CHAPTER 28: BREAKING NEWS
Shouldn't I be happier?
The question nagged Robert as he padded to the bathroom to start his day. He had a girlfriend now. A sexy red-headed girlfriend named Lucida Bloom. How many guys at Hogwarts would give left arm to be in his shoes?
But every time he imagined Lucida, another girl entered his mind.
Rose Weasley.
Specifically, Rose Weasley running up the stairs on the verge of crying after watching him and Lucida kiss in the Common Room.
Why was she so upset?
Why do you think, moron?
No, she can't . . . can she?
Robert stared at himself in the bathroom mirror. He couldn't get Rose out of his head. Was she still upset? Did she hate him?
He balled a fist and pressed it against the wash basin. After so many weeks of conflicted feelings, he'd finally made his decision. He chose Lucida over Rose.
But if she hadn't fallen into my arms when we were skating . . .
He grunted. Too late to reconsider now. It was him and Lucida.
Be happy about it.
Why do I have to tell myself to be happy about it?
After getting dressed, Robert headed down to the Common Room. He spied Lucida sitting on one of the couches, talking animatedly to Diphda Prewett. She halted halfway through the conversation when she saw him coming down the steps.
"Robert!" Lucida sprang from the couch and hurried past her cousin.
He just came off the bottom step when she jumped on him and planted a big kiss on his lips.
"Um, morning." He stared into her lovely face. Pure joy swelled within him, his lips still tingling from her kiss.
The image of Rose fleeing the Common Room popped into his head.
"Ready to go to breakfast, luv?" Lucida beamed at him.
Robert silently nodded.
Several heads swung their way when they entered the Great Hall. A number of boys, including Gryffindor Chaser Chester Gaffney, looked envious. Olec Holmdeil stared at him wide-eyed from the Hufflepuff table and gave him a thumbs up. At the Slytherin table, Ares Urquhart and his gang of a-holes stared at him and Lucida and muttered something. Scorpio Malfoy burst out laughing. Robert could only imagine the crude things Ares' bunch was saying about them.
Screw 'em. I have a hot girlfriend and if they're lucky, they might get a date with the giant squid.
Robert thought that highly unlikely. The squid that lived in the lake probably had better taste.
They walked along the Gryffindor table, holding hands. Priya Hobstorm eyed them as they passed. Robert caught sight of the brand new prefect's badge pinned to her robes.
Rose's badge.
Dude, will you forget about . . .
"Morning everyone," Lucida said in a chipper voice.
Robert looked up. His jaw stiffened as they approached the section of the table occupied by the Weasley/Potter clan.
Cynthia turned to them, a smile forming then fading from her lips. Hugo glared at him. Albus' and Edward's eyes flickered between him and a particular cousin of theirs.
Robert's chest tightened when he spotted Rose. She held her fork midway between her plate and mouth and just stared at him. Her jaw quivered for a moment.
Robert opened his mouth, about to say "good morning." His tongue grew thick. No words emerged.
Rose dropped her fork onto her plate. She pushed herself out of her seat and stormed out of the Great Hall. Lily scowled at him, shook her head, and followed her cousin out.
Several pairs of eyes locked on Robert. He tried to read the emotions in the various orbs. Anger? Betrayal? Confusion? He'd be damned if he could see anything resembling approval.
"Why don't we find another spot to sit?" Lucida whispered in his ear.
Robert didn't argue as Lucida led him further down the table, where they spent breakfast with Derek Moody and Samuel Finnigan. They were joined a short while later by Diphda and Leonis, who seemed the only members of the Weasley/Potter clan not pissed at him.
XXXXX
Robert and Lucida sat next to one another in all their classes. Rose, on the other hand, sat in the back, as far away from them as possible. Robert thought that a good thing. The less contact he had with her, the better.
