead in his tracks while the other Slytherins ducked behind a suit of armor.

"Who did that?" one of the Slytherins asked. Severus looked up and saw Peeves cackling maliciously just under the ceiling. Peeves' raucous laughter muffled the sounds of James and Peter chuckling under the invisibility cloak. As the stench seeped under James' cloak, Peter cast a Bubble-Head Charm to protect them. Just then, the familiar sound of Filch's running footsteps could be heard coming down the corridor, the caretaker sputtering the whole way. James barely suppressed another chuckle as Filch bumped into Severus, who stumbled and fell.

"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?" Filch roared. "Thought you'd set Dungbombs off in my office did you?" he continued, ignoring Severus' attempts to explain. He reached out and grabbed hold of him and one other Slytherin.

"It was Peeves!" they protested. "We had nothing to do with it!"

"A likely story! When the Headmaster hears about it, you will not get away with it so easily as blaming Peeves."

Filch's voice slowly died away as he dragged the two Slytherins down the hall and towards the staircase. The remaining boys scurried away quickly in the deserted, rank-smelling corridor. "All clear!" James said, elated. "Now we can get on with rescuing Sirius."

Peter looked confused, "How are we going to get him out of Filch's office?"

"Are you a wizard or not?" James scoffed. "Alohomora!" he stated with confidence, pointing his wand at the door. It sprang open immediately, exposing the musty closet that served as Filch's office.

Sirius jumped up at the sight of his two friends and said, laughing, "Well, you two took your time, didn't you? Can we please get out of here?” The three Marauders made a speedy exit and headed for the front door, concealed underneath the invisibility cloak. Once outside they made their way to the greenhouses where James stashed the cloak behind a Venomous Tentacula.

The three moved quickly toward the Whomping Willow, its branches tinged silver in the light of the full moon. As they approached, James nodded to Peter who transformed into a rat. He scurried between the swaying branches, his pointed nose twitching with excitement. He pressed his paw on the knothole at the base of the trunk and immediately immobilized the swinging limbs. Grinning at each other, Sirius and James were listening to muffled sounds of howling coming from the Shack. The sounds drew nearer. James and Sirius positioned themselves in the shadows and assumed their Animagus forms.

Moments later, Wormtail reappeared from the tunnel, with a large werewolf following closely behind. The four animals ran lightly towards the dark sanctuary of the Forbidden Forest. The moonlight welcomed them, illuminating their bouncing figures as the friends disappeared amongst the trees, wild and free.

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Potteraholic Mon Aug 01, 2011 9:07 pm

These stats were first posted by Potteraholic - Jun 13, 2008 10:49 am (#2192 of 2994) on the World Crossing home of the 'Harry Potter Lexicon Forum'.

Statistics for Story 78
ordered by first contribution to the story

User	# of Submissions
Verity Weasley	76
Anna L. Black	16
Julia H.	24
Puck	38
Potteraholic	57
azi	11
Swedish Short-Snout	5
Orion	2
PatPat	17
Tazzygirl	3

The user in red is the rightful starter of the next story. They are welcome to pass on the privilege to the user who posted the second most number of times, who may in turn pass it to the user who posted the third number of times in the story, and so forth.

Total Submissions: 249
Total Words: 1245
Last Submission Date: #2187, June 12, 2008, 1:03 P.M. (Julia H.)
Total Time to Create Story: 5 days, 13 hours, 50 minutes.

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Potteraholic Wed Aug 03, 2011 7:11 am

This story was first posted by Potteraholic - Jun 18, 2008 1:25 am (#2454 of 2994) on the World Crossing home of the 'Harry Potter Lexicon Forum'.

Potty Five Words: "Expecto Patronum!"

Severus needed a happy memory. It was time to learn something he could hardly wait to be able to use. The Patronus Charm! He had borrowed a purple leather-bound book from the library and now felt ready to attempt the casting of the spell. However, he was having trouble thinking of anything other than the time he had cursed James or memories of Lily, painful but also sweet. He focused on the last Lily memory before that terrible day when everything was lost. The day when they sat together on the grass under an oak tree on the grounds, studying for their next exam, seemed a lifetime ago.

But he remembered everything.

Lily was wearing a green ribbon in her long, red hair to keep it out of her eyes. Those green eyes were what Severus remembered more clearly than anything else. The green eyes that he had gazed into kept coming back in his mind. He concentrated on the moment when Lily looked up at him and smiled as she said, "Why are you in Slytherin? You are so different from them." He could recall exactly the way her eyes narrowed slightly in bewilderment. Instead of answering, he slowly took her hand in his. It was now or never. Lily did not move.

"Lily," he had said. "There's something... important... I would like to ask you. Would you... I..." He was beginning to feel more confident. Then a snitch appeared in the air nearby. Lily removed her hand as a crowd of giggling second-years arrived.

The lightning came so suddenly it took them all by surprise. Heavy rain started an instant later. Severus covered Lily with his cloak. They ran towards the greenhouses, laughing joyfully. The greenhouses were quite crowded. The NEWT students were absorbed in their delicate pruning of a Devil's Snare and took no notice of the pair. They sat talking for a quarter of an hour. The rain petered out when Lily remembered that Severus was wanting to ask her a question. "What was that you were going to ask me before, Sev?" she asked.

He cleared his throat and said, "Well, I just wondered if you'd go to The Three Broomsticks with me next Saturday." He waited anxiously for her answer.

"Oh, that sounds like fun, Sev.” His heart soared so he could say nothing in reply.

This memory served as his best hope to create a corporal patronus. However, he was only producing a silver-white cloud at the first try. He had a hunch that he wasn't concentrating hard enough because of what had happened the very next day.

He sighed. Let's try again. He concentrated hard on the happy memory and shouted, "Expecto patronum!" A silver jet swooped out, then faded.

"Concentrate," he told himself with determination. As he prepared once more, the dreaded task... if only he had happier memories and more time to learn. He needed a sherbet lemon badly, but he was determined to practice... if only he could forget his unhappy memories for a while, he would be able to cast a corporeal patronus. He knew he was being more and more desperate to succeed but that this strain from wanting an Order T-shirt was interfering with his concentration.

Perhaps a pensieve would help. If he could just siphon off his memories of James and leave the memories of Lily, perhaps he would be able to focus. The trouble was Dumbledore had lent his pensieve to Horace Slughorn, who was currently holidaying in Australia. What if he just closed his eyes and pictured Lily without thinking of any specific memory that might be strong enough. Maybe he could get better results if he tried to relax. Perhaps a walk in the forest would help. He was not afraid of long walks in the dark.

Severus carried a Muggle flashlight as well as his wand. He liked being prepared for both Muggle and Magical emergencies. Lily had taught him about Muggle technology. Thinking about it, he realized how ingenious non-magical folk could be. Allowing his instinct to lead him, he wandered through the forest, his cloak billowing after him as he went.

After a while, he realized he was lost. "Point Me!" he whispered, holding his wand lightly and waiting for it to set him in the right direction. A rustling in the trees caught his eyes. He turned his head quickly. A deer, the most beautiful he had ever seen, emerged from the shadows. Severus searched his pockets for something to feed it and found a few crumbs of toast. The deer, a doe, gingerly stepped forward to nibble the dry morsels. Her reddish-brown fur shone in the moonlight and reminded him of Lily's hair when they had walked together in the twilight a few years ago. The doe looked unusually tame.

"You must have been separated from your herd," he murmured as he cautiously tried to stroke the top of her head. He felt strangely drawn to the doe. Her trusting behavior made him feel like a favored guest and like someone who had found a kindred spirit.

All the crumbs were gone now but the doe remained, her deep brown eyes looking at Severus trustingly. "Go on, go back to your herd, where you belong. You won't gain anything by staying away from them," he said gloomily, "or by staying with me. I am not the sort who keeps friends for long." The doe almost seemed to understand him and licked his hand as if trying to console or reassure him. Then once again she looked up at his face. Severus felt the inexplicable urge to stroke her again. The doe blinked and Severus giggled uncontrollably. Then she turned and slowly walked away, stopping and turning once or twice before disappearing into the glimmering, starlit darkness. He felt more relaxed and decided to follow the graceful steps of the doe. She led him further and further into the forest. From far away she reminded him even more of Lily.

The forest looked strangely beautiful in the pale cool light. The trees were crowned with silver and white beams from the stars filtered through the leaves. Suddenly, he heard a strange noise and felt a chill seep into his bones. A dark figure circled above him. Without hesitation, he raised his wand. Lily's eyes flashed across his mind as he shouted, "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" A bright silver unicorn charged out of the wand and ran towards the Dementor at full gallop. The Dementor retreated at once and finally left. Stunned, Severus just couldn't believe his eyes. Was the beautiful creature before him his own creation, his corporeal patronus?

The unicorn returned to where he was standing, and Severus watched it with fascination. He reached out towards the beautiful, proud animal, but before he could touch it, it disappeared as mysteriously as it had arrived. He leaned against a tree. This walk will be one that I will always remember for as long as I live, Severus thought to himself. And it was all the better for remembering Lily's beautiful green eyes.

Slowly, Severus walked back out of the forest, a strange peace descending on his troubled soul. He had done it at last! The beautiful doe had given him the strength he needed. The path before him was a bit brighter. Perhaps one day he could be happy looking into a pair of deep, green, almond-shaped eyes again.

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Potteraholic Wed Aug 03, 2011 7:13 am

These stats were first posted by Potteraholic - Jun 18, 2008 1:39 am (#2455 of 2994) on the World Crossing home of the 'Harry Potter Lexicon Forum'.

Statistics for Story 79
ordered by first contribution to the story

User	# of Submissions
Julia H.	81
Potteraholic	43
azi	23
Orion	10
Puck	26
Anna L. Black	7
Verity Weasley	35
PeskyPixie	11
freshwater	7
PatPat	5

The user in red is the rightful starter of the next story. They are welcome to pass on the privilege to the user who posted the second most number of times, who may in turn pass it to the user who posted the third number of times in the story, and so forth.

Total Submissions: 248
Total Words: 1240
Last Submission Date: #2446, June 16, 2008, 1:50 P.M. (freshwater)
Total Time to Create Story: 2 days, 18 hours, 15 minutes

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Potteraholic Wed Aug 03, 2011 7:15 am

This story was first posted by Potteraholic - Jun 24, 2008 11:07 am (#2802 of 2994) on the World Crossing home of the 'Harry Potter Lexicon Forum'.

Potty Five Words: "Hungarian Rhapsody"

Charlie's first day in Hungary was not a quiet one. The Hungarian Ministry of Magic kept getting frantic reports of wild dragons loose around Budapest. Charlie, an expert on Hungarian Horntails, was put straight to work on dealing with the crisis. The original purpose of his trip had been to obtain a Hungarian Horntail for the purpose of studying its behavior. However, as soon as he heard about the situation, he knew he had to help his Hungarian colleagues. So he jumped on his broomstick and took off towards the hills around the city, where he thought the dragons would be.

Flying above the green landscape, he soon noticed something smoldering below. He slowly circled closer to have a better look. He was surprised to see a baby dragon and a young girl with sandy hair, holding a basket, who was apparently trying to offer it some cat food. The dragon, however, was more interested in the basket than the food, and was emitting fire while trying to snatch it from her. The girl looked no more than five years old and was taking some flowers to her Grandmother's house down the road. The flowers were bright orange and red and blue. She was tugging the basket out of the dragon's mouth. Charlie set down quietly a few steps away. Suspecting adult dragons might not be far away, he took out his wand and maintained constant vigilance.

Suddenly, a large, black dragon swooped out of the sky and landed next to them, weeping loudly. Charlie crept out and plucked the girl to safety just as the dragon sneezed. Watery dragon mucus sprayed everywhere, covering him with slime.

"Urgh!" exclaimed Charlie. "That’s disgusting! Why are you weeping?" he demanded of the dragon, not knowing what to expect in reply. The mighty beast shook its huge head as if it were trying to rid itself of some invisible and extremely irritating pest. Then it started to groan and Charlie had a sudden inspiration. He remembered that the Triwizard Tournament dragons had acted this way because their eggs had been in danger of being taken away. But even if this dragon did have an egg somewhere, why was it in danger? Charlie retreated because he didn't want to provoke the dragon.

Suddenly, a couple of Ministry wizards appeared on flying horses heading directly for Charlie and the dragon. The little girl shrieked and dropped her tin of cat food. The baby dragon moved instinctively towards her even as the adult dragon roared and moved closer to Charlie. Trying not to panic Charlie signaled to the Ministry wizards, one of whom, Botond, he'd first met seven years earlier when he'd been learning the art of dragon hypnotism. Botond flew down and landed beside Charlie, crouching low on the ground to avoid being knocked off-balance by the beating wings. He miscalculated, however, and tumbled head over heels down into the gloopy snot.

"Eugh! This stuff is disgusting!" Charlie fought the urge to laugh as he offered Botond his hand, which was taken gratefully. After they retreated a safe distance from the dragon's thrashing tail, Botond began to wave his wand and Scourgified the disgusting mess. Charlie moved cautiously closer to the dragon.

Just then, the little girl ran straight for the young dragon. "Wait, no!" Charlie shouted as he waved his arms frantically. "Accio girl!" The child flew through the air towards him, landing securely in his arms. The adult dragon lurched forward. The tip of its snout was just inches away from the basket of flowers. It stopped dead suddenly as a loud wailing came from the valley nearby. Everybody turned towards the sound, including the two dragons and Botond's flying horse.

The sound grew louder, causing the ground to tremble. Charlie turned to Botond. "We'd better take cover. That might be a good place." He pointed to a small stone cabin among the trees. He took a firm hold of the child and moved stealthily towards the cabin. Before they reached it, however, a mighty roar stopped them in their tracks. The little girl screamed. Charlie shielded her with his own body just as another Horntail zoomed overhead, it's flaming breath shooting ten feet out in front. It rushed angrily at them, spouting fire angrily as it flew downwards.

"Aguamenti!" yelled Charlie, sending a powerful blast of water to extinguish the flames. The cabin door flew open and a pretty young woman ran out. She grabbed the little girl and rushed back to the cabin, motioning Charlie and the other wizards to follow.

Once inside the small but cozy forest cabin, the young woman, Tünde, thanked the wizards and especially Charlie for protecting her daughter. "I'm so very grateful. You saved my daughter's life," she said in Hungarian.

"Sorry, I don't speak Hungarian," Charlie smiled at Tünde apologetically.

"Don't worry," she said, switching to English at once. "I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't found her. My husband left two years ago and—," she suddenly stopped and turned away from him, her eyes beginning to tear.

"Are you okay?" asked Charlie. The woman turned back and said, "Yes, I'm fine. My name is Tünde. Sorry about that," she added hastily. She had beautiful brown eyes. She smiled at him.

"My name is Charlie and these are my colleagues, Bendegúz, Botond and Zoltán."

"Sit down please. Make yourself at home. I was just preparing some lunch for Mariska, my daughter. Please say you'll stay? I have a freshly baked loaf of bread and a pot of strawberry jam." The four wizards seated themselves around a scrubbed, sturdy table while Mariska took some flowers from her basket and placed them in a vase upon it. Then she snuggled up next to her mother and stared at Charlie. Outside, the dragons started roaring again. Everyone jumped from their seats, wands at the ready. Tünde ran to the window and peered through it. Two adult Horntails were charging at each other. "I've never known them to come out so far before to this part of the forest."

