Disclaimer:
I do not own Harry Potter or any related material. All materials in
this story are copyrighted by someone who is a hell of a lot well off
than I am. Author's Note: Edited 07-02-07
International
Delight
Chapter One: Patron of
Saints
"Alexander Bell!" Oh God. I lost him. I tried screaming louder, "ALEX!" Oh, Merlin, I was the worst mother ever. Ever. Honestly, after four years, one would think that I wouldn't lose my child, at the train station of all places!
I began to spin about wildly while screaming his name. Sure, two years had passed since the demise of You-Know-Who (and Harry, God rest his soul), but it didn't make it safe to lose a four year old in a train station; a train station that happened to be full to the brim of underaged witches and wizards.
As that particular thought ran through my mind, I started to scream again. "Alex! Where are you? Alexander James Bell! Where are you? Alex?"
Still, I received no reply. My eyes watered up, and I choked back sobs. Somehow, by some awful twist of fate, I had lost the most important thing in my life. Alex was probably far gone by now with some rejected dark wizard that intended to kill him.
As I did start to sob, I could almost feel his little hands tugging at my sleeves. Faintly, in my mind, I could hear his angelic little voice call out, "Mommy!"
"Oh, Alex," I moaned out. His little voice would always haunt me. "Mommy!" It had already started. . . "Mommy!" His little chant of, "Mommy, mommy," grew louder in my mind before I realized that it wasn't in my head after all. I wiped tears from my eyes and glanced down.
My heart melted. His perfect sea-green eyes stared up at me as the wind danced through his sand-blonde hair. . . (his daddy's sand-blonde hair). A look of worry was spread over his sweet, innocent face, and my heart broke for him. Four years old and he already knew that it was something bad when his mommy cried.
I swooped down like a hawk would upon its prey and scooped him into my arms. I hugged him tightly and moaned his name in thankful praise. My baby had been returned to me, but by whom had he been returned? What chivalrous being returned the noble son to my monarch-like arms?
"Katelinn!" I froze. I knew that voice, and it was one that I wasn't pleased to hear. I looked up to see him strutting my way. His boyishly good looks were still about him.
"Seamus," I replied curtly. I then noticed, as his sandy hair blew in the wind, that he didn't have a single line on his face. Not a single line was creased across his forehead from bunching it up when Alex was sick. There wasn't a single thing in the way that he walked that suggested he was a struggling teenage parent of four years. His cheeks weren't rough from the chafing mine under went while I cried myself to sleep at night wondering how Alex would grow up without a father.
"I found Alex wondering, so I sent him back over. I only just came over because I was. . . ah. . . seeing someone off," he said with particular emphasis on the word just.
I heard the shrill scream of, "I love you, Seamus! I'll see you at Christmas, baby!", and I looked up to see a girl whom had probably just turned seventeen hanging out of the window of her train compartment. Secretly, I hoped that her head would smash against a brick wall as it passed out of the station.
I sneered. Of course Seamus didn't carry the burdens of teenage parenthood; fore he had ferociously denied having fathered the child. He went as far as to get a Medi-Wizard fired from a prestigious clinic. When the test proved Alex to be his, he screamed and then sued. Of course, even though his father was a muggle, the man was one of the best lawyers in all of Great Britain. When it came time for the trial, he easily proved that the Medi-Wizard was incompetent. On top of getting the poor man fired, he guaranteed that I would never be able to get a correct parternity test again. . . That muggle bastard.
I merely nodded to Seamus as yet another tear slipped down my face. A little hand reached up and brushed it away before an even smaller voice said, "I love you, Mommy."
A small smile crept its way onto my face, and I realized something new. Dimples. Seamus didn't have dimples from smiling over his son. Dimples were one thing that I was content with having that Seamus didn't.
"Uh, so. . . How have you been, Kat?" Seamus asked. I smirked at him. I could tell that he was extremely uncomfortable.
"Oh, you know, I've been about as good as a teenaged mother can be when the father of her child blatantly refuses that the child is his. . . Not that you would know anything about that," I muttered maliciously. Sure, it had been a total of four years since the beginning of my trials with the cheeky Irish bastard, but I was still resentful towards him. He had taken away an age of innocence that I still should have possessed. After taking the coveted age of innocence, he refused to be part of the tribulations that followed.
Seamus shuffled his feet in a very uncomfortable manner. My malicious smile grew ever wider as he mumbled, "Er. . . yeah. . ."
"Oh, but I really must be getting back," I mumbled quietly. Before Seamus could say anything more, I had apparated away, clutching my son tightly to my chest.