Unfortunately, he could feel Rose's eyes on him, especially if Lucida spoke to him, or put a hand on his knee, or played footsie with him under the desk. He tried to put Rose out of his mind, concentrate on his spell work, or how beautiful Lucida looked. He had no reason to feel guilty in picking Lucida over Rose. It wasn't like he had cheated on her. Rose hadn't really given him any overt signals that she liked him as more than a friend.
Or did she?
At lunchtime, they again sat away from the Weasley/Potter clan. Robert did notice both Rose and Lily missing from the Gryffindor table. He also noticed Hugo still glaring at him.
Is this how it's going to be at every meal?
The end of lunch came as a relief for Robert. He took Lucida's hand and strode out of the Great Hall.
"Robert, slow down. I don't have long legs like you do."
"Huh? Oh, sorry."
"Are you all right?" Lucida canted her head.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Why do you ask?"
"Well, you seem a bit, I don't know, distracted."
Robert tried to fight off a frown. "No, I'm fine."
"You sure?"
He groaned. "Yes, I'm fine. There's no reason to worry . . ."
"Oy! O'Bannon!"
He stopped and turned around. Efram MacMillan-Longbottom marched through the stream of students, stopping less than a foot from him.
"You seen Thomas around?"
"You mean Harold Thomas?"
"Yeah."
Robert cocked an eyebrow. Efram's brow was furrowed, his eyes blazing. He looked really pissed off.
Efram? Pissed off? It had to be something major to make him this mad. And what did Harold Thomas have to do with it?
"Wasn't he at lunch?" Robert asked.
"No." Efram's scowl became more pronounced.
"Oh. Well, I have Divination with him next."
Efram exhaled a harsh breath. "You tell him I'm looking for him."
Without waiting for a reply, Efram whirled around and stalked off.
"Oookay." Robert watched him go with a perplexed look.
"What was that all about?" Lucida pressed her shoulder against his.
"Beats the hell out of me." Robert shook his head.
They proceeded to Divination, where they found Harold Thomas sitting at a desk with Olec Holmdeil.
"Yo, Harold," Robert said as he and Lucida sat at the desk next to his. "Efram's looking for you."
"What for?"
"I dunno." Robert shrugged.
"He did seem rather agitated," Lucida added.
Harold's face screwed up in a quizzical expression. He turned to Olec, who simply shrugged.
Before any of them could speculate on Efram's mood, Professor Tureis stomped into the room and bellowed at them to turn to page sixty-five. Robert's shoulders slumped when he got to the appropriate page. Aboriginal cave paintings from Australia. Again. This made it, what, the third class in a row? Couldn't they do something else?
He set about trying to interpret the symbols, which he had no doubt would reveal some prophecy concerning the end of the world. This was Professor Tureis' class, after all.
"Robert," Harold leaned over and whispered. "Have you seen this symbol anywhere?" He showed him a stick figure with two horns growing from its head.
"Nope." Robert shook his head. "I've been trying to find it myself." He flipped through more pages on the interpretation section, but failed to find a match.
"Why don't we just call it a demon or some other creature?" Lucida suggested.
"I agree." Olec nodded. "If we don't complete this, Professor Tureis will yell at us."
Speaking of which . . . Robert checked around until he spotted the thin, hunched wizard with wild gray hair stalking around the other side of the classroom. They should be okay to keep talking.
"But if we come up with our own interpretation of this and it's wrong, he'll yell at us for that, too."
Harold groaned. "Well, if we're going to get yelled at no matter what, I say we go ahead and call it some kind of demon. I'm not spending the rest of class looking for the proper interpretation of this thing when I still have twenty other symbols to go through."
"I'm with you on that," Lucida said.
"Sorry, but I don't feel like having that buttmunch go off on me again." Robert turned to Lucida. "So I'm going to -"
"You there!"
Robert jumped at the sound of Professor Tureis' voice, as did Lucida, Harold and Olec.
Oh crap. I thought we were keeping our voices down.
