Chapter 4: Troubled Tin
A/N: Hey guys, I have to make the Tin Man part into two different chapters because it was getting way too long. It wasn't meant to be so long or go in the direction that it went, but sometimes stories just seem to write themselves. It seems a little dark to me at times, so I apologize if it gets pretty suckish. Anywho, enjoy!
"Ughhh, I'm sooo huungryyy!" Spotter whines. He's been complaining ever since I freed him from his pole yesterday. I decide to ignore his constant babble for food, when his next comment makes me chuckle.
"Ugh, I think I'm dying! I'm wasting away into nothing but a pile of straw and starvation! Oh, the pain! The horror!"
"Don't be so dramatic, Spotter. You're a scarecrow-you're not even really alive. And how is it that you are even hungry? You're made of straw, correct? Or have you secretly been lying to me this whole time?"
He sticks up his nose and huffs. "I am very much alive, thank you very much. Probably even more alive than you. I'm walking, talking, breathing, thinking, and I have feelings the same as you. And I can assure you that I AM a scarecrow, and not some… some…"
"Some?" I prod.
He looks at me with an odd smirk and gives me a mini heart attack when he suddenly yells at the top of his voice, "I'm not some STUPID TREE!"
Okay, am I missing something? Did I misjudge him before? Perhaps it's time to cart him off to the official loony bin because he's seeming pretty crazy town to me right now. "What do you-"
"Hey!" A new voice shouts. "What do ya mean stupid?"
Spotter grins widely and turns to squint at the voice. A talking apple tree. You've gotta be kidding me. Can I just go back home now?
"You heard me, you twisted old bag of twigs! At least I can get up and walk around wherever I please, instead of being rooted into the ground for all eternity with nothing but your rotting apples to keep you company. Yeah, I'd MUCH rather be a scarecrow."
"Hey! Are you hinting my apples ain't what they ought to be? Rotting! I'll show YOU rotting!"
And do you know just what that mentally deranged tree did next? (Can trees even BE mentally deranged?) He started chucking his apples at us like a professional pitcher. Is this what trees do all day? Since they can't walk, they just work on their throwing arm? Because I'm not going to lie. I'm impressed. It's funny though, because I have no idea why he took such offense to Spotter's remark. Or why Spotter would decide to provoke a tree in the first place. It just seems so silly.
Spotter dropped to the ground, gathering all the apples he could find and stuffing them into his pockets. "Thank you very kindly, oh great twig master. You've just provided a fine end to my hunger! How wonderful of you!"
And suddenly, Spotter doesn't seem so crazy anymore. Clever little buggar.
While Spotter munches happily away on his first apple, we begin to distance ourselves from the tree. And as we're walking away, I can't help but wonder… Who would place a tree on a shifting staircase?
I shake my head and run a careful hand through my perfectly touseled locks. Hopefully we can find this stupid Foreboding Forest soon and then I can finally get out of this crap hole and-
Wait… is that? What is that up ahead? Something shiny for sure. A bird? A plane? No! Okay now I'm just being silly. It's this place, I tell you.
It looks like… a metal statue of some sort. Or maybe it's a robot. Rusted. Terribly rusted. I can just barely make out facial features now. Clearly a man-around my own age. Thin. Very tall-gangly. Hmmm…
No. Absolutely not. The fates are just being mean to me now. I've already taken in one charity case, I don't need another. I will, under NO circumstance stop to talk to or help out WEASEL of all people, no matter WHAT world I'm in. Although, it doesn't look like I have much to worry about, since it looks as if he's been rusted over by time and his body is so rigid, I'm surprised that even the simplest of breezes hasn't knocked him over yet.
We're about ten feet away from him now, and I'm praying that Spotter doesn't see that big ol' useless hunk-a-tin. We're almost past him so I pick up the pace and and call to Spotter over my shoulder. "Come along, Spotter, no time to waste!"
"Right!" he cries. "Coming! OOMPH!" There was a very loud bang behind me and I don't want to turn around but I know I have to. I turn around just in time to see Spotter spiraling to the ground. Fantastic. I was hoping that he wouldn't notice Weasley, and what happens? He literally runs right into him, of course. Such is my luck.
"Ugghh," he moans, sitting up slowly. "What the heck just happened?"
"Oh," I responded too quickly. "It was only a tree. Well let's keep moving!"
"Hey, wait a minute! Trees don't make that kind of sound. And they're not shiny either." He crawls over to Weasley and knocks on his shin, then his thigh, and lastly, his abdomen. "Why, it's a man! A man made out of tin!"
"What? No, that's crazy. It's just a statue…"
"I thought you said it was a tree?"
"It's a statue… of a tree."
"Draco. Come on now. You don't ACTUALLY expect me to believe that, do you?"
"What does it matter, anyway?"
"It matters because he's in need of help. We can't just leave him when we might have the ability to help him."
"Well maybe YOU can't just leave him, but I certainly can. I don't know if you remember, but let me refresh your memory. I'm sort of in hurry."
