Everything was at stake! The fate of worlds! The destiny of galaxies! The wind had stilled, and the sky was holding its breath! The souls of wizards passed stirred in anticipation, and the entire universe seemed to have come to a standstill. Merlin could have watched from the Beyond!
Her brow was furrowed, lined with sparkles of sweat from the concentration. She stared unblinking, fury in her eyes. The purest of determination. The will to move mountains. He stared back with amused confidence, but just as intense. There was a hint of mischief in those eyes.
This was it! The ultimate moment of truth had arrived!
"...three spears...And. A. Wand." George said.
"GAAAH!" Tara yelled.
George laughed as he proffered a hist to Fred, who bumped it. Tara slammed her cards down so hard on the table she actually made herself levitate. She hung there, hovering two feet above the table, pointing her fists at Fred and George.
"You rigged it! You had to have rigged it! I swear you did!" She yelled.
"Can't have. Right, Freddie?"
"Sure thing George. Don't see how that's possible."
"Obviously. So, Tara, defeated again!"
"Tyrants!" Tara declared. "Dirty conners."
"Now that's a little harsh, don't you think?"
"No! Cheatin' at card's evil. It's 'lock em' up in Azkaban' kind of evil." Tara said, hovering down precariously. Bloomin' dirty conners!
"Hey, we're no cheats! We're just lucky at cards! Always been." Fred said.
"We should think of a spectacular way to announce our tenth victory for today." Declared George.
"Maybe a hundred hippogriffs, marching in unison and singing an ode to our magnificence?"
"Sure." Tara reared, collecting the cards from the table. "So you won't mind if I went through the pack of cards more thorough like?"
"Course we wouldn't." The twins said with broad smiles.
Oh, Merlin's napkins! That means the cards themselves aren't rigged. Blasts and Jinxes!
Tara shuffled the cards pointedly annoyed. Her face was flushed, visible even through her tan skin. No one, absolutely no one cheats her at cards! That would be like... well... fire itself getting burned!
Ron, who naturally, was much more familiar with this treatment, sauntered close and sat down.
"Tough for you, eh?"
He was met with a string of curses regarding precarious actions with card games and expletives about the Devil's anatomy.
Just then, a voice cut through the room.
"TARA!"
"Oh, what!" she snapped and turned around.
She was expecting to hear Hermione, who had just arrived, complain about the colorful language, but instead she just mouthed 'Dumbledore'. Tara felt like she'd been doused with a spray of ice-cold water. She checked the time, and surely, it was well past eight. Tara yelped.
She leaped over the table and dashed through the portrait hole, who barely had time to move aside. But then she thought... well maybe...they did say... and a few seconds more couldn't hurt.
Tara bolted back and snatched the cards straight from Fred's hands.
"You said you wouldn't mind if I looked through them!" she said very quickly and ran off.
