CHAPTER NINE: The Darkest Secret
Erin stepped out of her room in the Headquarters of Phoenix and straightened her brand new copper Quidditch robes. She felt a little awkward with the bulky radius and tibia armor and the stiff leather gloves that were required by international Quidditch law. Briskly, she fished her wand out of a pocket and was about to disapparate when Molly Weasley and Tonks appeared from around a bend in the stairs above her.
"Wotcher, Erin!" Tonks cried. "What type of garb is that?" Erin noticed that her spiky hair was now a brilliant shade of red, quite in contrast to Mrs. Weasley's naturally bold hair.
"I'm going to practice," Erin answered, and beginning to wave her wand.
"Oh, awesome!" Tonks exclaimed. "Can I come?"
Molly tutted disapprovingly. "Tonks, you have to go to work in fifteen minutes." She was holding a tea tray laden with used cups and an empty cream pitcher. Tonks rolled her eyes and sighed remorsefully. "I'd do something about your hair. It looks like you walked under a falling can of paint."
"Do you thinks so?" she asked, intrigued.
Erin sniggered. "Either that or you had a run in with a monstrous tin of dead horse." Tonks looked horrified. "Sorry. I mean tomato soup." Tonks gleefully snorted after the clarification. "I'd have to admit that the paint bucket idea is a little more believable."
Tonks screwed up her face momentarily and held her breath. A small pop bumped Molly against the wall and blew Erin's hair out of place. Tonks now donned longer blazing sapphire hair that looked to have been tossed in the wind for several hours. Erin choked back a laugh and gave her the thumbs up. "Nice, strong, radioactive spill look." Molly's eyes widened with exasperation. "Got to fly." Before Mrs. Weasley could say anything to incriminate her, Erin vanished.
"I hope you're not going to keep your hair like that," Molly said, and began to descend down the wooden stairs.
Tonks clumped hastily after her. "Damn, I liked the radioactive idea," Tonks informed Mrs. Weasley. Molly shook her head in disgust. "I'll keep it. I've been on pink for way too long. Even Snape stopped making a hullabaloo about it. That's when you know you've got to go for a change. When the surly Potion Master doesn't notice your hair. I wonder how he'll like this one. Probably shoot me one of those sneers that looks like he's gonna puke." She tilted her head to one side, thinking. "I hope he does sometime. Wouldn't that be grand?"
"You're hopeless, Tonks."
"Go figure."
"Hey Langhart, watch out for yourself!" A Bludger zoomed unnecessarily close past Erin's ear. Spinning, she streaked after it and unceremoniously shot it towards the dark blue robed reserve player that had the Quaffle.
The morning's practice, which normally ended after Narthing caught the Snitch, had progressed well into the early afternoon. The morning's clouds had dissipated way before hand, leaving the sparkling stadium drenched in unbearable sunlight. Many of the men on the Club team had already lost their shirts to the intense heat, and now their backs were pink with sunburns.
Erin dodged Cevin Harrow as he rose up to make a leisurely save right into her path. With a tightly wound barrel roll, she curved around the middle goal post and beat a Bludger away.
"Sweet over-swipe," Lisa congratulated, gliding next to her. "You're doing really well only three weeks in, you know. You must have been really good in your prime."
"Damn it, kid, I'm still there," Erin muttered, making Lisa laugh insanely. "You wait," Erin continued, joining her comrade, "give me two or three weeks more and it will be like I never stopped playing." Lisa hadn't stopped giggling. "What's so funny?"
"You!" Lisa cried. "You're what, thirty-one, and you talk as though you're only just out to the reserve squad. Thirty one isn't young for a Beater, y'know. I don't know of a good one that made it past thirty five. It's just weird." With a last hiccup, she settled down. She peered at the cloudless sky and wiped her brow. More seriously, she said, "it's hot for sure out here, you know. I don't know what's with the heat, but if one of us is going to keel over and I'm not going to be the one that'll go catch them."
"But I will," came an oily remark from the other side of Erin.
"Buzz off, wanker," Lisa commanded, glancing at Hugo Narthing. He was shirtless, and flaunting the fact in front of Erin. She stared wearily ahead, watching both Bludgers carefully. Lisa spat onto the ground.
"I shouldn't let you make fun of Erin again, Campbell," he remarked loftily. "You'll never find someone as willing to satisfy every man's..."
Erin snarled with controlled rage as she concentrated on the other side of the stadium. "Enough, Narthing," she sniffed, containing her annoyance valiantly .
He raised an eyebrow suavely. "She's from my neck of the woods, you know," he continued, as though Erin hadn't spoken. "Naturally, she knows all sorts of things that would drive a man wild. It's my job to watch after her..." He trailed off as he saw the look on Erin's face change for the worst.