"Come on, Dray. Please?"
I sigh heavily. Honestly, I should just leave Weasley here. And Spotter too, since he's so insistent. I should, but I can't. Spotter is actually all right. And great company when he's not singing. Ugh! But this is Ron Weasley, we're talking about. Our families have hated each other for… well, forever!
But… I guess this isn't the REAL Weasley. Just like the woman that got the house dropped on her wasn't my REAL mother.
"Please?" Spotter repeats, as he gives me the mastered puppy eyes. It's impressive.
"Fine," I groan. "But then we leave right after. I really do need to get to the Foreboding Forest."
"Of course! Oh, thank you! Thank you so much! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Tha-"
"Scarey?"
"Mmm?"
"That will be quite enough."
"Right. So how are we going to do this? How do you think he got to be this way? What an unfortunate guy."
"I dunno, maybe he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. It happens."
"But how are we going to figure out what's wrong with him?"
"You see the way his body is so stiff, but his eyes are still able to move around? My guess is that he's been cursed. I'm positive I already know which one, but it's always better to be safe than sorry."
"Cursed? Are you sure he didn't just get stuck out in the rain and rust up?"
"I'm quite sure. Tin doesn't rust. Iron does. He's only rusted around his knees, shoulders and elbows, but nowhere else."
"How fascinating, that you can tell all that, just by looking at him!"
"More like a pain in my arse," I grimace. "All right now, tin person, I'm going to ask you some questions, and you're going to answer by moving your eyes up and down for "yes" and side to side for "no". Are you ready?"
His eyes twitched up and down. Yes.
"You understand. Good. You must have a brain, which is more than I can say for the real Weasley. Do you know where you are?"
Yes.
"And where would that be?"
His eyes took on a confused and slightly panicked expression.
"I'm kidding. Don't get your knickers all in a twist now, Weasley, I know you can't speak. I am here, at the request of my companion, to help you. Do you need help?"
Yes.
"I'm going to use Legilimency to find out exactly what curse I'm up against. Do you know what Legilimency is?"
No.
"Legilimency will allow me to magically navigate through your mind and I will be able to search through your thoughts, emotions, and memories until I find what I need. Still with me?"
Yes.
"It is very invasive to your privacy, so I would understand if you wished to decline my help. So I will ask again. Are you still in need of my assistance?"
Yes.
"Very well. If you are skilled at all, in the art of Occlumency, not is not the time to use it. Prepare yourself." I look into his blue eyes and point the ruby wand at him, for once, grateful that Voldemort took such a special interest in me, enough to teach me Legilimency. "Legilimens."
As to be expected, whether it be the real Weasley, or this parallel Weasley, his mind is easier to waltz into than a hot knife slicing through already melted butter. Heh, heh, there's more open space in here than there is in my father's front lawn. Okay I guess I wouldn't have very much brain activity either if I had been stuck to one spot for such a long time. I'd probably be pretty air headed too. I mean, you can only recite every muggle country so many times before going mental.
All right, enough Weasel bashing. It's time for serious business now.
I'm sifting through his memories, trying to find what I need. I'm finding mostly hunger, hopes for food, hunger, strangers passing by without a glance, hunger, strangers trying- and failing- to help, more hunger, more want for food, and oh yeah, more hunger. I don't know, it's pretty hard to tell, but… I think he might be a tad bit hungry. What does a tin man eat anyway? Sheet metal? Little metal shavings?
Ah, finally, I think I've got something. Weasley used to be a real boy, yada, yada, yada, a professional Wizard's Chess player using life sized pieces, fell in love with one of Aunt Bella's servant girls, Maya, whom might I add, looks eerily similar to Hermione, and of course, my aunt being the lovely, caring, and gentle soul she is, took it upon herself to "handle the situation" ever so delicately. After warning him to stay away from Maya, Aunt Bella enchanted the chess pieces of his final Wizard's chess game for the season to sever his limbs from his body. Yikes. Poor guy…
Next, I see a very large Hagrid point a pink fishing pole and piece Weasley back together as a tin man, in order to save his life.
Skip ahead to Weasley finding his way back to Maya, oh happy day, then planning to run away together and have little tin babies, adopt a little tin puppy. You know, the whole nine yards.
Except… Aunt Bella found out that he was still alive and had no intention of letting the two young loves live out their happily ever afters.
"Do you NOT know how to die, you worthless vermin?" Bellawitch growls.
"My love for Maya will never die," Weasley bravely retorts. "No, I do not know how to die."
"How absurdly sweet of you. I'll kindly teach you. Avada Keda-"
"No!" Maya jumps in front of Weasley and tries to shield his much larger tin body with her own. "Please, Bellawitch. I love him. Please…"
"Love? Love! You know nothing of love, Maya, because if you did, you wouldn't be guarding his life with your own, you'd be guarding MINE!"
