Hello, me again here. I know that my tempo hasn't been very high lately, but I don't want to give up on this story. And so I wrote this divided over several trips in the train. I hope that you all like it, and please tell me what you think.

Psycocavr: Thanks, The Wall has always seemed like perfect material for a nightmare. I wanted to portray her fears, without having to write something where she is only thinking to herself. And of course, I wanted to shamelessly rip off some of my favourite pieces of culture.

Mockingjaybrandybuck: Thank you very much for your compliments, I hope that you will also enjoy the rest of the story.

Carameltootsieroll: Thanks a lot for pointing out my comma use. It is something that I'm really struggling with, and I have the idea that I'm always doing it wrong. I will certainly keep it in mind when I'm writing the rest of the story. And of course for the rewrites if I ever find the time for them.

Salivour: Thank you for commenting! I never knew that Madam should be capitalized, but I will make sure that I do that from now on. And then there are people who say that writing fanfiction is a complete waste of time. The reason why she doesn't dare to think Voldemort's name is because she is quite traumatized at this point, and she might be rebelling, but mostly because it is her only option.

Tirion I: A girl is happy that a man would read her tale. Thank you for your support.

Chapter 11: Housing

Mere moments after their visitor had left, pursued by the cannonade of Shirley's accusations and insults, everyone had appeared at the doorway. Even Neil had stumbled downstairs from the small room he calls his study. In his slow voice he asks: "Wow, man. What is this heavy stuff about?"

"What this is about?", a still angry Shirley starts, " That pig wants to demolish this house! For a road! Those fascists at the council decided to build it right here, as if the world needs any more of those carbon-belching, rain-acidifying animal crushers!"

"Demolish?", Linda asks, " when will they do that?"

"The day after tomorrow. In the morning.", Rainbow adds, " but can't we do something to stop them? Like protest?"

"O yes we'll protest. We'll protest so hard that those fascists would wish that they had never been born at all.", her mother fumes.

Rainbow looks from her mother to Neil, who has an uncanny resemblance to a lonely puppy, and then to Linda. She seems to be deeply sad, and mutters: " But how about my crops? They're going to kill them all. Where can we go now?"

"I don't care. First we protest, and then we stay here.", Shirley states, not cooling down but rather becoming more focused.

It worries Rainbow and she asks: " But what if they still demolish the house? All of our things are in there. They shouldn't do that, but they are fascists, and they could call the police."

"We can't just let everything be destroyed Shirley, but Rainbow is right. We have to pack things first, put them in the van, and then we make signs.", Linda replies.

"And we put in traps. We can't let them get away with this.", Shirley concedes.

Neil meanwhile looks ever sadder: " Wow, isn't that like a bit heavy? Someone could get hurt you know."

"They should get hurt. They deserve it for driving us from our home.", her mother continues. " It's all the fault of that Thatcherite bunch. They want to destroy everyone, all in the name of money. And now we can strike back at last. "

XxXxX

When Shirley had finally been calmed down a little, with the help of some substances which slow everyone down considerably, they get to work packing. Or rather, they do things that might resemble packing, without any coordination or planning behind it. Neil is in what passes for his study, carefully placing his books and assorted papers into several of Linda's crates. He however might be a bit too careful, as he packs only two books per minute. Shirley meanwhile shoves all of her paints into a garbage back, and then starts gathering up an enormous pile of her paintings. She still paints a lot, but never sells anything, Rainbow can remember each of those occasions, there always was a celebration afterwards. She counted thirty-three sold paintings over her lifetime. While all this is going on in the house, Linda is busy in the garden, she gathers her scattered tools, and actually looks like she is saying goodbye to the soil.

Rainbow has withdrawn to her own room, she doesn't plan on reading later in the day, and gathers up her few possessions in a burlap sack. The little money that she has saved up over the years goes in there, taken from the hiding place in the wall. When they moved to this house, she discovered that the wall was a bit old, and could have used some more maintenance. This led to the little hiding place, in one if the holes behind the old wallpaper. She puts her spare clothes on top of that, she doesn't have many, si it fits easily. And then there is her childhood companion, a mouse that Shirley made her when she was a baby.

When everything is in there, she heads back downstairs, struggling with the weight of the sack. Once it would have been no problem at all, but she isn't as strong as she was in her old life, even though she never was at all strong. All the others are still busy with whatever they chose to do, and not only because they have bigger tasks than Rainbow. None of them is what she would call organized. But her bag is ready, and she puts it in front of the once-red sofa. She sits down for a few moments, giving her vision some time to return. The girl takes long, deep breaths and the blackness drifts back to the edges before disappearing completely.

Rainbow stares at the wall for a few more moments, adjusting her glasses. They are a bit too large for her head, but she figures that it's better than Harry's perpetually broken ones. She often wonders if there is something she can do to make things a bit easier for him, but she knows all too well that there isn't much that she can do. He needs the protection of staying with his relatives, and they are his torment. She can't send him a letter, or visit him to help. Not like she can make her old self a little less lonely. There are just so many people who she can't help now, such as poor, poor Dobby and all the many other enslaved creatures. She wonders if she ever will be. And of course Sirius, who is suffering in Azkaban. She can't free him either.