"You two stay in here," Charlie said to Tünde and a frightened Mariska. He and the other wizards left the house, wands raised high and moving stealthily. Immediately, they saw the two Horntails circling and snorting flames high above them. Charlie looked around for the baby dragon and spotted it on the ground shooting fire and flapping its tiny wings. The two adult dragons looked agitated, as if frustrated.

Suddenly an idea occurred to Charlie. He pointed his wand at the baby dragon and began to murmur, "Wingardium Leviosa!" as it rose gently into the air like a big bird. It snorted in surprise and the next moment it was flapping its wings in excitement. The adult dragons made a fuss over the baby as it flew in a circle higher and higher, until, eventually, it reached the top of the female dragon’s head. She nuzzled it affectionately and it puffed contentedly next to her scaly wing. The two adult dragons flew alongside the small one in the direction of the valley.

"Great thinking, Charlie! But why were the adults fighting?" asked Botond. "Something must have confused them."

"Or maybe Dad lost the baby or didn't do what he was supposed to with the little one and Mum got a bit angry." Everyone smiled at Charlie's joke.

Botond offered to escort the dragons back. He'd hypnotize them and Disillusion them to prevent any more Muggle sightings. Charlie was ready to join them, but Tünde called out to him. Zoltán said, "Stay and have a nice visit," and winked. Charlie turned slightly pink and looked quizzically at the others. Botond smirked slightly as he flew away.

Bendegúz whispered, "I suggest a compliment about her child... every woman loves a compliment. The more sincere, the happier she'll be."

After the initial embarrassment wore off, Charlie settled at the table and looked into Tünde's serious brown eyes. He was trying to determine what to say to her, when she spoke suddenly in a soft voice. "Charlie, you were so fearless out there. I really can't thank you enough for protecting Mariska from those dragons. She does not understand how dangerous they can be."

Charlie tried to look modest. "Oh, that was a group effort. All of us—"

But Tünde shook her head. "No, I saw what you did. You were amazing with how you handled those dragons... and Mariska."

She looked over at her daughter who grinned at Charlie, shyly. "Mama, Charlie must be hungry," Mariska said, tugging at her new friend to move him closer to the food.

Charlie smiled at her. "I can tell that your Mum must be a very good cook," he said, remembering his friend's advice. "She must make all kinds of delicious pastries for your family."

"Oh, it's only Mama and me," Mariska said matter-of-factly. Papa hasn't been seen for two years. He—"

"No need to bother our guest with old stories," Tünde said briskly. Her flushed cheeks betrayed her embarrassment. She sighed. Then, holding her head high, she added, "He was English, Ludo Middlemarch was... is his name. ...Would you like a glass of wine, Charlie? I have some excellent elf-made wine from the Balaton hills, greatly valued by the local population."

"Thank you. ...Let's have a toast," Charlie said, raising his glass. "To Mariska, a brave little friend of dragons and dragon wranglers, and to Tünde, the prettiest and best cook in all of Hungary!" He winked at Mariska who beamed at him. Charlie cleared his throat. "Er... Tünde? Would you be interested in going to the Hungary vs. Bulgaria Quidditch match with me next week?" he asked casually, while twirling the stem of his wineglass.

Tünde looked surprised but also pleased. "I... I would love to go," she said, "but I don't know if I can. I'll need to ask my mother to look after Mariska while I am away."

Charlie smiled. Then he thought, That might be just the thing! I haven't been out in a long time! "Well, if you'd like to bring Mariska along, that would be fun!"

Tünde smiled, "Well, in that case, we accept, don't we, Mariska dear?" Mariska smiled, delighted.

"Then it's a date," Charlie replied, smiling just as widely.

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Potteraholic Wed Aug 03, 2011 7:16 am

These stats were first posted by Potteraholic - Jun 24, 2008 11:27 am (#2804 of 2994) on the World Crossing home of the 'Harry Potter Lexicon Forum'.

Statistics for Story 80
ordered by first contribution to the story

User	# of Submissions
Julia H.	62
Anna L. Black	9
Verity Weasley	50
Potteraholic	82
Puck	33
mona amon	15
Orion	5
PatPat	31
PeskyPixie	2
Swedish Short-Snout	1
freshwater	33
azi	20

The user in red is the rightful starter of the next story. They are welcome to pass on the privilege to the user who posted the second most number of times, who may in turn pass it to the user who posted the third number of times in the story, and so forth.

Total Submissions: 343
Total Words: 1715
Last Submission Date: #2800, June 24,2008, 2:40 A.M. (PatPat)
Total Time to Create Story: 5 days, 17 hours, 19 minutes

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Potteraholic Wed Aug 03, 2011 7:17 am

This story was first posted by Potteraholic - Jun 27, 2008 11:07 pm (#2986 of 2994) on the World Crossing home of the 'Harry Potter Lexicon Forum'.

Potty Five Words: "Lost and Found"

"Andromeda! Bellatrix! Narcissa! Clean your rooms — they are a disgrace!" their mother called from below.

The three looked at each other and simultaneously blurted, "You already told us, Mum!" They rolled their eyes and started laughing. Their mother was sometimes ridiculous. Since she did not let house-elves touch their clothes the girls had to tidy their wardrobes by themselves.

"I can't believe it," Narcissa grumbled, turning to Bellatrix, who looked equally annoyed. "Why does Mum want us to clean just our wardrobes? Our elf could do it all! We have better things to do."

Andromeda sighed, "Let's go and start! The quicker we start, the quicker we finish."

"Always sensible, aren't we, Anna?" sneered Bellatrix. Bellatrix enjoyed needling Andromeda every time she could. The girls began grabbing the robes scattered on the floor of each room.

If I used magic, I could finish it in minutes, Andromeda thought. She was weighing the pros and cons when she suddenly saw something outside fly past her window. Curious now, she stepped closer to see. It was Regulus, her cousin, waving at her looking very worried. She wondered what had happened and hurriedly went outside to talk to her sisters. They were both just as curious as Andromeda.

Regulus smiled unhappily at them when they went to the garden to speak to him. "What‘s wrong, Regulus?" asked Andromeda with a worried look on her face.

"Sirius put spiders on my bed. I hate when he does that!" he said almost crying. Andromeda smiled.

Narcissa was irritated. "You ran away from home to tell us that?! You're such a stupid little kid!" Regulus turned away, sniffing loudly. Bellatrix smirked and turned to leave.

"Wait!" Regulus said.

"Come in," Andromeda said, "and tell us everything."

"Oh, yes, do," scoffed Bellatrix.

"Let's hear him out," Narcissa insisted. "He might have something interesting to say."

Once inside, Regulus started to speak. "I borrowed Sirius' penknife, the one which can open any lock. I was only going to use it to get into the locked biscuit barrel in Auntie Druella's storeroom, last time I was here, but when I had managed to open it I lost the penknife somewhere in there."

Andromeda patted Regulus gently on the shoulder. "Don't worry, Reg. We'll help you find it, right Cissy?" she added, looking at her beseechingly. She knew Bellatrix wouldn't be interested in doing anything altruistic, so didn't bother asking her.

"Do I look like a house-elf?" Narcissa asked crossly. "First Mother, now you! I am tired of being ordered around!" Narcissa flounced back to her room.

"Don't look at me like that!" Bellatrix snapped spitefully. "I've got better things to do. Helping snotty-nosed little cousins is not one of my hobbies!" She turned on her heel and stormed off, leaving Andromeda alone with Regulus.

"I guess it's just the two of us then," Andromeda sighed. "Never mind. Come with me. Together, we should be able to find the penknife. They walked to the kitchen and looked around. The kitchen was large and filled with burnished copper pots and pans. The cousins started to search for the knife, trying not to make a mess.

However, Regulus knocked over a kettle of boiling water all over the stone floor. "Watch out, Miss Andromeda!" cried Tuffin the, little house-elf, from the corner. Luckily, nobody got hurt, but the kettle fell on the floor, its clatter reverberating interminably. Tuffin shrieked while Regulus quickly retrieved it using the cuff of his sleeve. As he returned it to the stove, he suddenly stopped in his tracks, bending towards the floor, where he noticed something that seemed unusual. He prodded Andromeda and nodded towards the door.

"What is it?" she asked. Regulus ignored her and crept forward slowly. Andromeda followed him. Behind the door something thumped rhythmically, a low, eerie sound that chilled their bones. Slowly they crept nearer and flinched as the door flew open. A tiny baby creature was sitting in the corridor.

Tuffin ran out and picked it up. "Naughty, Chirp-Chirp! You ought to be in bed!" Muttering, the perturbed house-elf hurried off with Regulus and Andromeda following him, bombarding poor Tuffin with questions about the little animal.

"What is that?" Regulus began, trying to see the creature.

"It's just my little friend Chirp-Chirp, he are a magpie." Tuffin continued, "he likes to take away shiny things, he would have been after the silver spoons in the kitchen."

Andromeda asked, "How long have you had him?"

"Oh, a little—"

"Wait!" Regulus interrupted. "My brother's knife! Did he take it? It is shiny, and silvery."

Tuffin shifted uncomfortably, as he thought of how to answer the question.

"Chirp-Chirp is a hoarder — he could have it — but he's a good hider too. You may never find it. He doesn't understand orders or anything." Regulus looked crestfallen.

"Oh no! Sirius will never forgive me! Can't you help me? Please, Tuffin? Anna?" Tuffin looked around and snapped his fingers. With a loud bang, Chirp-Chirp’s hiding place was revealed. Behind the fireplace, a pile of shiny objects glinted brightly.

"Here it is!" Regulus exclaimed. He was overjoyed. Chirp-Chirp chattered angrily and flew off.

Andromeda bent down and picked up the knife. "Here you go, Reg. Tell Sirius that the magpie stole it!" she said, giving it to him.

"Thanks a lot!" shouted Regulus, mounting his broom and taking flight.

"Take care!" Andromeda watched as he waved happily and flew off into the sunset.

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Potteraholic Wed Aug 03, 2011 7:18 am

These stats were first posted by Potteraholic - Jun 27, 2008 11:20 pm (#2987 of 2994) on the World Crossing home of the 'Harry Potter Lexicon Forum'.

Statistics for Story 81
ordered by first contribution to the story

User	# of Submissions
Potteraholic	58
azi	32
Puck	5
Swedish Short-Snout	1
Julia H.	33
Anna L. Black	15
Dryleaves	2
Verity Weasley	20
mona amon	8
PeskyPixie	1
PatPat	2
Snuffles	1
Orion	3

The user in red is the rightful starter of the next story. They are welcome to pass on the privilege to the user who posted the second most number of times, who may in turn pass it to the user who posted the third number of times in the story, and so forth.

Total Submissions: 181
Total Words: 905
Last Submission Date: #2985, June 27, 2008, 6:07 P.M. (Potteraholic)
Total Time to Create Story: 3 days, 6 hours, 32 minutes

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Potteraholic Wed Aug 03, 2011 7:35 am

This page contains a list with links to all the stories written in Volume VIII.

Five Words Stories - Volume VIII

• Click on Story #82 (8 July 2008) for "Dean and Seamus' Strange South American Excursion (Aventuras en Argentina)"

• Click on Story #83 (1 August 2008) for "Sneaking Around"

• Click on Story #84 (8 August 2008) for "The Crazy Mixed-Up Story of Regulus and Bellatrix (and Dumbledorish Guy?)"

• Click on Story #85 (16 August 2008) for "The Magical Wedding"

• Click on Story #86 (24 August 2008) for "Filius the Fearless"

• Click on Story #87 (1 September 2008) for "Skeeter's Scoop"

• Click on Story #88 (20 September 2008) for "Daisy’s Dilemma"

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* This volume's stories, stats and post-story comments archived from WX by Verity Weasley; formatted/posted by Potteraholic

Potteraholic Sat Aug 06, 2011 12:49 pm

This story was first posted by Finn BV - Jul 8, 2008 11:01 pm (#521 of 2991) on the World Crossing home of the 'Harry Potter Lexicon Forum'.

Potty Five Words: "Dean and Seamus' Strange South American Excursion (Aventuras en Argentina)"

“Argentina?! Really?!” Seamus asked. Dean nodded enthusiastically, waving a pair of oversized spectacles with colorful frames, decorated with blue and white stripes.

“It’s going to be the happening of the century! And we’ll be right in the center of it! The Quidditch World Cup Quarterfinals! Argentina versus Romania! Should be exciting!” Dean looked over at Seamus, who was looking thoughtful. He had to finish his latest work report before he could go anywhere. Still, this meant going to Argentina. He had always wanted to go there and to be able to see the glaciers of Patagonia, which were supposed to be absolutely stunning. He’d have to get the money first; his work report was a tad inconvenient for that. Perhaps Dean would lend him some galleons.

“I’m not sure I can go, Dean. I’m skint,” said Seamus. “It’ll cost a fortune, and unless you can lend me some money, I really can’t go…”

“It’s not going to cost us one knut! I’ve won two tickets for the World Cup Quarterfinals and my stepdad’s uncle lives in Buenos Aires, so accommodation is free as well! We just—” Dean finished, “Apparate over!”

“But you can’t Apparate beyond certain distances. Remember what happened in Australia? I don’t want to look like a plucked chicken again!” exclaimed Seamus. “I’ve got a better idea. What about a portkey? With your connections here at the Ministry, we should be able to organize something.”

Before Dean could respond, Ron barged in, breathless. “Dean! Seamus! Listen! The Department of Magical Transportation is having a sale on Ministry cars! I’m thinking of getting one. They’re dead cheap and going quick! What do you think?”

“Not for me, mate, but you should definitely go for it!” Seamus said, smiling as he imagined the next generation of Weasleys arriving at Hogwarts by flying car.

“What are you smiling about?” Ron asked.

Seamus chuckled, “Just thinking about your Dad’s flying— that’s it!”

“That’s what?” chorused Dean and Ron.

“A flying car to Argentina!” Seamus announced. “That solves our problem! All we’d need would be a few modifications and we’d be all set!”

Ron looked doubtful but Dean nodded. “Flying car? To Argentina?” Ron asked incredulously. “Are you mad?!” He didn’t have fond memories of his experience with his Dad’s flying Ford Anglia. Dean however, leaned forwards eagerly, wanting to find out everything he could. He started scribbling some ideas, but Ron had questions. “Look, what are you two flying off to Argentina for anyway?”

“Quidditch!” answered Seamus. “The Quarterfinals, Romania against Argentina! Too bad we haven’t got any way to get there.”

“Don’t bother with a flying car,” Ron interrupted. “A Portkey is much better. I’ll speak to Hermione about getting you one.”

“Er, okay, that sounds great, Ron! Thanks!” Dean said enthusiastically. “Do you think that it can be arranged quickly?”

Ron smiled. “I’ll take care of it. What’s your hurry?”

“We want to do some trekking in Patagonia first. Seamus wants to see the glaciers. I’m interested in the volcanoes,” Dean said, excitedly. Ron smirked. This would be their fourth trip. “You guys should write a travel guide for the Wizarding World,” he suggested with a chuckle.

