Chapter 24
Goodbye again, see you soon
Harry
After breakfast, everyone went to pack their trunks. Harry too, packed his. He saw Vlad - Romania? What should he call him? - put Negru in his cage and put a black cloak over it to prevent light from getting in.
Harry, Ron, Romania and Hermione met up with Lukas and Arthur at the crowded Entrance Hall with the fourth-years were waiting for the carriages to pick them up and get to the Hogsmeade station.
Harry was looking around at the summer's day. A beautiful summer's day. Which, gave him no pleasure at all.
''Arry! Arthur!"
He looked aroun and saw Fleur Delacour hurrying up the stone steps into the castle.
"We will see each uzzer again, I 'ope," Fleur said, as she reached him, holding out her hand, "I am 'oping to get a job 'ere, to improve my Eenglish."
"Yes, make sure you learn your English here in the UK or more preferably England as it is called English and not American. Just – just learn it in England, okay?" Arthur told her, and she nodded.
"Goodbye, 'Arry, Arthur," Fleur said, turning to go after shaking hands, "It 'az been a pleasure meeting you!"
Fleur hurried back to Madame Maxime, and got into the carriage.
"Wonder how the Durmstrang students are getting back?" Ron wondered out loud, "D'you reckon they can steer that ship without Karkaroff?"
"Karkaroff did not steer," a gruff voice spoke from behind them, "He stayed in his cabin and let us do the vork."
Krum had come to say goodbye to Hermione.
"Could I have a vord?" he asked her.
"Oh … yes … all right," Hermione said and walked out of sight with Krum.
"You'd better hurry up!' Ron called loudly after her, "The carriages'll be here in a minute!"
"…You like her, don't you?" Romania asked with a sly smile.
"What?! NO! Vlad, NO!" Ron exclaimed.
"Eh," Romania said, laughing a little, as Ron stared at the direction Hermione went, getting a little red. Hermione came back with Krum soon.
"I liked Diggory," Krum told Harry in a sudden, "He vos alvays polite to me. Alvays. Even though I vos from Durmstrang – with Karkaroff," he added, scowling. He must really hate that man. (reminder that Karkaroff ran away, abandoning his students. Don't think I wrote that part. Nope, I don't think I did.)
"Have you got a new Headmaster yet?" Harry asked.
Krum shrugged, indicating a 'no.' He held out his hand and shook Harry's hand and then Ron's, then England's- and so on.
Ron looked as though he was suffering some sort of painful internal struggle. Krum had already started walking away when Ron burst out, "Can I have your autograph?"
Hermione turned away, smiling at the horseless carriages which were now approaching them, as Krum, looking surprised, but gratified, signed a fragment of parchment for Ron.
"…You did it, Ron, you finally asked... congratulations," Romania said, patting his back, as Ron shivered in joy.
-0-0-0-
The six sat in the same compartment, with the two cats curled up together in an empty seat. Negru was hanging from the ceiling, while Pigwideon hid under Ron's robes again. Watson and Hedwig were sleeping on the racks where the bags were supposed to be.
They discussed how Dumbledore might be dealing with Voldemort, and only stopped when the lunch trolley arrived. When Hermione returned from the trolley, she dug out a copy of the Daily Prophet from her bag.
"There's nothing in there. You can look for yourself, but there's nothing at all. I've been checking every day. Just a small piece the day after the third task, saying you won the Tournament. They didn't even mention Cedric. Nothing about any of it. If you ask me, Fudge is forcing them to keep quiet," Hermione said, and Harry sighed in relief that it had no more nonsense written on it.
"Surely Rita Skeeter won't miss a scoop, not a big, fat, juicy one like this," England said.
"Nobody will be able to keep Rita quiet," Harry said.
"Oh, Rita hasn't written anything at all since the third task," Hermione said, "As a matter of fact, Rita Skeeter isn't going to be writing anything at all for a while. Not unless she wants me to spill the beans on her."
"What are you talking about?" Ron said.
"I found out how she was listening in on private conversations when she wasn't supposed to be coming into the grounds," Hermione said very quickly.
"Whoah, slow down," Romania said, "I feel like you've been dying to to tell us this for days."
"Yes I have! But I just couldn't! The timing was not right!" Hermione said.
"How was she doing it?" Harry asked.
"How did you find out?" said Ron, staring at her.
"Well, it was you, really, who gave me the idea, Harry," she said.
"Did I?"
"Bugging," Hermione happily spoke with a bright smile.
"But you said they didn't work –"
"Oh, not electronic bugs," Hermione said, "No, you see … Rita Skeeter' – Hermione's voice trembled with quiet triumph – 'is an unregistered Animagus. She can turn – "
Hermione pulled a small sealed glass jar out of her bag.
"– into a beetle."
"You're kidding," Ron said, stunned, "You haven't… she's not…"
"Oh, yes she is," Hermione said happily.
Inside were a few twigs and leaves, and one large, fat beetle.
"…Yeah this is her all right," Arthur said, "…Why didn't I think of this sooner?"
"You have to be kidding…" Ron said in disbelief.
