~~Rictusempra~~

~Tuesday, December 10, 2002 -- 07:10 p.m.~

Hermione's hands went to her throat, and her eyes blazed suddenly with understanding, a mute growl escaped from her snarling lips as she pointed towards the retreating blond figure.
"Draco" she mouthed, like a fish gasping for air, "he cursed me! You have to do the countercurse!"
All three of her friends looked at her with complete confusion.
Hermione rolled her eyes, and shook her head impatiently, then dug through her purse for a piece of parchment and a quill.
She quickly (and neatly) jotted down what she had been saying,

That slimy weasel Malfoy just used a voice curse on me, he made me lose my voice! You'll have to perform the countercurse, I obviously cannot- oh when I get my hands on that...

They had gotten the idea, but still had the same confused expressions masking their faces, Ron was the first to speak.
"But, I don't know the countercurse for that spell..."
Both Harry and Oliver nodded their heads in agreement, causing Hermione to go into another fit of frustration.
She pulled a book out of her shopping bag and deftly flipped through it, finding the page she wanted and plopping it down on the nearby window ledge.
"There it is-" she mouthed, motioning to Oliver to get out his wand, "it seems to be quite simple..."
Again Oliver shook his head, and Hermione gave up, and threw the book to him.
Oliver brought out a rather dusty wand from the depthr of his robes, "Alright, here we go..." He read quickly down the page, "ah, here it is! Voxusreparare!"
The wand blinked briefly, but nothing seemed to happen, Oliver, Ron, Harry, and Hermione all looked at the errant piece of wood.

Try again.
Wrote Hermione.
Suddenly the wand flashed on it's own, and the belated little spark jumped out of the tip and went into Hermione's throat.
"Huh... Oh wait! I can speak!" Hermione laughed and hugged Oliver, "thank you!"
Oliver smiled, "No problem there, but you three always seem to be getting into some kind of trouble with that asp, I really would avoid him if I were you..."
All three sighed, "Oh we try, we try."

ooc: hey everyone ^^ I'm so happy you're all back and posting :D!

-Hermione

~Monday, December 2, 2002 -- 05:34 p.m.~

"Harry? Harry Potter," asked anoh so familiar voice. Harry spun around to find hisformer Quidditch team captian Oliver Wood. "Wood! What are you doing here?" asked Harry. Oliver looked around, "Well uhh... I am doing some Hogwart's business for the Quidditch program if you believe it. Anyways, Ron, Hermione, how are you two? Ron, how's those twin brothers of your's?" Hermione opened up her mouth to speak, but, nothing came out. Her eyes grew wide with disbelief. "Hermione? What's wrong?" asked Harry. OOT: Hello everyone! Sorry this is so short but I REALLY need to get to my evening class!! I'll post more later!

-Oliver

~Friday, November 29, 2002 -- 02:55 p.m.~

Draco turned,glaring at the Trio's backs and pulled his wand from his pocket. "Immutesco." He whispered, watching the spell wind towards Granger slowly in an ell of pale green-grey smoke. By the time she tried to talk, he'd be long gone. "Serves her right. Stupid mudblood." Pocketing his wand, Draco hurried off, smirking as he thought of the trouble the Trio would have trying to reverse the curse he'd cast-- No one short of Madame Pomfrey'd be able to help Hermione.

(OOT: Basically, Draco made her unable to talk by messing up Hermione's vocal chords. Go Ferret boy!)

-Draco (Mwuahahaha!)