He whipped his head around, expecting to see Tureis bearing down on them. Instead the Divination professor stomped over to a pair of Gryffindor boys in the back of the classroom. His arm swooped down, forcing both boys to lean back to avoid being hit. When Tureis' hand came up, it held a square-shaped object.
"My class is for seeing into the future, not exchanging these nonsensical things!" Tureis shook the object in his hand. Robert noticed it was a vid-card. The remake of Jurassic Park judging by the cover.
"Five points each from Gryffindor!"
Both boys frowned as Tureis marched back to the front of the classroom.
"On second thought," Harold looked around to the others, "maybe we should try to find out what that symbol really means."
They spent most of class trying to determine what the stick figure with the horns meant. Tried and failed. And Tureis yelled at them. Robert's only consolation was no one else in class could interpret the symbol either. When Tureis finished yelling at everyone, he assigned them ten inches of parchment on Aboriginal cave paintings.
"Divination sounded a lot more fun back when Aunt Parvati took it," Priya Hobstorm bemoaned as everyone filed out of the classroom.
After the last class of the day, Robert and Lucida hurried back to Gryffindor Tower to get some of their homework done before dinner. They wouldn't have much time for it this evening since they had to serve detention, again.
Friggin' James. Thanks a lot, pal.
He almost finished his astronomy essay when Lucida came by to collect him. They headed to the Great Hall with the majority of their house, though Robert made sure to keep some distance between him and the Weasley/Potter clan.
His shoulders sagged as he spotted the familiar patches of red and black hair beyond him. His mind pulled him back to his other visits to England. All the times he spent with the clan playing Battle of Hogwarts or Exploding Snap or pick-up games of Quidditch at the Burrow. All the times people like James and Cynthia and Aunt Ginny and Uncle George had told him he was part of this huge family.
It didn't feel that way now. Part of him wanted to say that family talk had been a load of crap. Rose was part of the family, and he had hurt her. Whose side would the Weasleys and Potters take? Some American they only saw a few weeks every year or their own flesh and blood?
"Where does your mother get off printing this rubbish!?"
The loud voice snapped Robert out of his reverie. He stopped and looked up. There at the entrance to the Great Hall a seething Efram MacMillan-Longbottom confronted Harold Thomas.
"What are you going on about?" A bewildered Harold drew his head back as a couple dozen students milled around and watched the argument.
"I'm going on about this!" Efram shook a magazine in front of Harold. "Didn't you see the front page of this rag?"
"Of course I saw it. Mum's owl delivered it first thing this morning. Why are you upset about it?"
"You think I'm upset? What about my mum? Dad told me she's been crying ever since this came out!"
Harold looked even more confused than before. "Why's your mum been crying?"
Efram's eyes bulged. "Why? Why!? How can you be in Ravenclaw and be so bloody thick!?"
"Oy! Don't call me thick."
Efram ignored Harold's retort. "You know how sensitive my mum is about this. But does your mother care? No! She has no qualms taking one of the most tragic days of my mother's life and using it to make a few galleons!"
"You're daft, Longbottom. Your mum's not even mentioned in there. And my mum would never do anything to deliberately hurt someone."
"Bullocks! How could she even think of writing this for a laugh? Did she forget how many wizards and witches died in that battle? Oh wait. She probably doesn't, because she wasn't even there!"
"She wasn't there, you pillock, because she was pregnant at the time. With me!" Harold's shoulders rose and fell with deep, angry breaths. His fists clenched.
"Maybe if she had been there she'd care a bit more about the feelings of the people who did fight, and their families."
"My mother does care about them."
"Your mother's a loony."
"Don't you call her that!" Harold bared his teeth, spittle dangling from the corner of his mouth.
Robert let go of Lucida's hand and edged closer to the two boys. He also noticed Norton Fudge and Samuel Finnigan doing the same.