"No, I'm not," Hermione said, "I caught her on the window-sill in the hospital wing. Look very closely, and you'll notice the markings around her antennae are exactly like those foul glasses she wears."
"There was a beetle on the statue the night we heard Hagrid telling Madame Maxime about his mum!" Harry suddenly said.
"Exactly," Hermione said, "And Viktor pulled a beetle out of my hair after we'd had our conversation by the lake. And unless I'm very much mistaken, Rita was perched on the window-sill of the Divination class the day your scar hurt. She's been buzzing around for stories all year."
"When are you letting her out?" Norway asked.
"I've told her I'll let her out when we get back to London," Hermione said, "I've put an Unbreakable Charm on the jar, you see, so she can't transform. And I've told her she's to keep her quill to herself for a whole year. See if she can't break the habit of writing horrible lies about people."
Hermione almost looked too happy for capturing and threatening and putting a human forcidly into captivation as he put the jar back into her bag. But that cow deserved it.
The door of the compartment suddenly slid open.
"Very clever, Granger," Draco Malfoy said, with his goons next to him, "So. You caught some pathetic reporter, and Potter's Dumbledore's favourite boy again. Big deal. And guess what? Kirkland's his second favourite now! Again, no surpise. The only surprise is that Kirkland's a Slytherin. Trying not to think about it, are we? Trying to pretend it hasn't happened?"
"Get out," England and harry said in unison.
"You've picked the losing side, Potter! I warned you! I told you you ought to choose your company more carefully, remember? When we met on the train, first day at Hogwarts? I told you not to hang around with riff-raff like this!" he jerked his head at Ron and Hermione, "Too late now, Potter! They'll be the first to go, now the Dark Lord's back! Mudbloods and Muggle-lovers first! Well – second – Diggory was the f–"
Harry and the others stood and fired a hex at the three, then exploded a box of fireworks within the compartment. Or something like that.
When the blinding light faded, Malfoy and his goons were lying unconscious on the floor.
"Thought we'd see what those three were up to," Fred said matter-of-factly, stepping over (on) Goyle, and into the compartment. George followed him into the compartment, stepping on Malfoy on the way. Both had their wands out.
"Interesting effect," George said, looking down at Crabbe, "Who used the Furnunculus curse?"
"Me," Harry said.
"And I think I hit him with Inflatus," Romania said.
"Odd," George lightly spoke, "I used Jelly-Legs. Looks as though those two shouldn't be mixed. He seems to have sprouted big, fat, tentacles all over his face. Well, let's not leave them here, they don't add much to the decor."
They kicked, rolled and pushed the unconscious Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle, who had been presented new, horrifying looks by the multiple jinxs that hit them, out into the corridor, then came back into the compartment and shut the door.
"…Not a lot of room," Norway said.
"Ah, well, Exploding Snap, anyone?" Fred pulled out a pack of cards.
-0-0-0-
"You going to tell us, then?" Harry asked George halfway into the game, "Who you were blackmailing?"
"Oh" George said, loosing his smile, "That."
"It doesn't matter," Fred said, "It wasn't anything important. Not now, anyway."
"We've given up," George shrugged.
"Wait a sec, what is this?" England said.
"They are blackmailing someone," Romania said, "Were, blackmailing someone. Told us they'll tell us about it. So, just tell us."
"All right, all right, if you really want to know … it was Ludo Bagman," Fred said, giving up as everyone asked them constantly.
"Bagman?" England said in suprise, "Don't tell me he-"
"Whatever you are thinking, no, it isn't it," George gloomily said, "He wouldn't have the brains for whatever you think of."
"Well then?" Ron asked, raising his eyebrows.
"You remember that bet we had with him, at the Quidditch World Cup? About how Ireland would win, but Krum would get the Snitch?" Fred said with hesistation.
"Yeah," Harry and Ron slowly said.
"Well, the git paid us in leprechaun gold he'd caught from the Irish mascots."
"So?" Harry and Ron asked while Hermione, Norway, England and Romania said: "OH."
"So," Fred impatiently said, "It vanished, didn't it? By next morning, it had gone!"
"But – it must've been an accident, mustn't it?" Hermione said.
"Yeah, that's what we thought, at first. We thought if we just wrote to him, and told him he'd made a mistake, he'd cough up. But nothing doing. Ignored our letter. We kept trying to talk to him about it at Hogwarts, but he was always making some excuse to get away from us," Geoger said after a bitter laughter.
"In the end, he turned pretty nasty," Fred said, "Told us we were too young to gamble, and he wasn't giving us anything."
"So we asked for our money back," George glowered.
"He refused, didn't he?" Norway said.
"Yes, he did," Fred said.
"He didn't!" Hermione said.
"He did," George said.
"But that was all your savings!" Ron said.
