CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: Bad News

Erin blinked in the dim red light of the rising sun and stretched fully, nearly going into cardiac arrest when she spotted Lupin dozing beside her. She sat up and shook her head, clearing it of sleep.

"You up?" Lupin asked groggily, raising his head a few inches off the bed and opening a bleary eye.

"Yeah," Erin whispered, taking a deep breath to calm herself. "Sorry, did I wake you?"

He shook his head. "I'm a light sleeper." Lupin pushed himself up onto an elbow. "What in Merlin's name are you up for?"

Erin yawned, still tired. "I've got to be on the pitch at six fifteen," she replied, combing the hair out of her face with her fingers. "I sign that coaching contract today."

Lupin slumped back down on the bed. "Hmm..." Erin glanced over to Lupin and saw he was almost asleep. Smirking, she slid out from under the covers Lupin had conjured earlier that morning and stood up. "What time is it?" Lupin mumbled into the bed as Erin padded silently across the floor.

Pausing on her way out the door, Erin looked at the clock. "Five thirty," she answered and snorted when she heard him sigh with gratefulness.

"Good," she heard Lupin say as she closed the door, "I still can sleep for another hour. Excellent." His snoring resumed.

Erin smiled as she saw Hawthorne Bates come through the door to the WIC manager's office. He swept her into a bone-breaking hug. "Nice to see you alive, squirt," he laughed. Erin grinned. "So you're up for my job?"

"Yeah," Erin answered, following Bates over to the manager's desk. A contract had already been written up; all that was left was for Erin and him to sign. Erin looked the crisp parchment over. "Wait, coach, it's got your name as the coach."

Bates nodded. "And?" he asked. "Nothing a vanishing spell can't help." With a smirk, he pulled his wand out from his back pocket and vanished the tidy script. "The manager and I decided that you'd best just finish my contract for me, incase you didn't like coaching." Erin shrugged. "So sign." Bates handed Erin the elegant eagle quill.

"But this is insane!" she complained, hesitating. "I'm not going to take your salary. That's way too much! More than what I was getting paid."

Bates chuckled. "The manager warned me about this," he grumbled brightly. Erin looked at him, confused. "Well, I'm not going to go cold turkey, now am I?" he wondered. "I've got a wife that insists on decking our house in themes, and Merlin knows what theme we've got on this month. Takes a lot of gold to keep that hobby up, it does." His face darkened. "Anyway. We'll split it, fifty-fifty. I can't say that you'll be getting the same amount as what you were." Bates puckered his lips and whistled. "Damn, now that was a lot of money for a Beater."

Erin sneered and signed the contract. "Well, it's not exactly like it was my fault, now is it?" she asked. "The manager talked me into it. I was all set on a whole lot less, but nooo. It just had to be that much. Stupid that's what it is. I sure don't want a contract like Ode's." She gave the quill back to Bates and he signed the parchment. "Instead of hoarding all the money for basically useless purposes, we should at least give it to worthwhile places."

"Do enlighten us. I don't think that Quidditch is useless."

Erin rolled her eyes. "So I spoke a bit too elaborately," she snorted with a shrug. "But come on. Don't you think that it's unfair that we receive huge contracts while organizations like Mungo's has had to cut workers because they don't have the funds to pay them? Don't tell me that our health is less important than this game, 'cause without Mungo's we'd all be dead."

Bates shook his head and rolled the contract up. "Make that, you'd be dead."

"Right, but you get the idea."

Bates tucked the scroll into his pocket and led the way towards the door, but stopped half way. "Oh, I almost forgot," he said, stooping over the cherry coffee table in the sitting area and picking up three enormous books, "to give you the play books. I'm sure you've seen them before, but I just thought that it'd be good to brush up." He grinned wickedly and shoved them into Erin's surprised arms.

"Ugh. Thanks, coach."

