Disclaimer: Harry Potter, and the setting of this universe, are the intellectual property of JKR and Warner Brother, not myself- the proceeds and revenues are theirs and theirs alone. All that I own is the AU information exclusive to my own fanfic.

Chapter 2

"Man, that was close…" Harry muttered, taking in his new surroundings. This secret passageway was pretty spacious, about as wide and as tall as the main corridors down in the dungeon were. And it had better lighting than most of those dank corridors down in the dungeon did too- there were candelabras, mounted into the blue-gray slate walls all the way down, on both sides, spaced out with about ten feet or so between them, and it seemed as though they were enchanted to light up and get brighter the closer you got to them, then dim away and blink out the further away you got to them. He'd never been down this secret passage before, or even noticed it was here on the Marauder's Map. But looking at it, there was no way that it couldn't be jotted down on there. He just hadn't been bothered to really take a good look for any secret passages to get around inside Hogwarts before now- he'd only ever used it to look for people, or look for ways in and out of the Castle. But after this, he'd definitely be getting the map out again sometime soon.

The candelabras on the left wall brightened a bit more as Harry drifted closer to the wall, dropping off to get a good look at the mysterious girl who he was walking alongside, who he'd only spoken to for the first time in his life barely ten minutes ago and who hadn't yet uttered a single word since they'd left the library. Su Li... Burning with curiosity, there were a whole host of questions which Harry wanted to ask her right now. About herself, about what she'd been doing up and about in the library at such a late hour, about what she'd said about the Triwizard clue relating to mermaids, about how it was that she knew Mermish- but there was one question which he just had to ask her first. "Su? Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm alright," Su murmured, the relief spilling over in her voice. "We made it out, praise the heavens… What I don't get, though, is how Caretaker Filch managed to get into the library at all. He's a squib, and that door was magically locked! Unless- you did lock that door behind you when you came in, didn't you, Potter?"

Harry shifted uncomfortably, realising that he hadn't. "Er… He's got a set of magical keys anyway, right? So it's not like it would have made a difference."

"Oh. Yeah, I suppose it wouldn't have. I'm just, so relieved that we made it out, that we didn't get caught. I never thought that I would have ever have a good word to say about that chak tou, lun seen Poltergeist, but that puk gai Peeves saved both our backsides back there." Harry raised a furtive eyebrow at the weird foreign words, and Su looked away. "I'm so sorry, please excuse my bad language. I swear though, if he hadn't turned up when he had, we would have been done for…"

"Um… Actually, I did that."

Su Li abruptly stopped in her tracks, staring at him disbelievingly. "Wait, that was your doing? But- how? I know you couldn't possibly know Gong Tau, and I don't think that even a Gong Tau Dark Master could have pulled off a spirit summoning feat like that without a proper ritual, let alone have done it in such a short space of time. What did you do back there, when my back was turned? What spell did you use? And how did you learn how to do that…?"

"Well, I- you see, I used this new spell, that I…" Harry thought about trying to explain what he'd done, and how it wasn't all that impressive. But gazing into Su's pearly eyes, gleaming with keen interest, he decided that he rather liked her looking at him like that, and thought better of it. "You know what, let's just say 'Magic', and leave it at that, eh? Unless you'd like to tell me all about that spell you used back there, to put up that quietening dome thingy around us?"

"Hmmph." Su pouted, shrugging nonchalantly as she walked past Harry, taking the lead as they continued making their way through the winding passage. "Oh, alright- fair trade, I suppose. That, was the Airkubah charm. When you cast it, anything which passes through the dome- objects, light, sound- behaves as if it's passing through a thick wall of water. It's pretty obscure outside South-East Asia, and I don't think that anyone teaches it or even uses it over here in Europe. But growing up, back on my family's Tanka in Aberdeen Harbour, it was one of the very first charms I was taught. Knew it well enough to cast it wordlessly and silently even before we began our first year at Hogwarts."

"Whoa, hold up." Harry shook his head, struggling to keep up with the deluge of information and make sense of it all. "Asia- but you're saying your family's from, Aberdeen? And what's a- Tanka…?"

"Not the Aberdeen here in Scotland, silly. The one over in Hong Kong. As for what a Tanka is, that's just our name for a houseboat. It's also what most of the Hong Kongese mainlanders, the Punti and the Hakka, use as their name for us too. Along with plenty of other less pleasant, more hurtful names…"

Su trailed off, averting her gaze downwards to stare the immaculately polished bronze tiles paving the floor of the passageway, and kept on walking. Watching her expression turn sour, Harry's countenance darkened as well, finding it all too easy to relate with her- clenching his fist, as all of the most hurtful names which he'd been called over the years echoed through his mind, along with the worst slurs he'd heard supremacist snobs like Malfoy tossing around more times than he could count. Racist prats…

She soon shook it off though- reaching up to brush a few stray strands of hair back behind her ear, as if to brush all of that aside, she turned to look him in the eyes once more, closing down the gap between them. "Anyway, I've told you all about my spell, and plenty more besides. So come on, Potter- how about you uphold your end of the bargain, hmm?" Was it just him, or had the passage suddenly gotten a lot narrower…? It wasn't just him. Coming around a tight bend in the tunnel, the walls on both sides angled inwards, the last set of candelabras set into them flaring brightly as another wall- no, the door, at the end of the passage- loomed in front of them, blocking their path.

Su pulled her wand back out of the pocket of her nightgown, and started going through the same motions she'd gone through back in the library, drawing up the outlines of the same sequence of runic symbols. It was a lot brighter here at the end of the secret passage than it had been back there though, and even more than before, Harry was struck by how different her wand looked compared to any of the others he'd seen before, even among the massive selection at Ollivander's. It looked like it was covered an abstract patchwork of wavy stripes- some parts of it were brown, like you'd expect wood to be, but only barely, and those bits were crowded out by the riot of radiant colours- indigo blue, lime green, magenta pink, tangerine, scarlet, yellow…

"Ahem." Still doing her wand-work on the passage's secret exit, Su coughed pointedly.

