Well, it's been a sliiiiiightly longer wait for this chapter, so let's just jump straight in, shall we? This is...

Her|mION|n|e gRa|nger|'|s |Guide| t|o|

|G|ENDER-FLIP F|
AN|F

"There," said Rose lowering her wand as the shattered letters of the title vanished. "Much better. That title was really starting to get on my nerves."

"What are you doing?" said Holly, looking at the destroyed remains of the title with some dismay — maybe it hadn't been much of a title, but she had sort of enjoyed seeing it at the top of each chapter.

"Told you at the end of the last chapter! I'm putting a stop to this nonsense!" Rose was still flickering between looking like a chalk drawing and a real, three-dimensional person, in a way that would have been quite expensive if fanfics had any kind of special effects budget. But the chalk outlines were fading and her "real" form seemed to be growing more solid by the second. "We've had three chapters of stupid ramblings about stupid character creation techniques that don't even work, and I've had enough!"

"What do you mean, don't even work?" Ronnie demanded, suddenly stepping in front of Holly to shield her, and resisting Holly's attempts at pushing her away.

Rose snorted. Her eyes — hazel, just like James Potter's had been — narrowed as they met Holly's. "I mean this," she said. "This is what all that rambling about backgrounds and pointless things like that leads to! One of the weakest, most pathetic, most pointless Fem!Harrys ever!"

"Oy!" Ronnie snapped before Holly could say anything. "You take that back! Holly's ten times the Fem!Harry you are, you bloody rejected drawing!"

"She's not even the Girl Who Lived! And that's your fault!" Rose pointed an accusing finger at Ronnie, chalk outlines flashing around her. "You're disqualified on account of being a girl," she mocked, in a not-very-accurate imitation of Ronnie's tone. "Isn't that just like a Ron Weasley? Couldn't stand having her more special than you, could you?! Had to remove everything about her that mattered, just so you would look better in comparison!"

"I — what?!" Ronnie's mouth opened and closed in pure, disbelieving shock at this accusation.

"You're not fooling me," said Rose. "You may be a girl now, but you're still the same jealous, traitorous fair-weather friend —!"

"She is not!" Holly, feeling her anger flare up, had managed to take advantage of Ronnie's shock to worm her way in front of the girl. "You don't know anything about Ron or Ronnie!"

"I know she made you weak," said Rose with obvious contempt in her voice. "Look at you! Not the Girl Who Lived, not powerful, not special! You're a lousy duellist, you don't have a scar, you're afraid of Voldemort! And look at what you're meant to have for love interests! Neville Longbottom's bad enough, but a gender-bent Ron Weasley?!"

"That's it!" Ronnie yelled and lunged at Rose, only to be lifted up in the air as the girl flicked her wand at her, flip around and then get hurled across the room to land in a pile of cushions that the Room of Requirement had helpfully provided at the very last second.

"Why you —" Holly reached for her wand, but Rose was quicker. Before Holly knew it, she was flying backwards, just like Ronnie had, and landed heavily in the cushion pile, halfway on top of Ronnie.

"I'm the Girl Who Lived!" Rose brushed aside her long, red hair to reveal a familiar-looking lightning bolt scar on her forehead. "I'm the most powerful witch my age!"

"I'll give you 'most powerful witch of your age'!" Ronnie snarled, trying to dig herself out of the cushions and get Holly and herself back onto their feet.

But just then, Rose flicked her wand again, and the cushions rose up around the two, stretching and changing shape to become long, thick ropes. They tried to dodge, but the ropes were on them, twisting themselves around them like snakes, binding their arms and legs. Before either Ronnie or Holly knew what was happening, they were both on the floor, trussed up and unable to move.

Rose stood triumphant. The chalk outlines had faded completely, and she looked like a normal teenage girl. "See how pathetic you are?!" she crowed, pointing her wand at them — and yes, now that it had become real, Holly could clearly see that it was the old familiar holly-and-phoenix-feather wand, the twin of Voldemort's infamous wand. I could squash the both of you like insects!"

"But you won't," said Hadrian. "You won't hurt them."

His sudden appearance startled all three of them. The boy hadn't so much as been mentioned by the narrative since the end of the previous chapter; you'd almost have thought that the author had forgotten he was even there. But apparently, this wasn't quite the case, because here he was — after having remained completely passive while Rose showed up and first yelled at, then started hexing, Holly and Ronnie.

Hopefully he had a very good explanation for this silence while his friends needed him?

