Holly and Natalie's study den

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Natalie stood outside the portrait of the moaning moonstone witch with a forlorned expression on her face. She kept glancing at her watch. She was waiting on her friend Holly, one of her Gryffindor friends.

"Where is she?" Natalie exclaimed impatiently.

"Ok then," said Natalie, smiling slightly," if thats what you think, then I won't give you that golden snitch sigbed by the seeker if the HolyHead Harpies." This was a joke, of course....she would never do that to Holly.

"You know George can read minds Natz," Holly said, not taking her eyes off the duel, "He knows you will. And thanks....I wish we had slushies,"
The last comment for for George's ears only.

Shadow and Raven battled on, not paying attention to anything else in the room.

"Who's your money on?" Holly whispered to Natalie.

"Me too," said Natalie, smiling as she thought Holly was talking to her all of a sudden about slushies.

"My money's on Shadow....and speaking of money....one sickle that Shadow will win?"

"Well I dont really know Raven....so my money would be on Shadow too....one sickle George will trip at some stage tomorrow?"

Shadow managed to teleport behind Raven, launching a flying kick at the back of her sister's head. Raven turned round quickly, grabbing Shadow's foot. Shadow merely used the other foot to kick Raven, who was now sprawled on the floor. Raven stood up again, throwing bolts of magic at Shadow.

"Oooh," Holly said, "I hope no one gets hurt!"

"Ha ha nice try, I know George never trips.....one Sickle that I won't hand in my Potions essay tomorrow." said Natalie

She looked at the duelling girls.

"Don't worry," said Natalie, "it's harmless really.....or is it?"

Shadow retaliated with her own barrage of magic. Raven summoned a shield around her before morphing into a raven, flying directly towards Shadow, who morphed into a wolf. Shadow leapt into the air, clamping her jaws around the black bird.

"You always hand in your homework......swot....and yes, it looks totally harmless!" Holly said. She was being sarcastic.

(I gotta go guys, love you!!)

The raven crowed, struggling, but the wolf just sat down, not letting go.

"Oh...yeah sorry.....and your a....a....a schmuck," Natalie laughed, "only joking.......Ooh that had to hurt."

The wolf spat out the raven and morphed back into Shadow.
"I win... again Raven, and when was the last time you took a bath?!"
"Good point." Said Raven, having morphed again.

Holly, who had been watching in silence since the name calling said "Well done guys, thanks for letting us watch....are you okay?"

"Apart from the taste of feathers and a few bruises, yeah. We normally come off worse." Shadow said, shrugging.
"I just have a few teeth marks." Raven said, grinning.

"Yeah, I agree," said Natalie, "that was amazing!"

"Thanks." Shadow said,"Most people run for cover when we start fighting."

"We wouldn't run.....Gryffindor's don't run from anything," said Natalie, smiling slightly.

"Have you ever seen us go demonic on each other?" Asked Shadow.

Holly glanced at Natalie.
"Would we want to see that?" she asked, as George shivered.

"Let's put it this way, Voldemort himself would run away screaming like a little girl." Raven pointed out.

Natalie laughed, then she frowned.

"Are we talking about the same Voldamort that made his own daughter, who is my friend, to put the Cruciatus curse on me?" asked Natalie.

"Are there any others?" Asked Raven sarcastically.

"No," said Natalie in shame, but then she laughed at her moment of madness.

Raven smiled as well.
"Talking of fighting, dear sister, we have something to talk about..."
"I'm not going Raven!" Shadow said firmly.
"It's not going to be that bad!"
"Says you."

"That would be weird," said Holly.
Suddenly, without any warning of any kind, there was a loud bang from behind them. Holly spun around, wandering what on earth had happened, and saw a huge troll, sprawled on the ground. He had flown in the window and broken the glass.

"What in Synairn is that?!" Shouted Raven.
"It's a troll Rae, nothing to worry about... much." Shadow replied.

"What'll we do?" George cried, "Holly- do something!"
"Ew! Like what?"
"Something!"
Holly whipped her wand out just as the troll was standing.
"Um....uuum.....expelliarmus!"
Nothing happened.
"STUPEFY!" she yelled, and the troll fell, wounded.

"Ok,we can send it back where it came from." Shadow said, pushing her cloak behind her shoulders and preparing to create a portal.

Holly watched in earnest. She liked Shadow's magic.
"What now?" she asked, "Anything I can do to help?"

"I think I've read about this somewhere," said Natalie, "I think now we are suppose to levitate this-" she pointed at the troll, "through the portal, but pull back on our magic just before we get sucked through with it."

"Right, given the size of this thing, Raven and I have to work together. So, please don't interrupt our concentration." Shadow said before turning to Raven. The two girls put one of their hands together, and chanted a spell in demonic.

Natalie remained silent, and motioned to Holly to do so too.

There was a small flicker of black magic in the air, and the two demonesses concentrated harder. The flicked appeared once more, but this time, stayed. It grew into a shimmering black portal, Shadow and Raven concentrating hard to keep it in place.
"Put it through now!" Shadow said, the strain evident in her voice.

"Who us?" Holly asked feeling stupid.

"Yes!" They said together.
"We can't hold this for long!" Raven said, struggling to keep the strain out of her voice.

Natalie quickly cast and help levitate the troll through the portal.

"Ok....let go....NOW!" she said, and she let go of her magic.

Holly helped her and let go of her magic at the same time.
The troll was gone.
Holly fell onto one of the bean bags, glad it was over. George coughed from the corner.
"That. Did not suit me," he spat.

"You said it George," said Natalie, also sitting down heavily on the nearest beanbag, "I'm beat."

Shadow and Raven fell to their knees, releasing the magic.

"That was close," said Natalie.

(P.S Hannah, Dorm 5 was named Brave Lion's)

LucyXX

"Ture that. You guys were great! I wander where Jamie was through that whole episode....,"

The twins didn't reply.

"Yeah.....come to think of it...where is young Jamie?" asked Natalie.

"That's a very good question." Shadow said, getting shakily to her feet.

"Jamie?" Holly called out, looking all around, "Jamesson?"

"Lord of Erica?" Shadow said, questioningly.

Holly looked quizically at Shadow, but did not comment.
"JAMIE! OI! JAMIE! WHERE ARE YA!"

"Ouch." Shadow said, rubbing her ear. She tried the telepathic approach. Jamie? Jamie, can you hear me?