~Wednesday, November 27, 2002 -- 05:14 p.m.~

Hermione quickly tucked Harry's presents into her pocket for safe-keeping and whirled around to face Draco.
"It's okay Ron, I can handle this..."
Draco laughed, "What're you going to do mud-blood? No magic outside of school, or has that slipped your mind?"
Hermione grinned in a rather sly, cattish, way and reached into her bag. Feeling around among her book she felt what she had been searching for, a cold, slimy jar. Twisting the cap open in the bag, she slowly pulled it out behind her back.
"Well Draco, you're not worth wasting magic on anyway, you slimy little weasel..."
With that she dumped her entire jar of pickled sea leeches on top of Draco's perfectly groomed head, and what seemed to be a brand-new, and quite expensive, robe. And, as everyone knows, leeches can't be very easily killed- and as they started to wiggle wormishly, Draco gave quite a yell, jumped back, and, pawing at his head, walked quickly away, looking back only once to yell- "Filthy mud-blood can't even fight fairly, you stupid- stupid- filthy... MUDBLOOD!"
Hermione, Ron, and Harry laughed as Draco walked (wiggling) away...
"Well. Now I'm going to have to go back to the Apothecary for more leeches- I can't believe I had to waste my jar on that slime."

-Hermione

~Wednesday, November 27, 2002 -- 03:10 p.m.~

Ron sighed as he saw the familiar head of blond standning next to Harry's. Draco...just the person he LEAST wanted to see.

"Harry, we need to continue shopping. Mum said t meet her in less than half and hour." Ron tapped his friend on the shoulder, causing a snear to come on Draco's face.

"Shopping? Is that what you call it? I thought begging and looking for third-hand items was far from shopping." The blonde laughed, causing the freckls on Ron's face to fade within a streak of red. "Oh, did I hit a nerve Weasly?"

".....Malfoy..." Ron clenched his fists, and he felt the pain as his nails began to dig into his palms. Harry looked over at his friend, then back at Draco. "You stupid-"

"Harry! Ron!" A feminine voice broke the tension. "It's you! Long time no see!" Hermione ran over and wrapped her arms around her two friends. "I've missedd you both so much!" She pulled back and smiled a sweet smile, making Ron's stomach flutter.

"It's great to see you Hermione!" Harry broke the silence. "What brings you here, other then getting ready for school?"

"I wrote Ron a letter about meeting here and -"

"What does it matter what she's doing here? All i know is her simple presence here makes me sick. Filthy mud-blood." Draco glared at Hermione. "Did your muggle parents drive you here? Or did you have to hitch a ride with REAL wizards?" Hermione's lips twitched at those words. "I don't blame you for not stayign with them now. Hell, I'd be embaressed too."

"You'd better watch your mouth, Malfoy." Ron steppeed in front of Hermione and narrowed his eyes at Draco.

"Oh, I'm so scared. What are you going to do about it?"

- Heheh..sorry for such a LONG post, but I'm so happy that this board is coming to life again! Mwee for Megz-sama!

-Ron

~Wednesday, November 27, 2002 -- 01:28 p.m.~

OOC: ack okay, we've got some conflicting ideas here. Hermione's at Diagon Alley, Harry is supposed to be going there with Ron, but Draco's already met Harry there. For this to work out, I'm fast forwarding things so Ron and Harry are already in Diagon Alley, and Hermione can meet them there or something. ^^;;

Harry narrowed his eyes at Draco. "I was just leaving," he said cooly. Damn Ron and his dare for Harry to go in there. He gave Malfoy another cold look then pushed by him to head out and find Ron. Mrs. Weasley had gone to buy their books and Ron and he were supposed to be getting Ron some new robes.

OOC: I know, short, but I can't do much else without you guys.

-Harry

~Wednesday, November 6, 2002 -- 11:52 p.m.~

"That will be forty nine galleons, 12 sickles and 7 knuts, thank you for shopping!" Draco smirked at the woman behind the counter of the magical ingredients shop and paid her, thenn dumped the bag containing black unicorn horns, scarab wings and dragon's tongue onto the pile of boxes and bags that Inky held as the elf trailed behind him, tottering precariously.

"Hurry up elf. We still have to go to Knockturn Alley!" He commanded, striding out of the shop and leaving the servant far behind to struggle alone through the crowds.

A familiar flash of green behind glass lenses caught Draco's eye as he turned down onto Knockturn Alley. "Well, fancy meeting you here, Potter. I didn't think you were interested in the dark arts."

-Draco!