"So… Your wand's really pretty. What's it made from?"

"Oh, it's crafted from a twig of Coi Hung An Shu. Rainbow Eucalyptus. You think this wand's pretty, you should see what a whole forest grove of these trees looks like. And thanks for the compliment, but I'd appreciate it even more if you stopped stalling. Come on, Potter- spill it."

Harry took in a deep, heavy breath. "Well, okay, but you're gonna be disappointed. That was just a simple spell I picked a couple of weeks ago from the Weasley tw- from a couple of other Gryffindors, in the common room. And all it does is let you project your voice, to make it come from wherever you want it to come from. No master shamanism, spirit summoning or anything like that involved- don't have the slightest clue what- Gung Taw?- is, let alone how to do it. What I did, it was nothing more than a run of the mill prank spell. Nothing special."

Su Li's wand motions stopped abruptly, the brightly glowing half-finished line of runic symbols hanging there for a moment or two in front of the door before slowly starting to fade out. "No kidding? So, back in the library, you didn't summon Peeves, and he didn't just turn up- he was never even there? That wasn't Peeves' voice at all, it was just you voice-acting, playing the role and pretending to be him to lure Filch away?"

"Yeah, I know. Pretty weak and feeble, huh…?"

"Oh, no, not at all! Gong Tau's serious stuff, hardcore dark magic. Necromancy. So I'm really, really glad that it wasn't anything to do with that. Relieved to know that you didn't, I dunno, offer up my soul as a ritual sacrifice or something while my back was turned. Besides, what you did, getting us out of that tight spot with such a simple, harmless and innocuous spell- I'm impressed. That really was rather clever of you, Harry."

Eh? Perplexed, Harry raised an eyebrow, scrutinizing Su's face when she turned away from the door to smile at him, but he couldn't detect the slightest hint of sarcasm or insincerity. Strangely enough, it looked like she actually was impressed- because it wasn't impressive? How'd that work? "Nah, it wasn't, really…"

"Oh, and you did a great Peeves impression. That was too funny…" Tiny little dimples appeared on Su Li's cheeks for the first time as her smile broadened into a grin, and a fleeting giggle escaped her mouth before she raised a hand to cut it off. Normally, Harry absolutely hated the sound of girly giggling. And Su's giggling didn't sound too different. But weirdly enough, unlike theirs, her giggle didn't register as being annoying at all. Least, not right now. He couldn't help himself- Harry chuckled loudly, that infectious grin spreading to his own face as well, and continuing to get wider and wider until it dwarfed hers.

"Ha ha ha…! Thanks, Su. It was, wasn't it? Can you imagine what the look on Filch's face must've been, when he heard that? How long d'you reckon he'll be running around the library, searching every bookshelf for the Poltergeist who was never even there?"

At the thought, Su quietly burst out laughing, desperately trying and failing to hold it in. "Hahahah…! No, no, we shouldn't be laughing! Hee-he's just a, poor old squib, trying to do his job! It's, not his fault…!"

"And oh man, the next time Filch actually does bump into Peeves, that's going to be epic! Peeves is gonna be like, 'but I dunno what ya talkin bout, guvnor! It wasn't me this time, honest!' And Filch, he'll be livid, ranting and raving at Peeves for HOURS…!"

"Oh, please, stop, stop! I'm getting a stitch…!" Su doubled over, clutching her side- and in the cramped space, accidentally bashed her head against the golden egg that Harry'd almost forgotten he'd still been holding in his outstretched hands, hard enough to knock it out of his grasp and send it clattering down against the tiled floor. Rolling around on the ground, the egg clicked open and started screeching out its unearthly ear-splitting din again.

But Harry wasn't even bothered about that right now- he was far more concerned about the girl who'd collapsed to the floor with it, rolling around and letting out her own loud wail of pain. Harry leapt forward, diving in to crouch down next to her. "Oh, crap! Sorry, I'm so sorry, your head, I didn't mean to- are you alright? Are you hurt?"

Su didn't answer, just slowly shook her head. Putting his hand behind her shoulder, Harry put his back into it, sitting her up. She was saying something now, but he couldn't hear her properly over the background noise, couldn't make out what she was saying with both her hands clasped over her forehead, blocking off his view of her face. "I'm sorry, I should have… What is it, Su? Su?"

Harry winced as Su's hands slowly parted, moving away from the rising, darkening patch where she'd soon have a very visible bruise slap-bang in the middle of her forehead. Kept drifting, until both her hands were clasped tightly over her ears instead, and he could clearly see her face again- her eyes clenched shut, her pert lips repeating the same words over and over. My head, my head… Oh, right.

Slapping himself in the face for having taken so long to figure it out, Harry scrambled around for the golden egg, and closed it with a clink of metal-on-metal, cutting it off in mid-wail and plunging the passageway back into near-silence again. Still moaning quietly in pain, Su slumped back against against the side wall behind her, un-scrunching her face and softly stroking the bump on her forehead. "…Aarghh, at last. My ears, are ringing loudly enough as it is. That really, really hurt… Aah, my poor head…"

"I'm sorry, Su. I should've moved, should've reacted quickly enough, should've been able to pull the clue out of the way in time- it's my fault…"

"What? Your fault? What are you talking about? You didn't, do anything- you don't, have anything to apologize for."