"Explanation?" said Hadrian, casting a glance at the narrative. "Several, actually. But the most important one is that I'm not crazy!"

"What?" said Rose, blinking.

"Well, I wouldn't have a chance against you, would I?" said Hadrian. "You're effortlessly doing non-verbal magic at the age of fifteen — I assume you're fifteen, since that's our established age in this fic. I may be an accomplished wizard, but I'm clearly not on that level."

Rose opened her mouth to reply, but then stopped. Apparently, this wasn't the answer she'd expected. Her expression turned suspicious. "This is a trick, isn't it? You're trying to get me to lower my guard."

"Heavens forbid, no," said Hadrian. "You're clearly too smart to be manipulated that way. You already demonstrated your intellect through your use of the loopholes in this fic's established rules." He smiled, a surprisingly winning smile. "We established already in the first chapter, almost as a throwaway line, that the Room of Requirement here didn't have the same limits as in canon, and that it could create food, drink — and life. And almost accidentally, it created you. When I made that animated drawing of you on the blackboard, that was the start of it, wasn't it?"

"It... might have been," said Rose. Then, she tightened the grip on her wand. "And so what?!"

"So, you had become self-aware by the time Harry rejected you in order to become Holly," said Hadrian, sounding not unlike a brilliant detective from the last chapter of a mystery story, there to explain the murderer's nefarious plot and how the murder was committed. "That's why you left the surface of the blackboard before anyone got the idea of erasing you — retreating to a safe spot, so to speak."

"What the hell are you talking about? Get her!" Ronnie struggled in vain against her ropes.

"Sorry, Ronnie," said Hadrian. "I'm afraid I can't do that. She'd wipe the floor with me. Besides, I'm in the middle of my brilliant explanation here."

"Hadrian!" Holly started at him, shocked.

"Please allow me this moment, I think I'm having a character-establishing scene here," said Hadrian almost dismissively, before turning back to Rose. "Because it's character it comes down to, isn't it? I said it myself at the end of the first chapter: In this story anything a character requests can be provided. Emphasis on the 'character' part. You started making sarcastic comments via the text on the blackboard — and slowly, the narrative, and the readers, and even the three of us, were starting to view you as a character. Once that had happened, you were qualified to command the Room of Requirement. It doesn't have any loyalties, after all. You were a character, and you needed to get a proper body... and so it complied."

Rose, almost despite herself, looked impressed. "You are a smart one, aren't you?"

"There are those who say I am," said Hadrian smugly. "But of course, figuring a plan out afterwards is nothing compared to being able to think one up to execute in the first place. I'm impressed." He bowed to her in a way that was impossible to tell whether was meant sincerely or ironically.

"I'll impress you, you fucking —!" Ronnie snarled, once more trying to escape from her ropes and ending up rolling against Holly.

Rose turned back towards her. "Shut up!" she hissed, pointing her wand threateningly at Ronnie.

"Now, girls," said Hadrian smoothly. "No need for harsh words. Don't worry, Ronnie, Rose won't hurt you, or Holly."

"Oh, I won't?" said Rose, narrowing her eyes again.

"Of course you won't! Look at them! They're completely neutralised, and you're clearly so much better than them that it's not even funny. Hurting them would just turn you into a bully."

It took approximately one second for Rose's eyes to go from 'narrowed in suspicion' to 'wide open in surprise.' "A bully?!" she repeated.

"Well, what is a bully, if not someone who picks on those who are weaker and can't defend themselves?" said Hadrian logically. "You're not a bully, are you, Rose?"

"No!" Rose's eyes (which the narrative weirdly seemed to be focusing on to an unsettling degree) settled on a new expression, namely 'frowning in anger.' "The Dursleys were bullies. I hate bullies."

"Right. And so of course you won't become one yourself."

And that was when Holly realised what Hadrian was doing. She could have kicked herself for not getting it sooner (well, she could have, if she hadn't been trussed-up and unable to move). All that flattery, all that talking had just been pure ego-stroking so that he could talk Rose into —

"Into what?" said Rose, who could read the narrative just as well as any of them.

"Nothing," said Holly hurriedly, silently cursing her role as the point-of-view character. It was so hard to keep any secrets or surprises — unless she was careful, her thoughts would be right there in the narrative for everyone to read. The only solution was to focus on something else, and trying to ignore that the narrative was pointing out that she was focusing on something else: "Can't we just, you know, talk about this?"

"Not until you tell me what it was you were thinking Hadrian was trying to talk me into," said Rose, turning her head to glare at the boy with renewed suspicion. "And it's not bullying if it's self-defence," she added as a new thought clearly came to her. "They tried to attack me!"