"Bella, please. You know I love the both of you so much. You're the best friend I've ever have- that I ever WILL have. I have loved serving you and being there for you, but now it's my turn. I need you to be there for me, by letting go of me. Let me walk away. I love this man- this tin man- and I know he loves me. It's more true and more real than anything else I've ever known."
"Then you're a bigger fool than I thought. Now remove yourself from that abomination. I've grown weary and I'm ready to put all this behind me."
"I will not."
"Are you forgetting who takes the orders?"
"…"
"Maya. MOVE."
"I will NOT MOVE, Bellawitch!"
"Levicorpus!"
Maya was suddenly hoisted into the air by her ankle and was forced over to Bellawitch's side. "Liberacorpus," Bellawitch released her. "Your place is, and always will be, at my side."
Aunt Bella aims her wand at Weasley and cries out with all her might and power, "Sectumsempra!" (How on earth does she know my Godfather's created spell?!)
A brilliant light blinds every watching eye for seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries, a moment that can't be distinguished from half a second, or half of an eternity, but it's too much, it's too much, it's too MUCH
Time.
Or maybe it could also be thought of as not enough time. Not enough time to say all the things you meant to say while you were still living. Not enough time to properly say goodbye. Not enough time to whisper one final "I love you."
Bellawitch stares down disgustedly at Weasley, shattered and crumpled on his knees and letting out uncontrolled, haunted wails and repeating the word "no" over and over again. Tears race down his cheeks, while he huddles over…something…
Bellawitch blinks, confused. "You're not bleeding. Why aren't you dead?"
He says nothing.
"Answer me!"
He looks up slowly, tears showing no sign of stopping, and brokenly whispers, "I'm ready for death now. Please…"
Bellawitch finally realizes what's wrong. She runs over and pushes Weasley to the side. "Maya!" she cries. "How did this happen?! Maya? Maya!"
"She can't hear you anymore. Your spell killed her. She's… she's dead."
"No! I aimed that spell at YOU! YOU are the one that should be laying here, NOT her! Never her."
"And I would have gladly been, had I still been an ordinary man. But the body I have now…" he breaks off, too upset and wracked with… guilt?.. to finish.
I suddenly want to leave his mind more than anything in the world. But I know that I won't. I can't leave him, after knowing what he's been through. And he asked for help. I will not abandon him.
Bellawitch may not understand what he just said, but I get it fully. This Weasley's body is no longer made of flesh. Sectumsempra had nothing to attack. His tin body reflected the curse off of him and instead hit Maya, full force. She must have died from blood loss.
Weasley's body killed his one true love…
Bellawitch was now stroking Maya's hair and repeating "Vulnera Sanentur" softly. "Please, Maya, I didn't mean it. Please come back. Vulnera Sanentur."
Maya's wounds had knitted together and disappeared almost entirely, but if she was dead, there would be nothing to bring her back.
"Bellawitch," Weasley begins quietly. "If you truly loved her then at least honor her wishes. If she and I cannot be together in life, then let us find happiness and peace in the afterlife. I beg you to end my existence. Without her, I am NOTHING."
Bellawitch's cold eyes hardened. "You have ALWAYS been NOTHING. You will always BE nothing. And now, the only person I've ever cared for, has been hurt because YOU couldn't follow one simple rule of staying away from her!"
"That isn't what she wanted."
"You have no IDEA what she wanted!"
Silence pressed down hard all around them. A small wind lightly blew a strand of Bellawitch's wild hair off her forehead. Her eyes narrowed into slits. "I hate you," she hissed. "I despise you right down to your very core. Death would be too kind. You will remain in this very spot for all eternity, never able to speak to another soul, never able to touch another living thing, never able to die from the unbearable loneliness that I hope you feel for every second that you remain frozen here. "Petrificus Totalus Aeternus."
That's it? That's all my "evil parallel aunt" used? A simple child's body binding spell? Please. My real Aunt Bella is WAY more creative. And cruel. Although, I WILL give this one SOME credit. The Aeternus at the end was a nice touch. I believe it's "everlasting" or "eternal" in latin. She wasn't kidding about keeping him here forever.
Okay, well now that I've overstayed my welcome, I think I'll pop back into my own mind again. After all, it IS more comfortable in there.
As I withdraw from Weasley, I now understand why his mind was so empty before. He wants it that way. Because he can't deal with the pain. I don't blame him. Poor guy.
A/N: Allrighty, well… there's that. The first part of our Tin Ron's story. I sort of have an idea, but does anyone have any suggestions on his name? Or any suggestions about anything else? I always love to hear 'em!
A special thank you to ForeverDoesntExist15, bicorn-tana, Nebelwand, stardustgirl24, Miazabini3, and all you other lovely people that I didn't get for favoriting and/or following! And a huge cookie to stardustgirl24 for reviewing! I tend to laugh even harder when people ask me what I'm doing, when I think something is hilarious. I appreciate your review. Thank you. Okay, have a fantastic day, guys!
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