"But you got hurt! And if I-"

"I hurt, myself, Potter. That's what I get, for laughing along like, an idiot, for not thinking. I never laugh out loud like that, never… Nggh…" Su groaned, fumbling around to snatch her fallen wand up off the floor and failing in her feeble first attempt to try and stand back up again. Harry offered a helping hand, and she stared at it for a moment before taking it in hers, letting him help pull her up off the floor. Su staggered back, having to lean against the side wall for support.

Concern etched across his face, Harry stepped in closer. "You sure you don't want to go to the Hospital Wing, get Madam Pomfrey to check you over?" Still looking like she was a bit dazed from the blow she'd taken to the head, Su looked up at him, before groggily turning her head sideways to stare blankly at the hand lightly perched atop her shoulder, then turning back to look straight at him again, little flickers of disbelief, surprise and astonishment flittering across her otherwise blank face. Slowly, she shook her head.

"No, it's- it's too late. Past curfew, remember? We'll get in trouble."

Harry shrugged. "Pff. That's not important, not compared to knowing that you're alright. And you did hit your head really hard. I've seen Bludgers strike softer blows than that…"

"It's, okay, I think. After all, it's only a bruise, right? Even if it is going to be a great big ugly one, right in the middle of my forehead. Won't make too much difference."

"Nah, it won't. You'll still look just as gorgeous as ever." Harry smiled, reaching out to gently touch the rising, darkening bump on her forehead. Su inhaled sharply, raising a hand to clasp it over his, and he scolded himself for not thinking first- it had probably really hurt. But she wasn't shoving his hand away, she was holding it there. So it couldn't hurt that much then… Stroking her bruise as softly as he could, Harry returned her inquisitive gaze, looking back into the eyes which he'd been able to feel burrowing deeply into his. "So, you sure you're okay, Su? Absolutely sure?"

"Well, it does feel a little bit better now. Just a bit… Harry…" Su's shimmering eyes stared straight up into his, and he could almost see something stirring in their pearly depths, something seemed to set his heart pounding a lot harder than the adrenaline surge of that chase through the book aisles back in the library had. She still looked a bit dazed, even more than she'd been a minute or so ago, but it was in a different way this time. And it was contagious- looking at her face, into the depths of those eyes, his mind seemed to go blank and fuzzy too.

Suddenly strangely conscious of how dry and chapped his lips were, Harry quickly ran his tongue over them. Then Su's tongue popped out to do the same thing, flickering over her lips before vanishing from sight again in a flash, and he felt something else, down below his stomach, pulsing into life in a way that he'd never felt it before. He wanted to see that tongue of hers again- to feel it, to taste it. Leaned in, closer, closer… Until, all of a sudden, Su blinked rapidly and wrenched her eyes away from his. The hand with which she'd been holding his close, up against her forehead, tightened its grip and yanked his hand away, breaking the connection.

"What…? What was I- were you- were we, just about to…?"

"I- I dunno…" Harry hastily stepped back, pulling away and putting his guilty hand behind his back, pretty sure that his face was even redder than hers was right now. And when he turned around to avert his eyes away from her, he turned redder still, at the realization that there were almost as many heart tags and love declarations scrawled and etched on the walls around them, in this secret passage, as there were over in the broom closets of the Quidditch changing rooms. Like this hadn't been awkward enough already.

What the heck had he, they, just been about to do? His lips had been only a few inches away from hers! How close had he come to snogging her, without even thinking about what he'd been doing? But it'd felt so, so… natural. And he could have sworn she'd been leaning in as well. What in the name of magic had that, thing, between them been? Merlin, he'd had less trouble fighting off the Imperius curse than that! The last time, the only time, that he'd felt anything even remotely similar to that, had been back at the Quidditch World Cup, with the… "Are you part Veela…?" Harry breathed.

Pulling herself away from the wall, still a bit unsteady on her feet, Su Li just stood there for a few moments, narrowing her eyes and glaring at him. "Ha, ha. Very funny. Was that supposed to be an attempt at flattery, or are you just poking fun at me now?"

"Nah, I wasn't, honest! You're… Pretty. Like, really, really pretty."

"Riiight. Sure I am…" Shaking her head in disbelief, Su turned away, grumpily muttering under her breath, half to Harry and half to herself, as she raised her wand and set to work on the door yet again. "Anyway, what was I doing again? Opening the door. This stupid door, with its stupid system of forcing you to write out the password in Anglo-Saxon Ancient Runic to get through, instead of just letting you say it out loud- Aah, finally! About time…"

The wall ahead of them swung open at long last, and they stepped out into what had to be the Ravenclaw Common Room. Or at least, it was supposed to be- that's what Su had said, right? Just from looking around though, Harry could have almost sworn they'd gone full circle, and arrived back where they'd started, back in another section of the library. There were tall bookcases penning them in on both sides, and another one in front of the aisle they'd come out into, with all of the space on every shelf taken up by tomes and books. The ceiling in here was just as high as the library's, and he could see the tops of the windows seemed to run all the way up to it, with the moonlight flooding in through them just as much as they had back in the library- were they magically expanded or something? They had to be- after all, Ravenclaw Tower didn't look noticeably different from Gryffindor tower from the outside.

But unlike in the library, he could spot the flickering of the light from a burning fireplace in here as well, playing out across the lofty ceiling above. The Ravenclaw Common Room also had the same bronze floor tiling as that passageway they'd just come in through, and he could tell from looking up at the ceiling, looking at its domed shape, that this room was more or less circular- kind of like a flattened bird cage. And he could hear other people in here too, loud and clear- a fair few girls, who all sounded like they were pretty miffed about something or other, clamoring to be heard. One of them was practically wailing, sounding almost hysterical.

"…That doesn't make any SENSE! It doesn't! IT, DOES, NOT…!"

"Wow," Harry murmured. Even things in the Gryffindor Common Room hardly ever got as rowdy as this, let alone at one after midnight. "What's with that?"

