AN: Last chapter for this update, which means of course that it is also dedicated to the amazing Sam. I would now like to do a bit of whoring my good friend. I want anyone reading this to rush to the profile of Classysam and read something by her. After you have done so, leave her a great review and gush about her brilliance and kindness to all of your friends on thank you all, please drop me a few reviews to tell me you still care, -Richard S.
Picking and Choosing (Tales of Hogwarts Romance) Chapter 27
Illy waited patiently out side of the great hall for dinner to roll around, it wasn't too hard to sit for a full hour and half while students filtered in from Hogsmead as she needed to catch up on Hermione's little two person book club assignment. She had noticed that as of late the books had become more and more obviously involved in searching for a way to save Buckbeak. The books of the moment happened to be Written Rights XI: Magical Creatures A-P, and Sentient and Sensitive: Standing up for animals. Illy finished off the first book with an hour, as she had already started it, not to mention that she had seen a majority of the creatures in person and knew what many of their legal rights were; such as every dragon's right to consume the flesh of local herds as long as the prey's population does not govern the local economy, and as long as the dragon is not seen by the locals. She also found some rights that she had never expected, like the Phoenix's right to be excused from any arson related damages or casualties, as their molting process is not something they can necessarily prevent; though in case of mortal wounding and worse, the Phoenix is encouraged to shed a few tears to heal innocent bystanders.
The second book was a bit more tedious, though it was interesting. She had just finished the first unit of the book on the processes involved in petitioning to give an animal a new right when she heard Hermione's chipper voice from the end of the hall.
"Illy, I see you've gotten on that reading list."
"Of course sweetie, it was of the utmost importance obviously." Illy joined arms with Hermione and headed into the hall towards their dinner seats.
""How far in are you?" Hermione asked, as if she needed to be hush because she was dealing with a national plot of government overthrowing. Illy giggled and took her seat next to her.
"I just finished my debriefing on petitioning for a new right. But I'm not sure what kind of right would help us Herm, I mean what are we going to do? Ask that Hippogriffs be aloud to snap at bystanders when taunted?"
"It's by far not the most outlandish request that's ever been made Illy."
"What you two talkin' about?" Ron asked as he took his seat across from the girls with a mild thunk.
"Some sort of right we can reasonably petition for; to help Buckbeak out." Killious explained as she ladled a bit of clear chicken broth into a bowl.
"How about the right to kill obnoxious brats?"
"Be reasonable Ron, we need a reasonable solution." Hermione nagged at Ron.
"G'Evening Harry." Illy greeted Harry. He smiled a small, but genuine smile and sat next to Ron.
"What if we tried to get Buckbeak the right to an option like anger rehabilitation?" Harry tried.
"That could work, but there really aren't all that many magical creature rehabs Harry. We might have to go as far as Scandinavia…" Hermione's passion about the issue was flickering as Ron served her a small meat pie and mash.
"Illy, you want a pie?" Ron offered.
"No thanks Ron, I'm feeling a bit lightheaded still." Illy offered. Harry smiled at this response and winked at Ron.
"You two have been doing that since lunch, what on earth is so secret that you can't even tell me?" Hermione burst.
"It's a guy thing." Ron explained with a flick of his wrist.
"Yeah, just guy stuff is all." Harry agreed.
"Jeeze, the girl goes back home feeling nauseated and you guys make it seem like really she robbed a bank." Hermione's exasperation was evident as she took a bite of her food.
"I did nothing so interesting as that." Illy winked at Harry this time, he smiled brightly to her in response. "So tonight is the last night before break," Illy began, "We should all stay together."
"That's sounds good to me." Ron flashed a smile.
"We should invite Ginny too, me and Herm need someone to make the two of you feel ostracized."
"Ostra-what?" Ron asked in bewilderment.
"Ostracized Ron, really I thought that my company might improve your vocabulary, but I guess that it hasn't done a thing for you…Ostracized means set apart from others, or basically excluded."
"Oh…why would you want to ostraseeze us?"
"It's ostra-SIZE Ron."
"Whatever, why would you want to ostracize us then Killious?"
"For the sole purpose of finding something that Hermione, Ginny, and I can wink obnoxiously about." Illy explained and shrugged.
"I brought a pillow and a blanket down from my bed so that you have something to sleep with, incase you get tired." Harry presented the red quilt and gold pillow with a smile, and a light blush. Illy took the bit of bedding and tossed it next to her on the couch.
"So, where is Ron?" She asked. So far Hermione, Ginny, and Harry had come down the stairs and assembled makeshift beds, but Ron was no where to be found.
