Eternal Sands

Chapter 3

Acacia was digging through all sorts of books. Ever since Hermione had mentioned Jafar and Aladdin, she had wanted to learn more about him...but she was too scared to ask him directly.

It took her ages, but she finally found a book on magical fairy tales.

The more she read of this...Aladdin, the more horrified she became. No wonder Jafar had such a low opinion of him!

Jafar took one look at the book, and the more he read the harder he began to laugh. He honestly couldn't help it.

"Where on earth did you get this?" he asked, wiping tears of amusement from his eyes.

"The school library. Why?"

Jafar's amusement was almost contagious.

"While this does have some truths, this isn't how it went down at all," he said amused. "For one thing, that street rat had no parents at all, and he wasn't so blatant about trying to marry the princess. Also, Jasmine may have had many suitors, but she was never actually engaged to one of them."

"Can you tell me more about this Agrabah place?" she asked hopefully.

Seriously, how did this child not know the effect those eyes had on people? He was good at hypnotising, but she had a charisma that outdid any master he had previously.

"Sure," he said, trying to hide his blush. He wasn't a teenager, so why was she affecting him like this?

When the second task came, Jafar had entirely too much amusement at the expense of the fools who called themselves mages. Apparently they thought they could force him to act as the hostage for his master...instead they had to go with a lesser choice in Ron.

Acacia's face when she saw him floating past her was hilarious and rather adorable, in his opinion.

Her expression clearly said it all.

"I'm an immortal genie...I don't need to breathe," he reminded her with dark amusement. Her glare was amusing.

The mermaids clearly sensed his presence, but kept their silence. After all, he was the sort of being that it was a bad idea to piss off, and it was obvious he was following the youngest challenger.

Well...that and the old fool told them to watch for the challenger...not any immortal beings following them for whatever reason.

Acacia dumped Ron on the mediwitch, and accepted the hug from Gabrielle for rescuing her as well.

The moment Fleur had a chance, she whispered "I know what your companion is."

Acacia stiffened. Fleur said nothing, but when they had a chance the three girls found a quiet spot to have some tea.

"I must admit, this is the first time I've seen an actual genie...much less one that has hung around this long."

"How did you know?" asked Acacia.

Fleur sniffed.

"Wizards wouldn't notice it, but we are part Veela. We operate on a different magical spectrum and it took a bit for me to recognise the signs of a genie nearby," said Fleur.

Acacia winced.

"It's not my secret to tell, and obviously you've hidden his lamp. My only question is why is he hanging around still? Most people would make their wishes and be done with it," said Fleur.

"I don't have anything I want that I can't earn myself, I don't have anything I need that he could grant, and honestly he's a better conversationalist than the majority of the castle," she admitted. "Why waste a wish I could actually use for something important later?"