Authors Note: So here's the knew chappie, hope you enjoy. New one up soon. Much of the love, -Crouchingbunny.
HPDH SPOILER YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
-just in the authors note, not the story-
So I'm so totally exited to have read HPDH -which looks totally wierd, am I right?- it took me the better part of Saturday as I didn't get home from the store before 11:30, so I was happy to have been right about the R.A.B. thing as well as the necklace. If not much else. So anyway I was up until four in the morning because I just HAD to see how it all ended up. I'm pretty satisfied allthough I would love for there to be a sequel. And I'm sure I'm not the only one out there clamoring for more. Although I wish HPDH didn't take so many of my faves with it to the grave, I still loved it.
--- --- --- --- ---
"Thanks for the help," Vernon said shaking hands with one of the two cockney boys that had jumped Bob.
"No problem," he said as they both watched the policemen towing the large and pretty formidable Bob into the back of one of their police cars. The lights on top still flashing red and blue. The edges of Vernon's lips curving into a victorious smile under his bushy mustache as he mentally recounted the battle. After he and Moony had jumped Bob and brought the larger man too the ground -largely because of Vernon's superior weight- and the two cockney boys had put him in arm and leg locks and Vernon had sat on top of him until the police had arrived a few minutes later. He grinned all the wider remembering when Bob had tried to make a break for it while an officer was cuffing him and the officers had used their mace guns. Ah victory is sweet, Vernon thought as he dusted his hands in a self satisfied way.
"Well Moony, I wish you luck with that Doris girl. I'm off too the room," he said straightening his shirt as he grabbed the jacket from his seat and pulled it on.
"Yeah… thanks," Moony said as Vernon clapped him bracingly on the shoulder and walked out of the bar.
--- --- --- --- ---
"No we seriously do know somebody," Janet said too a guard that was standing outside of the patients wing. The man was at least six and a half feet tall and was basically inscrutable from two other guards standing on either side of a door leading into a long hallway. They were all wearing black suits and sunglasses, their heads were shaved and they were all sturdy as a brick wall.
"We'll see, who do you want to see?" he asked with a thick German accent that might have been sexy if not for the fact that he wasn't letting them go where they wanted to. Lisa narrowed her eyes and flipped her long straightened hair behind a shoulder before looking up into the guards face.
"Suzannah Piper, daughter of Larissa and Clyde Piper, my cousin." Lisa crossed her arms in front of her chest and took in a breath her irritated blue eyes daring the man to contradict her. She could feel Janet shaking a little nervously beside her as she checked out the guards by the door as she glimpsed a gun holster as one of the guards moved.
"Wir haben zwei Mädchen, die wollen, a zu sehen Suzannah Piper," he said quickly into a tiny microphone Lisa hadn't noticed before that was sticking out of his collar.
"What are your names?" he asked staring down at them from two feet above.
"Lisa Piper," Lisa said tapping a foot on the white floor of the hospital.
"J-janet Mulrooney," Janet stuttered as she glanced around the room sure the guard was staring at her from behind his sunglasses and was fixing to tackle her at any moment if she made any sudden movements.
"Sie sagen, dass ihre Namen sind Lisa Piper und Janet Mulrooney," he touched a black earpiece and his face remained stoic under the wordless criticism of Lisa and Janet. Lisa resisted the urge to just walk up to the door and demand to be let in. "Ja, man hat lange braunes Haar und blaue Augen, der andere ist kurz und hat schwarzes Haar auch blaue Augen. Sie sehen sich sechzehn um." Lisa tapped her foot a little harder hoping the mans earpiece would crackle and electrocute him. Of course, she would have been very sorry had she in anyway caused this… albeit after she had her way.
"What is Suzannah's dog's name?" he asked surprising Lisa and Janet both.
"Pretzel, now can you let us through or do we have to get frisked?" Lisa said scathingly and even more irritated than before.