After Ron left, Seamus cobbled together his report. It certainly wasn’t an Outstanding one. He took out his ‘Back in Two Weeks’ sign and Dean went back to his office to wrap up a present for a troll. “One of the responsibilities which one must never back out of,” Dean’s Departmental Head advised. Dean agreed whole-heartedly. After all, Dean won the tickets from Boris Snape, an expert in troll–wizard relationships.

Two days later, the two took the Portkey and found themselves standing in a vast plain. There wasn’t a soul in the area. Seamus and Dean looked at the beautiful treeless plains stretching for miles. In the distance, the undulating blue hills seemed out of place in the landscape.

“Erm… where are we? Where’s the glacier?” asked Seamus, glancing around. “Did we miss the portal for Patagonia?”

Dean shook his head, “I don’t know, but this place looks like it might be a region called the Pampas. I think it’s pretty close to Buenos Aires but hundreds of miles from Patagonia. I think there’s”—Dean paused—“someone over there, but I’m not certain. Wands out, you reckon?” He looked nervous. “Oh, good gravy, we’re about to be discovered by a very large, angry-looking shepherd!” He pointed to a tall figure, obviously a Muggle, who was approaching on a donkey, leading a flock of llamas.

“Excuse me,” called Seamus tentatively.

Dean added, “¿Hablas inglés, señor? ¿Por favor?”

The gruff man replied, "Yes, I do. Who are you and what are you doing here? You’re tourists, no?” he added.

“We’re here to see… the sights,” Seamus explained.

Dean sighed, “But we’re on our way to Patagonia and we’re not sure how to get there from here.”

The old man looked surprised. “Patagonia! Are you crazy? That’s miles away! You’ll be traveling for days on foot! Why don’t you take the bus?”   

Seamus and Dean glanced at each other. “Good idea, señor,” Dean said. “Can you tell us where is the closest bus stop? In which direction? And which bus do we have to catch to get there? And… how many miles is it to Patagonia?”

The shepherd grinned. He’d never heard so many questions all at once. “Muchacho, listen. Go south until you reach the road across the river. There’s a bus stop about a half-mile further. You can ask the bus driver how many miles it is.”

“Do you know if there’s a photo we can look at so we know where to disembark?” asked Seamus.

“Well, there’s an unusually large poster on the bus stop,” the puzzled shepherd replied.

Dean nodded, “That’s perfect, señor.” The shepherd wished them well and urged his donkey and llamas to move along. Dean and Seamus turned and started walking south. The old man vanished from their sight as if he had melted into the windswept plain. “Okay, it’s safe to Apparate to the bus stop. Grab my arm, just in case,” Dean smirked. “We wouldn’t want anything to happen to your hair this time.” Seamus, scowling, grabbed Dean’s arm as he turned on the spot.

A few seconds later, they appeared next to a deserted bus stand, its wall adorned with a large poster of their intended destination. “Cor!” exclaimed Dean. “That place is amazing. Let’s go!” He concentrated hard on the picture of a hulking, cascading glacier. With Seamus once again gripping Dean’s arm, darkness enveloped the pair. They opened their eyes. A wall of ice greeted them. A chill wind came from the South Pole freezing them and stinging their eyes. “Let’s get a fire going and pitch the tent we brought with us. I hope it’s not this cold tomorrow,” said Dean, shivering.

The next morning they were surprised to find that the wind had disappeared completely and bright sunshine shone gently around them. They ate a hearty breakfast, before setting out to explore the area. The scenery was fantastic, the sunlight glinting on the translucent blue ice. “Bloody massive glaciers they’ve got here,” Seamus said in admiration.

“Wonder how thick this ice is,” Dean added, stamping his foot hard on it, but the ice was unyielding, immobile. For now.

The two carried on walking, making their way slowly across the ice. “I think we should be careful, Dean,” warned Seamus. “Ice can have crevasses and—”

CRASH! A large chunk of ice collapsed from under them, right at the tips of their toes. Seamus stepped back just in time.

“@!*&!” Dean muttered under his breath. “That was close! Brooms out, I think...” Dean rummaged in his rucksack, which held even a second broomstick for Seamus. They mounted their brooms and rose into the air.

“Wow, what a view!” Seamus shouted. They whooped and laughed as they saw some Orcas breaking through the clear, blue sea. “Let’s get a closer look!” Seamus said excitedly, diving downwards happily. But just as he reached the water’s surface, a flash of light hit him in the eyes, disorienting him. He lost his grip on the broom handle and he fell into the water.

“Seamus!” Dean cried, diving low and then, with horror he glimpsed a hooded figure zooming towards them, flying upon thin air. Dean sent a Stunning spell at the man, but it missed him widely. The man swerved and shot a jet of fire, which was extinguished by a stream of water from a passing whale’s spout. Seamus was clinging onto the edge of the ice for dear life, his teeth chattering against the frigid wind. Dean swooped down towards him but the hooded figure veered in from the left, forcing him to careen off course and shoot another stunning spell over his shoulder. This one hit an ice cliff, sending a frosty spray of ice over the hooded stranger.

Down in the icy water, Seamus was starting to lose his grip on the glacier. Dean gripped harder on his broom, raised his wand again, and sent a thick rope flying from the tip at Seamus below. With frozen fingers, Seamus gripped the rope, allowing Dean to pull him from the frigid sea and onto an ice covered ledge. Before he could stand, a burst of fire sailed toward him from the menacing stranger, melting the narrow ledge at an alarming rate.

Wasting no time, Seamus took up his wand and cast a Summoning spell to retrieve his broom, which was lying on the ice. Jumping on, he immediately went to join Dean. They turned and faced their mysterious assailant and yelled “Stupefy!” at the same time. Twin jets of red light sailed toward their attacker and knocked him senseless. He hurtled towards the ice, where he landed, unconscious, on the cold, unforgiving surface. Dean and Seamus flew down to the stranger. The hood was covering his face. Dean pushed it aside. He gasped and looked at Seamus in utter disbelief. “It’s Tannabus Jones! Remember him from that photo in Snape’s secret album unearthed after his death?” Seamus nodded, shocked, “Yeah! Didn’t he become a Death Eater right after Snape came back to our side? I wonder what he is doing here?”

“And why he’s after us,” Dean said, looking around as he began to bind ropes to hold their prisoner.

Seamus double-checked the knots. He didn’t know whether they should try to wake him or not. “What do you reckon?” he asked.

Dean shrugged. He looked utterly perplexed. “I thought he was in Azkaban! We’d better try and find out what he is doing here.”

Seamus pointed his wand at Tannabus. “Enervate,” he said shakily. The Death Eater’s hair began smoking. “Merlin’s pants! What do we put it out with?” He waited. 

“Aguamenti!” Dean uttered incredulously, “Are you a wizard or what?” Seamus smacked his forehead in embarrassment. “Maybe we should try and call someone from the Auror Department. Or the magical Argentinian hotline for escaped prisoners. He might be here trying to escape from Azkaban.”

“He’s not in prison clothes,” said Dean, “so that can’t be it. Why don’t we inform the authorities?”

“No need. Let’s just question him. He’s quite powerless now. He won’t be able to do anything.”

They managed to revive Tannabus, who struggled against the ropes then lay still, glaring around at the two friends.

“What is the meaning of this?” Tannabus demanded haughtily. “How dare you! Do you have any idea who I am?” He growled.

Dean smiled, “We know exactly who you are. And we’d like to know what you’re doing here, and why you attacked us!”

Tannabus sneered. “You mean you haven’t figured that out yet? I want your quarterfinal tickets!”

Dean and Seamus stared. “Are you nutters? Quidditch?! You’re talking about Quidditch?!” Seamus spluttered. “You attacked us for Quidditch tickets?!”

Tannabus nodded, his eyes gleaming fanatically. “I will have those tickets!” he shouted gleefully. “I should have had them from the start! That double-crosser Boris Snape promised them to me! Then he goes and decides to give them to you!”

Seamus and Dean gaped. “You’re a Death Eater who’s escaped from Azkaban for a Quidditch match! Are you mad! What could you be thinking? Still, I admire your pluck,” Seamus said.

Dean nodded. “Anyhow, we’d better call the Escaped Prisoner Hotline and get him off our hands.” Seamus nodded and raised his wand. Tannabus sneered, “You actually think you can beat me?! I, who was taught by the Half-Blood Prince himself!”

He cackled insanely as Dean and Seamus exchanged puzzled glances. The two were at a loss as to what to make of this bizarre situation. “Dude, Snape was in the Order so that doesn’t exactly scare us!” Seamus laughed, pulling a face.

“Silence!” snarled Tannabus. “Snape was a Death Eater first! He’s taught me things that’ll stun you!” Dean and Seamus both raised their wands as Tannabus cried, “Accio tickets Sanswandus!” The backpack started to bulge as the tickets fought against the zipper trying to reach Tannabus.

At the same time the Death Eater mumbled another spell under his breath. The bonds around him began to writhe and loosen. At once the zipper flew open and the tickets began to sail out. Dean dived for them and wrestled them to the ground as Seamus pointed his wand at Tannabus. “Stupefy!” he yelled. Tannabus slumped back on the ground, unconscious, and Dean shoved the tickets back in the bag.

Seamus sighed, “I wish our holidays were a little less exciting.”

Dean nodded. “Let’s get this nutter back where he belongs.” He pulled a small owl and a piece of parchment from his backpack and scribbled a quick note. He attached it to the owl’s leg and propelled it into the air. Seamus conjured a small fire to warm them as they waited. Whenever Tannabus began to revive, one of them would Stun him again, so they wouldn’t have to listen to him ranting.

“How long d’you think they’ll be?” asked Seamus after a while. He had scarcely finished speaking when a popping echoed around them as a small group of wizards Apparated nearby. They approached quickly and bent over the Death Eater. “You are the ones who will be taking him away?” asked Dean.

“Yes,” replied a tall man with a hooded robe and official-looking badge. “We have been looking for him for two days. He escaped from the secure wing of St. Mungo’s Hospital. He’s nutters.”

“Yeah, we figured that out when he attacked us for our Quidditch tickets!” Seamus responded.

The man rolled his eyes. “We thought he was getting better until the other day. He was visited by that greasy man. When he left Jones started raving and then the next morning he was gone.” The official sighed and pointed his wand at Tannabus Jones who rose, still bound, and glared at the men. “Time to go, Tannabus,” said the tall one. The Death Eater looked mutinous but remained still as the officials positioned themselves at his sides and pointed their wands at him.

“Oh, your reward,” said one of them, rummaging in a pocket and tossing a small object into Dean’s outstretched hand.

The small group Disapparated, leaving Seamus and Dean to stare at the small circular box filled with shiny golden galleons. Dean grinned, excitedly, “Well, now we can have a great vacation! We can even go whale-watching at Puerto Madryn! Let’s head over to the Quidditch World Cup before all the good camping spots are taken.”

With that, Dean and Seamus turned and Disapparated, both smiling.

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Potteraholic Sat Aug 06, 2011 12:50 pm

These stats were first posted by Finn BV - Jul 8, 2008 11:13 pm (#523 of 2991) on the World Crossing home of the 'Harry Potter Lexicon Forum'.

Statistics for Story 82
ordered by first contribution to the story

User	# of Submissions
Potteraholic	132
Verity Weasley	118
Orion	4
Dryleaves	4
azi	57
PatPat	147
Anna L. Black	8
PeskyPixie	24
mona amon	24
Finn BV	1

The user in red is the rightful starter of the next story. They are welcome to pass on the privilege to the user who posted the second most number of times, who may in turn pass it to the user who posted the third number of times in the story, and so forth.

Total Submissions: 519
Total Words: 2595
Last Submission Date: #519, July 6, 2008, 4:08 am (PatPat)
Total Time to Create Story: 5 days, 22 hours, 1 minute

These post-story comments were collected by Potteraholic, but were not posted in a 'post-story comments post' before the World Crossing home of the 'Harry Potter Lexicon Forum' site closed on April 15, 2011. So they are being posted now, here on forumotion.

Post-Story Comments for Story #82, Volume VIII,
Potty Five Words: "Dean and Seamus' Strange South American Excursion (Aventuras en Argentina)"

This story was posted on July 8, 2008. Ten writers contributed to the story, which is 2,595 words long. Two of the eight writers posted feedback.

- Finn BV, Jul 8, 2008 11:19 pm: Whew, that was exhausting. Took a long time to compile due to the length of the story and that I'm out of practice and didn't leave myself enough time to wade through all the posts. Thanks for being patient, everybody. And many many thanks to PatPat for helping with stats today!! ::thank-you smilie::

And congratulations to her too, she had a ginormous number of posts to make her the starter of the next story!

I will be active in these next stories, as it's summer for me now and I'm done with vacationing (until August…). I work now but when I get home I should be up for posting and compiling.

PeskyPixie had mentioned a little while ago about a "tripping up" type of Five Words… I don't think that would go over so well here on this thread, but I think some things you guys (meaning everyone) should look into are the "Neverending Story" threads right above the Writing Challenges on this Forum. They are similar to Five Words in that they mean communal posting, but there's no restriction on how many words you post, and the point is really to create a silly, long, epic, grandiose story. I would try it out. I do believe I'm the last person to post on the two open threads. They might be quite long for you to read through (but then again, I read all of the posts on both a long time, and it's a lot of fun), so I'm sure we could go ahead and start a new Neverending Story -- how about it Pesky? Why don't you take a look at those threads (everybody, really, they're hilarious), and see what you think?
Anyway, props to PatPat, I eagerly anticipate the next story!

- PatPat, Jul 8, 2008 11:57 pm: No problem, Finn! I was glad to help. That's an interesting idea about Neverending Story. I will check it out.

As for this story, I like how it turned out. During the writing, I was feeling like it was dragging on, but I actually think it came out pretty well. I just noticed as I was reading that we never explained about the glasses from the beginning, but, if we had, it may have turned into the next Order of the Phoenix! Anyway, that's very JKR-like! Maybe the glasses will pop up later in another Dean and Seamus story!

- Verity Weasley, Jul 9, 2008 1:18 am: Thanks Finn for posting the story and stats. It must have been a mammoth task. Well done PatPat on your phenomenal number of posts! I agree that the story turned out a lot better than I expected. It did feel as though it was taking us ages to get anywhere when we were posting, but in the end, I think it worked well. Yes, I wondered about those glasses as well

- PeskyPixie, Jul 9, 2008 2:46 am: The previous story turned out really well, especially considering how clunkily it moved along while it was being written!

- Potteraholic, Jul 10, 2008 5:21 am: I thought the 'Aventuras en Argentina' story was a hoot! The smile on my face at the start of the story turned into a grin as I made my way through the 2nd half.

Great job posting this epic, Finn, and congrats to PatPat on the number of posts and starting another story in the past. I think those are my favorite kind.

Welcome back, Puck!

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Potteraholic Sat Aug 06, 2011 12:52 pm

This story was first posted by PatPat - Aug 1, 2008 8:16 pm (#1104 of 2991) on the World Crossing home of the 'Harry Potter Lexicon Forum'.

Potty Five Words: "Sneaking Around"

Eileen Prince looked at Severus and smiled. He looked so funny in his father's oversized coat, especially in the middle where it draped over him. He looked like a little house-elf trying to fit into an extra large pillowcase. She really ought to get him better clothes, but Tobias always snarled so much whenever she mentioned anything to do with Severus. Sometimes, she thought that he didn't love even his own son. But perhaps it most of all was a reaction against his magical abilities, which had shown themselves early.