Su sighed, rubbing her forehead. "That, is what I went over to the library to get away from. To find some peace and quiet, somewhere where I'd be able to hear myself think. I'd hoped that they would have given up by now, let it lie and given it a rest, but no, Loony Lovegood's still going strong, doing what she does best. Driving the rest of them insane, winding them up and turning them all into a bunch of raving lunatics… Come on, the entrance to the Common Room's this way."

"Loony? That can't be her real name, can it? Which one's she- the screaming one?"

"Well, no, it's Luna. And she isn't the one who's throwing that hissy-fit right now. That's Powderkeg- sorry, Andrea Kegworth. Luna's the calm, quiet one- that one, who's talking now. She's- a bit weird."

Harry strained to try and hear as another girl spoke up quietly, her voice almost drowned out by all of the other girls' clamour and hysterics. He didn't manage to catch what she'd said, but whatever it had been, it sent the other girls into a frenzy, with Kegworth screeching at the top of her shrill voice. "I DO NOT have anything wrong with ME! You, YOU'RE the one who's needs to get her head checked, for- for…"

The quiet girl's vague and dreamy voice wafted over from beside the fireplace, just loud enough for him to catch this time. "Wrackspurts. They're invisible. They float in through your ears and make your brain go fuzzy," she said. "A couple more of them just came floating in right now. From the library. They're right over there, drifting along between the bookcases. Though they aren't reading anything. Shame."

Eh? Su and Harry froze mid-step, looking at each other. 'Wrackspurts- what the heck?' Harry mouthed. 'She's talking about us, isn't she? How does she know we're here? She can't possibly know we're here…'

Su just shook her head, shrugged her shoulders. 'Like I said. She's weird.'

No kidding… Harry winced as 'Powderkeg' Kegworth- who to be fair to the Ravenclaws, probably would have had the same nickname in any house, including Gryffindor- exploded again, screaming with a voice that was higher-pitched and louder than he'd have thought possible for anyone who wasn't at least part Banshee. "THEY'RE NOT REAL, YOU LOONY BITCH…!"

"Nearly there," Su whispered, tiptoeing ahead and beckoning for Harry to follow her again. "See that there? That's the entrance portrait. Just a single step out in the open, past this far end of the bookcase. Don't need a password to leave either. I'll go out first, make sure that no-one's looking, then wave you through when the coast's clear."

"Thanks, Su. I owe you one."

"Oh, you owe me more than that. At least three or four, surely…?" Su tossed a wry smile over her shoulder, and Harry returned a smile of his own with gusto.

She was right, and all of a sudden, Harry was struck by a brilliant idea, the perfect way to start making this up to her- as well as his best chance to see her and talk to her again, as soon as possible. Just as she was about to step out from their hiding spot behind the bookcase, Harry's hand shot out to catch hold of her trailing hand, stopping her in her tracks and pulling her back. "Wait! Su, hold up…"

"Keep it down, Potter!" Su hissed. "Are you trying to get caught, trying to get in trouble-?"

He'd never done this before, and his heart was pounding so loud it felt and sounded like the sound of his heart drumming away was about to split the sides of his head open, but all of a sudden, Harry found that he didn't care. For the past week, he'd been obsessing about just how he'd go about catching Cho Chang on her own and asking her to be his partner for the Yule Ball, trying to work up the nerve to do it. But right now, reconsidering that choice, he couldn't for the life of him figure out why he'd been so dead-set on asking Cho out in the first place. Cho Chang was a year (or two, thinking about it) older than he was, she was very pretty, she was a very good Quidditch player, and she was also very, very popular. And that was that- every single thing he knew about Cho Chang, and it amounted to barely a sentence. He hardly knew a damn thing about her.

Su Li, on the other hand- well, he hadn't known much more about Su than he had about Cho, not before this little escapade tonight. Just that she was the same age as he was (in the same year anyway), was also quite pretty, was good at Astronomy and Charms (the two core subjects in which he'd always shared classes with her and the other Ravenclaws), and while she wasn't popular like Cho, so far as he knew, she wasn't unpopular with anyone either, not like... Well, he felt bad for thinking it, but the way that Hermione was sort of unpopular, with practically all the other girls. Now, though? He felt like he'd already gotten to know Su better than he knew any of the other girls in his year besides Hermione, in the space of just the past quarter of an hour. And in spite of that, he still felt like he'd barely even scratched the surface. Still wanted to get to know her better, get more- closely acquainted, with her.

"I was just wondering, would you, like to… to go…?"

"Yes?" Su whispered, a little bit impatiently now. Crept back closer, silently casting that special light and sound-drowning charm of hers around them again. Well, he had his opening. It was now or never…

"…If you're not too busy. And you aren't already going with someone else. Do you think that you could, maybe, you know- go out with me?"

Su Li gasped, her spell spluttering for a second, though she just about managed to keep her wand from slipping out of her grasp. Harry cringed, feeling himself reddening as she stood up straight and just gawked at him, wide-eyed. Just keep talking, keep talking…

"Cause you know, I really did mean it. You're pretty. Hot. Beautiful. Gorgeous, even! And like, er…" Cripes, if this stretched on much longer, he'd wind up coming out of this an even deeper shade of puce than Uncle Vernon on one of his anti-immigrant rants. But he wasn't gonna give up, not so long as there was even the tiniest little sliver of hope that she wouldn't turn him down.

"…Yeah. So, what d'you reckon? You fancy, going out? With me? To…" The Yule Ball? He definitely wanted to, no doubt about that. But on second thoughts, gauging from her reaction, or rather her stunned lack of it, maybe it'd better to take things one step at a time. Start small. After all, there were still a couple more weeks to go until the Ball. "Out of the castle, that is. To Hogsmeade."

