Confessions That Come Out of Playing Poker

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It was a dark and stormy night. We find our heroes playing an innocent game of poker.

"Ron, I don't see how you do it! You've won every game!" Harry whined as Ron slowly moved the mountain of Galleons, Sickles and a few Knuts over to his rapidly growing pile of money.

"I'll tell you how. Poker is probably the only thing I concentrate in. I sleep with my eyes open in everything else I do," he said. Hermione sniggered.

"I can believe that. You barely made it out of Hogwarts! Without mine and Harry's help, who knows where you'd be right now?!" Harry and Ron laughed at this. They knew that sometimes Hermione could get a little edgy when they brought up passing school.

"And I will be eternally grateful to you and Harry, 'Mione. But back to poker. I can remember when Harry went on that overseas Quidditch game and you went with him. My Gringotts vault sure did miss your money!" Harry came back from the kitchen with the snacks refill.

"Well, we weren't at the Quidditch game the whole time," he said nervously as he sat down. Ron stared at him with a confused look on his face. "Then where were you?" Harry looked at Ron, then Hermione, then Ron again. "I-I witnessed a murder."

Ron chuckled. Then he laughed. "Harry, you are so funny! You didn't witness a murder, did you?" he asked, still laughing. When he looked at Harry, hanging his head, and then at Hermione, who was very pale, he stopped laughing and said just above a whisper, "You did?" Harry brought up his head and nodded a couple of times. Ron just stared at him. "Wow. I've never witnessed a murder before! Was it fun?" he asked with quite a bit of enthusiasm. Harry looked both confused and hurt.

"Ronald Weasley! I can't believe you!" Hermione said. "Here Harry is, telling you that he witnessed a murder! He comes looking to you for support and all you do is make a joke out of it! 'I've never witnessed a murder before. Was it fun?', honestly! I thought you had--".

Harry cut her off by grabbing her arm and whispering in her ear, "Don't overdo it, 'Mione! He might get suspicious...."

"You're right. I guess I should have been a little more supportive. It was probably traumatizing for you, Harry," said Ron with a guilty look on his face. Soon that look faded and Ron asked, "But could you tell me what happened?" with an excited look on his face. Hermione stared at Harry through the corner of her eye. Finally she said,

"Harry, please join me in the kitchen. I need to have a word with you." He got up and followed Hermione to the kitchen. Harry smiled at her.

" Why must I always come with you wherever you go? I mean, I'm all for the buddy system, but, really!" She started to pace.

"Harry, what are you going to do now? He asked you to tell him about it! You know that there is no IT!" she said with exasperation in her voice. "Hey, just calm down. I have it all figured out. All you need to do is play along, OK?"

~*~*~

Harry and Hermione returned a few minutes later. Ron looked at them with some concern. "Are you guys all right?" he asked. Both of them nodded their heads. All of the suspense was killing Ron. "So....are you going to tell me what happened?" he asked without thinking.

"OK, but ante first," Hermione butted in before Harry could speak. They piled their chips in the middle of the table as Harry started:

"It all began on the Tuesday that we left for the game. I left Hermione at the hotel room to go get some, uh, pizza, wasn't it? And some of that flavored water stuff, and some chicken and some spaghetti and some--OW! What was that for?!" Harry rubbed the side of his stomach where Hermione had elbowed him. He continued his story:

"OK, then, I went out to go get a midnight snack because Hermione and I got the 'munchies'. Over the past few days, I had become friends with the store manager so I was having a little chat with him and all. We finished our conversation when this strange looking man came in. He had on a tuxedo, white gloves, and really dark sunglasses.

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Harry was talking to Bob at the counter with the pizzas and such when a strange looking man came in. You could tell that he was looking at Bob, even though you couldn't see through those dark, dark sunglasses.

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"I remember that he asked to see Bob alone. They went off into his office. I sat there and waited for like, fifteen minutes. Well, I didn't really sit there for fifteen minutes.

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Harry banged his head against the screen. He had just lost half of his money to Ms. Pacman, Cruisin' the World, and a pinball machine

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"Harry! I can't believe you! You didn't try to get me that cute little green and pink bear that said "I LUV NY' on it?" asked Hermione.