"He went to the kitchens to get us some snacks. I figured you would want something, you didn't really eat enough for dinner." Harry explained, clearly out of his element in the dietary advice. He actually preferred Illy skeletal, though he couldn't seem to figure out why. It was the same thing that made him want to kill her and make love to her all at once, a feeling that he needed to control her or she would somehow find his deepest weakness and exploit it relentlessly.
"I'm actually fine, but I guess a croissant wouldn't hurt."
"Oh please Illy, Ron'll just end up bringing us pockets filled with biscuits and cakes." Ginny exclaimed with a giggle. Illy just nodded and swallowed the grain like spit in the back of her throat roughly. Someone had gotten to Harry, most likely Draco.
Ron came into the room a few minutes later with a huge smile to match the amount of food he had brought with him. Hermione had already set up his bed, in between her own and Harry's, which was next to Illy's, which was next to Ginny's; completing the circle of friends that were prepared to exhaust themselves staying up all night for the singular purpose of talking about nothing…or that was the plan.
"So, I think that now would be a great time to brainstorm for solutions to our problem involving Buck-"
"Aww Herm, we said no work." Ron interrupted.
"Yeah, Hermione I'm sick of working all the time on this thing. One night before winter break won't kill us or Buckbeak." Harry piped up.
"Fine. What should we talk about?" Hermione asked with great frustration.
"This reminds me of when we were little kids and we used to sit up all night with Bill and Percy the night before they went to school." Ginny giggled again at her own observations, or maybe it was her proximity to Harry, Illy didn't know or much care.
"Yeah, that was back when we used to go swimming in the pond out back all the time!" Ron exclaimed.
"I used to go swimming with the other kids in my neighborhood back home at the community pool." Hermione added.
"And I just went swimming in the bathtub." Harry griped.
"The first time I remember swimming for fun was in the black lake!" Illy laughed.
"Well, you certainly got the most dangerous one there." Harry smiled.
"I always get most dangerous; ever since I was a kid."
"What's the first dangerous thing you did?" Ron asked, excitement building in his eyes.
"I stole Fred's broom one night and somehow ended up in Amsterdam the next morning when I was six." Ginny nodded matter of factly.
"I set a snake free in a zoo." Harry shrugged.
"I used a book from my library back home to build a high intensity light beam that ended up burning a hole in my middle school's gym floor. But I did win science fair!" Hermione offered.
"The first thing I can remember is actually in the hospital after my accident. I sent a scalpel through the wall of my room in order to distract the nurse so that I could climb out the window. I wound up climbing eight stories to the ground. The hospital staff caught me an hour later, I managed to take one of them down but then this burly black guy picked me up by one leg and drug me back inside…What about you Ron?" Illy pushed Ron to speak, hoping that it would rid her slumber party companions of the shocked stares on their faces.
"When I was five I stole Bill's wand and tried to use it set fire to Fred and George…their pranks never did make me laugh much back then." Every one was quiet for a few moments but they had ceased to stare at Illy in disbelief. Instead they were absorbing the stories about their own childhoods along with everyone else's. Ginny began to feel out of place suddenly amongst the older kid around her, and especial around Illy, as Harry had now tangled his fingers into her hand and begun to softly stroke her thumb with his own.
"So, Christmas…what was your favorite Christmas gift ever? Mine was a really amazing fire breathing dragon plush…it actually succeeded in setting Fred and George on fire before mum fixed it. I got it when I was ten." Ginny's over excited voice broke the quit nostalgia, but Harry's grip remained fixed in place.
"I guess my best gifts were just things I've gotten from the lot of you." Harry smiled warmly to his friends and pulled Illy closer to him so that she was leaning on his shoulder.
"Books…of course. I get them every year from relatives." Hermione said proudly.
"I got a practice snitch when I was nine…but we lost it somewhere in the forest…" Ron added with a melancholy note.
"I think my favorite was my present from Snape when I was eleven, he gave me a framed picture of my family and him in Amsterdam. We were all laughing about something except Servius and then I threw a pie at him. My uncle caught the whole thing in the photo."
"What's the story with you two? Why are you so close to that arse anyway?" Ron asked with flaring irritation at the mention of Snape's name. Harry still hadn't noticed Ginny's pensive stare in his direction. He seemed blissfully unaware as he played with Illy's long tresses absentmindedly.
