-
-Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of JK Rowling
-
-Sorry!! I know its taken me forever to update, but I moved to my new apartment...moving SUCKS! Specially since I had to give away my cats who I love very much, but they are living on a farm now instead of a tiny apartment, so they are probably having the time of their lives...specially since one of them can get xXxXxXCENSOREDXxXxXx now with all the xXxXxXCENSOREDXxXxXx on the farm. Hehehe wouldn't you just like to know what I censored out!! LOL I'll just say it was a Lemon. LOL
ANYHOO... So yeah, I'm updating now...no promises when I will again since I am trying to do NaNoWriMo this year. But I had this almost done and I haven't been too productive on Nano so far, so I figured I would finish this chapter. Only two or so more to go on this story! One more to go on Beautiful Consequences,then I am going on with Luna's Secret and starting on The sequel to Beautiful Consequences in December! So, thats whats to come! might come sooner if I continue to bomb out with Nano.
Hugs...CJ
-
-The Storm Before Dawn
-Chapter 10
-Leaving Deppart Island
-
"Luna" George put a warning arm up to stop Luna from going closer to the boat "Go back to the cave"
"But..." Luna started to protest but one look at George's face stopped her. She nodded and turned around, slipping quietly back into the tree line that led back to the cave that had held them prisoner for over a week.
George proceeded cautiously, the Veela wand held extremely tight in his hand in case Bagman had any thoughts of attempting to disarm him again. But as he stood by the side of the boat it became more than apparent that Ludo Bagman wouldn't be disarming anybody ever again.
He lay on his back, his eyes open and staring at the cloudless sky with his arms stretched limply over his head, George's wand still lay clenched in one fist, Luna's in the other. His emaciated chest moved up and down, his breathing weak and gasping, more of a death rail than anything. Bugs crawled unhindered over Bagman, already enjoying a tasty feast. George reached down and snatched the wands from his fists, then gave him a weak kick, receiving no response whatsoever. Bagman's body wasn't dead yet...but it would be very soon, his soul, so it appeared, had been claimed the week before by the dementors kiss.
George didn't want Luna seeing this. Winning a skirmish with his conscience he picked up his and Ron's Brooms, untied the boat and used Wingardium Leviosa to set it adrift far from the Island, then cast Reducto on it, sinking it. When it was gone from view he turned back to the tree line and found Luna watching solemnly from the trees.
"He's dead?" she asked, her voice softer than he had ever heard it.
George nodded as he took her hands. "He is now."
She nodded and put her arms around him, laying her cheek on his chest. "It was the dementors wasn't it?"
George nodded and tightened his arms around her.
"You did the right thing" she said "It's good that he's not suffering anymore."
"Yeah." George pulled her even tighter and buried his nose in her hair. "I suppose so."
Her next words surprised him.
"I want to go home."
He pulled back and looked up at her sharply.
"What?"
"I said I want to go home. But..." Luna smiled. "I just remembered, I haven't got a home. It blew up."
"You have a home wherever I am Luna." He tightened his arms around her again "But what about your father?"
"I don't know." George felt tears dampen the front of his shirt and realized she was crying. "I just know that we came really close to dying." she shook her head. "It isn't fair for me to keep you here and risk your life, not when your family already lost Fred."
"I promised you..." George began but Luna became angry and pushed him away to turn and stomp back to the cave.
"No George! You have to go back!"
"Me?" He raised an eyebrow in question
"I mean we...us. It's too dangerous, we have to contact the ministry, like you said before."
She had reached the cave and now began to shove their things haphazardly into their rucksacks.
George followed her, confused by her complete change of plans and attitude. "But before you said..."
"Forget what I said before." She tied his bag shut and began to work on her own, struggling with her over-sized sleeping bag.
George bent down to help her. "But what about your father? Who will..."
"Damn it George! By now my father is probably..." Luna sat back hard as a flood of tears broke from her eyes. She looked at George, her eyes pleading with him to understand. "If we go on, I'm afraid you'll be next, like in my dream."
George leaned forward and pulled her against his chest, wrapped her tight in his arms and kissed her hair. "I can't lose you! I can't lose you too George, you're the only one I have left!"
"I'm not going anywhere." he said softly
"Promise me." she demanded in a shaky whisper
George lifted her face to his and looked through her eyes and into her soul. "I promise."
"Take me away from here." she pleaded "I don't want to be in this horrible place anymore."
"Where do you want to be?" he asked while his hand brushed over her hair.
"Someplace with clean clothes, a bathtub, and bubble bath, and steak with mushrooms and caramelized onions and baked potatoes." she sniffled and tightened her arms "and you."
"Daigon Alley it is." he smiled, picked up her rucksack and put it on her back, then slid his own on and tucked her back in his arms and pulled out his wand, then twisted away, leaving Deppart Island and the angry sea behind.