Harry looked at her. He sat quiet for a few seconds before saying, "Er, yeah! Yes, yes I did try to get you that bear.

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Harry banged his head against the screen. He had just lost half of his money to Ms. Pacman, Cruisin' the World, a pinball machine, and the dreaded crane. A shadow appeared on the wall. Harry turned around to come face-to-face with the strange looking guy with the sunglasses.

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"He was just staring at me. I don't really know what I saw on his face. Bob was nowhere in sight. I asked him where Bob was and why he was there. The only thing he said was that he was with the Health Department.

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"I'm with the Health Department," said the Sunglasses man. He shot one last look at Harry and left. He sat there for a few minutes and returned to his arcade game.

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"You just sat there playing your games?" Ron asked. "I dunno about you. But if I had seen some weirdo come out of another guy' office alone I would have ran out of there faster that anything!'

"Ron! Just let Harry finish!"

"I am! I was only sharing my opinion!"

"You know the routine, if we want your opinion, we'll ask you!"

"Will you shut up? I'm trying to tell a story here!"

Harry continued after Ron and Hermione stopped bickering. "I played more games for about five minutes. It was getting late, and Bob still hadn't given me the chicken. So I went on and checked on him.

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Maybe the arcade games just didn't like him. Or maybe his concentration was being blocked by his hunger. He looked over at the pizzas. Then it hit him. Bob hadn't been out since Mr. Big-Tall-and-Stupid left. Harry went over to Bob's office door and knocked. No answer. He opened the door and what he saw almost made him scream.

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"I went in to go check on Bob. I couldn't believe what I saw. Bob was dead. I found out later that he had had trouble with some mob guys for a few years and owed them money. They sent the guy to get what was theirs. Bob said, 'Over my dead body'. I sure do miss Bob.

"A couple of days later I was called in to identify Bob's killer. Two detectives came and took me to the police station.

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Harry was lead into a room with a two-way mirror and a line-up behind it. "OK, Mr. Potter, here they are. Take a good look at them and when you're ready, we're right here." Harry looked at the five men and recognized him instantly. "That's him! Number four!" Harry told the detective. The detective pressed the intercom. "Send out one, two, three, and five. I'll be back in a few minutes." Harry went up to the glass. "Hey! Guess what? You're going to jail! You're going to jail! You're lucky there's six inches of glass between us. I might have just had to--" SMASH! Number Four had broken through the glass and caught Harry around the neck.

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"He tried to choke you?! If it was me, I would have-" Ron started to say something until Harry and Hermione leered at him. "Anyway, the detective had come in but had his back turned to me. I kept on thinking the whole time.......

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"TURN AROUND!" Harry tried to choke out. Finally, three police officers came to restrain Number Four. He broke out of their hold and out of the facility. He was gone. When the detective turned around, Harry was sitting against the wall, trying to regain his breath.

"He saw you," said the detective.

"You think?!" was all that Harry could say.

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"The detective told me about him. His name was Jack 'The Noose' O'Brian. He has gotten away with over 20 murders. All by strangling. The detective me that with O'Brian on the loose, my life was in danger. The only think that they could do was send me to a Witness Protection Program outside of Clarksville, Tennessee. And just so you know, Ron, that's in the states. Which is where I was. Do you follow?" Ron nodded and gestured for him to continue. "When I got there, I had to live under an assumed name."

"What was that?" asked Ron.

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"Floyd McGregor IV? Why Floyd McGregor IV? Couldn't it at least be something like: Charles Silverman?" asked an aggravated Harry.

The detective told him, "It's already been taken." Harry was determined to get out of there.

"Hey, I can't stay here! I have a friend who is probably worried sick about me back in New York! A-and I have a Quidditch game on Monday!" the detective stared at him with a confused look. Oops! The detective is a Muggle! "Never mind," said Harry.

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"After that, the detective left and I was just standing there, all alone, in front of the new trailer I now called home. Not many people where there, so I did what I always do when faced with adversity....

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Harry stretched out on the couch and drifted off into slumber. He dreamed of getting out of that place. He also said it out loud IN his sleep. "I...gotta...get out...oh, no...please, Mr. O'Brian...don't kill me...please..." He was slowly waking up and saw a shadow rise over his head. He screamed and screamed and screamed. It was....

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