"Mum, will the barber cut all of my hair?" asked Severus.

"No, we can't afford that. Just a trim," Eileen said. "And no shampoo either." She hated denying him such basic things, but since Tobias was always so stingy with wasting money on anything that was for Severus, she couldn't pay the full cost of a nice haircut and wash. "Hurry up now or we shall be late," she urged.

Severus looked sullen and took a small wooden stick out of the pocket of the massive coat. He pointed it at his too long hair and mumbled, "I want it the way it is. I don't want to look like Dad." Reluctantly, he went along with his mother. She took his hand, giving it a squeeze, "make sure you hold your head up straight. Otherwise you'll get a permanent slouch."

"Yeah, as if I care about that when you and Dad keep fighting! I can't stand it much longer!" He would be leaving for Hogwarts School in another couple of months. His admission letter was tucked safely inside Severus' shoe. He pulled it out every evening before he went to bed, and sat gloating over the list of required equipment. At last he'd get new clothes. Wizard ones! And most importantly, a magic wand of his own, a real wand! Although the day when he would go to school was drawing nearer it felt as though it would never get there. The days were dragging slowly, and he was getting impatient.

"What will happen if I don't get sorted into Slytherin?" Severus asked, a worried look on his sallow face.

"Don't worry. I don't care which house you are in." Eileen replied. "Why do you want to know?"

Severus shrugged, "I was reading Hogwarts: A History and it seems like the Gryffindors are dunderheads, the Ravenclaws are nerds, and the Hufflepuffs... well, they're Hufflepuffs. They're pathetic! Loyal and hardworking? How boring?!"

"I can't argue about Hufflepuffs, but Severus dear, you really can't choose, can you? The Sorting Hat decides where you belong. The Hat knows best. Now stop asking questions and go outside and play," Eileen insisted.

"But what about my hair?" Severus asked. "I don't want it to grow too long. Don't want to look odd, do I, Mum?"

Eileen sighed, thinking that her son was so completely unaware of their financial situation. "I'll cut it myself," she said.

He wrinkled his nose, distastefully, "No way!" he shouted. "I said I wanted to go to Diagon Alley to get everything for school. We can get my hair cut there, can't we?"

Eileen sighed, "I suppose we could, dear. But remember we have a tight budget, so the only new thing will be your wand. Everything else will have to be second hand. I have some of the books that you will be needing. Now, let's call Lily and see when she will be getting her school things. Maybe she will meet us in Diagon Alley," she said, smiling at him. Severus ran as fast as he could to the phone and, with trembling hands, he dialed the number he knew so well, but each time his fingers slipped on the rotary dial. He wondered if she would be able to meet them at Diagon Alley. After an eternity, a voice answered.

"Evans residence, Petunia speaking.”

"Ummm, hello, can I speak to Lily, please?"

"Who's this?"

"It's Severus."

"Severus who?" Petunia asked in a harsh tone. "Severus Snape... I'm a friend of Lily's."

"Oh, the greasy-haired kid. Why do you want to speak to my sister?"

"Could you just tell her," Severus said impatiently, "that I am going to Diagon Alley today and I wanted to ask when she was going to get her school stuff."

"I don't know what you're talking about, and you're wasting my time, you freak," Petunia said, haughtily.

Snape flushed, "You just—" he started, but the phone clicked in his ear. Frustrated, he replaced the receiver angrily and thought for a minute. "I'm going out, Mum," he called. "I'll be back soon." He hurried out the door before she could answer and ran through the labyrinth of streets and alleys of Spinner's End and across the stepping stones over the stream. He reached the little house to which he wished he belonged and saw that Lily was sitting on the front porch, watching a small, fuzzy cat stretching on the doormat. She wasn't touching it, but it seemed to be mesmerized by her, purring and pawing at her hands. She laughed and Severus' heart jumped at the sound. He called her name quietly as he came closer to the tangled hedge and she looked up, her startling green eyes, boring into his.

"Hi Severus," she cried, jumping from the porch and running to open the gate. She looked positively delighted to see him and giggled as she led him over to the porch and pulled him up the step. "I'm so glad you came. I was furious with Pet when she wouldn't let me talk to you on the phone. I got my letter!" She laughed excitedly and ran inside, dragging Severus with her. "And my supplies list. They sound so strange! A cauldron! And a book about History of Magic! And the best… a wand, a magic wand, of my own! I still can't believe it's really happening already! But you know," she whispered, conspiratorially, "Tuney was really upset, poor thing. She wants to go too.”

Severus snorted, “She's a dunderhead, a snotty stupid Muggle! There's no way…"

Lily interrupted him angrily, "She is my sister! Don't you dare speak about her like that!" Her green eyes flashed dangerously.

Severus could tell that she was upset and didn't want her to become even angrier. "When are you going to Diagon Alley to buy everything? We can go together!" he said, excitedly. "My mum and I are probably going there later. Can you come?"

Lily bit her lip and crinkled her nose, "I don't know if my mum and dad will want to go yet, though. They have been trying to cheer Tuney up ever since Professor Dumbledore came to our house to explain things."

"You mean you've actually met Professor Dumbledore?! I heard that he was a little mental. He'd have to be, taking such an unusual interest in a Dark Wizard like Grindelwald.”

Lily looked puzzled, "Who's Grindelwald?"

"Oh, it doesn't matter,” Severus explained. “Just a wizard that Dumbledore defeated. A terrible, evil wizard who did unspeakable things,” he said, though he looked fascinated.

Lily looked impressed, but also worried, “There is so much about the Magical World that I just don't know about. I will be the worst student at Hogwarts, I bet."

"Don't worry,” Severus reassured her, "you'll do fine. Loads of kids come from Muggle families and even pure-blood kids are learning all new stuff. You will probably be the smartest student in our year." Severus smiled shyly as Lily's eyes danced at his words.

"Tuney was ever so upset when she learned I was, you know, a witch,” she whispered. "She got a letter too, but she cried when she read it."

"A letter? Really? Have you seen it? I never thought a Muggle would get a letter from a wizard. Did it come by owl?"

Lily nodded, "Yes, but it pecked Tuney when she tried to pet it. It's gone now. She wouldn't let anyone read it at first."

Severus looked thoughtful. "So, you can send a letter to a wizard by Muggle post?"

"Why not?" Lily wanted to know.

"Well, the only way you can write to a wizard that I know of is by owl. But since your sister did it, I guess there must be wizards working undercover in the postal service who take care of post that's addressed to wizards… That's pretty cool!" said Severus.

"Lily!" called a voice from inside.

"Yes, Mum!" she answered.

"Have you seen Tuney? I want her to help me vacuum and dust."

"She is in her room, I think." Lily looked at Severus again. "Tuney really likes cleaning," she said.

Severus was still thinking, seemingly oblivious to the exchange, about the letter. He thought about magic and Muggles, while he was watching Lily turn her head from side to side.

"Listen, Severus," she said. “I can see that you are interested in that letter, but I don't know where exactly it is. However, Tuney would be very upset if we read it."

"It's only the envelope I want to see. I wonder if it is in her room?" Severus pondered aloud. "We could sneak in and… perhaps… look around for it."

Lily looked at him. She was curious too. Petunia was in the kitchen, which was far too convenient to ignore. Together, they stood at the bottom of the steps and commenced the ascent to the bedrooms upstairs.

Lily whispered, "Careful, that step creaks if you step in the middle. Better skip it to be sure."

Severus nodded and reached up to the stair above the creaking one with a conspiratorial grin. At the top of the stairs, they tiptoed to the door of Petunia's room. Slowly, Lily turned the handle, anxious not to make a noise, and entered. Severus followed. The room was quite large, lit by the sunshine filtering in through the salmon-coloured curtains. Everything was neatly arranged. There was no hint that a child lived there.

With grins lighting their faces they scanned their eyes over dust-free furniture and spotless carpet, but there wasn't a single scrap of paper to be found. "Let's check her drawers," Severus whispered, quietly approaching the highly polished dressing table. He looked at Lily, who nodded nervously and started to help open the drawers. A few pieces of paper lay on the bottom of the top drawer, but they were for a school project. Severus pulled out a pink singlet, giggling, until Lily snatched it away.

"Severus, we aren't here to look at Tuney's things. We're just looking for the envelope."

Severus stifled his giggle but his black eyes had a mischievous glint, and he started pawing through the contents of the bottom drawer. He stopped suddenly and pulled from underneath a neat pile of white handkerchiefs, under which was a thick, heavy envelope made from yellowish parchment. It had a purple seal depicting a lion, snake, badger, and eagle surrounding an 'H'. Green ink glittered where the address was written in a fancy lettering. Severus turned the envelope over and slid his fingers under the flap. He could feel the thick parchment inside.

"Wait!" cried Lily suddenly. She drew closer to Severus and looked at the envelope. "Do you think Dumbledore wrote to her himself?" Lily asked with shock and excitement in her voice. "Dumbledore? Open it, Sev! Let's see what is written inside."

Severus instantly obeyed and read:

"Dear Miss Evans,

Thank you for your letter. I understand your sincere interest in attending Hogwarts, however, it is my duty to only admit students who have magical talent. I regret very much that I cannot help you. I do hope that you will keep in touch with the wizarding community. Please contact me any time you wish. There is no Wizarding law that states Muggles and wizards cannot be friends. You are welcome to visit Hogwarts. We are as strong as we are united and as weak as we are divided. I hope to meet you someday. Always remember what I have told you.

Sincerely,

Albus P. W. B. Dumbledore.

Severus and Lily finished reading, looking at one another in wonder. Severus carefully folded the letter and slipped it back inside the envelope, replacing it in its original position.

"No wonder Tuney was so upset before. To be told that she has no magical talent! How disappointing!" Lily looked forlorn, but Severus had to hide a little smile. At Hogwarts he wouldn't have to share his friend with anybody.

"Let's go back downstairs and talk about when we'll be getting to Diagon Alley to do our shopping," he said, as he opened the door. Just as they were going to leave the room, they heard footsteps heading in their direction.

"Someone is coming!" Lily whispered, "We have to hide! Follow me." A large wardrobe stood next to the door. Hurriedly, Lily squeezed in behind it with Severus at her heels.

Severus asked, "Why don't we go inside this huge wardrobe?" Then he added mischievously, "We could watch your sister when she comes in."

"Shhh," whispered Lily, her finger on her lips, "she's opening the door right now." The two watched, suppressing their giggles and trying not to breathe too loudly. Petunia entered the room. She was carrying some freshly laundered washing. She stopped and looked at her dresser. One drawer was open more than the usual, acceptable amount. I always make sure my drawers and cupboards are closed before I leave the room. Someone must have been in here. She turned around on the spot, her eyes scanning the room. The two friends in their hiding place almost choked with laughter. Lily put her hand, warningly, across Severus's mouth and nose but it only made him shake harder with laughter as her fingertips tickled his cheeks.

Petunia walked purposefully towards the wardrobe. Her face was flushed. She wrenched open the door of the wardrobe and stared into its depths as Lily and Severus pressed themselves against the back wall. Petunia didn't move. She simply stood there, realizing that the hangers had been moved. She listened carefully for the slightest sound. Cautiously, Lily looked at Severus and noted with surprise that he seemed to have melted into the background. Where did he go? Her eyes wide, she looked down at herself, and realized she couldn't see herself either. She almost yelped with horror. What has happened to us? Why can't I see him or myself? Could this be a magic wardrobe like the one leading to Narnia in the books?! Maybe we are now somewhere… between worlds… Petunia closed the door with a bang and turned away, pausing again and listening.

“Severus," breathed Lily, "are you still there? I can't see you."

"I know," breathed Severus, "I can't see you either."

"Do you… think this wardrobe… is magic?"

"No, I think we did some kind of invisibility charm. It's we who are magical, not the wardrobe," he responded, proudly.

Lily gasped, "I'm a witch! I had been worried that there might be some problems but now I know I really can do powerful magic!" And she, joyfully, hugged her friend.

Severus was overjoyed, but his elation was short-lived. There was a sudden flash of brightness as Petunia opened the door of her room, staring menacingly at the source of the disturbance.

"Petunia!" called a voice from downstairs. She hesitated for a moment, then left the room, reluctantly. Lily and Severus could not believe their luck. They tiptoed to the door of the wardrobe and peeked through the keyhole. The room was empty. So was the keyhole. The two friends glanced at each other and tried to figure out how they were to get out of the wardrobe without the key.

Severus had an idea. "Listen," he said, excitedly. "I think we need to focus our magical power on opening the door. If we both try really hard, we will succeed."

Lily looked nervous, "But I thought we were too young to use magic deliberately? You said so yourself."

"I know, but we just did some really advanced magic! I think we can do it again if we concentrate really hard."

Lily nodded, taking hold of Sev's hand and closing her eyes. Severus stared at the clasped hands before he also closed his eyes and concentrated hard on trying to open the wardrobe door. He was beginning to panic slightly when, suddenly, they heard a loud click and the wardrobe door burst open. With relief, they spilled into the room, giggling and holding hands, their eyes shining with excitement. They ran to the door and were out in a flash, peeking around the corner to the hallway with the staircase.

"I think the coast is clear," whispered Lily, tiptoeing around the corner. "Come on, Sev! Don't dawdle. We have to get downstairs before anyone wonders what we've been up to.”

The two sped nimbly through the hallway, down the stairs and out the front door. Mrs. Evans smiled and waved as they strolled innocently past her and down to the gate. Lily and Severus exchanged looks of glee and anticipation. They were so gifted, and soon they would be on their way to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and exciting futures. They could hardly wait.

* Five Words – Volume 8 Index *

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* Five Words - Main Archives *

* Five Words - Stories Index (by topic) *

Potteraholic Sat Aug 06, 2011 12:53 pm

These stats were first posted by PatPat - Aug 1, 2008 9:11 pm (#1107 of 2991) on the World Crossing home of the 'Harry Potter Lexicon Forum'.

Statistics for Story 83
ordered by first contribution to the story

User	# of Submissions
PatPat	141
Verity Weasley	90
PeskyPixie	83
mona amon	53
Finn BV	4
Dryleaves	23
Puck	16
Anna L. Black	38
azi	1
Potteraholic	38
Orion	9
Julia H.	70
Snuffles	9

The user in red is the rightful starter of the next story. They are welcome to pass on the privilege to the user who posted the second most number of times, who may in turn pass it to the user who posted the third number of times in the story, and so forth.

Total Submissions: 575
Total Words: 2875
Last Submission Date: #1100, July 29, 2008, 4:20 PM (PeskyPixie)
Total Time to Create Story: 20 days, 16 hours, 23 minutes

These post-story comments were collected by Potteraholic, but were not posted in a 'post-story comments post' before the World Crossing home of the 'Harry Potter Lexicon Forum' site closed on April 15, 2011. So they are being posted now, here on forumotion.

Post-Story Comments for Story #83, Volume VIII,
Potty Five Words: "Sneaking Around"

This story was posted on August 1, 2008. Thirteen writers contributed to the story, which is 2,875 words long. Five of the thirteen writers posted feedback.

- PatPat, Aug 1, 2008 9:21 pm: OK, everyone! Story is up. There's one problem that Finn or Kip needs to fix, since the story actually was so long it went into a third post. I didn't notice it right away so I can't fix it. But all in all, I think it came out well. We've had two super long stories in a row, so maybe we should try for a shorter one this time?