"And they're very sorry about that," said Hadrian. "But you defeated them easily. Look, they can barely even move! Kicking someone while they're down, that's something only a bully would do."

Rose's hands shook. For a moment, she looked like she was going to protest... but then she relaxed, her wand lowering. "Fine," she said. "I won't lower myself to that sort of behaviour. I'm not a bully."

"Good." Hadrian, slowly taking a step closer to her. "See, now we've got something established about your character. How about we —"

"Wait!" Rose narrowed her eyes. "Of course. That's what the narrative was going on about. That's what Holly realised. You almost had me!"

"What do you mean? We're just establishing some basic character traits for you," said Hadrian.

"Oh, really?" Rose lifted her wand again. "It starts out like that. Then we begin doing background story, strengths and abilities... and then come the weaknesses and limitations! And you'll remove everything special about me, just like you and that Weasley bitch did to her!" She pointed at Holly with her wand. "I'm not going to become like that: Stupid, pathetic, weak!"

"Er, I think you've misunderstood —" Hadrian began, suddenly a little flustered, taking a step back as Rose turned her wand on him.

"Don't hurt him!" Holly called from her spot on the floor. She tried once more to raise herself, but only managed to flop against Ronnie.

Rose turned to look at Holly. Her hands trembled again, and then she lowered her wand once more. "You're just lucky I'm not a bully," she muttered, before turning her head to narrow her eyes at Hadrian. "Because I'm not. Even though I have all reason to take revenge. I was rejected!"

To Holly's surprise, and only for a brief moment, there was a lot of hurt in the girl's voice.

"Yes," said Hadrian softly. "I'm very sorry, but we didn't realise the implications. We thought you were just a drawing; we didn't know you were real."

"I wasn't. But she wasn't either!" Rose glared at Holly.

And for a moment, Holly felt uncertain. Surely she, unlike Rose, had never been a drawing. She'd been Harry, and then Hermione's spell had... but when the drawing on the blackboard had changed to become her mirror image, what had really happened? Had she and the drawing somehow merged, and in that case, how much of her was Harry-changed-by-a-spell, and how much of her was drawing-come-to-life? She had no memories of ever being a drawing, but perhaps...

Wait, why was she even thinking about this now?

"It's because you're weak," said Rose in response to the narrative, scoffing and shooting Rose a look of disgust. "And you're weak because you had it easy. You're the point-of-view character for this story, so everyone thinks you're special, and you had these two to hold your hand through everything. I had to rely on myself. No narrative on my side, no stupid so-called friends." Her expression of disgust changed briefly, and for a moment there was a strange look on Rose's face, before it was quickly replaced with mocking triumph. "Hah, just another example that the witch who only relies on herself is the strongest one! I don't have your stupid limits! I can be anything I want!"

Holly felt herself soften. "Rose..." she began.

Rose ignored her. "I can be — I can be Lady Potter-Black, heir to the combined houses of Potter and Black, and so rich that the Malfoys look like paupers, and a phoenix Animagus, and a Metamorphmagus! I could even be... I could even be a princess! Or a beautiful elf, not like those simpering house-elves, I'm talking proper fantasy elves; tall and graceful and powerful! I can be a demigoddess... I can be anything!"

"And all shall love you and despair," said Ronnie dryly.

"Ronnie, shut up," Holly hissed.

"No! I'm not gonna listen to this loony anymore!" Ronnie glared at Rose. "D'you know what you are?"

"No, tell me," said Rose. "Is it something better or worse than being the one who's tied up and helpless on the floor?"

"You're a Mary Sue!" said Ronnie.

"Ronnie!" If Holly's hands had been free, she would have clamped them both over the redhead's mouth, but it was too late.

"Girls, girls!" Hadrian said hurriedly. "Let's not use the term 'Mary Sue' here, shall we? It's a very controversial term anyway, and —"

Rose ignored both Holly and Hadrian, and her eyes narrowed once again (that was starting to become a character trait of hers, wasn't it?) as she moved closer to Ronnie. "What — did — you — call — me!?"

"A — Mary — Sue!" said Ronnie slowly and overly clearly, as if speaking to a little child, and ignoring Holly's desperate pleas about stopping this as she raised her head and looked defiantly up at Rose.

Rose's hands shook as she pointed her wand at Ronnie. ("No, don't!" Holly yelped.)