Once I appeared in The Leaky Cauldron, I started to search for my friends. They would, of course, scold me for interacting with the man because they knew how I would act after doing so, depressed and extremely put out. On the other hand, I was pretty sure that they would be pleased that I had basically told him where to shove it.
One call of, "Oi! Katie, over here!" later found Alex and myself sitting around a table with Fred, George, Lee, Alicia and Angelina.
Once I was comfortable, with Alex sleeping in my arms, Alicia asked, "Did you see Krystal off okay?"
I nodded. Krystal was my younger sister. She had been in my care ever since our parents died at the hand of Bellatrix Lestrange three years beforehand. Krystal would be turning seventeen in December, and she would be leaving school near the end of June. "Of course I saw her off fine, but Alex did manage to escape from my line of vision." At that point, Angelina gasped, and I continued on, "I know! But someone brought him back to me fairly quickly."
"Who?" George asked excitedly, as if losing your child was an exciting experience that everyone should partake in daily.
I sighed. "The one and only patron of saints; Mr. Seamus Finnegan himself."
Fred gasped appropriately. "What happened?" Lee questioned.
With a sad smile, I relayed my adventure from the train station. At the end of my story, the twins and Lee were chuckling. Angelina and Alicia were looking at me with worried glances, but I threw them a small smile. For some reason, this run in with Seamus hadn't left me feeling used up and completely worthless.
"Katie!" Fred scolded in a joking manner, "I can't believe that you actually talked to him!"
Yeah, here was the scolding part. "Well," I muttered condescendingly, "he brought Alex back to me. I had to say something!" I really couldn't have just left him there without thanking him (which I don't think I did. . .) At least I made him feel like shit. I decided to point that out to the group.
"Jolly good point," George then replied.
"Honestly, though, Katie," Alicia started slowly, "he actually thought you wouldn't be doing well?"
"You know how he is!" I exclaimed vehemently. Seamus always thought that I was incompetent and unable to provide for myself.
"Well," Angelina stated,"you have one up on Seamus."
"And what's that?" I asked as I ran my fingers through Alex's hair.
"You're a pretty common name in the Quidditch world. He's not even publically known aside from being a bastard."
I shrugged but allowed a smile to the black girl. "I'm just a Medi-Witch." At twenty-two years old, I was, and I apologize for this sounding conceited, one of the best Medi-Witch's in the Quidditch circuit. I had studied Healing after I left Hogwarts, thanks to the fact that I spent half of my last year at Hogwarts in St. Mongo's because of that damned cursed necklace. Once I started to get my wits about me, I began to realize how awesome the art of healing was. After two years in studying Healing, I left school with an undergrad in Quidditch Healing. Since I left school, at the age of nineteen, I'd been working for the Tutshill Tornados and was actually know throughout the Quidditch world, not just by myself and my friends, as the best Medi-Witch around.
"That works for the Tutshill Tornados." Fred and George said with brilliant smiles
"God, not for long!" I viciously exclaimed as one of thet less brutal waitresses came and took our orders. Once she finished with the orders, I continued, "That Anthony Jones! He thinks I'm a personal slave. I think not! Tons of other teams would kill for a Medi-Witch like me!"
"Wait! Didn't Bulgaria actually try to kill someone for you at the beginning of the off season?" George asked excitedly.
"Don't remind me... That was so messy," I moaned as the three men at the table laughed hysterically.
I looked to Alicia for help, and she tutted. "Shut up, guys. I think Katie's actually serious about quitting."
"Katie threatens to quit all the time! She never has before, and the day she does, I'll eat an entire box of Canary Creams!" Exclaimed Lee feverishly.
"Start eating," I muttered. All eyes turned on me, and a chorus of "What the Hell?" could be heard. I shrugged, "I put in my two week notice halfway through August. I clean out my office tomorrow."
After a couple of "good for you"s from Alicia and Angelina, George looked at Lee excitedly. Fred was rummaging through the pockets of his cloak. "You do realize, Lee," George said as Fred finally pulled a box from his pocket, "that Canary Creams now come in boxes of fifty?"
Lee visibly paled as Fred continued on, "And I happen to have a box of them on me." I lauged joyously. Even in times like these, my friends could always be depended upon to lighten my mood.
As I started to apparate away later that I evening, I swore I could hear Alicia whisper to Angelina," How bad do you think she's going to take this run in with Seamus?"
I smiled as Angelina replied, "For once, I don't think she'll take it hard at all." Then I was gone.