"Ja sie brachte es in Ordnung," he said into the mouth piece. Lisa rolled her eyes and took a step toward the doors where she was sure she saw the two guards stiffen and widen their stances. Sensing she better stop she scowled and stopped.
"Hello? Can we go now?" she said impatiently bad tempered. Janet nudged her in the arm.
"Be quiet, you're going to get us shot!" she whispered fiercely paranoid. Lisa elbowed her harshly in the ribs for being such a paranoid dork. Janet hissed in pain and stomped on Lisa's foot. The scene might have escalated had the guard not intervened.
"Step over here please," the guard said motioning to the wall beside of the doors. Lisa's jaw dropped realizing she was about to be frisked as she assumed the position.
--- --- --- --- ---
"Hey Big D remember this?" Piers said as he pointed out a missing swing and uprooted merry go round of the deserted park on Magnolia crescent. Dudley nodded glancing around at the smiling faces of his old gang.
"Yeah it took about ten minutes but we finally tipped it over," Travis said sitting on the lip of the slide. The rest of the gang nodded reverently lost in the memories of the place.
"And look over there, look! Our names are still on the bottom," Mitch said pointing to the merry go round a few feet to the right of him. Dudley glanced over at it and indeed the names were still written on the tarnished dirty metal. He skimmed over it searching for his name, BIG D in big blocky letters in the middle of all the other signatures. Of course they had all used their nicknames, not daring to connect themselves in any way that could be immediately linked back to them.
Dudley sighed thinking how much stuff could change in a year. He didn't enjoy being with his old gang half as much as he used to. It was like they had already done everything last year that was worth doing and now, the only thing they had to do was reminisce on the old times. Suddenly Dudley felt older than he had a right to feel. He stood up deciding to go back home and see if Suzannah had called.
"Big D where are you going?" Piers said spotting Dudley moving toward the street. Dudley turned around and shrugged.
"Home," he said nonchalantly. The rest of the gang looked up at him astonished. All six faces openmouthed and slack jawed.
"Home?" Piers repeated as if the very idea seemed repulsive.
"Yeah… home," Dudley said about to turn around.
"But I stole this pack of cigarettes and we were all about to light up," he said abashed as he pulled out a pack of Camel and a lighter and stuck a cigarette into his mouth. The rest of the gang looked from the cigarettes to Dudley who merely glanced back down the road.
"No, it's getting late, I'd better get home," he said and started off down the road barely aware it wasn't even eight. The cigarette dangling from Piers mouth fell and landed in a puddle of muddy water, but Piers barely noticed as the gang watched Dudley, formerly known as Big D disappear around the curb hands in pockets.
--- --- --- --- ---
"So you're saying we went through all of that to come in here and she's sleeping!" Lisa said glancing over at Suzannah's peaceful form glowing in the light of the lamp doing all she could not to run over and strangle her in her sleep.
"I'm sorry dear, I'll tell her you both dropped by, I was just on my way out myself," Larissa said and Lisa noticed that her Aunt had her black Gucci purse on her shoulder and her sunglasses were already pulled over her eyes from their usual resting spot atop her head.
"That's fine Mrs. Piper," Janet said grimacing at the thorough way the guards had searched them. Although that crick in her back was gone.
"You're a sweet girl Janet," Larissa said glancing at her watch. Janet's cheeks flushed with the compliment.
"Thanks," she said smiling. Lisa scowled and glared at her cousins annoyingly peaceful face.
"Well I've got to get going, I'm having supper with your mother," she said glancing at Lisa. "I'm sure it's all right if you sit by the bed for a couple minutes, just be sure and turn out the lamp before you leave." And with that Larissa had waved goodbye to the two girls and walked out of the door.
"I can't believe I let that overgrown behemoth paw all over me for nothing," Lisa said ill temperedly as she plopped down on one of the many chairs in the dim light of her cousins room.
"Well I'm going to go and get a Dr. Pepper from the vending machine I saw down the hall, do you want something?" Janet said not wanting to be around Lisa when she was in such a bad mood. Also to text Sarah, Allison, and Blair to tell them that she'd practically been felt up by some German body guard.