"I said, that will do!" Erin snapped, turning to him, which was obviously what he wanted her to do. "You're a bloody bogan, Narthing, flying around in only your daks trying to crack onto anyone who'll listen? Flipping root rat figjam," Erin muttered. "Don't say another word to me, or Lisa! I can't believe you would do this during a practice!"
Narthing was quite taken aback by Erin's sudden outburst of colorful cursing. He backed up slightly and then recovered. "You can't?" he drawled smoothly.
"Shut up you show pony." Erin rolled her eyes and glanced apologetically at Lisa. The younger woman was watching their interaction mindfully, obviously oblivious to whatever Erin was calling Narthing.
"We're polite today, aren't we," Narthing jeered, leaning closer to Erin.
Erin spat his direction, but failed to aim. "Not really," she said darkly.
"Try and don't let the heat get to you. It riles emotions," Narthing whispered, mouth inches from Erin's ear. She shoved him away with a grimace, almost sending him spinning from his broom.
"Fucking leave me alone!" Erin roared, threatening him with her bat. Narthing eyed it nervously and retreated. "I'll bloody make sure you get sprung by Bates."
Narthing laughed. "Bates works for the manager, and the manager happens to like me. You're the one who'll bloody get ousted."
Lisa chose this time to make her debut. "No she won't," Lisa growled, drifting over to Erin's side as she positioned herself between her friend and Narthing. "She's got the whole team's support."
"What's the team's support when they can all get fired?"
"I'm hacked off with you, Narthing," Lisa shouted; several of the other players turned to glance their direction. "For the last time, naff off, will you?"
Hugo Narthing, instead of answering, chose to ignore Lisa's presence and continue his conversation with Erin. "You don't really mean any of those things, do you, Erin?" he asked, gliding around Lisa and back to Erin's side. "You couldn't bring yourself to knock me off again. Not after you saw what happened last time."
Erin eyed a long white scar across his chest with uneasy eyes. "No, Narthing," she whispered staring him straight in the eyes, though her fingers flexed around the wood of her bat. "I would do it as many times as I could get away with." His grin widened and surprised her. "Damn you," she growled and sped away; she was just in time to save a Bludger aimed at Day's back. Glancing back, she saw that Lisa was now pummeling a Bludger forcefully at a reserve Beater and Narthing was so where to be seen. That's better, Erin sighed and rested, letting a rare breeze blow through her hair.
Lisa was right, the heat was insufferable. I can only imagine this would be like being roasted on a spit, dreamed Erin, hazily. She shook her head fiercely, trying to ward off the sleepiness, and watched as droplets of sweat showered off her. This is brutal. She shifted her slick bat in her hand. It slipped back to where it had been before.
"So, will you let me catch you when you fall off your broom?" Narthing wondered, drifting next to her out of nowhere and making another stab at conversation.
Erin didn't have enough mental power to discern what her had said. "Whatever," she replied, hoping that she hadn't agreed so something utterly uncouth. The brightly robed figures streaking all around her began to blur as sweat dripped painfully into her eyes. They stung horribly as she rubbed them. Distantly, she heard Narthing laugh.
"Good, because it looks like..." There was a split-second pause and then Narthing whispered, "Oh, shit." Erin looked dazedly around, heard an oddly loud crunch, and slid off her broom as the Bludger Narthing had ducked collided with her nose...
Erin sat up and yawned. She was lying in a shady section of the arena, propped up against a concrete pillar. Dimly, she picked Lisa's face out of the sea of people wearing bronze and blue robes around her.
"That was a nasty hit you took, kid," came Bates' voice from above her. "Your nose is going to have a funny little crook in it as far as I can tell."
Erin was anything but concerned. "That's great. What are all you doing here?" She looked around at the worried faces with a vacant demeanor. "Shouldn't you be practicing? It's a lovely day out today." Hushed whispered erupted from all sides.
"Yeah, kid, a really bloody hot day. I should never have let you practice out there," Bates mumbled. "I'm lucky one of you didn't die out there." There was a pause as Erin closed her eyes. "Alright all you, she woke up. Now skedaddle quick, or else."
As the tramping of footsteps slowly died away, Erin reopened her eyes. "Lisa, why are you still here?" she asked, watching the woman. "Didn't Bates tell you to get out of here?"
"Yeah."
"Well then?" Erin sighed and eased herself to her feet. "To tell you the truth, I really don't feel as bad as I probably look. Just a little woozy." She took a look around her and laughed at herself. "You know, I'm damn glad you stayed because..." Lisa caught her as she staggered around and Erin smirked. "Say, let's get down to ground level and then I think I'll be a bit better; not as far to fall, you see."