"I'll damn well call her that if I please. Because she is! And while you're at it . . ." Efram crushed the magazine in his hand and shook it. "You can take this filth back to your loony mother and shove it up her arse!"
He thrust the crumpled magazine into Harold's face, pushing him back a few steps. The magazine dropped to the floor. A look of shock and anger flared across Harold's face. His head trembled.
Oh crap.
Harold roared and charged Efram.
Robert jumped between them. He stuck both hands into Harold's chest, allowing Samuel to grab the Ravenclaw boy from behind. Robert checked over his shoulder to find Norton Fudge and Olec Holmdeil holding back Efram.
"Lemme go!" Efram hollered.
"Calm down, dammit!" Norton ordered.
"Get off me, O'Bannon!" Harold tried to free himself.
"Dude!" Robert blurted. "What the hell's wrong with you?"
"I'm gonna kick his arse!" Harold snarled in Efram's direction.
"Come and try it, you worthless toerag!"
"Enough, both of you!" Lucida glared at them.
"Sod off, Bloom!"
"Hey!" Robert glowered at Harold. "Watch your friggin' mouth!"
"What the bloody hell is going on out here?"
The booming voice of Professor Longbottom froze everyone. The head of Gryffindor House marched toward them, eyes narrowed, and locked onto one student in particular.
"Efram. Would you mind telling me what in blazes you're doing in the middle of this ruckus?"
"He called my mum loony, Professor," Harold exclaimed before Efram could speak.
"Is that true?"
"Yes, it's true," Efram responded without hesitation.
Professor Longbottom let out a slow breath. "Luna Thomas is a close friend of this family, Efram. I'll not have you disrespecting her in such a way."
"What about the way she disrespected our family? You saw what she wrote?"
"Yes, I did. And I know how much it upset your mother. But I also know Luna did not write that article with the intention of causing her any anguish."
"I don't care if it was intentional or not!" Anger lines dug deep into Efram's face. "She made Mum cry. Don't you care?"
"Of course I care." Professor Longbottom's cheeks reddened.
"Then do something about it!"
"What do you want me to do, Efram? Hex Harold's mother?"
"That's a start."
"Maybe I'll hex you, you tosser!"
"That's enough from you, Mister Thomas." Professor Longbottom glared at Harold. He glared back, but was wise enough to keep quiet.
"His mum should have known." Efram snapped his head toward Harold, still keeping his eyes on his step-father. "She should have known how that would upset Mum. My dad died in that battle! My real dad!"
Several gasps arose. Robert's eyes widened. Lucida's jaw dropped, as did Samuel Finnigan's.
Professor's Longbottom's entire body quaked with fury. He stepped closer to Efram. Robert braced himself. He'd already been on the receiving end of a tongue-lashing from the Herbology teacher, and knew what to expect.
Instead of shouting, Professor Longbottom spoke in a low, menacing voice. "My office. Both of you." He glanced at Harold Thomas. "Now."
The students restraining the two released them. Efram and Harold glared at each other, then stalked off under the watchful eye of Professor Longbottom.
"Wow." Samuel shook his head as he watched them depart. "I can't believe Efram threw that in his face. The whole Dad bit, I mean."
"I know," said Norton Fudge. "When you think about it, Efram never knew his father. His biological father, Ernie MacMillan. He died when Efram was one. For all intents and purposes, Professor Longbottom is his real father."
"What do you suppose Harold's mum did, or supposedly did, to make him so mad?" Lucida wondered aloud.
"Let's find out." Robert stared at the crumpled magazine on the floor. He picked it up and smoothed it out best he could. Lucida, Norton, Samuel, Olec and a few other students gathered around him as he scanned the periodical.
It was the latest edition of The Quibbler. A huge headline dominated the front of the magazine.
BREAKING NEWS: MINISTRY SOURCES CONFIRM THE RETURN OF STACYX.
"What?" Robert's brow furrowed. He saw the by line. Luna Thomas, Editor-in-Chief. Biting his lip, he read on.
