A Good Time For Change

Chapter 3

One hour, twelve bathrooms, four dining rooms, and one extremely crowded ballroom later...

"Where could she be?" Ginny asked, exasperatedly. The large group of friends who had been searching for Kelli had returned to their table. "I mean, where haven´t we looked? Where could she have run off? Hermione, you seem to know her the best. How´d you guys meet, anyway?"

"Oh, I hadn´t realized you guys didn´t know," Hermione said, looking worried. She twiddled a stray curl absentmindedly as she spoke. "Our preschool teachers taught us both to read at early ages--and to write, of course. They were twin sisters. Every year, they assigned pen pals from their sister´s classes. I got Kelli, and she got me. We´ve been writing to each other ever since. The summer before I turned ten, I visited her and her family at their mansion in Washington, D.C.

"Kelli and I had a blast. We stayed up late talking about nothing and everything. She took me all over the city, and we saw all the sights. One night, she took me to the reflecting pool over by the Washington Monument, and we just sat, watching the stars and the fireworks--it was the fourth of July. It was great. Her family didn´t seem exactly like the nicest people though. They just...didn´t understand Kelli, I guess.

"At one point during my visit," Hermione shook her head with a sigh, "she got into an argument with her older sister Teddi--"

"Hold on," Ron interrupted. "She has an older sister named Teddi?" Ron looked disbelieving.

"Apparently Teddi Jo´s a family name. It´s the name of Kelli´s uncle, her grandfather, her great-great-grandfather, and so on as far back as she could go with the family history books. Every couple of generations, or every generation, there´s a Teddi Jo. Unfortunately, Kelli´s only siblings are girls--at least, they´re all I met. May I continue?"

Ron nodded, and Hermione spoke. "As I was saying, at one point during our visit, Teddi accused Kelli of stealing her make-up bag. Now, you and I know that that´s preposterous, because Kelli hates to wear make-up, but Teddi wouldn´t believe anything Kelli said. Teddi became so angry, that she violently struck Kelli, repeatedly. There was nothing I could do, and her mother and father weren´t home. Can you imagine? Your older sister hating you enough to beat you black and blue for something as ridiculous as a make-up bag--that she didn´t even take?"

With a shudder, everyone shook their heads. "It turned out, Teddi had left it at her friend Claudia´s house the night before after a slumber party. When things like that happened, Kelli´d wander off and hide, taking a book--sometimes several--with her. Sometimes it took me hours to find her. I´ve never known anyone who could hide as sufficiently as that girl." Shaking her head sadly, she said, "This is proof. Someone must have frightened her terribly. We´ve looked everywhere, haven´t we?"

Harry nodded. "Everywhere but the broom closet." He let out a snort.

"You didn´t look in the broom closet?" Hermione looked stunned. "I thought you looked everywhere! The broom closet would be a perfect place for Kelli to hide. I swear that girl´s got to be part chameleon. Let´s go look."

The large party ran off to the broom closet. Or, at least, they tried to run off. It´s rather hard to do in a crowded ballroom. At any rate, they made their way as quickly as they could to the broom closet. Upon opening the door, they saw a small figure, shuddering violently, in the corner.

"Kelli?" Hermione cried, rushing to the girl. Kelli looked up, trembling. Tears filled her large, brown eyes. "What´s wrong? What happened? Why´d you run off like that?"

Shuddering violently, Kelli refused to let the tears fall from her eyes. "I´m fine, really. It´s nothing at all. Someone just made a nasty remark is all. Just let me get my bearings." Kelli tried to get up from her seat on a broom shelf, but promptly fell back down. "Houston," she said with a weak smile, "we have a problem." She banged her head against the broom shelf.

Then, she blacked out.

***

The first thing she noticed was the thick, heavy, achy feeling of her head. She tried to speak, but couldn´t. Kelli could hear and sense that people were bustling about around her, but could not move, could not open her eyes. Trying to force them open was useless--they were heavy as lead.

Harry´s voice floated to Kelli´s ears, sounding as if it came through water. "Did her eyelids move? Is she awake?" She tried to say, "Yes, yes, I´m awake!" All that came out was a moan.