"I… I'm…? Do I fancy…? Wait, Harry- no, no, Potter, Potter. This is just, an awful lot to take in, all at once. I mean, you are handsome, good looking and, well, everything…"

"Whoa. Seriously?" She thought he was all that? For real? Not just that, but- no way…!

"I'm not saying that I, like, like you, you know…" He'd thought he'd just imagined it in the secret passageway, but even lurking behind this bookcase, it was a fair bit brighter here in the Ravenclaw Common Room than it had been back there. And he could see it, could see the tiniest of pink tinges working its way into her cheeks. His own face still felt redder than a tomato, but least it wasn't just him; Su was blushing too, even if it was only a little bit.

"Uh-huh." Harry raised a sly eyebrow, the shadow of a satisfied smirk working its way onto his face.

"B-But I'm not saying that I don't like you either though. Or that you're not a likable person. It's not like I hate you or anything…" Okay, now it wasn't just a little bit. There was no mistaking it now- she was properly blushing! And looking away, down at the floor, AND softly biting on her bottom lip a bit…

Harry's smirk widened. "Right."

"So, anyway, I suppose that, well, I wouldn't really mind. Doing that with you. You know what I mean, right? Going out, with you. To Hogsmeade…"

YES! SCORE! A massive wave of relief washing over him, it was all Harry could do to keep himself from jumping up and whooping for joy. He couldn't keep the big, dopey grin from etching itself on his face, but then again, it wasn't as though he was really trying not to smile. "Great!"

"But this isn't a date. Got that, Potter?"

"Oh, yeah, totally not a date… How 'bout the Three Broomsticks then? Tomorrow, six o' clock?"

"Oh, please no. It's always so crowded there- especially this year, with the Triwizard Tournament, and all of those extra people staying there at the inn to report on it."

"Oh yeah, good point…" Harry muttered, remembering that bespectacled bug-eyed reporter for the Daily Prophet, Rita Skeeter. He didn't want to risk running into her and that Quick-Quotes Quill of hers again any time soon, least of all with another girl, not after all of that tripe which she'd put out about him and Hermione. Probably best to steer clear of the place. "Tell you what, Su, how about you just meet me outside the main gates, tomorrow at six, and we can decide where to go then? Like you said, it is pretty late, and I should probably be getting on my way now…"

"Nggh…" Finally. "Yes, Potter. You really, really should," said Li Su, scrunching her eyes shut and raising her off-hand to massage the darkening, swelling bruise in the middle of her forehead for a few moments. She didn't need a diagnostic charm to tell her that she'd probably picked up a mild concussion from that heavy blow to the head she'd taken back there, when she'd clanged it into Harry Potter's shiny metallic ovoid Triwizard Tournament Trophy. Her ears were still ringing from that impact even now, and she still felt a bit groggy, unsteady on her feet.

But that knock to the head hadn't had even half the impact of the mind-blowing bombshell which he'd dropped on her just a minute or so ago, catching her completely unawares. And he was still at it too, relentlessly continuing his charm offensive to try and pull her further and further into his thrall, not giving her more than a few moments' relief to try and regain her resolve… "So- you'll be there then? At six?"

"I said yes, didn't I?" Su retorted, the Airkubah Charm she'd put up around them visibly wobbling as she struggled to hold it steady, struggled to keep her surging emotions in check. It held- the sounds of Powderkeg's ongoing self-destruct, still combusting as she kept trying and failing in her doomed attempt to talk sense into Loony Lovegood's unfathomable head, remained barely audible, drowned out by the barrier. But however much she tried to ignore it, she couldn't help but notice that the sound of her heart thumping away in her chest seemed to be getting progressively louder and louder, notice that it had gotten even harder to tune out and ignore its ba-dumping than the ringing in her ears now.

No guy had ever told her that she was pretty before, ever. Well, no guys besides her dad and her little brother, and obviously they didn't count. And she'd certainly never been asked out before- she'd already more or less given up on boys, feeling like she was pretty much invisible to them. And this wasn't just any boy either- this was Harry the Hero Potter, the Boy Who Lived and the Boy Who Won absolutely everything. And she couldn't deny that she had the tiniest hint of a crush on him (though that was about as big an understatement as saying that Loony Lovegood was the tiniest bit eccentric), not to herself.

She didn't know a single girl in the whole of their year, or in the year below them, who hadn't had a crush on Harry Potter at some point. Except perhaps for Loony Lovegood, but that was only because it was beyond her capacity, beyond anyone's, to figure out what was going on in that girl's head... But she'd seen the way he'd been going around over the past few days, rejecting girls left, right and centre over the past few days.

Scilla Yaxley, a 5th Year and one of the beaters on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, had been furious about the way he'd just brushed her off- and from Padma Patil, she'd heard all about the way that he'd been laughing and joking about it with all his Gryffindor buddies, heard about how he'd rudely rejected Scilla without a single moment's hesitation or one word of solace, just because he was bothered about how he'd look dancing with a girl who was taller than him. Padma'd told her all about Melissa Swift's failed attempt as well, how she'd been bawling her eyes out in the Hufflepuff Common Room. And Romilda Vane too, a second-year girl from his own house, who'd been dismissed in the blink of an eye without so much as a second glance.

Come on- get a grip, girl, Su chastised herself. She knew better than this. Knew that Potter was bad news, knew from plenty of first-hand accounts that he was a total douchebag when it came to girls. The way he talked about them, the way he treated them, all of those tales about his dad's exploits... She couldn't, wouldn't let herself be taken in by him so easily. She was a Ravenclaw, not a Gryffindor. She couldn't let herself get caught up in emotion, act on impulse without thinking it through, least of all when it came to something as important as this. No matter how good looking or how smouldering hot Potter might be, she had to hold it together, keep her head… "Seriously Potter, if I have to hold this spell up for a minute longer, I swear my head's going to explode. Can we just, move this along already?"