"Tell me about it," George said in a bitter voice, "'Course, we found out what was going on in the end. Lee Jordan's dad had had a bit of trouble getting money off Bagman as well. Turns out he's in big trouble with the goblins. Borrowed loads of gold off them. A gang of them cornered him in the woods after the World Cup and took all the gold he had, and it still wasn't enough to cover all his debts. They followed him all the way to Hogwarts to keep an eye on him. He's lost everything gambling. Hasn't got two Galleons to rub together. And you know how the idiot tried to pay the goblins back?"
"How?" Harry asked.
"He put a bet on you, mate," Fred said, "Put a big bet on you to win the Tournament. Bet against the goblins. He also had another big bet on you, Arthur. he betted that Arthur would come Second."
"That explains why he was desperate to get us to win," England said.
"And well – I did win, didn't I? And- Arthur did come Second! So, he can pay you your gold!" Harry exclaimed.
"Nope," George shook his head, "The goblins play as dirty as him. They say you drew with Diggory, and Bagman was betting you'd win outright. So Bagman had to run for it. He made a run for it right after the third task."
The twins sighed deeply.
"What. A. Git," England said.
"We know," the twins said in unison.
-0-0-0-
The rest of the journey was pleasant. Even after they had talked about Fred and George loosing their savings.
Everyone went out of the compartment, careful to trample on the three unconscious jerks on the floor as they did go out.
Harry, however, stayed put while everyone else went out, "Fred – George – wait a moment."
The twins turned. Harry pulled open his trunk, and drew out his Triwizard winnings. He had all the winnings as Arthur gave him his, telling him that he had more money than Harry could ever imagine as he saved it up for more than a thousand of years.
"Take it," Harry said, and pushed the sack into George's hand.
"What?" Fred said, flabbergasted.
"Take it," Harry repeated, "I don't want it."
"You're mental," George said.
"No, I'm not," Harry said, "You take it, and get inventing. It's for the joke-shop."
"He is mental," Fred said, "More than us."
"Listen," Harry said, "If you don't take it, I'm throwing it down the drain. I don't want it and I don't need it. But I could do with a few laughs. We could all do with a few laughs. I've got a feeling we're going to need them more than usual before long."
"Harry," George said, "There's got to be at least a thousand Galleons in here.'
"Yeah. Think how many Canary Creams that is," Harry said with a grin, "Just don't tell your mum where you got it… although she might not be so keen for you to join the Ministry any more, come to think of it…"
"Harry," Fred began, and Harry pulled out his wand.
"Look," Harry said, "Take it, or I'll hex you. I know some good ones now. Just do me one favour, OK? Buy Ron some different dress robes, and say they're from you."
He left the compartment before the twins could say anything else. Making sure to step on Malfoy's face.
Harry sighed as he saw Uncle Vernon beyond the barrier, with Mrs Weasley close by.
Mrs Weasley hugged Harry very tightly when she saw him, and whispered in his ear, "I think Dumbledore will let you come to us later in the summer. Keep in touch, Harry."
"See you, Harry," Ron said, turned to Romania and whispered: "I can't tell my family, can I?"
Romania smiled and shook his head, and whispered back to him: "If you do, I'm afraid we'll have to get rid of your family."
Ron stared at him in shock.
"Just joking! Why so serious?" Romania smiled, "Just don't, okay? I'm asking you as a friend."
Ron nodded.
"Bye, Harry!" Hermione said, and turned to the personifications, "One day, you have to tell me detailed stories. Bye!"
She then ran off to her parents.
"Harry – thanks," George muttered, while Fred nodded furiously at his side.
Harry winked at them and turned to Uncle Vernon. He was going to leave when England grabbed his clothes, "Hey, Harry!" England said.
"Yeah?" Harry said.
"Actually, more like, hello, Mr Dursley," England said, "I have something to tell you."
"What is it?" Uncle Vernon grunted.
"I'll just tell you that you're going to have a visitor over this vacation," England said.
"Don't even think about it, kid," Uncle Vernon said.
"No, it isn't me who will be going, sir," England said, and shook Harry's hand, saying goodbye, "Someone will visit you, Harry."
"And as you know, Harry, Lukas and I can't visit," Romania said, "We'll be overseas. But we'll still owl you. Or mail you the muggle way. Or just visit you anyway."
"If anything happens, mail us," Norway said.
"Yeah, ok. Bye!" Harry waved goodbye and followed his Uncle out of the station.
He sat on the back seat, where he always sat, and looked out of the window, as the car started.
What might be waiting for him next Year?
-0-0-0-
This chapter is not the final, just saying. Also, if you are one of those who wants to read the Nyo!-ed version of this. Well. It is going to be of bad quality because I really am not bothered to change all the 'he'-s to 'she'-s for America and Norway. I tried my best. Also, that won't be going through the re-read process in which I beta-read myself and fix some stuff. So if you read the Nyo!Norway and Nyo!America version of this, you will also see differences between that and this.
This is a main story. Not the Nyo ones. The Nyo ones are just for those who wants to read Heterosexual ships. Because England would be straight in this version, Lucious Malfoy's disrespectful comment, for example, would be deleted in the Nyo version.
Because this version is overall of better quality, I suggest you don't really read the Nyo version, unless you really want to.
EH.
-PotterheadNo.04