Bates wagged a mocking finger as he watched her struggle with the books' weight. "Now, Erin," he scolded jokingly. "You forget that you're the coach now. I don't want to hear any more of this 'coach' business. I'm Bates." A cunning glint came to his shining eyes. "Now I can call you 'coach'."

"Yeah, whatever, Bates," Erin grunted. "But I've really got to go if I'm going to get home before my arms fall off. See you round."

Erin looked up quickly from the playbooks she was reading in her bed as her room door swung open. Tonks bounded in and jumped onto her bed, grinning. The thick books immediately entranced her as soon as Tonks had spotted them.

"Hey, whatcha' doing?" Erin greeted and leaned back, letting Tonks get a better view.

Tonks looked up and laughed. "Wotcher, Erin. Well, I was going to tell you something important, but I kinda forgot from downstairs to here." She glanced sheepishly up at Erin. "I mean, it's not like it was incredibly important, right? Otherwise, they wouldn't have sent me! Come on, it's not my fault."

"Nice defense," Erin applauded, reaching forward to pull the big playbook towards her.

Tonks was interested. "So what's that behemoth, huh?"

Erin groaned with lack of enthusiasm. "Ugg. Well, these are the books that I get the teams' plays out of," she explained, flipping through the various moving diagrams. "Up until about noon I was content with memorizing a few Beater plays. But apparently, now that I'm coach, I've got to know what the other people are doing too."

Tonks looked sympathetic. "Sorry, that doesn't sound like a whole ton of fun."

Erin shook her head. "It's really not, but what can I do about it? Oh, well," she sighed.

"Whoa!" Tonks suddenly exclaimed and flipped back a few pages to a play. "What's this one?" Erin peered at the moving picture for a moment and then sat back. "It's so awesome; you guys should do it!"

"Well, maybe," Erin shrugged. "It's a really complicated one. I think it's called something like Baulkner's Suicide." Tonks cringed and Erin nodded, grimacing herself. "Yeah, I've only heard it suggested, never actually played. From what the info says here," Erin read, pointing to a sentence midway through the play's description, "it's only been used in two games. One was with the Seeker, Thorton Baulkner, and again in a game Poland versus Turkmenistan. Hmmm...They were both no brainers, the games were. I guess it's some sort of defense."

"If you ever need of a good, ruddy awesome defense..." Tonks said, nudging Erin in the ribs and winking.

Erin rolled her eyes. "I don't know if the adjectives 'good' and 'ruddy awesome' are put to their best use in this case," Erin noted. "It seems like it's a very complicated and awfully iffy play to me, but you never know." Her eyes jerked up from the playbook to stare in amazement at Tonks as the short witch started to roll on Erin's bed with uncontrollable, and unexplained, laughter. "What's so funny?" Erin asked nervously.

"Heh, I just remembered what I was up here for," Tonks answered, wiping a stray tear from her eyes. "Heh, heh. It's pretty funny." Tonks momentarily stared at the ceiling. "Well, per say, it's not it that's particularly amusing..."

"Well apparently," Erin grumbled. "What exactly is so funny?" Tonks giggled some more. "Or did you even plan on telling me?"

Tonks snorted. "Ah, I might," she choked between laughing fits. "But who knows?"

"Tonks, what's so bloody funny?" Erin asked, setting the playbook to the side, giving up on any attempt to study plays while her insane friend was with her. Tonks still hadn't ceased her laughter. "I'm not sure I've seen you this worked up since I told you about the barracuda that almost got me when I was six."

Tonks stopped laughing almost immediately. She frowned. "No, that was funny, this is amazingly bizarre." She broke out into more peals of laughter.

Erin groaned and sat up straight on her bed, swinging her feet to the floor. "Okay, so tell me now?" she wondered, standing up and pulling a sweatshirt from the trunk at the foot of her bed.

Tonks peered into the trunk, curious, and her giggling ceased. "You've got anything dressy in there?"