~Saturday, November 2, 2002 -- 09:38 a.m.~

Hermione sat cross-legged on her bed, surrounded by dusty books of surplus pages, and her large, orange, cat- Crookshanks.
It was about 9 o'clock in the morning on a hot summer's day, only three weeks before the start of the new school year.
Hermione flipped through an especially thick book, hunting for information she could use on Prof. Snape's essay, while Crookshanks lazily batted a stuffed mouse along Hermione's desk, scattering grey fluff onto her keyboard.
Hermione sighed, and rubbed her eyes a little, gathering her hair back into a bun and putting down her book- she had been doing homework almost all summer long!
"I wonder what Harry and Ron are doing, they haven't written to me in quite a while- maybe I should just call Harry- oh no! It's almost his birthday! Maybe I should take his present over personally- he must be dying of boredom with those Dursleys- oh wait! I haven't even gotten a present!" said the once organized Hermione, "Maybe I should write Ron and ask him what he's getting..."
"Hermione!" called up Mrs. Granger, from the foot of the stairs.
"Yes mum?"
"Shall we get going then? Down to London to get your supplies?"
"Umm sure, " said Hermione, picking Crookshanks up and carrying him out of her purple tinted bedroom.
What could she get Harry though? A book- erm, perhaps not... Something for his broomstick? Got that last year...
Hermione stopped at her mom's cluttered desk and quickly jotted down some words to send to Ron,

Ron,
How come neither you or Harry have written to me in so long? Forgotten about me have you? Probably forgotten about the homework too! Well anyway, I've been having an alright summer, I just finished up Prof. Snape's essay on the uses and dangers of the Aging potions- almost five parchments! Fascinating stuff. How is your family? Fred and George causing trouble again- what did happen to their joke shop idea? Oh- to the point! I'm going to London today for my books, what have you gotten Harry for his birthday? I just haven't a clue this year- write me back soon since I'll likely have to order it from the catalogue!
Love from Hermione

She would post her letter in London...
...Maybe something from the Jokes Shoppe?
The ride to London was quite a boring one, Mrs. Granger sang along to oldies- and Mr. Granger was at work with an emergency root canal.
When the small silver car finally pulled up infront of the Leaky Cauldron, and Hermione ushered her mother into Diagon Alley, it was already lunchtime.
After getting some money, and posting her letter, Hermione ran down her school list- she'd need a few books for Muggle Studies- "Mixing Magic and Technology, by I.B.Martswort... Ravenslore, a study of Magic in Muggle Literature..."
Her mother soon left her to her toils, situating herself at Florian Fortescue's, and ordering herself a double dip Choco-Strawberry Sundae; Hermione was left to search for her perfect present.
Suddenly she felt a light tap on her left shoulder, and whirled around, facing a dark alley.
A small, slight man stood there, eyeing her, he was dressed in prolific black robes, a rather grungy hat sitting atop his head, and ratty gloves covering his hands.
"'Afternoon miss, what be you looking for hereabouts? Your head seems prop'ly in the clouds." The man had a slimy, sly, and strangely forceful voice.
"Oh...nothing...nothing really, thank you."
The man lifted one short finger, then drew back his robes, "You must be looking for somethin' little miss, can I int'rest you in my humble wares?"
Hermione politely shook her head, and tried to walk on, but the man stopped her.
"I have in my possession six magical artifacts which may be of much use to you."
He pulled out some clangy metal pieces out, and lay them on the ledge to his right, Hermione leaned over a bit with curiosity.
He first pointed to five silver rings, engraved oddly in an unknown language, and decorated with a small jewel and bat carving.
"These are the Sindirings, ancient Nordic rings made by the freat dwarfsmith Sindri- if you wear one, and a friend wears the other, you will always be able to sense when the other is in danger, and they you- amazing, amazing rings!"
Hermione gazed down at them skeptically, then opened her mouth to speak- but the man interrupted her.
"And here-" he said, pointing to the second object, "here is the Dragondrop Dagger- forged of the blood of ancient dragons, this dagger can cut through almost any material! Why, it can cut through iron, steel, and rock! And to you, to you, I am offering these wonders!"
Hermione cast him a suspicious look, "How do I know they are real?"
The merchant picked up the dagger, and sliced a bit of stone from the facing rock, "the rings however, are hard to prove, for they only work with people who are your true friends!"
Hermione made a thoughtful face, and the man stole a look at her purse, his glasses peering right through the material and counting ten Sickles, and twenty-two Knuts.
"How much?" asked Hermione.
"Oh, well, I like you, I will give you a good, a very good deal- only ten Sickles, and oh, let's say, twenty-two Knuts- for a few of the rings, and the dagger."
"How did you--"
"No matter, will you take them? Another man was looking at at them earlier- and if he comes back..."
Hermione quickly gave him the money, and carefully lay three of the rings in her money purse, and the small dagger complete with scabbard, into her bag.
The man smiled after her, "good riddance- to bad rubbish," he cackled, disappearing into the alley.