Anyway, I'll give everyone a little time to comment on this one and then I'll start the new story later this evening. Well done, everyone!

- Potteraholic, Aug 2, 2008 10:50 pm: Congratulations on posting your first official story and stats, PatPat! Love the title! Am going to read the finished story again and post some post-story comments in a moment...

Edit: Hey everyone! I'm back from my trip and back to full access to the internet (and the HP Forum) on my beloved Macbook laptop. Thought I'd celebrate with a new DIY avatar for the new story!

- Verity Weasley, Aug 2, 2008 11:22 pm: Welcome back PAH! It's great to have you back. I hope you had a good trip.

Congratulations PatPat on posting the story. You did a great job, and it was a pretty long one too. Well done!

- PatPat, Aug 2, 2008 11:34 pm: Thanks, Verity! It was extremely long! It took forever to post and then ended up going over onto a third post!

- Potteraholic, Aug 2, 2008 11:38 pm: Wow! Three posts needed for the whole story! I agree with Verity, PatPat. Kudos for keeping it all straight. And I agree with you, PatPat, I think we should really try for a shorter story since we have just had 2 long ones. Now, about the plot... as I said before, it was fun to fill-in the details of canon information and make allusions to things we knew happened in the future. I have just one tiny bone to pick.   Could we always refer to characters' mothers as Mum and not Mom, unless, of course, we are writing for Fleur or some other non-British character. I think Mom (and any American phrases in general) take us slightly out of the HP world that we are trying to create.

- PatPat, Aug 3, 2008 12:19 am: I liked how the story came out too. My only issue was Snape's mother was a little too nurturing for what we know of her. But that's OK.

- Julia H., Aug 3, 2008 6:12 pm: Hi again, everyone! I enjoyed finally reading the last (completed) story! I enjoyed taking part in writing it, too. It is great to write stories for which there is some basis in canon, providing a framework, but we can invent the details ourselves.

- PeskyPixie, Aug 3, 2008 9:01 pm: The last story turned out great, I think. Great job, PatPat. I agree that Eileen Prince was nicer than I expected, but maybe Severus had confunded her with her own wand?

And Quinn, I hope you come back. Orion's right, you have to be willful and steer around the steering.

* Five Words – Volume 8 Index *

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* Five Words - Stories Index (by topic) *

Potteraholic Sat Aug 06, 2011 12:55 pm

This story was first posted by Potteraholic - Aug 8, 2008 11:30 pm (#1472 of 2991) on the World Crossing home of the 'Harry Potter Lexicon Forum'.

Potty Five Words "The Crazy Mixed-Up Story of Regulus and Bellatrix (and Dumbledorish Guy?)"

Sirius lay, pouting, on his bed while an amused James sat at the foot, grinning. "Come on, it's gonna be a great party! I bet we can get Lily Evans to let her hair down for a change," he said cheerfully. "I fail to see why you are so mad."

Sirius peeped through his fringe and scowled. "I just don't feel like celebrating. My Mum has been on the warpath again with all her pure-blood craziness. I just want to leave that bloody place once and for all. I can't believe that Reg doesn't seem to mind the crazy ideas that are always spewing out of our parents' mouths."

James replied, "Yeah, and your brother does tend to follow Trixie's every move, too, like a little lap dog. It's disgusting."

Sirius agreed. "I just can't understand why he is willing to put up with nutters like her and Lucius. They drive me mad." He leaned over the edge of his bed and whispered conspiratorially, "We should try to find out what he is up to; he has been rather strange lately. More than usual, I mean." Sirius grinned. James looked at Sirius' hand, which fumbled around awhile under the mattress. A second later, he pulled out a battered old tin which he opened to reveal a collection of family photographs. Pawing through them, he extracted an old black and white photograph, which included Sirius, Regulus, Andromeda, Bellatrix, and Narcissa. Bellatrix was pointing her wand in Sirius's direction, and was that Dumbledore in the background? No, it was someone else... it was Aberforth Dumbledore, looking puzzled.

"Who's this standing behind you?" James asked.

"Him? No idea," Sirius replied. "But notice my dear cousin trying to kill me with that cold, hard stare of hers."

"But that guy looks familiar. Anyhow, where was this picture taken?" James asked.

Sirius smiled mysteriously. "Believe it or not, this at was at my parents' summer home, during a Black Family reunion. All sorts of pure-blood mania in the house... but you're right, that guy looks a bit like old Dumbledore."

James asked, "Why'd you choose to go? And what's Dumbledore's—"

"That old bloke's not important—"

“Isn't he?" asked James. "Why?"

"James, look, I chose this—"

"Sirius, mate, you're dodging an—"

"Padfoot! Prongs!” Remus ran in and stopped suddenly, surprised by the sight of Sirius' photographs. "Isn't that Dumbledore?" he asked, gazing intently at the faded photograph.

"It's a Dumbledore, not our Headmaster, though," said James. Taking the photo, Remus looked at it again. "That's Regulus isn't it?" he said, pointing. "There's Padfoot's cousin dearest, Trixie! She looks like she's baring fangs!"

"You'd know about fangs, wouldn't you, Moony?" James laughed.

“Why, yes, Prongs, my friend," said Remus, grinning, "though Trixie has larger fangs than I ever do!"

Sirius clapped him on the shoulder. "But Reg finds her sweet and amiable. Andie calls her ‘The Rottweiler’," Sirius explained, smirking. "The name is an insult to the noble hound. Trixie's more like a dragon, sitting on eggs."

James and Remus nodded. "That's no overstatement," James said. But he was still curious about the man in the background, looking puzzled. Why this particular photograph? he mused. "Why did you choose this picture, then?" he asked. "What's so special about it?”

"Well," Sirius answered, "if you look at Reg's face you can see that there is a scratch on the bridge of his nose. Where and when did he get that, do you think?" He paused. James and Remus shrugged. They did not find anything unusual about a scratched nose.

"Fell off his broom, maybe?" offered James.

"No, nothing as ordinary as that. Must have happened right before the reunion; he refused to tell anybody what happened, but I wormed some of the story out of him at last, and it seems like he was trying to figure out how to get my help first.”

"Help?" asked Remus, "what do you mean, help? He's never asked you to do anything for him before. What could you do that Kreacher couldn't?"

"Well that's just it," Sirius said, "If I had only taken the time to listen, he might not be hanging on Trixie's every word."

Remus shook his head, "No, Sirius, against Bella you never had a chance."

"So, what happened to him? Do you have any idea? You've got me interested, now."

Sirius sighed, "Well he was apparently going to the woods by himself that night. He did not say he was leaving. He just took off. He ran into Bella on the way and something happened then but I don't know the whole story. He seemed to be confused by some of the details and I was impatient so... that Dumbledorish guy brought him some mead and then he became silent and I left it at that. The goats were everywhere, that guy had brought them with him, big horned animals. And he was trying to pet one when Reg stumbled by his camp, tripping over a small kid. The goat started to charge and knocked Reg to the ground. When he tried to get up, he was headbutted by a larger goat, probably the kid's mother."

James and Remus glanced at each other quizzically. Sirius' story was hard to understand. "Goats? What do goats have to do with anything?"

"Do you want to let me finish or are you going to keep on interrupting?" Sirius said impatiently. "Reg tried to get out of telling me, but when Dumbledorish Guy, as Prongs likes to call him, brought Reg back—"

"Sorry, where were you?" Remus asked, looking completely confused. He saw the same befuddled look on James' face.

"So," James began, "Why did Regulus go into the woods?"

Sirius looked troubled. "Well, that's the part that is weird. Reg was anxious during the entire reunion and then he took off before the Blood-Purity fun and games got started. Which is weird because he really loves to show off for the family. I did not follow him at first, as I thought he wanted to be alone but then I noticed that he'd been gone for fifteen minutes and went after him."

Sirius looked uneasily at his friends. "I don't know why but I have a bad feeling, about Reg's absence. I guess it's why he's started avoiding me lately. Anyhow, he saw me coming after him that day. I yelled, ‘Regulus! Where do you think you're going?'. But he ignored me completely. I did not bother trying again."

"Suddenly, I heard something behind me and I whipped out my wand as I started to turn. Nothing. Whatever it was, it sounded like it was moving towards Reg. I thought changing into Padfoot might help to catch up quickly, but Trixie appeared out of nowhere and it was too late to transform. I watched from behind a tree and saw Bella staring at Reg with her wand out and pointed into the forest. I could see some shadows moving near the old boathouse by the lake."

"Then, the woods came alive all of a sudden as a group of small, ferocious smoke-like creatures emerged, followed by four or five masked figures. The creatures and figures encircled Reg and Trixie. Before I could move—"

"What happened?" James asked, leaning forward.

"Well, Trixie pushed Reg out of the way and he fell into the lake."

Sirius got up suddenly and started to pace the boys’ dormitory. "But what about the creatures and the hooded figures?" asked Remus.

"Yeah!" exclaimed James, "Who were they?"

"I don't know. I ran back to the others. I—"

"What?" shrieked Remus. “Your brother was surrounded and you didn't even try to help him?

"Well, I was planning on getting reinforcements when that bloke from the picture showed up."

"We don't need to hear about that guy," Remus said. "My head's still spinning from that crazy story! So what did Trixie do? Some Dark Magic, no doubt."

"Well, I know that she got rid of the creatures and people single-handedly, so she's quite powerful. Its no wonder Reg is Trixie's biggest fan! She saved his life! But I think she's milking this rescue for all it's worth. She had him de-gnoming Aunt Druella's garden for three hours and cleaning the shed!”

James exclaimed, "You're not telling us how Regulus got hurt or what happened with that old guy who was in the picture!"

Sirius sighed, "In a nutshell, Reg got hurt, Trixie came to the house as if nothing happened, and who knows who that old goatherd was!"

"Then, hmm, I could have sworn I’d seen him before. Hogsmeade!" James exclaimed.

"Yes, you're right," Remus agreed. "In that dingy pub, but you still haven't told us what he's doing in this picture!"

Sirius sighed and closed up the tin. "I think he was with Reg when he came back from the woods. It's not important."

"Yeah!" said James, looking rather relieved that the meandering storytelling was coming to an end at last. "There's just this little problem that we have," James continued.

"What problem?" asked Sirius and Remus together.

"That scratch on his nose. You still haven't told us about that extraordinary scratch he has in the picture!" James asked, rolling his eyes.

"Oh," Sirius said, "that. Well, he told me that one of the hooded figures shot a thin dart at him. He tried to get out of the way, but it zipped across his nose, making the scratch. I think it might've been laced with Confusing Concoction. Poor Reg was Confounded for hours afterwards, and I think he'll never remember the exact details of what happened.”

James scratched his nose absent-mindedly and shook his head, "Wow. That's unlucky. Learning some of Trixie's tricks might be very useful. Never mind. There's a party we need to think about, so just try and forget all about Reg and Trixie for now. Remember, Lily Evans is just waiting for you and me to show her how to have a good time!"

Sirius smiled. Remus looked curious, but decided not to pursue the topic. Instead, he announced, "The Hobgoblins are playing in Hogsmeade today. Maybe we could head down there after dinner, then go to the party."

"Yeah," chimed in James, "We just need to find Wormtail first. He's probably in the Great Hall already. He's never late for meals, is he?"

"No way," Remus answered with a smile.

After dinner, the foursome headed into Hogsmeade; catching Peter up on the crazy story he missed, when they saw a familiar face. James noticed first and grinned. "Isn't that...?"

"Yes," hissed Sirius, “it's him! And don't you say one word, or else you'll all be at the receiving end of a Bat-Bogey Hex!"

James and Remus laughed quietly and the four friends happily continued on their way.

* Five Words – Volume 8 Index *

* Five Words - Volumes Index *

* Five Words - Main Archives *

* Five Words - Stories Index (by topic) *

Potteraholic Sat Aug 06, 2011 12:57 pm

These stats were first posted by Potteraholic - Aug 8, 2008 11:34 pm (#1474 of 2991) on the World Crossing home of the 'Harry Potter Lexicon Forum'.

Statistics for Story 84
ordered by first contribution to the story

User	# of Submissions
PatPat	101
azi	6
Orion	16
Potteraholic	125
Verity Weasley	24
Julia H.	18
Quinn Crockett	11
Anna L. Black	4
PeskyPixie	32
Dryleaves	15
mona amon	7

The user in red is the rightful starter of the next story. They are welcome to pass on the privilege to the user who posted the second most number of times, who may in turn pass it to the user who posted the third number of times in the story, and so forth.

Total Submissions: 359
Total Words: 1795
Last Submission Date: #1468, August 8, 2008, 4:18 AM (PatPat)
Total Time to Create Story: 5 days, 9 hours, 0 minutes

These post-story comments were collected by Potteraholic, but were not posted in a 'post-story comments post' before the World Crossing home of the 'Harry Potter Lexicon Forum' site closed on April 15, 2011. So they are being posted now, here on forumotion.

Post-Story Comments for Story #84, Volume VIII,
Potty Five Words: ]"The Crazy Mixed-Up Story of Regulus and Bellatrix (and Dumbledorish Guy?)"

This story was posted on August 8, 2008. Eleven writers contributed to the story, which is 1,795 words long. Eight of the eleven writers posted feedback.

- [/b]Potteraholic[/b], Aug 8, 2008 11:39 pm: Okay, Five Worders! The story's up! And what do you know? It was started by PatPat and closed out by her, too! Way to go!

This story seemed to be very heavy on dialog, mostly from Sirius, and very light on description, something we were getting really good at in the past few stories. It’s not one of our better stories, in my opinion. I think part of the problem may have been some confusion about what or where the focus of the story lay.

We had a couple of train- or near-train wrecks that were a bit hectic, but the key to 'surviving' them is to stick around long enough to revise your post if necessary. Train wrecks need to be choreographed so that the posts make sense, esp. those that are out-of-sequence, and it sometimes feels like you're in the middle of a traffic jam. Folks write instructional notes in their posts to help direct traffic, so to speak, so that the jam gets cleared, and the story makes sense. I think everyone who posted in this story has experienced a train wreck, and after the dust settles, we're back on track. Until the next train wreck!

Since we have a new member of the Five Worder crew — Welcome, again, Quinn Crockett! — it might be a good time to have a look at some comments about how this game has worked for the past 2.5 years, written by Finn BV, our Most Excellent Five Words Sage, creator of this wonderful writing game here on the HP FFF.

"In terms of a "long, winding, epic story," I'm okay with that, though in general I think it's best to keep things simpler -- we often get sidetracked in little details and the stories end up messy, confused and contrived by the end. I would, just from personal experience, recommend against "trying to trip people up," because that happens too often on its own anyway. But please, by all means, let's write long stories, just don't lose sight of where it's headed and if we introduce many details, don't forget those details, or we have a lot of fixing to do.