"Sure, sure, no problem. See you tomorrow!" …Easier said than done. She tried as best she could to keep it up, but the spell she'd put around them ebbed away, the bubble wibbling around unsteadily before collapsing entirely with a barely audible 'pop', her last strand of concentration finally broken by the great big bedazzling smile which Potter beamed at her at point-blank range- a smile flawless enough to easily outshine that of their old DADA Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, all of those consecutive Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award wins be damned…

Su gave up, placing her wand back in her pocket and leaning up against the nearest bookcase to try and get some much-needed support- wincing at the loud creaking noise it made when she did, and at the noticeable silence which followed it, with the third-year witches' squabbling abruptly petering out. "What was that?" One of the third-year girls- Kelly Carmichael, from the sound of it- whispered loudly. Well, she'd been planning to go out first anyway, right? Groaning inwardly, she motioned for Potter to wait and went on ahead, leaving the book aisle behind and strolling out into the open Common Room.

It had been Carmichael. She, Felicity Eastchurch and Joy Wiggleswade were standing there alongside Kegworth, surrounding that armchair by the fireplace where Lovegood would always plonk herself down, staring into the flames and warning away anyone else who came too close with that ludicrous conspiracy theory of hers, the one about the Ministry of Magic and their Heliopath Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Tonight though, it sounded like she was off on one about a different breed of magical beast.

"Told you so," Luna said, sounding even perkier than usual. "That's what happens when you've got wrackspurts wandering around. They'll sap away your brai…"

Lovegood's latest Loony lecture about her made-up imaginary creatures was cut off mid-sentence by Powderkeg stomping her foot down on the floor. With the accompanying outburst of stress-triggered accidental magic sending large ripples out across the carpet, jolting Lovegood's armchair, and shoving her three friends away, hard. Hard enough to knock the Wiggleswade off-balance, toppling her over and sending her sprawling on her fat backside, squealing loudly in pain from the fall. Even Jiggle-Wiggle's squeals were drowned out by the sound of Kegworth though, bellowing at the top of her voice again. "OH, WILL you SHUT UP about the BLOODY WRACKSPURTS…!"

Urgh, that muggle-born girl was even louder than the Mermish Choir from Potter's Egg. Su groaned, grimacing at the relentless assault on her eardrums, pushing her headache far past the point where the pain was unbearable. The noise, Āiya, the noise- if she didn't put an end to this, she was going to black out. Frantically, desperately, Su scrambled around in the pocket of her night-gown for her wand again, drew it out and pointed it shakingly at the girl who was still yelling loud enough to make even a banshee's throat start going hoarse.

"…SO, SOOO ANNOYING! BLOODY BINT! LOONY LITTLE CUN…!"

"Silencio!" Su shouted out the charm at the top of her voice, though it might as well have been silent, since even she couldn't hear herself shouting it. The spell flew true, and at long last, the common room was plunged into blessed silence.

"…Ow, ow, OW…!"

Well, sort of. Joy was still rolling around on the ground theatrically, rubbing that big fat ass of hers. But compared to the massive din just a second ago, it hardly registered as noise- this much, she could cope with.

Joy seemed too self-absorbed by her own injury to notice that her friend had been cut off mid-sentence, and Luna was just, well, being Luna- showing no signs of being the slightest bit affected by anything which happened around her, immersed in the serenity of her own little dream-world. Kelly and Felicity, though, both looked stunned, staring at each other with bewildered expressions before looking back to their friend Andrea. Who'd gone totally berserk, clenching up her fists, flailing her arms around and stomping up and down on the spot. Did the silencing charm silence one's footsteps then, as well as the sound of impacts? Looked like it did…

Stepping forward to approach them, tossing another glance over her shoulder and rolling her eyes at the fact that Potter still hadn't left yet, Su waved her wand, creating an arc of glittering sparks to get their attention. "Um- Hi, there…"

All four of the girls whipped around and stared at her. Or started shooting murderous daggers at her. Su winced at the sight of Andrea Kegworth, whose teeth were bared, had one of the veins in her temple visibly bulging out, a twitching, badly bloodshot right eye, and unfettered, burning rage painted all over her face. 'YOU!' Andrea screamed out soundlessly at the top of her lungs, pointing an accusatory finger at her. 'YOU DID THIS TO ME!?'

In the armchair, behind Andrea, Luna slowly turned her head as well, still smiling serenely as always. Normally, this would've been the point where Su held her hands up in surrender, zipped her lips and backed away, even if Kegworth hadn't looked like she was just a few slivers away from snapping. But after everything that she'd already had to deal with tonight, she had had enough.

"Yes, I did."

'You- how DARE you? EEAAGH...! TAKE IT BACK! UNDO THIS, NOW, YOU LITTLE-!'

Su turned away, deciding to avoid lip-reading any of the foul-mouthed torrent of insults which she knew was still spewing unabated from Kegworth's silenced mouth. "Look, I'm really sorry, and I know that it's really rude to cast a Silencio on someone, but I'm really really tired. And my head was aching enough already before all of that, and you were just, so, SO loud. You girls think you could keep it down a bit? Or maybe, you know, let it go and try getting some sleep instead?"

"Wow. You're a real bitch, Li." Felicity Eastchurch said, scrunching up her lips into a tight scowl.