At first, nothing seemed to happen. But then, Ronnie opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

"Silencing Charm," said Rose, as Ronnie began mouthing so many swear words that this story would have gained an adult-rating if they'd been at all audible. "I may not be a bully, but that doesn't mean I have to listen to her."

"You didn't have to do that!" said Holly.

"She's lucky I didn't do anything worse!" Rose snapped. "You heard what she called me!"

"But Rose," said Hadrian, seeming to have regained his confidence, "in her usual tactless way, Ronnie was right about one thing."

Rose turned on him, wand at the ready. "I am not a Mary Sue!"

"No, no, no, that wasn't what I was going to say!" Hadrian shrank back a little. "To be honest, I find the entire term to be essentially meaningless. It might have had some significance once, being a tongue-in-cheek reference to idealized self-insert or wish-fulfilment characters that took over a story, but nowadays the term is so broad that it can be used about any character. A lot of people seem to just use it as shorthand for 'female character I don't like' or even 'female character that stands out in any way.'"

"Don't try to confuse me!" Rose yelled.

"I'm not! But really, you don't need any of those things you were talking about! Ladyships, huge fortunes, Metamorphmagus abilities, Elven princess titles... What were you planning on doing with all that?"

"Doing?!" Rose faltered, but only for a moment. "I don't have to do anything with them! The only thing that matters is that they'd make me an even greater Fem!Harry!"

"But that's just it: they wouldn't," said Hadrian. "Not really. They're just excess baggage. If you're just going to use them as a way to show how brilliant and powerful and special you are, and not give them any meaningful impact on anything —"

"It would be meaningful! You can't tell me that an Elven princess wouldn't be meaningful!"

"As a wish-fulfilment, certainly. But it's not going to make you a better Fem!Harry. All it'll do is put on another layer of make-up to make you look better and more impressive. It won't matter one bit if that's all there is to you."

"I..." Rose repeated, hesitating. "I suppose..."

"It's like a mask, isn't it?" Hadrian went on. "Beautiful, but hollow. It's who's behind the mask that counts. We can help you there, Rose. Make certain you have a good foundation before you — Wha!"

This last part clearly wasn't part of Hadrian's planned speech, but it was understandable that he said it nonetheless — because Rose, her eyes hardening, had flicked her wand at him, and just like Ronnie and Holly before him, sent him flying across the room.

He landed in the increasingly-convenient pile of cushions, just missing the tied-up Holly and Ronnie.

Rose was breathing heavily, sparks shooting out of her wand. "Stay away from me!" she yelled. "I've had it with you! I've had it with all of you! I don't need your advice! I don't need anything from you! I'm the Girl Who Lived!" Rose raised her wand to fling another curse at Holly... but once again her hands shook. "No," she said in a softer voice, lowering her wand once again. "I'm not a bully. I don't attack those who can't defend themselves. I don't."

Hadrian was breathing heavily next to Holly and Ronnie; instead of trying to get back to his feet he just lay in the cushion pile, looking at Rose but not making any sort of move against her. "Rose," he said urgently. "Listen to me. I wasn't going to say it, but you're unstable. You're unfinished as a character, and that makes you —"

"Does not!" Rose screeched.

"You're trying to make yourself a proper character by giving yourselves all sorts of powers and privileges, but that's not going to work!" Hadrian continued. "That's what I was trying to tell you! They won't help at all unless you have a core, a real personality..."

"I do have a real personality!"

"What's your favourite colour?"

"I — what?"

"What's your favourite food? Who's your best friend? Your favourite Quidditch team? What makes you happy? Angry? Sad? What's your stand on Muggle relations? Have you ever had any celebrity crushes? What sort of clothes do you like to wear? What would you see if you looked into the Mirror of Erised? What would your Boggart be? How old are you?"

Rose took a step back at the torrent of questions. To Holly's surprise, she whimpered, suddenly looking more like a scared little child than the most powerful witch her age. "I... don't know..."

"How can you be a real personality if you don't know the answer to any of those questions?"

Rose's lip quivered. But then, once again, her expression hardened. "I don't need any of that! Meaningless details! I'm... I'm Rose Potter, the Girl Who Lived!" She stood up straight, defiant, glaring at Hadrian. "I'll show you! I'll show all of you!"

There was a loud CRACK, and she was gone.

Holly blinked. For a moment, she thought Rose had disintegrated or something, but then she realised that that loud crack was the exact noise that always signified that someone had Disapparated from the area.

Hadrian waited for the time it took that paragraph to be written to make certain Rose really was gone, before he got out of the cushion pile and turned to Holly and Ronnie. "Are you girls all right?"