-
"You do realize of course that Mum is just waiting to skin you alive?"
Unfortunately, George and Luna apparated nearly right on top of Ginny and Harry who were taking a turn minding the shop.
"Perhaps, but she can only do that when she knows that I am here, correct?" George fixed her with a look of severe warning.
"You're not seriously asking me to keep quiet about your being back..." Ginny's face flushed with indignation "And by the way...you reek."
"I love you too." George rolled his eyes and smiled at Luna and took her hand "Come on, I'll show you where everything is." he took her hand and led her upstairs for a bath to the raised eyebrows of Harry and Ginny. When he returned a few moments later they were both grinning with lifted eyebrows.
"What?"
"What's with you and Luna?" Harry asked, putting special emphasis on Luna's name.
"Wouldn't you like to know." he said dismissively as he scribbled a note on a piece of paper and addressed it to the Leaky Cauldron, then went to his safe and pulled out a small sack. He pulled out a galleon and put it in a smaller sack and then tied it all on his owls leg and opened the window and let him go to deliver the food order.
"Ginny would you do me a huge favor?"
She nodded "What?"
"Run to the Leaky Cauldron and pick that up for me? On your way, could you stop at that new womens clothes store and get Luna a couple changes of clothes and something to sleep in? Oh and she'll need some..." his face turned red
Ginny's lips twisted as she tried not to grin "Teddies?"
"NO!" he said through gritted teeth
"babydolls and thongs?" she supplied while George grit his teeth
"No."
"G-strings and pasties?" Harry supplied "The kind strippers wear with the little tassels right over the..."
"Absolutely NOT!" George turned an adorable shade of puce as an image of Luna so attired invaded his mind. He grit his teeth and ground them savagely. "Underclothing. Respectable womens underclothing."
Ginny laughed so hard she snorted. Loudly.
"If you two are done mocking me..." George held out the bag to Ginny with two fingers, his face redder than red and his imagination working overtime.
"Oh all right" Ginny said with a huge grin as she took the bag "But when I get back I want details, lots and lots of details."
"Fat chance." George mumbled and picked up a huge stack of mail as she kissed Harry and waved back as she pushed through the door. When he looked up Harry was staring him down.
"So?"
"What?" George said absently as he thumbed through the mail, his throat constricted painfully every time he came across a letter addressed to Fred.
"What? you know damn well what. You take off in the middle of the night..." Harry slid up to sit on the counter
"Was early morning actually, well past dawn."
"...leave Ginny a note with some cock and bull story about helping Luna with a problem at home,..."
"So?" George gave him a perplexed look
"Luna's home exploded George, remember? Luna has no home."
"I'd say that's a problem."
"So where were you George?" Harry leveled a look at him that reminded him of Hermione.
"You know you spend way too much time around Hermione. Your starting to pick up her dirty look."
"Stop avoiding the question." Harry crossed his arms
"What question?"
George felt a jolt as he came across a letter for both of them. He and Fred had been hoping to visit Japan on holiday late summer so they had talked to a muggle travel agent and requested information. They had waited impatiently weeks and weeks for the information to come. Looked like It had finally come.
"Where have you been the past three weeks George?"
George thought about where he had been the past three weeks, and who he had been with. As much as he would give anything to have Fred alive again, he'd take Luna over Japan any day. He tossed the letter in the trash bin, looked up at Harry and grinned.
"I was with Luna"
Harry rolled his eyes "And where was Luna?"
George smirked "With me of course."
"Fine, don't tell me." Harry laughed despite himself "I want to see you get away with not telling your mum."
"Yeah, yeah." George said sarcastically then he turned serious "Hey, you still in touch with Kingsley Shacklebolt much?"
"Yeah, some. He's getting me front lined to start Auror training in the fall so I can skip my 7th year at Hogwarts. Why?"
"Just wondering whats up with Azkaban, if they are any closer to getting to cleaning it out yet."
" Luna's dad?"
"Yeah"
Harry's eyes opened wide "You two weren't doing anything stupid were you..."
The look on George's face gave him away.
"Bloody hell George! Do you have any idea how dangerous it is out there? What the ..."
"Save it alright? Luna was going to go alone...I couldn't talk her out of it and I couldn't let her go alone. What choice did I have?"
"You could have told Ginny or me and we could have stopped her."
"For crying out loud, do you even KNOW Luna? I mean really KNOW her? She's stubborn, and tough. Smart, and sexy and beautiful and incredibly brave and she sings like an angel...and" he stopped when he saw Harry break into a huge grin.
"What?"
"You're in love with her."