I would discourage "trip-ups," but if you turn them more into "happy interesting totally unexpected changes in the plot" that's excellent! I think I mentioned that in the header of the original Five Words Vol. I thread -- something about new characters and shifts in plot that are fun and new. But hold off throwing in something random where it doesn't quite make sense. Once again, these are just my suggestions based on 2.5+ years of monitoring the thread. I don't mean to dissuade you from having fun with the stories, but don't put something in which is just totally out of the blue and which confuses people.
~ Finn, July 1, 2008, post #130, FW, Vol. VIII

... {some folks} had mentioned a little while ago about a "tripping up" type of Five Words… I don't think that would go over so well here on this thread, but I think some things you guys should look into are the "Neverending Story" threads right above the Writing Challenges on this Forum. They are similar to Five Words in that they mean communal posting, but there's no restriction on how many words you post, and the point is really to create a silly, long, epic, grandiose story. I would try it out. I do believe I'm the last person to post on the two open threads. They might be quite long for you to read through (but then again, I read all of the posts on both a long time, and it's a lot of fun), so I'm sure we could go ahead and start a new Neverending Story... Why don't you (everybody, really, they're hilarious) take a look at those threads and see what you think?
~ Finn, July 8, 2008, post #524, FW, Vol. VIII

In terms of steering the story in a particular direction or maneuvering around the steering, when a story's focus becomes apparent, like I think it was in this story by posts #1140 - #1150, sometimes it's important to go with the flow. There can be anywhere from 6 to 15+ people contributing to a story at any given time and we've all had ideas that we've had to give up because they just didn't fit into the story as it unfolded. As Finn wrote near the end of Five Words, Vol. II, "Remember that the story might sound good at the time that you're adding to it, but it may contradict itself from earlier. Really consider what should come next." It's true that the stories are going to take directions we don't expect, but we also don't want something that leaves everyone feeling and discourages folks from posting. Divergent or conflicting plans can cause confusion, which I think was true in this story's case.

Okay, this message is l-o-n-g enough. Time to get started on the next story. In the post-DH world we live in, many HP fans have expressed satisfaction and/or disappointment with the Epilogue. One of the complaints is that we didn’t get enough (or any) information about some beloved characters. But what about those characters not-so-beloved? And now, the first five words of our next story...

- PatPat, Aug 9, 2008 12:44 am: Good story start, PAH. And good comments on our last story!

- Anna L. Black, Aug 9, 2008 1:18 am: You know, the whole story actually makes sense now that I read it without interruption Ten points to everybody's house (Then again, maybe at 4:00 am everything seems to make sense)

- mona amon, Aug 9, 2008 2:52 am: BTW, I rather liked the previous story. It was fun! I think I prefer reading dialogue rather than descriptions.

- Julia H., Aug 9, 2008 11:00 am: Regarding the last story: I often read the posts without risking to add anything because I was not sure which way we were going. I guess I am more comfortable if I can sense a general direction to head for - for example if we manage to clearly state a problem / conflict at the beginning of the story, which we know we will have to solve. But reading it was fun and you did manage to put together a coherent story in the end. Well done!

- Dryleaves, Aug 9, 2008 11:50 am: Had to come here to see the new avatar you promised, PAH.

I thought the last story made much more sense than I would have thought, as I completely lost track of events after a while when we were writing it. But for me who is rather new and inexperienced here it was interesting to see the problems that can occur when writing a story together like this. I hope I learned something from it, even if I didn't contribute very much (and caused some trouble once when I did, I am afraid...) And I think you sorted it all out well at last.

- Potteraholic, Aug 9, 2008 1:43 pm: Dryleaves, isn’t baby Harry cute? In your previous post, by "caused some trouble once", if you mean your post here, don't worry! In my following post — did you see it? — I understood what you meant.

You did manage to put together a coherent story in the end. Well done! ~ Julia

I don’t know about anyone else, but for me, it took many rereadings of the posts and the version I was compiling for the official story. Without that, I would've been confused. And I agree with your 'general sense of direction' comment. Okay, that is my last comment about the previous story. PROMISE!

- Orion, Aug 9, 2008 5:04 pm: I had problems posting, too, because I couldn't understand the story at all. The problem was also that people wrote so many comments and so much stuff in white, and when I read that all I lost track of the story and my little grasp of it vanished completely. So now I've stopped reading anything in white or I'll forget everything before! People just have to be content with what I write, we're not in school, and it's just fun. I just hope that I don't cause major confusions.

- Verity Weasley, Aug 10, 2008 12:00 am: PAH, I forgot to tell you how much I loved your title for the last story. It made me smile. The last story was so confusing, I was hoping for something that made a bit more sense this time. But alas, earwax!

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Potteraholic Sat Aug 06, 2011 1:00 pm

This story was first posted by PatPat - Aug 16, 2008 7:48 pm (#1982 of 2991) on the World Crossing home of the 'Harry Potter Lexicon Forum'.

Archive of Five Words Stories - Page 10 BabyHarry

Archive of Five Words Stories - Page 10 BabyHarry

Potty Five Words: "The Magical Wedding"

Dudley's wedding was a week away and Harry still hadn't bought him a present. He was rather surprised he had been invited in the first place, but it was nice of his cousin to think of him. DING DONG!

"Harry, there's someone at the door!"

To Harry's surprise, his Aunt Petunia was standing on the doorstep. "Er, hello Aunt Petunia." Harry said, uncomfortably. "Is there something wrong?"

Petunia cleared her throat and looked around nervously just as Ginny came running into the hall, "Oh," she exclaimed, stopping short. "Aunt Petunia. What a surprise! Won't you come in?"

Petunia stepped over the threshold looking slightly hesitant. Harry glanced at Ginny, his eyebrows raised, then followed her and Aunt Petunia into the living room.

"Please make yourself comfortable," Harry said, motioning to an oversized couch strewn with small pillows. Petunia sat on the very edge of it, fighting every urge to straighten the area rug under her feet. Taking a deep breath, she looked at Harry and said, "I know you have been invited to Diddy's wedding. And he absolutely insists that you be allowed to bring your... friends... Hermione and Ron and your... abnormal family as you wish."

Harry could tell that Ginny's temper was beginning to rise, so he decided to ask his aunt to watch how she spoke in his house. Ginny excused herself and left Harry alone with Petunia, and Harry had the chance to speak to her in private.

"Aunt Petunia," he began slowly. "If we are to have a conversation in my house, I think that you should respect my family and not call them 'abnormal'."

Petunia did not argue. After an awkward few moments of silence, Petunia spoke again. "As you can understand, I'd rather prefer it if you kept your children home. They might do... well, strange things that would disrupt the ceremony."

Harry was thinking hard. He could feel his face getting warm but tried to stay calm. If I could stand up to Voldemort, Aunt Petunia would be as easy as conjuring an empty plate out of thin air.

"Aunt Petunia, I have a question to ask you. When are you going to stop behaving like a right cow?" He watched her turning red, feeling fury and satisfaction.

"How dare you speak to me like that! I have never been so insulted in all my life!" she shrieked.

Harry looked at her, his eyebrows raised. "So why exactly are you here, Aunt Petunia? Let's not forget about all the occasions when you made my life miserable. Those days are gone, however. What do you want from me now?"

Petunia looked like she wanted to be elsewhere badly, preferably as far away as possible. She pursed her lips, "I just don't want Diddy's big day to be spoiled by any of your kind."

Harry had an urge to curse her, but instead he said, "Aunt Petunia, this conversation is going nowhere. I refuse to sit here and let you malign those I love! If Dudley has invited us then that should be enough for you. My children will be staying home, if you must know. They'll be spending the day with their cousins. If I were you I'd just worry about last minute preparations for the wedding."

Petunia looked slightly relieved for a while, but she pressed on. "And the dress code directions? Did Diddy explain to you that you can't turn up in those weird clothes that all of your lot wear?"

Harry sighed heavily and said, "Yes—"

Petunia interrupted him, "No pointed boots. Our guests will be wearing only the latest formal wear. I would hope that you'd honor this simple request."

Harry stood up, "Aunt Petunia, you don't think my Muggle upbringing had any influence? Besides, being married myself, I have a vague idea how a wedding is supposed to go. You probably hate that Dudley invited me, but you will have to accept it, for I've decided that he's my main focus, not you. Sorry."

Petunia got up, fuming. "Is there anything...," Harry continued, "else you wanted from me?"

Petunia fumbled with her handbag. "Now that you mention it, there is... your half brother— we have just been thinking about how we should tell you. Actually, he's more an adopted brother than a real half brother, and he's living with Aunt Irma."

"Who's Aunt Irma?" Harry asked.

"She's my cousin from Plymouth," Petunia said. "And what do you know? He just rang—,"

"He? Who?" Harry interrupted suddenly. "I don't understand what you are talking about. Could you start at the beginning? What's his name?"

"William Tetley," Petunia said in a cold voice. Harry just sat in silence for a long moment. Then his face lit up. "You can't be serious! This is impossible! Who adopted him? When did this happen? Were my parents pressured somehow? Well?"

Aunt Petunia averted her eyes from Harry as she struggled to find the words and sighed pompously, "Your father had a cousin that was—"

"Stop!" Harry commanded. "Look at me." Harry's voice dropped to a whisper and Petunia couldn't tear her eyes from his.

Unobtrusively, Harry felt for his wand in his back pocket. He had never done Legilimency before, especially non-verbally, but he had seen Snape do it and desperately wanted to know now whether Petunia was telling the truth or not. He pointed his wand, discreetly, and concentrated hard, his eyes boring into Petunia's as he thought "Legilimens!" For a moment nothing happened, but then he felt his mind teeming with Petunia's memories. He tried to sort through them, as images of Dudley, Uncle Vernon, his mother and inexplicably, Aunt Marge, tumbled into view in his mind's eye. There was no sign of any other relatives, especially this mysterious half brother. He waited, saw nothing that supported Aunt Petunia's story, and finally decided that his dear aunt was making the whole thing up.

"Right!" Harry said brightly. "Time you were leaving, I should think," he instructed, leading Petunia to the door and ushering her through it.

"But don't you want to know about your half brother?" Petunia asked Harry waveringly.

"Not particularly. Goodbye. See you at the wedding." And he closed the door in Petunia's stunned face.

A week later, Harry and Ginny dressed for Dudley's wedding. They wore Muggle clothes, but decided to wear the boots they had purchased in Hogsmeade for the occasion: black dragonhide. Harry knew that they would bother his aunt. He didn't care, either.

When he and Ginny arrived at the church, Harry immediately recognized Piers Polkiss still looking as rat-like as ever, though with much less hair. He saw Aunt Marge, accompanied by one of her bulldogs. Harry couldn't believe she actually brought a dog to the wedding. Children were running around chasing each other. "I thought children weren't invited," said Ginny, giving Harry a look.

Harry sighed, "I think she meant only our children." For a moment Ginny looked menacingly over at Aunt Petunia. "Ginny, don't!" said Harry, grabbing her arm. "We're here for Dudley and Gertrude. It's not worth it."

"Look! Ron and Hermione did come after all!" he said, pointing to an old Ford Anglia pulling into the church's car park.

"Where'd he ever find that car?" said Aunt Marge loudly. "It looks just like my neighbor's old antique. I don't think they should be allowed on the roads!"

Harry had no chance to intervene before Aunt Marge marched up to Ron, her face a fiery red. "Excuse me," she bellowed "I hardly think that car belongs at an event such as this! It's a menace and you—"

"Excuse me, but who are you?" Hermione interrupted in her most efficient, authoritative voice. She was looking at Aunt Marge with eyes full of venom. Ron stood next to her, his ears turning red.

Harry practically threw himself in front of Hermione as Marge began to puff with indignation. "Ron, Hermione! Dudley will be glad to see you."

"Dudders will—"

"That's right," said Harry smugly, "Dudley invited them here, so they'll need to say hello and let him know they are eager to meet Gertrude."

With that, Harry dragged Ron and Hermione away from a bad situation and toward the church doors. "Who in the blazes are those layabouts?" Marge said, loudly enough for everyone to hear.

Ron muttered, "Is she related to you, that horrible vision in tweed?"

Harry smirked, "Not really. She's Uncle Vernon's sister, and she—"

"Wait! That's the one you blew up in our third year?" Ron interrupted.

Harry nodded, "She hasn't improved with age either."

Hermione scowled, "Well, now I can see why you did it, back then. Do you really think Dudley will be upset about the car?"

"I doubt it," Harry grinned. "But you never know! Let's go say hello to Big D."

Ron snorted. "I can't wait to meet the woman who's mental enough to—"

"Ron," Hermione hissed, "he has invited us to his wedding, so let's just enjoy it. Although," she turned to Harry, "I just can't believe your Aunt Petunia would be so desperate to keep you away from the wedding that she would manufacture a story about you having an 'adopted' half brother! Ridiculous!"

"Yeah, that didn't really make any sense, did it?" Ginny took Harry's hand. "Let's go inside and find our seats. The four of them made their way in. Uncle Vernon was looking like a large red-faced panda with a tuxedo stretching at the seams. Aunt Petunia, on the other hand, resembled a bamboo plant, with a fluffy green dress and a hat trailing long tendrils festooned with tiny salmon roses. The bride was resplendent in a pale ivory gown that shimmered with countless sparkling beads. Harry was surprised to see that Dudley looked very nice in a well-fitting suit and elegant top hat. He'd lost some weight since his fiancée asked him to give up his daily diet of chocolates and fizzy drinks. Harry and Ginny had seen him jogging in a lurid purple tracksuit over the past few months, and now he looked like a young Ludo Bagman from his Beater days with the Wimbourne Wasps.

Ron exclaimed, "Merlin's pants! Dudley looks almost human!"

Hermione elbowed him and hissed, "Ron, be fair! Dudley's worked awfully hard to look his—"

"Blimey! Who's that d'you reckon?" Ron blurted, pointing.

"Greta Catchlove!" exclaimed Ginny, astonished. "She's a witch! Mum's got her book Charm Your Own Cheese. What's she doing here? Wait, is she Gertrude's relative? She can't be related to the Dursleys!"

Harry chuckled, "I bet Uncle Vernon would lose his blob if he knew that his new daughter-in-law has magical relatives! Greta's sitting near the bride's mother. I wonder how closely related she is to Gertrude?" Greta had clearly not taken Aunt Petunia's dress code request very seriously, as she was decked out in a flowing gown of deepest red, embroidered with gold trim on the hem. Stars and crescent moons adorned the bodice, while little gold suns hung from her ears. To top it off, a gold pointed hat dotted her head.

"No wonder Dud wanted us here!" Harry grinned, "so that Greta wouldn't stand out quite so much!"

Ron pointed to Harry's boots and smirked, "Speaking of standing out, Gladrags Wizardwear's got one less pair of Dragonhide boots, I see."

"Two," Ginny said, tapping her foot.

"Shhhh," whispered Hermione "...music's starting." Two flower girls began marching down the aisle dispersing rose petals as they walked, followed by three bridesmaids. Then came Gertrude, accompanied by an older man who must've been her father. He looked jovial, with rosy cheeks and blue eyes that glowed with pride.

The ceremony began and Petunia started sobbing as soon as Dudley began his vows. Vernon patted her on the arm, but she continued silently crying. Vernon saw Greta and glared at her. She smiled at Dudley as he finished, jauntily waving her cheese-printed hanky. A few minutes later, they all congratulated the bride and groom, and poured outside into the bright sunshine.

Later, at the reception, Harry led Ginny over to the happy couple to offer their congratulations. Dudley gave them both a big bear hug and Gertrude squealed with delight as she kissed them both, "I'm so excited to meet you! Dudley's told me all these amazing things about you, Harry!"

Harry looked surprised but smiled graciously as Gertrude turned to Ginny, "I love your boots! Wherever did you get them?!"