Erin looked down at Tonks, after pulling on her sweatshirt, surprised. "Uh, yeah," Erin answered, crouching down and rummaging through her messy trunk. "I've got some daks in here somewhere. Why?" From the inside of her trunk, she wasn't able to see Tonks' completely bemused look.

"No reason," Tonks replied. "Do you have any dresses or the like?" Tonks asked, obviously intrigued.

Erin nearly banged her head on the trunk lid as she looked up quickly in amazement. "Do you think I have any in there?" Tonks bit her lip a bit uncertainly. "You're mad; must be." Erin sighed at Tonks' confused look. "Of course I don't have any dresses in here, dolt! I've not owned a dress since I was young enough I didn't pick out what I wore! They're nasty, horrible, constricting straightjackets, if you ask me." Erin caught sight of Tonks' gleeful face. "Why?"

"Umm...dunno."

Erin scratched her nose. "Yeah right, Tonks," she muttered. "Listen, you wouldn't be able to wear anything of mine anyway; I'm like twice your size." Tonks nodded in agreement. "Well come on, you've got to have some bloody reason."

"How'd you be up for going to dinner?" Tonks asked.

Erin was surprised. "I would, but I've got all those," she looked at the massive books on her bed, "to read. The sooner I get them read the better."

"Oh."

"Sorry about that."

Tonks shook her head. "No, it's perfectly fine. I wasn't asking you to go out to dinner." Erin furrowed her brow, slightly confused. "Nope. I'm going to eat the tomato soup that Molly just cooked and maybe devise another brilliant plan to sabotage Snape." Her eyes lit up. "And I shall call it Baulkner's Suicide."

Erin laughed. "You go ahead and eat your dead horse. See, listen here. I don't mean to be rude or anything, but, I've really got to get this work done..."

"Say no more, say no more," Tonks interrupted. "I'm already on my way." Tonks stood up quickly and walked to Erin's door. "Hey. Keep up the good work. Apparently we're calling you 'coach' now, Cevin's orders."

Erin raised an eyebrow. "Oh, yeah? Well, since you're on the team now, and all..."

Tonks rolled her eyes and shook her head. "I suppose, Erin." Tonks laughed. "Seriously. I care less about your team than some things. I meant good work between you and Lupin, mate. Not Quidditch." Tonks turned around slightly, and saw Erin's reddening face.

Erin had a sudden urge to deny anything that had happened between herself and Lupin. "How'd..." she stuttered, glancing around. She knew the look on her face wasn't helping her.

"Oh, you're one to play that line smooth," Tonks sighed, rolling her eyes. She stared across at Erin knowingly. "Naw, mate, why'd you want to deny it? Not like you could fool me," she added. "I've gotten over myself, ya remember? It's okay, so long as you're happy." Tonks squinted, as if trying to remember something she'd been taught a very long time ago. "Ah, yes, that's it. No worries, at all, mate." Erin grinned. "Right?"

"Okay," Erin agreed warily, then paused. "But..."

Tonks was ahead of Erin by one step. "I'm over it because I'd rather see you two happy than be in a spit with you the rest of my life. I might be immature, but I do have a head on these shoulders." Erin nodded solemnly. "Heh. You're probably about the same color as the soup I'm going to eat. Ah, well." Tonks walked out the door, but poked her head back in. "Lupin wanted to talk with you at around eight when he returns from Glasgow. Ta!" And Tonks was gone. Erin glanced to the clock nervously. It read 7:18. Shoot, Erin thought, well I'm not going to get that much time to read. Damn.

Eight o'clock was slow coming, and Erin wasn't sure if it was because the things she was reading were incredibly boring or that she was looking forward to seeing Lupin. Either way, she read forty-four plays, committed them to memory, and was well into her forty fifth when Lupin knocked on her door.

"Come in," Erin called.

"Glad I didn't find you asleep," Lupin smiled when he was inside her room. "Tonks said you were reading some fairly thick literature...in English, for once."

Erin grinned and pushed her long hair out of her face. "So what that I don't read English? I've read plenty of English works, just not in English." She set her play book aside. "What did you want to talk about? Through Tonks it sounded kind of, not-so-urgent."