"Fine," said Holly, almost truthfully. "Did she just Disapparate? I thought you couldn't Apparate on Hogwarts grounds...!"

"She can," Hadrian sighed. "It's part of her entire character deal. I'll explain once I've got you out of these ropes. Hold still, will you — Diffindo!"

The precise Severing Charm cut through the ropes binding Holly and Ronnie, but (because Hadrian was as skilled with these things as canon Hermione was) without harming the girls themselves. The ropes fell apart all around them, and they could finally sit up and rub their limbs, which were a little sore after their brief stint in bondage.

Ronnie was still opening and closing her mouth, so Hadrian pointed his wand at her with a "Finite Incantatem!"

"—AND SHOVE IT UP HER FUCKING ARSE!" Ronnie yelled, and then realised she could hear her own voice again. "Oh," she said, at a much lower volume, turning slightly pink.

"Well, good, now we know there's nothing wrong with you," said Hadrian.

Flustered and clearly trying to hide her embarrassment, Ronnie turned on him. "What were you doing, flattering her like that?! You're clearly too smart for me, you're so strong and wonderful!" (Ronnie was better at imitating people than Rose was; her mocking actually did sound kind of like Hadrian.)

"I had to say something to keep her from hexing us, didn't I?" said Hadrian. "Trust me, if a poorly-conceived, but powerful Fem!Harry has a grudge against you..." He paused. "Let's not say it's not much fun."

Ronnie grumbled, but let him help her to her feet. "Well, at least she's gone now."

"For the moment," said Hadrian. "She'll be back. She didn't vanish from the narrative, only from the scene."

"Yeah, about that...!" said Holly. "How could she Disapparate?"

"It's because she's still poorly-defined as a character," Hadrian explained. "The narrative hasn't established limits for her yet... and it is a staple of very powerful Harrys that they can do things other wizards can't. Break through the Anti-Apparition Charms is one of those things."

"So if we tried to do the same..." said Holly.

"We'd fail. Even I'm too defined by now to step around in-universe rules. I know my limits, and I'm pretty sure it's not too long before it Happens to me too. My conversation with Rose seemed to establish a lot about my personality, after all. I'm apparently very smooth and self-assured for as long as I think I'm in control of a situation, but if I'm not in control I tend to lose some of my confidence. We might have to revise some of my backstory..."

"Hadrian!" Ronnie grabbed his shoulders and shook him a little.

"Right. Right. This isn't the time." Hadrian took a deep breath. "Sorry. I think I poured it on a little too thick in my character-establishing moment. I seem to have gained a tendency to talk at length..."

"So she was right?" said Holly, feeling weirdly disappointed. "In a way, anyway. Becoming defined as characters has made us weaker."

"No, it hasn't," said Hadrian. "People too often mistake powers for strength. We don't have her power, but we have something she doesn't — we have backgrounds, personalities, cores. We know who we are. Rose, however...? Outside the single character trait I managed to give her, of not wanting to be a bully, she doesn't have a clue who she is. You saw her. She couldn't answer a single one of my questions."

"I'm not certain I could have answered all of them," said Holly.

"But you could answer some, if not most of them. Rose couldn't. I told her she was unstable, and she is. She's empty, she doesn't have a core. And she rejected my attempts at giving her one."

Holly thought about this, and then understanding dawned on her. "She's a baby," she said in surprise. "In terms of character, at least, Rose is a baby. No background, no experience, no memories. Almost all emotion and almost no reason."

"A baby who can do perfect non-verbal magic, and Apparate on Hogwarts grounds," said Ronnie dryly. "And who insulted us, and tied us up. Not sure I feel too terribly sorry for her."

"Don't you see, Ronnie?" Holly swallowed. "It could have been me. When I had the two Fem!Harry drawings in front of me, I just picked the black-haired girl because I didn't want to change too much. I could easily have picked to become the red-haired one instead, and then Rose would be me right now and I would be... her..."

"Better stop that line of thought before it gets too confusing," said Ronnie. "Come on, Hol, you're nothing like her!"

"But I could have been," said Holly. She gently wrapped her arms around Ronnie, hugging her. "Just a random choice, Ronnie. That's all that separates us."

Ronnie trembled a little, but then sighed, and once again she relaxed, returning the hug. "When did you get so existential, anyway?" she said softly.

"When I gained an accidental sister, I think," said Holly.

"Sister?" Ronnie blinked.