"After the accident my parents had some problems with me. That's when I stopped being able to sleep or eat much of anything. I got a weird sort of head damage, like amnesia but different. My parents said that I didn't act like myself, and that's why they don't like me around a whole lot. I spent all my time being bombarded by tutors and work and all sorts of things like that, just to distract me from their behavior. I understood it, but I guess it bugged me a little anyway. Snape and I sort of clicked really well. We met that year, just a few months after I got out of the hospital, and he called me Ike and I called him Servius and we've been together since then. He's like my godfather, but closer; Sort of a big brother or a second dad really."
"I keep wanting to ask you about that accident, what happened to you anyway?" Harry inquired as he timidly wrapped an arm around Illy's shoulder, forcing her to fully rest her head on his arm.
"I fell two-hundred feet off my broom onto the ground below. My dad used a spell to slow me down, but it only caught a bit of me, so the fall was pretty bad. When I woke up I was a different person…I used to be really shy apparently. I spent two weeks in a coma and when I woke up I was as you see me."
"So you don't know anything about when you were a kid?" Ginny sounded horrified. But it might have been because Harry had just placed a sympathetic kiss in Illy's hair.
"I would still qualify eleven as a kid, but anything before that…nope. I have no idea who my real parents are, what foods I liked, how much I ate, what my favorite toys were, what books I liked, nothing. I can't remember anything about…well anything." Everyone went quiet again. Ron yawned which spread like a disease across the circle and momentarily everyone was yawning and stretching as they all chuckled and snuggled down into their makeshift beds; excluding Illy and Harry who remained softly resting on one another.
"So, what were you like before?" Ron asked through another stifled yawn.
"According to my parents, I was shy and not that interested in books or studies. I did love to ride a broom then too, but I didn't like quidditch. I ate like a pig, loved to cook, played with dolls and stuffies, and I was just generally a normal, really nice, gullible little kid. When I woke up they said it was like I got ten years older, like I thought about things too much, I was convinced the whole world was conspiring against me and I wanted to learn everything I could. I talked to strangers like I was interrogating them and was ready to try and take down anyone who touched me. I hated to be touched for two or three years. I was just generally paranoid for about eighteen months but the touch thing lasted longer, they couldn't even figure out why. But that's just how I was, I wish I could be my old self again sometimes…it would make them happy. Snape is the only person I've heard of that knew me before and likes me better now. Of course whenever I saw someone I was meeting them for the first time so it was odd for my parents' old friends to take on this new kid you know? But Snape just adored me and when I told him who my parents were he freaked out, well as much as he does that, which really only amounts to a raised voice and an arched eyebrow. He was shocked though, that they were my parents, said he didn't care for me much when I was timid." Illy's face was now practically glowing with joy at the thought of Snape's approval. "I do with I could remember my birth parents though. Apparently they were killed in the war. But I still think that I would have remembered something…" Her voice sank back down now, with a sigh she laid her head down like everyone around her had already done. Even Harry had slunk unnoticed into his pillow beside her.
"I'm sure that you would have…I was just a baby, and I remember some things about my parents." Harry's voice carried with it the same immense weight that Illy's did. He seemed broken down inside over the discussion. Minutes went by in silence, only interrupted by Ron's snoring and the light breathing of Hermione and Ginny.
"Servius says they were an odd couple. My mom was more popular and prettier than my dad. He was just a shy nerdy kid and she was this boisterous, intelligent, crazy kid."
"My mom and dad seem perfect for each other. Whenever I remember them, they just fit together in my mind so well." Harry was the only one still awake at this point. Illy expected a situation like this would make her nervous after the events of the afternoon, but she found herself relaxing, confident that the subject at hand was just as sacred to Harry as it was to her.
"I think I got better adoptive parents than you did though. Not quite so…narrow minded. Though in a way neither of them can stand us I guess. Sometimes it feels like I killed their daughter or something you know; like I didn't really exist in their lives until the accident."
"Trust me, if I could kill off Duddly I would." Illy laughed softly. "He's like a giant inflated angry monkey or something."
"That would make him more like a gorilla I believe Harry."
"S'pose so…I think that your mum must have been beautiful."
"Snape says she was, but who knows, maybe I got the good looks from my dad." Harry laughed this time.
"Illy…"
"Yeah Harry?"
"I'm glad that you're you now. I mean, well y'know, just that I'm happy you're you as opposed to being whomever you were before the accident."
"Thanks Harry, I'm glad other people are grateful for it too. I was beginning to think I was the only one who saw the old Killious as quite a bore."
"She would have been nothing compared to you. You're one of a kind, and I love it."
"Thanks Harry, so are you." Illy faked a yawn to end the conversation and closed her eyes. She fell asleep a few minutes later, which when she looked back on it, probably wasn't the best of ideas in her current company, as she had forgotten to cast a silencing charm…