"I think she´s waking up!" came Ginny´s voice--this one was louder and clearer than Harry´s had been. Kelli felt the soft, reassuring pressure of hands squeezing her own. She also realized that one hand seemed almost...withered. Yes, that was the only word for it. Old and withered, but with a pleasant, and shockingly firm grip.

"I believe she is," came the voice of an older gentleman. That must be the hand. Who could it be? Where am I?

Kelli managed out in a barely audible whisper, "Where am I? What happened? Am I going to die?" Then, she was rent with a racking cough. "Damn. Listen to me, I sound like an old biddy." Her voice was growing stronger. She managed to open her eyes. A swarm of worried faces came into her view. "Whoa, back off, everything´s swimming." Everyone promptly did so. Everyone but the old man--who had a shockingly long, white beard, and twinkling blue eyes hidden behind half-moon spectacles--and Hermione, who was holding her other hand.

"Now, really, everyone," Kelli said through a cough, "I´m fine. Honest. Scouts Honor." She tried to lift her hand to do the Scouts sign, but couldn´t lift her arm. "What happened, anyway?"

"It seems," said the old man, "that--"

Kelli interrupted him. "Would somebody give me my glasses?" She fumbled around on the nightstand next to her hospital-like cot. "I can´t see a thing without `em."

"You wear glasses?" Molly Weasley asked. Kelli nodded, and continued to blindly fumble with the objects on the stand. "Where are they?"

"They´re in my handbag, or they were." She saw the fuzzy shape of Molly digging through the bag. Molly then pulled out an object--or at least she thought she did, she couldn´t see it--and handed it to her. Kelli placed the wire-framed spectacles upon her nose, and then turned to the old man. "I know who you are!"

Kelli struggled to sit up, and, with a little help from Hermione, succeeded. "I´d curtsy, Headmaster, but I don´t think I could stand." She let out another racking cough. "I suppose that means I´m in the Hogwarts Infirmary?" Dumbledore nodded. The girl looked around, apparently searching for something. "But--then--where--where´s Poppy? If what Hermione´s told me is true, then this can´t possibly be the Hogwarts infirmary unless Poppy´s around here somewhere."

"Right here, dear," replied a stout witch in a nurse´s uniform, who´d just come out of the storeroom. "Swallow this, Kelli, dear." `Poppy´ handed Kelli a steaming cup of brackish liquid, which looked as if large amounts of fresh-ground pepper were flooding in it--which they were.

"No, please. Not pepper-up potion! I´m fine! Really!" The effectiveness of this statement was somewhat hindered by the giant cough which shook Kelli´s small body at that moment. "Well...alright." Kelli plugged her nose and swallowed the potion in one gulp. "Ugh!" Smoke poured out of Kelli´s ears for a moment. "Oh, that´s attractive," she muttered, handing the empty cup to Madame Pomfrey.

"So, Headmaster, is there any particular reason you had me brought here? Aside from the fact that you wanted to see smoke pouring out of my ears?" Kelli muttered a curse as she looked at Dumbledore.

"Yes, actually. I--" he looked around the crowded room. "May we have some time, alone?" Molly Weasley nodded, and shoved everyone out of the infirmary, like a hen moving her brood.

Just as Dumbledore had opened his mouth to speak, a man came rushing into the room in a flower-shop uniform. After placing a bouquet of roses on the side-table, he quickly left. Kelli took the card and read it.

-Kelli

Hoping you feel better soon. Keep up the good work.

-Your Friend

Kelli gulped as she picked up the bouquet. They were roses--but not just any roses. There was a pink rose, a red rose, a blue rose, a white rose, and--to Dumbledore´s shock--a jet-black rose. She knew what this meant. It wasn´t good. That hand-writing she knew all-too-well. This could cause problems. Correction. This could cause big problems. Well, that´s the understatement of the decade. It´s like saying that the Titanic was a little accident.

In the Realm of the Fae...

"Coming in for a landing!" Gwen shouted, squinting out of her rose-tinted goggles. Goggles are a necessity for the Fae when flying--I mean, come on, who wants bugs flying into their eyes? Yuck! Flapping her opaque, butterfly-reminiscent wings, she tumbled onto the ground, doing a somersault, and landing spread-eagled on her bottom.

Gwen blew a stray pink hair out of her face, but it fell right back where it started. Carefully tucking the strand behind her pointed ear, she stood up, dusting off her rosy-pink colored dress. The pointed out sleeves and collar looked like pink rose petals. Her work-boots, which were soft and pliable, were the same color, and were made of the finest baby griffin skin.