She has failed them all, she doesn't know what exactly, but there has to be something that she could have done to help. Also in this new life. But instead of that she has been focusing on her own little life, and her own small worries. She has been reading for her own amusement, not to be able to do more to help. And worst of all, she has been hiding here, in safety and comfort. She could just have run away, and have actually done something.

She never deserved to be in Gryffindor, she's not brave, she doesn't have courage. She doesn't even have much in the way of talent. She knows it all too well. Yes, she had decent grades, but every exam has always been a struggle while others didn't even do a fraction of the amount she did, and they came close. Them calling her the brightest witch in her generation can't have been anything else than mockery, just like she has always been mocked. Behind her back and to her face. Only her few friends tried to save her feelings, and she failed them completely.

Through her thoughts she hears some mumbling, ending in Rainbow. "Uhm, what did you say?

She looks up, seeing Neil. " Oh. I'm sorry for disturbing you. But you looked really sad."

She nods, collecting her thoughts, she wants to talkto someone, anyone at all, but she can't say it. Never. "Oh, uhm. It's really sad", she starts to lie, " with the house and all that."

She knows that she isn't convincing, and her face starts to feel warm. Rainbow knows that it is turning some shade of red, but can't help it.

"Yes, I know. Shirley is really angry about it. It's really heavy, but you know that. They're always after us for some reason. But we will find a place, the world is really large, you know? Of course you know, you know a lot."

"The world has a surface of five-hundred and ten million square kilometers, although only one hundred and forty-nine million of them are land.", Rainbow smiles, happy that her lie seems to work.

XxXxX

After a day of packing the house is in an even greater chaos than it usually is. Rainbow could already have told them, but now the adults have also found out that not even half will fit into the old van, even if they stack things dangerously high on the roof. Shirley's forceful personality has prevented an argument from starting, but still, the problems seem insurmountable. Annoyingly enough, James has not returned from his work yet, even though Linda doesn't seem too worried about that. It at least means that all of his things have the lowest priority, essentially meaning that they will be used for barricades, and if Shirley here her way, traps.

The biggest problem is formed by her mother's 'beautiful' paintings, that take up a lot of space. There must be almost a hundred of them, and they can't be abandoned. That would rouse Shirley's anger, and over the last day prior have started fearing that aspect of her. And the rain only makes things worse, there just are so many things that can't get wet, mostly the paintings. So all of them have to go into the van, and on top of the rest, because they're so vulnerable. but Neil wants to take his books, which have been divided over three crates. And of course, Linda doesn't want to abandon all the things she needs for her poison-free farm.

Everyone is sitting on the old sofas, Rainbow reads in a photocopied leaflet called 'SOCIAL JUSTICE!', which gets delivered every week. It is written by some of the friends of the adults, and she knows that Neil and Shirley have also made contributions. The articles are always about how terrible the whole world is, and how all Western governments are evil. She doesn't take it very seriously, but it's better than having nothing to read. At the same time, Shirley, Linda and Neil are all agreeing with each other that it is terrible that they are being thrown out of their home, and that it all is a grave injustice. Rainbow knows those conversations all too well, as they appear as soon as anything happens, and she blocks themselves out.

Just as she is reading an article about why the USSR is actually the changed of worldwide freedom, she hears her name and looks up.

"Rainbow?", Shirley starts, "Are you even listening? What do you think about it?"

She however has no clue what this specific it would be: "Eh, what? I'm sorry, I was reading."

"My idea to call up all our friends", Shirley replies, slightly indignantly, "so we can have a large protest against these filthy fascists."

"That sounds like an idea. But, ehm, wouldn't it be possible to also ask them to help move our things?", Rainbow suggests, asking the most obvious of obvious questions. "And maybe some of them have some space for us?"

"Yeah, I like called some people.", Neil begins, "But it's all heavy, man. I couldn't just like, ask them you know? And Ed's hamster just like died."

Inwardly Rainbow sighs, they are all nice people, with good intentions. But practicality simply isn't a trait any of them has.

Shirley however is not about to let herself be interrupted: "I'll call everyone! We'll gather in the dozens! Perhaps even hundreds! We'll show the pigs, and everyone will know about it! And then, finally, the Revolution!"

She hasn't seen her mother this excited in ages, but then again, she loves protesting the many real and perceived injustices in the world. Rainbow of course tends to agree that things are terrible, but she likes to think that she is better at seeing what's the most important. She decides on another approach, one she is loath to use: "I don't want to not have a home, I'm afraid that they will hurt you, and that they will destroy everything."

Immediately Shirley softened: "They won't, Rainbow, we'll find somewhere, and I won't let anyone hurt you. I promise."