ooc: sorry about this long long- thing ^_^;; hehehe it's just my first post, couldn't stop myself- hello everyone X3!

-Hermione

~Tuesday, September 3, 2002 -- 06:49 p.m.~

"It shouldn't be this hard..." Ron stared down at the phone in his hands. "Muggle inventions are really stupid, and they don't do any tricks."

"Have you figured out how to use it yet?" Fred walked in and placed his arm on Ron's maroon-sweatered shoulder. His normally pale face was covered with black dust? and he was grinning ear to ear. "You know what you do? You are supposed to put it to your foot and whistle. That turns it on." As Ron lowerd the phone to his foot, George slowly snickeredd. It was clear Ron had bitten the bait again. Both twins burst into a loud, rumbling laughter as Ron started to hum the national anthemn, and his face became puzzeled when nothing happened. There laughter died quickly as Mr. Weasly shot them an angry glance. He shurgged his shoulders and looked at his youngest son.

"Just owl Harry. I'm sure he'll be excitied to hear from you, plus your owl needs some exercise. All that beating against his cage walls is making me go insane." He pointed to Pig, who was smashing his head against the door, begignt o be let out.

"Fine." Ron smiled amnd glareed at the twins, who only cat-grinned sheepishly and strode out. "Mum said I could invite him along...and I have missed him..." He took the quill and ink to his room, where he slowly slid open the roll of parchment. "Let's see now..."

Harry,
Ron here! I jsut wanted to let you know Mum said you can come to Diagon Alley with us! I can't wait to see you! How has your summer been? Fred and George have been....experimenting.

Like that was the word for it..the twins had blown out the entire left wing of the house.

How has Hedwig been? Pig's still a git, and I feel taking this letter will let him roll that energy out. Ginny says hullo, along with the rest of the Weasly clan. Please owl me back after you get this.
-Sincerly Ron

Sincerly?! Sincerly?! Ron stared at the word he had just written. "Gah! That word is way to formal, but it's dried now!" He glanced down at it again, and felt his arm reach for the top to crumple it.

"Need an envolope?" Ginny snatched the letter from his hand and stuffed it into a pink envolope with a heart on the side. "There!" She rolled it tightly and tied to to Pig's feet, tossing him out the window. "Bye Pig! Say hi to Harry for me!" She waved as the tiny owl flew out of site, weighed down by the letter.

"Why pink?!" Ron startted at his sister, who now held out a small white envolope. "Why couldn't you give me a normal one?" Ginny smiled and shurrged, leaving Ron alone to his thoughts. "I hate girls..."

-Ron

~Saturday, August 31, 2002 -- 06:56 p.m.~

It had been a quiet day. Unnuaturally quiet. Remus Lupin didn't like lulls. They always made him think of a hurricane... the center of a hurricane, the calm point of the storm. Yet it was also the focus of force, the brutal splintering of everything that was unfortunate enough to cross its path. Either that, Lupin craned his neck and listened, or it seemed as if the world was holding its breath before exploding. It often seemed that the longer the silence held, the longer the paroxysm of disaster would be, too. And It had been a quiet day, he recalled, the day Sirius barged into his home and informed him of the Dark Lord's return and the whole bloody mess that arose from the incident.

That had been over two months ago. And since then, the forest around his home seemed to have deadened even more; transforming it into a silent, yet somehow quite deafening, hell.