"It´s okay, Gwen," her twin brother, Matt, said, patting her shoulder. Matt was clad from head to toe in various shades of midnight and royal blue. His wings--unlike Gwen´s--were shaped more like a bird´s than a butterfly´s. They were feathery, long, and bony. "You´ll get used to those funny little wings of yours." He gave a soft chuckle. Gwen´s brother had always been very tall for one of the Fae, and was a full meter in height. Gwen, herself, was even taller, at a lofty height of a meter and a half. As tall as a human! If it weren´t for her pink hair, wings, and pointed ears, she could probably pass as one.

"Very funny, dumb-ass." Gwen roughly pushed his hand off of her shoulder. Huffily, she walked off into the busy tunnels of the Metropolis of the underground Fae World, Utopia´s Garden. Matt ran after her, and grabbed a hold of one of her pointed ears.

"Now, you listen to me," Matt said, not altogether unkindly, releasing her ear, which she rubbed furiously. "I know you´re working very hard. But...the human blood is very prominent in you. That´s why your wings are so under-developed. It´s also why you have those weird powers. Our great-grandpa was a wizard. A bonified, certified, petrifyin´ wizard--he attended Hogwarts and everything!"

Gwen whirled on her twin. "Look here, Matt. That´s not funny. It´s definitely not something one jokes about. If you´ll excuse me, I´m going home. I´m going to pack my things, and get the next shuttle to the service. I want to get the hell out of this dump." She shuddered. "Being underground is so...confining!" Then, she rushed off.

"Maybe she should go to Hogwarts and train to be a witch. A glamour spell could take care of her appearance real quick and everything. She´s ten, too. Perfect age!" Matt muttered all this to himself as he unwittingly made his way to the shuttle station.

"I´ll go topside! That´s it! I´ll get Gwen accepted at Hogwarts! She´ll be the most famous Fae, ever! But will it work?" Matt thought about that for a second. "Of course it will!" Matt put on his blue-tinted goggles, and then entered the next shuttle heading for the surface.

"Roger, Roger. What´s our vector, Viktor? We good to go, Snow?" That was the captain. His clothes and wings were all the colors of fire, his hair a brilliant, shocking red. Captain Richard Weasley. If you went back far enough in his lineage, he had wizard blood in him, too. But it was pretty far, so he was only a little above average height. Lucky guy, Matt thought to himself.

The captain turned to look at Matt. Matt got a funny feeling--like the captain had heard what he was thinking. I´m just jumpy, he thought. I haven´t been to the surface since my christening--like I´d remember that.

"Passengers, we´re preparing for lift-off," came the voice of Richard Weasley over the magical intercom system. "In five, four, three, two, one!" Then, as the rockets were firing, Matt began to have second thoughts. Oh, well. No turning back now, I suppose. Matt gulped, and then shut his eyes tight, bracing himself for the impact.

Back in the Infirmary...

"Oh. I think I understand now. Thanks, Headmaster." Kelli rubbed her temples, which were pounding in a furious complaint. "I think I´d better get some shut-eye. Tell the others I say hello, I´m fine, and please go away?"

"I wouldn´t dream of doing anything else." With a smile, Dumbledore turned, heading for the door. However, at that moment, Kelli let out an ear-piercing shrink. One lens of the Headmaster´s glasses cracked. He whirled around, as Poppy, the Weasleys, Remus Lupin, Harry Potter, and Hermione Granger all rushed in.

They found Kelli pointing at a blue-clad figure, her mouth hanging wide open, which had just appeared out of thin air. On closer inspection, the figure was about one meter in height, had blue hair, blue goggles, long, spindly fingers, blue wings, and was clad from head to toe in various shades of dark blue.

"Don´t be alarmed!" the figure said, in a surprisingly deep voice. "I--um...come in peace? I´m--I´m Matteus M-Maccus Malfoy. I go by Matt. Just Apparated off the Fae shuttle piloted by Captain R-richard Amadeus Weasley. Here to talk about my sister. May I please speak to the Headmaster?"