"No I don't want anything, when you get back let's go," Lisa said and as soon as Janet shut the door behind her she put her head in her hands and massaged her temples pondering over her ill fate.
--- --- --- --- ---
Harry walked home from his long walk around the surrounding neighborhoods hungry and terribly morose as he had began to think once again about the death of his godfather. He missed Hogwarts already and had scarcely been gone four days. This summer was going to be long, he felt it in his bones. As he crossed Nougat Drive onto Magnolia Crescent he heard a few lowered voices conversing in the half dark of the evening. He slowed to an even slower pace and saw a few people gathered in a tight circle twenty yards from him in the park. He stopped and lowered himself to a crouching position determined to have the element of surprise if they were death eaters. Grasping his wand in a white knuckled hand Harry crawled closer to hear what the group was saying. As he stopped behind a tree a few feet away he strained his ears to hear exactly what was being said.
"Yo he wasn't always like that," said one voice.
"He totally deserted us," another one.
"I can't believe he'd choose her over us, bros before ho's right?"
"I say we give him another chance, I mean his girlfriend is in the hospital-"
"When's the last time he talked to you outside of class?" Harry thought he recognized that voice, although by this time he realized these people weren't plotting his downfall. Or at least he hadn't heard that part of the plan. Harry let out a silent breath of relief as he sagged against the tree and slid down a couple inches into the moist earth. He was getting a little tired of being on edge all of the time.
"Then we're agreed, it's us or her," said a voice that Harry had no trouble recognizing. Piers, he thought risking a glance around the side of the tree to make sure. His suspicion confirmed by the light of six cigarettes Harry turned back around obscuring himself from view again. But what was Piers and Dudley's old gang doing plotting revenge on someone in the park during the evening?
"Big D's our friend, what if-" and with a start Harry realized they were talking about Dudley. What!? Harry thought bewildered, Dudley's old cronies were plotting something with out him… then it hit him. 'Girlfriend in the hospital' Harry was fairly certain that Suzannah was still in the hospital. Harry stayed to listen to the rest but apparently the meeting was over as the gang set out into the street. What on earth was going on? Suzannah was annoying at times but he didn't see what she could have done to make Dudley's old gang so mad. One thing for sure, he had to tell someone.
--- --- --- --- ---
"Yeah, hold on I'm coming," Lisa said to Janet as she snapped her cell phone shut in angry frustration as she found her voicemail and inbox empty. Was everything and everyone on earth compiling together to make her life utterly intolerable? She wouldn't have doubted it. Lisa paused for a second before turning the lamp off and leaving her sleeping cousin in the dark. As they walked down the hallway Lisa saw a man getting the same treatment that they themselves had gotten from the large German guards at the beginning of the hallway. Lisa considered going through another exit down another hall and saw more guards at the end of that hallway as well. Scowling they walked down the other way deciding to go out the way they had come.
"Hello, I mean who exactly is here that the hospital requires so much attention anyway?" Lisa asked agitated and suddenly curious as to who was inadvertenly causing her so much grief.
"Well I heard two nurses talking about the German Ambassador in here recuperating from a hip transplant." Janet said although it would probably be switched to sex change before she called someone. Say or do anything else about Janet but she was a heartless gossiper when you got down to it. At least she wasn't a bitch like some people we know.
"I hope they left the surgical scissors in him," Lisa muttered scarcely realizing she was saying it before they turned a corner and Janet and Lisa ran into a tray filled with bed pans which tipped precariously and Lisa felt her blue eyes widen in disbelief and horror as the contents of said tray was spilled upon herself and Janet. The resounding crash and screeches of the two girls brought the body guards running leaving the guy they had been questioning standing at the doors which he slipped surreptitiously through unbeknownst to anyone else as they were all searching for the source of the screams and crash. It just wasn't Lisa's day.