"Well, what else would you call her?"

"That's easy! I'd call her a fucking b—"

"Without spurting swear words and insults, I mean!" Holly interrupted. "We were born at the same time, from the same story. She's my sister — my baby sister.. And right now, she's out there, she's confused and alone and she doesn't have a clue who she is."

Ronnie was silent for a bit. "I see what you're doing, you know," she finally said.

"Doing? Me?" Holly tried to look innocent.

"Come on, Hol! You're trying to make sure both me and the readers feel sorry for Rose! Just so we won't despise her, and we'll start cheering for her to be redeemed."

"I wasn't —" Holly began, and then gave up. "It was that obvious?"

"You were laying it on a little thick." But then, all of a sudden, Ronnie grinned, and leaned in to briefly press her lips against Holly's.

It wasn't a long kiss, nor a very passionate one. If someone ever got the idea of making a list over Best Kisses In Harry Potter Fanfiction, this one wouldn't even have made it to the Top Hundred. But it made Holly's heart flutter, and as Ronnie drew back after only a brief second, Holly felt almost as giddy as if she was experiencing her character euphoria all over again.

"All right," said Ronnie. "You convinced me. Let's help your sister. What's the plan?"

"P-plan?" Holly managed to say, trying to get her breath back under control. "I, er, I don't actually have a plan."

"Lucky for you two that I'm here, then," said Hadrian. Once aside, he'd stepped aside to allow the girls the readers' full attentions while they talked and kissed; now he re-inserted himself into the narrative, back to his confident self. "If you're quite finished with the fanservice, that is."

"That wasn't fanservice!" said Ronnie.

"Please. Readers of Weasley Girl have been wanting you and Harry to kiss for long enough. That kiss was double fanservice."

"You're a double prat."

"Will you two stop it?" said Holly. "Hadrian, if you have an idea for how to help Rose, please tell us."

"Right." Hadrian visibly pulled himself together. "Of course. Sorry. I do have an idea... but I suppose I should warn you that it's not entirely risk-free."

"I don't care," said Holly.

"Didn't think you would, but let me finish. You see, since Rose has rejected proper character development, there's always a chance that my plan backfires and ends up turning her into a violent Dark witch, worse than Bellatrix Lestrange!"

"It won't," said Holly. "She might not be developed, but when all is said and done, she's still a Harry Potter, like me. She couldn't become evil."

"Do you have any idea how many utterly vile and despicable Harry Potters there are in some of the fanfics out there?" said Hadrian. "Even worse, she's a Rose Potter. You remember why you yourself didn't want the name Rose, don't you?"

"Yes, but she's not that Rose Potter. She's not a ninja who uses bullet-time. Or a druidess. Or a nudist."

"Yet," Ronnie muttered.

"It won't come to that," said Holly firmly. "What's the plan, Hadrian?"

"It's simple," said Hadrian. "We continue with the thread Rose has started. Since she made the scene, this story officially became an actual story — instead of just a series of glorified lectures. Now we have a plot going on. Not much of one, admittedly, but still a plot."

"I suppose we do?" said Holly.

"Really weird plot," Ronnie agreed, "but still."

"Right. And we can use that." Hadrian rubbed his hands together. "First of all, we need to start a new chapter."

"Already?!" said Ronnie, looking at the word count. "We're only about five thousand in on this chapter. Chapter two was at least ten thousand words."

"Whoever said we were operating with a set chapter length?" said Hadrian. "Besides, the canon books usually have shorter chapters. I believe the average length for chapters in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, for instance, is between four and five thousand words."

"Well, yeah..." Ronnie muttered. "It's just that the Weasley Girl stories have longer chapters, so I suppose I just feel like anything less than six thousand words is too short."

"Short of going back and padding this chapter out with more arguing, I don't think there's much we can do about that," said Hadrian. "Besides, you want this plan to work, don't you?"

"Of course, but —"

"Then I have to explain it to you between chapters. The readers can't be told what it is before it's put into action."

"Of course," said Holly. "It's one of the oldest narrative tricks in the book! If a plan is discussed in detail on-screen, then it's going to fail or at least there'll be unforeseen complications — but if the plan is made off-screen, it goes off without a hitch! There's even a page for it on TVTropes! They call it Unspoken Plan Guarantee!"

"Exactly," said Hadrian. "So if the author would just end the chapter here, I can start explaining..."

In response, since the blackboard was no longer available, the words formed directly on the wall:

TO BE CONTINUED...

Author's Notes: "Thank you," said Hadrian.