"You´re a Fae?" the girl in the bed asked, a smile spreading across her pale face. She struggled to sit up further. "And a Malfoy as well? Not surprised, you look rather like him--`cept with blue hair--and shorter--and...with wings. Shuttle was piloted by Richard Weasley, eh? What do you have to say about that, Arthur?" The girl turned to a tall, red-headed man.

"Please, Miss Roberts, this is no affair of yours. The boy is here to speak about his sister. What do you have to say about her, Master Malfoy?" Dumbledore asked.

"Please, Headmaster, just call me Matt. I´m here to ask after my sister, Gwen. Our great-grandfather was a wizard--he attended school here--his name was Matteus Malfoy as well. Sir, as you can see, I´m quite tall for one of the Fae--it´s the human blood, I´m sure--but my sister´s as tall as the girl with the brown hair over there," he said, nodding in Hermione´s direction. "She also has powers, sir. Now, Fae have powers, some, anyway, like mind reading, seeing the future, and that sort of thing, but that´s not what Gwen can do. Gwen´s got...powers. Makes things move with her mind, disgusting food flies at her enemies when she´s angry, once, she even made her dolls dance and fly all around her room--that was when she was younger, of course.

"Gwen´s never really fit in with the rest of the Fae. She even has funny, little wings. At any rate, she´s living the realm of the Fae, and I´d appreciate it very much if you´d accept her here." Matt bit his lip, looking nervous, his silvery-gray eyes darting back and forth from the Headmaster to the girl in the bed, who was staring at him with a curious expression. There was something familiar about her...

Two Months Later...

"Congrats, Gwen and Matt," Kelli said to the pink and blue-haired faeries. "You´ve now completed your fourth year´s worth of magical training--in two months. You´re making history, guys." The American winked at the pink-haired girl. "What say we wrap up here, guys?" She turned to her other friends, Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Ginny, all of whom looked exhausted from lack of sleep. "You guys sleepy again?"

The general groan that came from the four´s direction was as clear an answer as one could hope to get from four such tired witches and wizards. Kelli shook her head, disapprovingly. She took a swig from her can of Coca-cola. "I´m telling you guys, caffeine is your friend." Then, she drained the rest of the can in a large gulp. About to toss it into the trashcan, she realized it was already full of cans she´d drunk previously. "Maybe I should take it easy, though."

"No kidding, Kelli," Gwen said, rubbing her temples. "You´ve given me a head-ache from all your jabbering. You know, Matt, I almost miss those tiny, underground tunnels. Almost." She smiled.

"I think we need a break," Matt Malfoy said, leaning back in his chair.

"Definitely," Ginny murmured, leaning her head on her brother´s shoulder. Ron--the aforementioned brother--was snoring. A trail of drool made it´s way down his cheek.

"Ron, that´s disgusting, you´ve got drool running down your face," Hermione snapped, though she wasn´t quite as awake as Kelli. "What do you have in mind?"

You could practically see the light bulb go on over Kelli´s head. Her eyes went wide, and a huge grin spread across her features. "Oh, oh, I just got a fantastic idea! The perfect test for the twin´s glamour´s!" This caught everybody´s attention.

"Well, what is it?" Harry asked, sleepily, stretching and yawning all the while. He unknowingly scratched his forehead, which made his lightning-bolt scar plainly visible. Kelli cringed whenever she saw it. It was a horrid reminder of the past. Think what it´s like to look in the mirror every morning and see the mark of one of the most powerful dark wizards in the world--on your bloody forehead! Did I just say bloody? Man, these Brits are rubbing off on me!

"We´ll go to a nightclub! A muggle one! No people more fun to fool that muggles!" When she saw the unsure looks on her friends faces, she wasn´t sure if she´d won just yet. "Come on, it´d be great! Besides, the girls and I can do that thing we´ve been practicing!" Ron, Matt, and Harry looked back and forth between the girls, all of who were suddenly wide-awake.

"What is it?" the boys asked in unison. Kelli just smiled, knowingly. She winked at the boys.

"Go change. Ron, Harry, you help Matt with the glamour spell. Let´s go, ladies!" And they were gone.

Harry stared in awe as the girls bounced happily out of the room. Then, he closed his mouth and smiled.

Matt shook his head with a laugh. "That Kelli´s something else, isn´t she?"

Ron stared after the girls, an odd look on his face. "Yeah. Somethin´ else." Then, he muttered, "Just not sure what."