Ginny smiled and said, "Oh, a little place called Gladrags Wi—" She broke off as Uncle Vernon bumped into her, unceremoniously.

"What's going on? Everybody having a lovely, normal, but special, time?" he growled, glaring at Harry.

"Simply wonderful!" gushed Gertrude. "We were just about to hear where Ginny bought these marvelous boots. Aren't they fabulous!"

Vernon smiled weakly as if he were swallowing a goldfish. At that moment, Greta came up to the little group. Gertrude looked at her and planted a kiss on both of her cheeks.

Uncle Vernon stuck out his hand. "Vernon Dursley," he said, scowling. "Dudley's dad. And you are?"

"Greta. Trudy's aunt. Lovely ceremony wasn't it, Vernon? And Dudley looks very dashing in his... What do you call those robes? Trudy keeps telling me, but I always seem to forget! These Muggle terms are so odd..."

"Muggle?" Uncle Vernon exclaimed. He was quite sure he'd heard that word before and did not want to hear it ever again, especially today.

Harry, meanwhile, was trying to change the conversation, "The band's very nice, isn't it? What kind of—"

"What's that Muggle word, again?" Greta interrupted him. "It's on the tip of my tongue, really! Duxeto? Custido?"

"Tuxedo," supplied Ginny quietly, hoping the whole thing would pass unnoticed.

"That's it!" boomed Greta, "You Muggles have some interesting words. Now, I don't think I've seen anything like it in ages."

Moving closer to admire Dudley's tie, a bauble dropped into her glass of Merlot, splattering Gertrude's wedding dress with deep red stains. Greta quickly pulled out her wand and started siphoning off the miscreant beverage before Uncle Vernon exploded. His face was rapidly turning redder and he was twitching uncontrollably.

"Give me that!" he hissed, glaring daggers at the entire group as Dudley tried to placate his father. Harry grabbed Uncle Vernon's wrist.

"You!" Uncle Vernon spat, pulling his arm out of Harry's grasp. "Something [/i]abnormal [/i] always happens—"

"Dad, stop!" shouted Dudley, suprising Vernon, certainly, but even Harry stopped short and looked at his cousin in mild astonishment. Dudley was glaring at his father like Vernon's own reflection in his son's face. "You will not speak to Harry like that! He is my guest, my cousin, and my friend! In case you don't remember, he saved my life! So, start showing him some respect, or this may be the last time you will enjoy the pleasure of my company."

Vernon looked at his son, then dropped his gaze. He nodded, his jaw set. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Dudley smiled at Harry, "Today's been just magical, Harry. I'm glad you were here."

Harry winked. "Thanks, Big D."

* Five Words – Volume 8 Index *

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Potteraholic Sat Aug 06, 2011 1:01 pm

These stats were first posted by PatPat - Aug 16, 2008 8:47 pm (#1985 of 2991) on the World Crossing home of the 'Harry Potter Lexicon Forum'.

Archive of Five Words Stories - Page 10 BabyHarry

Statistics for Story 85
ordered by first contribution to the story

User	# of Submissions
Potteraholic	161
Quinn Crocket	43
PatPat	111
Anna L. Black	16
mona amon	10
PeskyPixie	5
Verity Weasley	85
Orion	20
Julia H.	29
Dryleaves	22

The user in red is the rightful starter of the next story. They are welcome to pass on the privilege to the user who posted the second most number of times, who may in turn pass it to the user who posted the third number of times in the story, and so forth.

Total Submissions: 502
Total Words: 2510
Last Submission Date: #1977, August 15, 2008, 3:59 AM (Potteraholic)
Total Time to Create Story: 6 days, 4 hours, 20 minutes

These post-story comments were collected by Potteraholic, but were not posted in a 'post-story comments post' before the World Crossing home of the 'Harry Potter Lexicon Forum' site closed on April 15, 2011. So they are being posted now, here on forumotion.

Post-Story Comments for Story #85, Volume VIII,
Potty Five Words: "The Magical Wedding"

This story was posted on August 16, 2008. Ten writers contributed to the story, which is 2,510 words long. Three of the ten writers posted feedback.

- PatPat, Aug 16, 2008 8:59 pm: And so concludes our 85th story here on Five Words. I really like how this story turned out. We got a little off track at one point, but we really pulled it together and came up with a very entertaining story. Just some suggestions for all Five Worders:

1) Cross-posts and train wrecks are going to happen. It's the nature of the beast. The important thing is to make sure you stick around long enough to see that it is fixed. They seem to get taken care of pretty quickly, so try to make sure you check your post before moving on so you know if a cross-post has happened. Out of sequence posts can be confusing, but if all involved stay calm, we get through it and end up back on track!

2) The stories are supposed to be fun. We don't want to take away from that at all. But, this is still Harry Potter. Try to stick with canon as we know it. Sometimes stories about characters that we don't know as much about are easier because we can be more creative. But, at those times that we are writing about the main characters, deliberately contradicting canon is not a good idea.

All in all, great story everybody! I will wait a little while to give everyone a chance to comment on this one. I'll start the new story tonight (Florida time).

- Verity Weasley, Aug 16, 2008 10:57 pm: Well, it's another bronze medal for me when it comes to the story stats! I agree, the story turned out very well. I think the characterisation worked well in this story, especially for Aunt Petunia. We got to see just how desperate she was to maintain the air of normality. I also think the descriptions were excellent, especially the paragraph describing the wedding party. Not a lot of action in this one, but a lovely, character-building story nonetheless. Maybe Dudley and Gertrude will have a child that will go to Hogwarts!

- Potteraholic, Aug 17, 2008 2:03 am: "Well, it's another bronze medal for me when it comes to the story stats!" ~Verity

Nice tie-in to the Olympics, Verity!

So... in honor of a new story (that hopefully starts soon: ***hint, hint PatPat***) I've got a new avatar! But first, comments about "The Magical Wedding". PatPat, love the title! And wow! Another, 3 post-er! We do like or stories sprawling, don't we? Like Verity, I agree that even though this story was not action-packed, it was a great "character-building story". The descriptions were fun to write and there is a lot to be said for taking small tidbits of canon information and letting our creative juices flow when it comes to fleshing them out! All in a very amusing tale. I look forward to the next!

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Potteraholic Sat Aug 06, 2011 1:03 pm

This story was first posted by Potteraholic - Aug 24, 2008 8:59 pm (#2466 of 2991) on the World Crossing home of the 'Harry Potter Lexicon Forum'.

Archive of Five Words Stories - Page 10 HogwartsCastleLakeavatar

Archive of Five Words Stories - Page 10 HogwartsCastleLakeavatar

Potty Five Words: "Filius the Fearless"

Young Filius Flitwick grabbed his hat and wand. He was running late for Defense Against the Dark Arts class with Professor Dippet. He had never missed a lesson once in his life and he didn't intend to start now. Rushing out of Ravenclaw Tower and down the corridor, he bumped into the Grey Lady. He shivered involuntarily as he passed through her. He dropped his wand and almost fell over. Filius was so small that ghosts didn't always see him as he moved around the place. She looked at him, haughtily and said, "Mind your step!" but he paid no attention.

Picking up his wand, Filius continued on his way, and arrived at the classroom door just as a scream emanated from the Great Hall down the stairs. Filius hesitated, then ran downstairs to investigate. When he arrived at the scene, he saw some third-years gathered around what appeared to be a crumpled pile of robes. On closer inspection however, it was actually a person lying down, completely unconscious. No one seemed to know what to do. Filius said, "What happened? Did someone get attacked?"

A worried voice said, "Er... somebody attacked them, but we don't know why. Something flashed. That's all we know."

Filius pondered on who on earth would hurt someone and walked forward to check how badly the person was injured. As he came closer he saw a spark fly from the person's wand and he jumped backwards to avoid getting singed. A figure came running from behind one of the large stone pillars with their wand ready, pointing it at the prone body on the floor. Filius raised his wand, ready to fight if it became necessary. "Everyone stay where you are!" yelled the figure. Its face was set in a determined frown, visible through the thin veil that covered its head. "I'll take care of this," whispered the veiled figure.

Filius stepped forward even as the older students shrank back into the shadows. He raised his wand and said, "Rennervate!” The prone figure on the ground stirred and rolled over on his back. As soon as the boy opened his eyes everyone gasped. No one could believe that such a tiny wizard could perform such precise, powerful magic. As they were all watching, he began to sit upright, looking groggy. The veiled figure now moved towards Filius with a nasty smile. "Rictusempra!" the young wizard cried.

The strange figure collapsed in a heap, the veil fluttering as he laughed uncontrollably. The momentary wave revealed the identity of the attacker; a Slytherin fifth-year named Maximilian Spektor. He was usually a quiet, non-troublemaking sort of fellow. Filius was surprised he would attack a fellow student. Still pointing his wand at the hysterical teenager, Filius warily circled him, pondering what he should do next.

Suddenly, a voice called down from the top of the stairs behind them. "Stop! What's going on here?" The assembled students looked up and were shocked to see the Headmaster, Phineas Nigellus Black, glaring at them. Several students scattered as quickly as they could. Filius stood his ground, looking wary but determined. The Headmaster started down the steps, a foreboding sign, because he never went near the students unless the matter in question was of the gravest concern, or he was hungry and they just happened to be in the way.

Phineas reached the little group and looked from face to face, searching with his clever, dark eyes. "And what might you, little boy, be doing here with your wand ready to duel?" he asked in his reedy, snide tone. "Students always think they are prepared for a contest, but in reality, the opposite seems to be true. The arrogance of youth may lead one to think that they are invincible and are able to conquer every obstacle they hit. I think we ought to ponder the consequences of our actions in detention. This Saturday, ten o'clock."

He smirked, turned on his heel and left. Filius could not believe this had happened. He had only been trying to help. The Slytherin student at his table in the Great Hall kept smirking at him. It would not have annoyed Filius more if he had not already had plans for that situation. He was used to people giving him a hard time because of his size.

Later, as he sat down at the table for lunch, he saw the smirking Slytherin, Maximilian, looking at him from the corner of his eye. Filius had the unpleasant feeling that the other student was watching him. The thin, brown-haired boy looked away as he cast a searching look at him. Before he left the table, Maximilian muttered, "This isn't over yet!"

What happened to Maximilian to make him dislike another student so much? Filius wondered. I’m not going to let this go on, he thought. Maximilian seemed so different from his usual quiet self that Filius became quite certain that he must have had a special reason for his actions. He decided to find out more about it and the next time he saw the Slytherin boy he tried to talk to him.

Maximilian was standing outside the boys' bathroom looking as though something terrible had happened. Filius approached him cautiously and said, "Listen, I think we should talk about what's going on."

Maximilian looked at him like he was something he had just scraped off the bottom of his shoe. After a few moments of silence he spoke. "Why are you so interested? Why did you have to butt in when I had everything under control?" The boy's grey eyes were wide and his face was pained.

Filius was taken aback. "I don't understand. What's going on with you? I was only trying to help!" squeaked little Filius. "You could've got into serious trouble! Why were you wearing that veil and why did you attack that poor student?"

Maximilian's voice shivered slightly as he said, "Okay, I'll tell you, although I don't think it's possible for you to help. That boy came to me a few days ago and—"

"What's his name?" Filius asked curiously.

"I— I don't remember exactly. Ichabod Smith, I think," Maximilian said with some hesitation. "This Ichabod chap came up to me the other day and told me that he found my omnioculars outside. He said he'd show me where they were if I followed him and did exactly what he told me to do. Well, they were a very good pair of omnioculars that my father bought me so, naturally, I followed him. We ended up in this corridor, not far from this bathroom. I thought he'd found my omnioculars somewhere here but it turned out that—"

Maximilian suddenly flushed with anger. "What's the matter?" Filius asked.

"He tricked me!" Maximilian blurted out. "He just wanted me to do his dirty work for him."

"What do you mean?" Filius asked with increasing urgency; this Smith guy sounded a bit crazy. The Slytherin actually seemed scared of him.

Maximilian turned away. "It doesn't matter, it's done," he said with finality. Filius, however, was in no mood for stupidity.

"What did he make you do?" he asked, raising his eyebrows a little.

Maximilian looked back, seemingly embarrassed. "He told me that, if I didn't steal... something... for him, he'd go to the Headmaster and tell him that I—"

"So what did you steal?" Filius cut in.

Maximilian looked a little bashful. "Don't laugh," he said, "but he told me that the Headmaster wears polka-dotted, pink frilly bloomers to bed, and he wanted me—"

"Wait, how would he know?" Filius asked, smiling.

"Know what?"

"Know that I gave him those bloomers for April Fool's Day! Does he really wear them? Who'd have thought that!" Filius collapsed in a fit of giggles while Maximilian looked on, the corners of his mouth twitching as he tried hard not to laugh. "So," he continued, "Smith wanted you to steal—?"

Maximilian stared at Filius. "Yes!" he said." And in exchange, he'd give me my omnioculars back. So I didn't have much of a choice, did I? I broke into the Headmaster's private quarters and nicked those ridiculous bloomers! Unfortunately, that idiot in the Great Hall, Ichabod Whatsit, decided that I needed to do another job for him. I could hardly believe my ears and I realized that I—"

"Wait!" Filius demanded! "The veil! Why were you wearing that?"

"Well, I didn't want to be recognized by everyone when I hoisted the bloomers onto a flagpole in the Great Hall."

"Why would you hoist them onto a flagpole?" asked Filius. He thought Maximilian was taking a big risk, as they were talking about the Headmaster's bloomers being on display in the Great Hall. Headmaster Phineas Nigellus would not be happy and would catch the perpetrator before anyone could say Hah!

"Ichabod told me to make sure they were there by dinnertime or he'd break my omnioculars," Maximilian said.

Filius almost burst out laughing. "And you're prepared to do that? Why not just tell the Headmaster what this guy was doing?"

Maximilian looked offended. "I stole his underwear! Do you think he'd understand that I had no choice?" Filius could not help agreeing that the Headmaster might not be so forgiving. With a sigh, Maximilian added, "I only wanted my omnioculars back..."

"Was that why you searched my room?" a cold voice sounded from behind them. Both turned round to see the familiar face of Headmaster Phineas Nigellus. He looked very annoyed.

"Where are my things? You know of which I speak. My favorite pair..." he said in a barely audible voice. His eyes were looking tense. "I can't sleep without them." Maximilian seemed terrified, backing away against the wall.

"Excuse me, Sir, what exactly are you looking for?" Filius asked helpfully. "It's just that we'd be glad if you were specific, to avoid misunderstandings."

"A pair of woolen undergarments," the Headmaster whispered, as he was looking intently at Filius. "Didn't I give you detention, by the way?" He lowered his voice." See that my possessions are returned to me before midnight, and we'll forget about your detention." Filius looked eagerly at Maximilian, who apparently did not know what to do. He looked panicked. After a long moment he shook his head slightly, but the Headmaster suddenly raised his voice, looking sternly at Maximilian. "I hope I have made myself clear."

He turned and was about to leave but Filius stopped him, "Wait, Professor Black, I must ask you about Max's omnioculars. It seems they've also gone missing. Rumor has it, Ichabod Smith is responsible." Filius exchanged glances with the anxious Maximilian, smiling encouragingly.