Finally picking herself up from the floor, Joy Wiggleswade nodded in agreement. "Yeah, she totally is. Evil cow…"

Su raised an incredulous eyebrow, looking disbelievingly at the two of them. Really? Kelly, at least, looked concerned about Andrea- with Su feeling a fair bit of guilt at the sight of the tears of rage and frustration starting to stream down Kegworth's face- but neither Felicity nor Joy seemed to care, both of them ignoring their crying 'friend' like she wasn't even there. Any of them could've been casting a simple 'Finite Incantem', undoing the silencing charm in an instant- every Ravenclaw got taught that spell on day one. Even Kegworth should have been able to undo the charm on herself by casting the spell non-verbally, as a Third Year. But no; tossing out snide insults, and calling her names, just like they did to Luna Lovegood for hours on end, was much more important to them. And I'm the bitch here? Know what, forget this. These lot weren't worth it…

"OI!"

Unfortunately, a certain someone thought differently. Su almost let out a groan at the sound of what could only be Potter's voice, bellowing out across the Common Room- before realizing that it wasn't coming from the book section behind her. Instead, it echoed down from the middle of the domed ceiling, directly above their heads. Loony Luna Lovegood barely reacted to it at all, her dreamy not-quite-with-it expression remaining more or less the same. Lovegood's fellow Third Year haranguers, on the other hand, all shrieked in terror, practically jumping out of their skins.

"EEK!" Wiggleswade cried out, doing her drama queen routine and taking a tumble to the ground again.

"O, M, G! Did you hear that…?" Carmichael whispered loudly, blindly fumbling around like a headless chicken for her wand while keeping her eyes fixed on the spot where the voice had emanated from. Wiggleswade nodded frantically, scrambling to pull out her own wand and shakily pointing it upwards, still sprawling on the floor.

"WHAA… No, no, NO! I-it's just the Bloody Baron, come to pay the Grey Lady a visit. Has to be…" Eastchurch forced out a nervous laugh, shaking her head harder and harder.

"Oh no I'm NOT!" Potter's voice bellowed out from the ceiling again, setting off another round of shrieks. Su clapped her hand over her mouth, almost in unison with Carmichael, though for a completely different reason. If she hadn't, she wasn't sure that she'd have been able to hold herself back from letting out a snort of amusement at just how absurd and ridiculous the whole scene was, to stop herself from giving the game away. With her struggle not to laugh becoming doubly hard when Potter began talking again- only realizing a few words in that he was still talking in his regular voice, and switching over to what could best be described as a 'posh troll' voice instead. "Do I bloody sound like- er…? Oh. OH HO HO, you DON'T KNOW WHAT I AM? HARRUMPH! Wasn't Lovegood just telling you about me, about MY KIND?!"

"Hmm. Was I? I'm not so sure that I was…" Lovegood murmured softly, twirling a lock of her golden hair with her finger.

'AAAGH! W-what- how- who- YOU. YOU!' Shouting soundlessly at the top of her lungs, her eyes bulging, Kegworth span around to face Lovegood, gesticulating wildly both at her and at the spot where Harry's hilarious 'trolling' voice was being projected from. 'THIS is YOUR doing, ISN'T IT? I KNOW this is YOU, LOONY! WHATEVER THIS THING, THAT THING UP THERE, IS, STOP IT! RIGHT NOW! NOW!'

"Why, whatever do you mean?" Lovegood cast a brief, absent-minded glance upwards, in the direction where Kegworth was pointing, before dismissing it with a nonchalant shrug. "There's nothing up there but thin air. And the ceiling. And the roof, through that. And the sky, up above that. Which is mostly thin air anyway, so I guess I already mentioned it. Though I suppose there might be a few clouds, birds, bats and insects up there as well. Couldn't say…" Turning her head slightly to one side, Lovegood stared back at Kegworth, an expression of slight concern fluttering across her face. "Are you sure you're quite alright, Andrea? In the head?"

Kegworth just stood there for a few moments, lost for words, her mouth gaping open and shut like that of a fish. Then, pulled out her wand- remembering the Finite Incantem spell at long last as she did, and casting it to dispel Su's silencing charm- and brandished it at Luna's face, her violently trembling hand sending sparks flying everywhere from its tip. "Oh NO, you DID NOT just- I don't BELIEVE you just- YOU, LOONY, YOU of all people, do NOT get to accuse ME of being crazy! YOU HEAR ME?! NOW, YOU ARE GOING TO TELL ME WHAT THAT THING IS, WHAT YOU'RE DOING, RIGHT NOW, or I SWEAR…!"

"Nothing at all," Luna stated flatly. "Didn't I just say that? I'm sure I did. But perhaps you didn't hear. Maybe your head's still a bit fuzzy. Wrackspurts'll do that, y'know…"

"OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE WILL YOU FUCKING SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT THE FUCKING WRACKSPURTS YOU FUCKING LOON-!"

"BUT I AM A WRACKSPURT! IMPUDENT BRAT! And I'm here for YOOOOUUU! I'm here for YOU ALL!"

Lovegood raised a furtive eyebrow, shaking her head and gazing off into the distance. Or rather, Su noted, in the direction of the bookcase which she'd stepped out from behind, over by the Common Room entrance, her eyes focused on the spot where Potter still had to be hiding. "Oh no you're not."

Of course, except for Su, none of them heard her, or even realized that Luna had said anything. Not even Kegworth, who wasn't staring daggers at Lovegood any more. Not with the focal point of Potter's voice projection spell starting to descend from the ceiling, drifting down towards them.

"No WAY…! It can't be! It CAN'T…!" Eastchurch gasped melodramatically, aghast, starting to back away towards the dorm rooms. Still sprawled on her backside, Wiggleswade wailed in abject terror, doing a reverse butterfly stroke across the floor in the same direction.

Carmichael screeched, slashing her wand to shoot off a Stupefy spell at it- before screeching even louder, shooting it off again and again when it was met with nothing more than a hearty, bellowing laugh.

"Heheheh! You, you think that you can stop ME, fight off a WRACKSPURT, with SPELLS? MWAHAHAHA!"