Remus rubbed his eyes tiredly and reached over for his suitcase, running his fingers across its dulling surface. Dumbledore wanted him back at Hogwarts. What it was exactly, that Albus wanted of him, Lupin wasn't sure, but he would help in anyway possible. The air was thick when he closed the door behind him and he headed towards the local village where he'd spend the night before boarding the train. Lupin shook his head. Yes, the world was going to explode and he hoped dearly that the ministry knew what it was getting itself into.

ooc: so sorry for the long, boring, out of context intro but i couldnt come up with any other way to bring him back. bluh, well, carry on, then. x3

-Remus Lupin

~Thursday, August 29, 2002 -- 10:58 p.m.~

"...And so, the draught of living death is the only known way to ease the pain of a person suffering from yeknomitis until the cure can be successfully created and administered." Turning sharply from his position by the corner of his father's large, ebony heartwood desk situated in the center of Malfoy Manor's library, Draco turned imperious blue eyes on the house elf rapidly scratching a poison green quill over a length of parchment. "Well, did you get all that, elf?"

The elf, looked up, but didn't let his slightly bulging eyes make contact with Draco's. "Y-Yes sir. Inky is done sir!" Lowering his eyes again, the elf quickly dotted a few random I's, then held out the parchment to the blonde boy.

Draco's eyes swept over the scroll, then turned back to the elf. "Nice work elf. Now get out of my sight." When the elf didn't move fast enough, he picked the poor thing up by the back of the dishtowel it wore, and threw it towards the door. "And tell Ranky to bring me up some Fizzing Whizbees."

"Y-Yes s-s-sir!"The door slammed behind the elf as he left and Draco smirked, setting the parchment on the polished surface of the desk and picking up the quill to add his signature.

"Draco Lucifer Malfoy."

-Draco L. Malfoy

~Wednesday, August 28, 2002 -- 10:43 p.m.~

Ron stared down at the vocabulary before him. Bloody 'ell he thought, This is too much work. I should've done it ahead of time. He imagined Harry and Hermione shaking their heads in disapproval. he could almost hear the shriek sounds of Professor Snape in his ears. No wait. That was only pig.

"Stupid feathery git..." He brushed his orange hair from in front of his eyes and went back to the scroll. His wrist hurt from the writing, but Ron was still two inches short. "I don't see how knowing terms will help me in charms. All I need to do is watch Hermione and ask for help...."

-Ron was here ^^lll

~Wednesday, August 28, 2002 -- 09:16 p.m.~

Harry Potter yawned tiredly one evening, rubbing his eyes and trying again to focus on his transfiguration homework. Why couldn't we just turn our relatives into badgers, intead of writing an essay on the famous transfiguration disasters of the past century? he thought to himself wearily. There was only a week before he'd be back on the Hogwart's Express, making his way to school for another year. Although he was excited and eager to see his friends again and get away from the horrid Dursleys, he had left some of his over the holiday homework quite late, and had been up the past few nights trying to hastily finish it so he'd be ready when term started again.

He imagined the look on his friend Hermione's face if she could see him now. She'd shake her head and tell him that she had had hers done within the first week and a half of summer and that he really shouldn't have left it untill the last minute. He smirked as he thought how freckle-faced Ron would roll his eyes and say "Oh come on, Hermione. Lighten up. Not all of us have the textbooks memerized." Ron had probably left his just as late.

Harry paused, his quill hovering above the half completed parchment. He always missed his friends terribly during the holidays and now he yearned to be in the company of the noisy yet welcomingly warm and friendly Burrow of the Weasleys'. He had sent a letter to Ron the other evening, asking about his summer and if he'd be visiting Harry anytime before they met on the Hogwarts Express. He doubted it though, considering how Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia were completely against the idea. Harry glanced over at Hedwig's, hoping for a moment that she was being treated nicely at the Weasleys until she returned soon.

Sighing and rubbing his eyes under the lenses of his round glasses, Harry put his quill to the parchment once more and continued on the assignment.

OOC: Okay, peeps, join join! We neeed characters. ^_^

-Harry