The Headmaster looked thoughtful. "You don't say. That's certainly an offense worthy of detention. Maybe we'll have a chat." He turned to go. "I'll bid you good luck. Farewell."

As they saw the Headmaster walk off, they noticed Ichabod Smith standing and smirking just down the corridor. "Now's our turn to speak to him," Filius began, "and get this over with." They set off towards the boy, who was snickering, and Filius said, "Oi! We'd like to have a word with you!"

Ichabod looked somewhat taken aback. People didn't usually confront him, especially when they were so small. "And what would a garden gnome like you want from a significantly cooler person like me?" he sneered.

"You're significantly foolish if you think you'll get away this time, Smith," Filius said calmly. "The Headmaster knows all about the omnioculars, so if you don't give them back to Maximilian—"

"Are you threatening me, Squeaky?" Ichabod said angrily. It doesn't work like that, you know."

"Well, how does it work, then, you conniving little git!" Filius said, his temper rising.

Ichabod stopped sneering. Small though Filius was, he was no pushover. He could perform magic that other students couldn't, especially third-years like him. Nervously, Ichabod raised his wand. "Right, I heard you're not bad at magic. Let's see if your dueling skills can match mine," he said loftily. "Meet me at eight o'clock tonight by the statue of the humpbacked witch on the third floor."

"All right."

"And, Flitwick, don't be late. You know I might just leave if you are."

Maximilian, who had been staring at Ichabod grimly, said, "Don't worry, Smith, he'll be there."

Later that evening, at precisely eight o'clock, Filius arrived at the designated dueling spot with Maximilian as his second. Ichabod, accompanied by a fellow Ravenclaw, was already waiting for Filius. "Thought you wouldn't turn up," Ichabod said looking down at Filius.

"Disappointed now, then?" Filius asked with unmistakable irony in his squeaky voice. "I'm ready to start if you are.” The two duelists got into position and bowed. But Filius hadn't even raised his wand yet when Ichabod shouted, "Stupefy!" Fortunately, Ichabod had miscalculated the height at which he held his wand, and missed Filius completely.

"No cheating, Smith!" Maximilian warned.

Filius began bobbing and weaving his wand intricately in the air, then said, "Wingardium Leviosa!" Ichabod's feet lifted from the floor, upending him instantaneously. Just as the conquered Smith dropped on the floor, a pair of omnioculars fell out of his pocket.

Phineas Nigellus also turned up unexpectedly. To everyone's surprise, he, laden with Honeydukes' sweets, emerged from behind the statue of the witch, looking mildly interested. "What's this? Explain yourselves!" he demanded in a commanding tone. "Though I must admit, I have a strong suspicion that I already know what you have been doing. I trust my things will be returned to me as soon as possible, Mr. Flitwick?"

"I think so, Sir," he answered. "I am just not sure where they are."

"Aha!" Maximilian shouted suddenly, reaching for something curiously hanging out of Ichabod's robes.

The Headmaster immediately grabbed the frilly undergarment and raised an eyebrow. "Well, well I underestimated you, Mr. Flitwick. Young and hotheaded though you may be, you're a skilled duelist indeed. May I therefore offer you a place on the Hogwarts dueling team? The tournament with Durmstrang is coming up. We'll certainly need you." Filius nodded happily while Maximilian smiled appreciatively, clutching his omnioculars.

Filius grinned. "All's well that ends well," he said lightly.

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Potteraholic Sat Aug 06, 2011 1:04 pm

These stats were first posted by Potteraholic - Aug 24, 2008 9:23 pm (#2468 of 2991) on the World Crossing home of the 'Harry Potter Lexicon Forum'.

Archive of Five Words Stories - Page 10 HogwartsCastleLakeavatar

Statistics for Story 86
ordered by first contribution to the story

User	# of Submissions
PatPat	35
Potteraholic	94
Quinn Crockett	6
Verity Weasley	43
rassannassar	24
azi	60
Anna L. Black	12
Dryleaves	88
mona amon	26
Julia H.	83
PeskyPixie	2

The user in red is the rightful starter of the next story. They are welcome to pass on the privilege to the user who posted the second most number of times, who may in turn pass it to the user who posted the third number of times in the story, and so forth.

Total Submissions: 473
Total Words: 2365
Last Submission Date: #2465, August 24, 2008, 5:34 PM (Anna L. Black)
Total Time to Create Story: 7 days, 14 hours, 36 minutes

These post-story comments were collected by Potteraholic, but were not posted in a 'post-story comments post' before the World Crossing home of the 'Harry Potter Lexicon Forum' site closed on April 15, 2011. So they are being posted now, here on forumotion.

Post-Story Comments for Story #86, Volume VIII,
Potty Five Words: "Filius the Fearless"

This story was posted on August 24, 2008. Eleven writers contributed to the story, which is 2,365 words long. Four of the eleven writers posted feedback.

- Potteraholic, Aug 24, 2008 9:32 pm: Okay, the story's up, and in less than 3 posts! I think it was a hugely successful one! I think it's fun to write about the lesser-known, but still much-loved, Harry Potter characters and create their back stories. Since I've started my fair share of stories, I'm happy to pass story-starting honors to Dryleaves. Looking forward to your first five words, DL!

Oh, and I LOVE the bit about the Headmaster sneaking back into Hogwarts with his sweets! LOL, inspired use of canon! ~PeskyPixie

Thanks, that was my idea! That, (the bit in purple) in a nutshell, folks, is my mantra for Five Words! Sticking to canon can be very surprising and entertaining.

Now, please bear with me while I share some 'technical', for lack of a better word, post-story thoughts. "Filius the Fearless" was yet another long story. Out of the last 5 stories, 4 of them have been over 2,000 words. Just to give you an idea of how this has not been the norm for Five Words, here is a chart of Five Words Stories data:

word count in Five Word Stories

# of words	stories out of 88* so far
under 600	6/88
600 to 999	21/88
1,000 to 1,399	28/88
1,400 to 1,799	24/88
1,800 to 1,999	0/88
over 2,000	9/88

* There are 86 numbered stories, but two of them #28 and #59, have 2 versions each, hence 88 finished stories.

As you can see, the majority of the stories are under 1,800 words. The shortest stories happened in the first days of Five Words, and most of the stories fall into the 1,000 to 1,800 words range. Let's really try to write a simple vignette, as Finn suggested here in an earlier thread. This way, we'll be comfortably able to write 2 more good-sized stories on this thread before having to open a new one. Thanks, everybody!

Oh, one more thing. In the interest of saving up on our words, and having more natural sounding dialogue, I'd like to suggest that folks use contractions whenever possible in characters’ dialog (isn't, won't, can't, etc.). In my experience, people use contractions all the time in speech and only use the expanded form to emphasize something. Just a thought...

While waiting for Dryleaves to post the next story's first five words, won't you please have a think about what you can post in your post-story comments? And in the interest of saving valuable posts in this thread — there are just under 530 left — please wait until Story #87 starts to post your thoughts. Thanks. And... scene!

- Dryleaves, Aug 24, 2008 9:44 pm: It was great fun participating in this story that revealed quite a few things about the otherwise rather anonymous little Professor Flitwick and of course about the former Headmaster of Hogwarts, Phineas Nigellus, with his sweet-tooth and his very personal taste in underwear.

- Julia H., Aug 24, 2008 9:55 pm: Great start, Dryleaves!

Writing the latest story was tremendous fun. A lot of Five Worders have a flair for humorous ideas. These otherwise minor characters (Flitwick and Phineas) have indeed become more three-dimensional for me in this story.

- PatPat, Aug 24, 2008 10:42 pm: I love how this last story turned out! I wasn't able to participate as much in this one, with the storm and the start of school, but I think it turned out well! And I agree about trying to do a shorter story this time! Having compiled two that were three-posters, I can say there's nothing wrong with long ones, but short ones are equally as fun and allow us to make better use of our thread!

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Potteraholic Sat Aug 06, 2011 1:08 pm

This story was first posted by PatPat - Sep 1, 2008 11:17 pm (#2745 of 2991) on the World Crossing home of the 'Harry Potter Lexicon Forum'.

Potty Five Words: "Skeeter's Scoop"

Research, Rita Skeeter thought, was for plebs and dolts. Adding whatever your own imagination could invent with the tiniest scrap of evidence was the art of reporting. Verifying every fact and figure was time-consuming and not worth the effort. She looked at Bathilda Bagshot sitting in front of her in The Three Broomsticks, having a drink. Rita drummed her polished bright red fingernails on her table, pondering the possibility of extracting some information about Albus Dumbledore from the old witch. She was quite chatty when Rita first started to ask her about life in Godric's Hollow. But as the questions became more specific, the answers became less so. The large Quick-Quotes Quill was suspended above a fresh piece of parchment, but it had not written anything down yet.

Let's seei, Rita thought to herself. What can I do to get this crazy witch to give me the dirt on old Dumby? There's got to be something that will make her talk. Rita didn’t want to offend Bathilda. Firewhisky didn’t do the trick. Maybe a spell of some sort can help me here… Rita's thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of a loud group of wizards wearing Chudley Cannon robes.

"Two bottles of butterbeer, Rosmerta! Each!" said Galvin Gudgeon, looking as if he and the others had just won the League Championships. He sat very close to Rita, saying, "Cheers!", as he clinked his bottle with a team-mate.

Rita smiled, feigning interest in the team. In reality, her eyes were on Bathilda, who was half hidden by the bright orange robes flapping all around. Rita reached across the table and tapped her on the shoulder, "Getting a bit crowded in here, don't you think? Maybe we can head somewhere a bit quieter."

Bathilda emptied her glass and nodded, "The Cloverleaf Café in Diagon Alley has some lovely pasties. I'm feeling a bit peckish. Let's Disapparate, shall we?"

Rita thought it might be wise to Apparate by side-along, but almost as soon as they arrived in Diagon Alley, she saw Bathilda walking away confidently.

"Thank goodness!" Rita sighed. "Bathilda, hold on a tick. I just need to stop at Scribbulous' and get some more Quills."

Bathilda looked at her and said, "Hurry up. I don't have all day, dear. I'm getting quite hungry."

Rita sighed. It wasn't easy "gadding about" with the old fossil. If only she could find a quick and smooth way to get Bathilda to tell her everything she knew about Dumbledore's early years.

"Have you tried these pasties? The ones at Balthazar's Bistro just aren't as good. Albus always liked the turkey-filled ones. He used to say that they reminded him of his dear mother's cooking."

Rita's ears perked up. Was the nutty witch going to slip up at last and reveal some information that could actually be useful?

"Mummy's boy, was he? Never did anything that could be considered… rebellious, perhaps?" suggested Rita, airily.

Bathilda glanced at Rita reproachfully. "Albus was never rebellious! He was a perfect boy. Why—" Bathilda was interrupted by a flurry of owls that landed, suddenly, atop their table. The umbrella almost fell on them, but Rita used a levitating charm to put it right.

"What's this, then?" Rita took a letter from one of the owls and started to read it. Bathilda, noticing the hour, announced that it was time for her appointment with the apothecary and that she was leaving.

Rita nodded and continued reading. Bathilda left. Rita was still reading when the door opened and Alastor Moody exited The Cloverleaf. Rita stared at the old wizard.

"What are you looking at?" He asked eyeing her suspiciously.

"Why, Mr. Moody! I'm surprised to see you here."

"What business is it of yours if I happen to be here, Skeeter?" asked Moody, watching Rita closely with his magical eye.

"I've heard that you were seen in the French Alps."

"Hiking, I suppose?" he answered, gruffly. "I don't know where you get your information."

"My job is to seek knowledge and enlighten others." She smiled into his grim face.

"Seek gossip and pass on misinformation, I suppose that...that...drivel fools others, but as for me, I never believe any of it. Ever."

"Really? How convenient…," Rita muttered, turning back to her letters. "You deny it all, then?"

The tiny movement Rita's Quick-Quotes Quill made almost escaped Moody’s notice; however, his magical eye was getting stuck often and needed cleaning. He dropped it casually into Rita's water glass, ignoring her look of disgust.

"Ah, that's much better now," Moody growled, popping the eye back in place. "Thanks, Skeeter," he smirked, handing her back her drink.

The Quill scurried across the parchment. Moody leaned over to read what it had written.

Uncouth Auror, Mad-Eye Moody, despite numerous reported sightings in the French Alps, denies involvement in the conspiracy against the International Federation...

“...of Cheesemakers," Moody finished.

Rita's face soured. Moody plucked the Quill out of Rita's talons and added a couple of hastily scribbled lines:

The globe-trotting wizard plans to practice his wandwork on the local flora and fauna and devote himself to skiing and eating fondue.

"Mind you, I'm not going to discuss any of this with you, Skeeter," he said indignantly and stopped writing. He lay the quill on the table and stalked off, leaving Rita to continue the article by herself.

"I'll give him 'of Cheesemakers'", she scoffed, while crossing out Mad-Eye's contribution to her article. "Where was I? Oh..."

...of Clairvoyants, whose biennial conference was taking place in Chamonix last—

Rita's quill suddenly stopped as another owl landed on the table. She quickly detached the parchment it was carrying, and read:

Dear Ms Skeeter,

As a dedicated admirer of yours, I would like to inform you that unforeseen circumstances forced the International Federation of Clairvoyants to end the Conference prematurely. This means that I won't be able to report on the planned events of the week. However, I do have some important information concerning the peg-legged gentleman. He wasn't Mad-Eye Moody after all. His identity has now been revealed as Tiberius 'Bad-Eye' Bones of Wales. His involvement in anything that may have already been reported is uncertain as yet. I wouldn't want your journalistic integrity impugned by undeserved accusations of reporting misinformation.

Yours, most ardently, T. G. Nosecester

Rita shrugged, "So Mad-Eye wasn't in France at all," she muttered to her dismay. "'Bad-Eye' Bones, was it? What are the chances that two peg-legged wizards share almost the same nickname?" As she made the letter disappear, she tried to come up with another story idea. She could not see that someone like 'Bad-Eye' would be as interesting a subject to write about as that revolting Mad-Eye with his magical eye and atrocious manners.

Rita's pumpkin pastie was getting cold. "Oh well," she mumbled, while chewing quickly, "Mad-Eye or Bad-Eye, who cares?" Rita selected a fresh sheet of parchment and started scribbling.

Uncouth Auror, Mad-Eye Moody, has recently been spotted in the Cloverleaf Café. The proprietor, Sam Widge, reported that Moody's behaviour was more alarming than usual. Recently returned from France, Moody complained to Mr. Widge about an unsuccessful attack on the local Muggle population. When asked why he was attacking a Muggle, Moody barked, "Not me, you blubbering fool! It was one of the native mountain-dwelling giants. I stopped him with the Curse of the Bogies and used a Levitation charm. It took some doing, but I managed to keep him from flattening the town." The Muggles, unfortunately, saw him as deranged lunatic.

They were overjoyed when he left and held a big party to celebrate. Yet another example of how Mad-Eye Moody can be a major liability to the Wizarding World. Keeping an "eye" on him is what the Ministry should be focused on. Instead it can't see the forest for the trees and it needs to prune some branches.

Smiling to herself, Rita put her Quill down and rolled up the parchment. Satisfied, she put it into her handbag and rose from her chair, triumphantly. Her hard work had resulted in a story after all. Imagination is all it takes, she thought. Facts are completely superfluous. Who needs them?

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