"NOOO! Stop! Make it STOP! MAKE IT STOOOOOP!"

"Is it even worth it, sucking down the brains of these EMPTY-HEADED, IMBECILIC… er… IMBECILES? What do you call this?! HARRUMPH! This, THIS ISN'T A REAL MEAL! This, this can barely be called an APPETIZER! GRR. Still, I suppose I'll to make do with this, these four, four MORONS, as a snack for now. Let's start with… YOU! WAAKA-WAAKA-WAAKA-WAAKA…!"

That finally did it. All four of them turned tail and ran, shrieking their heads off, pushing and pulling desperately to get ahead of each other, back into their dorm room; Wiggleswade getting there last, and slamming the dorm room door shut behind her, with the silencing ward placed on it plunging the Common Room into blessed silence at long, long last. Swivelling back around to look back at the corner of the bookcase where she'd left Potter, Su watched as he sauntered out from that spot where they'd been hiding behind that bookcase, with a spring in his step and a self-satisfied smirk plastered across his face. Tossing her a parting wink, and flashing that confoundingly coruscating grin of his at her, before the entrance portrait silently swung open to let him pass through, and he was gone. Letting her wand hand fall down by her side, Su let out a heavy sigh of exasperation- only to quickly cut it off by clasping a hand over her mouth when it embarrassingly came out about an octave higher than she'd intended, making it sound like more of a wistful moan of longing instead.

"That was Harry Potter, wasn't it?"

And now, she'd have to deal with Luna Lovegood. Who, of course, had just seen Potter waltz out the door as well, since he hadn't even tried to be stealthy or subtle in making his exit, meaning that it'd fall upon her to somehow try and explain away all of this. To Lovegood, of all people. Unggh, give me a break… Groaning, vigorously rubbing away at the by now very badly swollen bump in the middle of her forehead- I'm definitely going to need bruise paste for this- Su glanced back at Luna. And was taken aback by the sight of deepening furrows creasing the blonde girl's forehead, her cyan blue eyes narrowed into slits, and her lips pursed into a tight, honest-to-goodness scowl. It was almost like, seeing a sweet, warm, innocent and kind-hearted smile spread its way across the stony cold, angular face of Professor Snape would've been, further and further, until he was properly beaming from ear to ear.

"Honestly. Can you believe that?" Luna looked positively livid- and getting caught in the glare of Lovegood's scowl was at least as unnerving and terror-inducing as getting caught in the full beam of a sweet, soft smile from Snape would've been. Frozen, Su just stood there mutely, not knowing what to say.

"A Wrackspurt? Hmmph. That didn't sound anything like a Wrackspurt, did it?"

"Oh- no, no, not at all," Su stammered, shaking her head. "Nothing like a Wrackspurt."

And just like that, the dreamy third-year girl's face was back to its sunny, smiley self again. Lovegood beamed at her, nodding exuberantly, before turning her full attention back toward the fireplace again, seemingly forgetting all about her in a heartbeat. Shoulders sagging in relief, feeling utterly exhausted, Su shuffled off in the direction of her own dorm room, knowing without a shadow of a doubt that she'd be out like a light the moment her head hit the pillow. This, has been a long, long night. And I've got a long day ahead of me tomorrow…

A/N- Sorry that this took so, so long. Re-wrote this four or five times, still not happy with it, but I'm posting it anyway. Anticipating a fair few criticisms which I know'll be coming my way in the reviews to this chapter (and a fair few of the early chapters to come). For instance "Hong Kong's Chinese, you f-ing dumbass. IN CHINA. She can't be going to Hogwarts if she lives there!"- Actually, Hong Kong was still very much British at this time. And interestingly enough, the person who secured the 99yr lease was a Mr Claude MacDonald, Great Britain's "Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary", whose role in securing the Unequal Treaties, and sealing ties with the Korean and Japanese Empires, was exemplary. His earlier role in trying to defuse the rebellion of King Koko of the Nembe Kingdom in Southern Nigeria, sympathizing and trying to reconcile with the king who'd renounced Christianity and sought to return to the traditional 'pagan' Ijaw religion, also merits a read.

And we also know that there's a prominent magical MacDonald family in the Harry Potter Universe, with Magnus 'Dent-Head' MacDonald spearheading the Creaothceann sports revival effort in the 60's, Mary MacDonald attending Hogwarts with the Marauders in the 70's, and Natalie MacDonald being one of the Gryffindor Firsties who got sorted in this year, the year of the Triwizard Tournament. So, I've also decided to expand upon the MacDonald family's history, and tie all of that together neatly and tidily, by making GB's "Envoy Extraordinary" a representative of Ministry of Magic in the HP-verse; making Claude Magnus' grandfather, Mary's great-grandfather, and Natalie's great-great grandfather. This also offers a reason why the Chinese didn't march in and take over Hong Kong at an earlier stage, at least in the magical world- they couldn't, because the contract which he forced the Chinese to sign was a magically binding Unbreakable one.

And with Hong Kong constituting sovereign British Territory under both muggle and magical law, the Quill of Acceptance also counts those sufficiently magical children who are born there to be eligible, and puts their names down to attend Hogwarts. However, that treaty's still set to expire at the stroke of midnight on 1 July 1997- which also just so happens to be the exact moment in time when Albus Dumbledore died at the wand of Severus Snape in HP canon (though this could well be set to change in this particular fanfic- plenty of time to go until then). What a coincidence, eh? And surely too great a coincidence to be allowed to go to waste...

PS- I have now changed the rating from T to M, so if that's why the latest chapter and update were suddenly removed without any notification or justification, please could whoever's responsible be so kind as to add it back? And if not, then could they be so kind as to inform us why it has been removed, so that I can do something about it?