"That's not the point right now" George blushed as red as his hair "The point is, that nothing and nobody can stop Luna Lovegood once she makes up her mind to do something. We'd still be there now if it hadn't been for Bagman."
"Bagman? Ludo Bagman?" George nodded "What about him?"
"He was hiding out on one of the small Islands we were using to watch Azkaban, he took us by surprise, knocked us both out, took our brooms and wands and trapped us in a cave."
"How did you..."
"Luna figured it out, she'd borrowed Fleur's hairbrush and together we made a wand using Fleur's hair as the core." George pulled the Veela wand from his pocked and handed it to Harry.
"Brilliant" Harry nodded as he looked at the wand "I wouldn't have thought of it. And it works?"
"Try it out."
"Wingardium Leviosa" Harry made a display lift off the shelf and fly into George's hands. " this thing has some real power to it."
George grinned "It has a bit more than one hair in it. Luna wasn't totally sure which hairs were hers and which were Fleur's, since it was so dark in the cave. So she shoved a bunch in."
Harry handed the wand back "So Bagman's running around somewhere then?"
"No" George's face hardened "We found him after we got free, he was attacked by dementors. He'd been laying there with his soul gone for a week, most horrible thing I've ever seen. He wasn't dead yet, but close. I set the boat free and then sank it."
"Better than he deserved."
"Who deserved?" Ginny said as she pushed through the door, her arms full of bags.
"Uh...it's a long story." George said as he took the bags from her.
"If it's about where you've been, I like long stories." she put her hands on her hips and gave him the Hermione look.
"You two really need to stop spending so much time around Hermione." He leaned on the counter and attempted to win the stare down with Ginny, it was no contest, she won easily.
"Oh alright. Harry can tell you though, I'm going to go take this food to Luna."
"She's been in there a long time." Ginny said
"Probably fell asleep." George picked up the food cartons and started up the stairs "she's had a tough few weeks."
"I grew up with him, I can about imagine." Ginny giggled
-
"I'm going to hurt him." Ginny glared at the stairs that George had gone up a few minutes before. "Seriously hurt him"
"I'd save some for your mum if I were you."
"Oh no, I don't think we should tell mum."
"Why not?" Harry looked at her in disbelief
"The rest of us will only inflict serious pain on him...mum will kill him." she shook her head "How could he, and after Fred too."
"He's in love with her Ginny. Really, seriously, in love."
"With Luna?"
Harry rolled his eyes "No a Mermaid that lives near there."
"Oh your funny Potter" Ginny giggled a little "Ho ho."
George pounded down the stairs with his wand in his hand, muttering angrily under his breath about stupid stubborn witches.
"George? Whats wrong?" Ginny asked
"Luna Lovegood" He spat out while grinding his teeth "That's whats fucking wrong."
"What about her?" Ginny was perplexed as she watched George fill his pockets with things like decoy detonators and Peruvian darkness powder.
"She tricked me, that's what. "Its too dangerous, we should let the ministry handle it" she said "I want to go back" she said" George filled another pocket "So, like a total git I let my guard down and what does she do?"
"George?" Ginny's eyes opened wide in worry "She hasn't..."
"She's gone" George stopped and looked at his sister, his face dressed in shades of deep panic and his voice shook. "Gone off by herself to get her father out of Azkaban."
"Oh god no! Harry!" Ginny gasped and looked guiltily at Harry
"We should have told them." Harry said quietly
"Told me what?"
"Luna's father was taken from Azkaban two weeks ago." Ginny said miserably "He died George."
Harry began filling his own pockets "I'm going with you."
George nodded assent, giving no reaction to the news of Xenophilius Lovegoods death.
"I'm going too" Ginny said
"No your not. It's too dangerous." George said
"I'm going or else I am ratting you out to mum."
"Witches are a pain in the ass" George grumbled then turned away from her.
"Ginny, this is too dangerous, I say no." Harry said stubbornly.
Ginny looked at him "I just fought in the battle of Hogwarts, I faced down Bellatrix LeStrange and a room full of death eaters. Tell me whats more dangerous about this than anything I have already faced?"
Harry sighed deeply and took her hand "You stay behind us and stay close."
Ginny smiled and took Georges hand. "Were going to bring her back George. I won't have it any other way. I'm the baby of the family, I always get what I want." she winked and George smirked.
"Looks like Dumbledores Army has one final mission." George whispered to the moon as he prepared to apparate back to Deppart Island, where he was hoping Luna had gone.
"Hang on Luna, don't do anything until I get there."
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Chapter 11 Preview
George, Harry and Ginny
rush to find Luna...
will they be in time to stop her
or will they have to
go to Azkaban
Island to rescue her?
Then,
George takes on
the burden of
telling Luna about her
fathers death. Will it bring
them closer together,
or tear them apart
forever?
-
-
-
-
-
-