Sixteen years ago, wizards and witches from around the world journeyed into the parallel worlds spawned by Muggle TV shows and movies to battle a race of malevolent beings called the Stacyx. These creatures plotted to conquer the Muggle world, while at the same time exterminating our world. But together with numerous TV and movie characters, the Wizarding World, at great cost, stopped their plan and wiped out the Stacyx.
Or did they?
A highly placed source in the Ministry of Magic has proof that some Stacyx escaped the great battle that took place in the film "The Land That Time Forgot," and even more disturbing, are loose in our world!
"We have detected some energy patterns that, according to our records, match those of the portals used by the Stacyx to emerge into our world," said the Quibbler's source in the Ministry. "So far we have no actual sightings of Stacyx, but should anyone see them, they should alert the Ministry of Magic immediately, and not take matters into their own hands. The Stacyx are dangerous creatures who nearly took over the Muggle World and destroyed the Wizarding World."
The Quibbler contacted other Ministry of Magic officials, including Minister of Magic Tessa Tullibee, regarding the reappearance of the Stacyx. All of them declined comment.
While it is commonly believed the Stacyx were all killed when the former auror Bentley Basham ignited the volcano that obliterated "The Land That Time Forgot," it must be pointed out that there was another time when the Wizarding World mistakenly thought the Stacyx extinct. In the 1950s, Auror Basham, who initially discovered the Stacyx existence, lured them into a TV show dealing with the sinking of the famous Muggle ship the Titanic. Basham believed all the Stacyx had drowned with that vessel. But over 60 years later he was proven wrong as the Stacyx returned to try and take over the world again.
Now it would appear, 16 years after the second war with the Stacyx, these creatures have once more returned. It stands to reason their goal is the same as before. Enslavement of the Muggle World and extermination of wizard-kind.
"Could this be true?" A skinny brunette from Hufflepuff asked in a fearful tone.
"Course it's not true," blurted a Gryffindor boy next to her. "Everyone knows The Quibbler just makes stuff up."
"Yeah." A chunky Ravenclaw boy nodded. "Who in their right mind would take seriously a magazine that talks about wrackspurts and crumple-horned whatevers?"
Several other students voiced their agreement and headed into the Great Hall.
"I hope they're right." Samuel nodded behind him to the departing students.
"What, you think Harold's mum is serious about this?" asked Lucida.
"Oh, Mrs. Thomas is serious about everything she puts in The Quibbler. What I mean is, I wonder if this thing about the Stacyx being back is true."
"You really believe that?" Lucida raised a thin eyebrow.
"I just know me dad said it was The Quibbler that told the truth about Moldy-Voldie's return and what happened to Harry Potter in that cemetery. So if they were right about that . . ."
"Robert, you don't think there's anything to this?" Lucida turned to him. "Do you?"
Robert didn't answer. He just stared at the magazine. Something clicked in his mind. The day he boarded the Hogwarts Express. He remembered overhearing Harry Potter and Hannah Longbottom talking.
"I overheard those aurors talking before I left the Cauldron . . ."
"There were some things that seemed a tad suspicious . . ."
"But do you think . . . I mean it can't be."
He remembered Mrs. Longbottom's tone. She had sounded upset, maybe even scared. Then there was her other comment, about hearing this right on the heels of Varley Vanacker's disappearance. What had she meant by this? And what about Uncle Harry? He'd been so cryptic about what exactly he'd been called out to investigate the night before.
Oh my God. Could it be . . .
"Robert?"
He finally looked up at Lucida, who appeared a bit annoyed.
"I asked if you believed Mrs. Thomas' article in The Quibbler. You don't, do you?"
Robert continued to stare at her silently.
Lucida blinked in disbelief. "Do you?"
TO BE CONTINUED
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The wars with the Stacyx mentioned in this chapter are chronicled in my story "The Airwaves War."