Lupin frowned and crossed to her side, sitting on the bed. "No, Erin, this is quite urgent." Erin sat up. "I've recently overheard Cevin and Severus talking about where the World Cup is going to be held." Lupin shook his head sadly. "They say your team has a good a chance as any in reaching the Cup, but I don't want you to go."

"Why not?"

"They're planning to hold it in Sydney, Erin," Lupin said, exasperated. "They've just put in a new stadium there and, so it sounds, they want to show it off."

Erin smiled. "That's awesome they got a new facility!" she said happily. "The organization really needed to pitch that old heap that I used to play in. Whew, that was a tosser. I mean, even the home locker rooms were covered with grime that must have been at least twenty or more years old. Damn it reeked something bad in the summertime. I am glad they got rid of it..."

Lupin cut her off by placing a hand on Erin's shoulder. The look in his eyes worried Erin. "But we decided against you ever going back to Australia," he reminded her. "Don't you remember after you got that letter from Liam?" Erin nodded.

"Yeah," she whispered, staring off into space. "But what if we get into the World Cup? I mean, I won't be playing, or anything."

Lupin sighed, leaning back on his arms. "But something could happen," he argued. "I'm not saying that anything will happen with Quidditch." He smiled. "Unless a Bludger is magnetically drawn to you. You do have that uncanny way of always getting hurt in important games."

"Well, that's true," Erin admitted. "I still don't think that it's something to get worked up about. Honestly, what's the worse thing that could happen?"

Lupin scowled. "You could get killed," he answered bluntly.

Erin pursed her lips. "Well, sure," she agreed, "but everyone dies at some point." Lupin snorted in disbelief. Erin placed a hand on his arm. "Come on. I love the game. Why would you want to stop me from going? I'm the coach now, for Merlin's sake!"

Lupin caught hold of both Erin's hands and looked deep into her eyes. "Because I don't want to loose you," he said softly. "That would be something that I, none of us who know you, would be able to bear." Erin looked as though she was going to respond. "You don't understand, Erin," he whispered. "You once told me that dreamed you and your brother's families would live side by side and you and he would play chess all day. If you're dead that can never come true." Erin sighed darkly and stared at her knees. Lupin gently lifted her chin with a hesitating hand. "Erin, are you alright?"

"That dream was gone a long time ago, Remus," she sniffed, tears welling in her eyes. "It won't come true now. I'm up here, he's all the way down there. And Luka's torn us apart. That was a fantasy."

"Do you think you're the only one with dreams, Erin?" Lupin asked. "I don't want to take the chance." Erin frowned again. "Listen, Erin," Lupin pleaded earnestly. "I love you." Erin stared at him, wide eyed. Lupin noticed and raised his eyebrows dubiously. "Don't tell me you've failed to notice."

"I'm pretty good at not noticing those types of things," she admitted with a sly grin, but quickly recovered. "No," she continued, "I guess I knew."

"Then you can't go."

Erin rubbed her eyes, suddenly tired, and yawned. "Yeah, for the time being, okay." Lupin was relieved. "But you know I've only just heard about this whole Australia W.C. thing. Give me some time to think it over." She smirked. "Who knows. Sounds like a great holiday."

Lupin scowled, although the corner of his mouth twitched in amusement. "Great holiday indeed," he snorted. "It would be more similar to a kamikaze mission than a holiday." A smile returned to his face. "Promise me you'll consider everything?"

"Fine," Erin submitted. "Okay." She pulled the huge playbook into her lap. "Now, I've got to get this one read by tomorrow, and I'm only half way through. You wanna help, or were you leaving?"

Lupin sighed. "I would be no help to you," he whispered and stood up, leaning briefly over Erin to kiss her on the forehead. "See you in the morning."

"Mm, okay," Erin mumbled and watched him leave. She flipped back to the last play she had been memorizing, bored before she began reading.