"Right." Lisa let Erin lean on her shoulder as she carefully made her way down one flight of stairs and then around a row of bleachers. Erin walked in to the dimming afternoon sun and slammed into a wall thick of humidity and heat. She could feel herself start to sweat almost immediately. "You really don't look so great, Erin," Lisa noted. "Maybe you should get some ice or something."
"Naw," Erin said pulling her wand from her robe pocket and pointing it at herself.
"What are you doing?"
"Who needs ice?" Erin responded drowsily feeling Lisa cringe beside her as she cleared her throat. "Ennervate." Erin's world came into focus and stopped spinning, although the heat was just as intense. "Thanks Lisa for sticking around. I'll see you soon."
"Are you really okay?" her friend asked. "I could follow you to your home or whatever. Make sure you get there okay?"
Erin shook her head stubbornly and held up a hand for peace. "No, I'm sure I'll be quite fine. Everything is much more clear now." Lisa nodded somewhat apprehensively and disappeared with a small 'pop'. Cracking her fingers, Erin trotted across the field to where she spotted her bat and broom, unmoved from where she had originally fallen. As Erin stooped to pick them up, a cold voice echoed from behind her.
"I'm glad that you recovered so quickly; I was impressed at how fast your turn around was. I took a direct hit to the face and didn't come out of it for two days."
Erin twisted around and saw Cevin Harrow briskly stalking towards her, already having changed from his Quidditch robes into billowing black ones. As he drew near, Erin gaped at his height, wondering if even Hagrid was this tall. "Although I will take the liberty to say that your nose will never be the same."
Take the liberty? Why do people keep using that phrase? "Thank you," she mumbled, shaking her thoughts from her head. "It wasn't all that far to fall."
He bowed his head once and Erin took it he agreed. "Of course." He stared back into her eyes. "You must forgive me for being sharp with you earlier. I have sources that warned me about you; Severus isn't so keen about you apparently."
Erin snorted at his description. No, really? That's saying something, now isn't it? "Yeah."
Cevin seemed to understand her amusement. "May I escort you back to," he dropped his already low voice, "You-Know-Where?" Smiling, he swept into a mocking bow. He laughed coldly, something Erin never thought she would live to see happen on a face so similar to Ode's. "I'm going there anyway," he explained.
"How are you in the Order?"
Her response was a punctuated hiss. "Shut up! Don't speak openly like that again!" He bent over and whispered. "Do you realize that anyone could have heard you?" The look of outrage on his face was classic. In a much more relaxed tone he continued. "Don't be slow." Without further waiting for an answer, he whisked his wand through the air and the pair disappeared.
"Oh you poor dear!" Mrs. Weasley cried the moment Cevin and Erin emerge into the kitchen; she ran over to where Erin stood. "You must sit down." Briskly, she yanked Erin's state of the art broom from her hand and laid it on the table. "Give me your bat." She held her hand out imperiously.
"No."
"You poor thing, you're not feeling at all well. I could tell that from a mile away." Despite Erin's previous rejection, Molly wrenched the slippery bat from Erin's hand and set it beside the broom. "There, you'll fell much better. Just sit. Cevin!" she roared once Erin was seated at the long wooden, kitchen table. Mrs. Weasley turned on the extremely tall man and shook a finger at him menacingly. "You should know better than taking a girl out to lunch and getting her bloodied up!"
"Honestly, Molly!" he growled, having to shout to be heard over Mrs. Weasley's racket. "I did nothing of the sort! She and I were at Quidditch together so we just came back together. She got beat in the face with a Bludger. That's what Beaters do," he finished, saying each word very slowly.
Mrs. Weasley's anger deflated quickly. "Oh."
Cevin nodded sharply, knowing he had been received. "Right then, I'm going to go see what Severus is doing," he sighed and made his way over to the door that led to the huge staircase. "When will supper be?"
"I'd say two hours," Mrs. Weasley answered, not taking her eyes off Erin. Cevin faded through the doorway and Molly now shook her finger at Erin. "You should be more careful when you play Quidditch," she reprimanded.
"I know."
Molly was unsatisfied. "And you mustn't play in the heat like that again." Erin watched the motherly witch and nodded. "Good. Now, how would you like a bowl of soup?"
"I can wait for dinner," Erin said, rising from the table and scooting her chair back under. "I'm not all that hungry." Erin thanked the witch once more and then made her way up the daunting staircase and to her room. Once inside, she flopped down on the bed and was asleep before she was even able to take off her shoes.