A/N: OKay, so I've turned into one of those authors I've always despised- ones who take months between updates. But honestly, RL got in the way. Plus, this other plot bunny popped up and like the Rabbit fascinated Alice in Alice in Wonderland to the point of her following it, so I had to follow this plot bunny. However, I'm back and still have my outline and know where I'm going. The best part is after next week I'm on vacation for a week with nowhere to go, which means lots of writing time. :) I promise it won't be two months before I post my next chapter.
Chapter 28--Another meeting?
May 23, 1987-- Brighton--Palace Pier
Janet Stephens leaned down trying to hear what Chase was telling her over the screams of children on the rides around them. The tall boy facing her was gesturing wildly to an area slightly to his right.
"Mena…Harry… They just vanished! Like magic or something. One minute they were there, but the next they were gone," Chase's forehead was scrunched as if he were trying to figure out a complicated problem.
"What do you mean they were gone? Are you sure that they didn't just duck behind a rubbish bin or something?" she responded calmly, even though she was panicking on the inside. Did they fall off the pier? Her eyes wandered to the railing on her right as the boy rushed to reassure her.
"Miss Stephens, I'm telling you they were just right there," he said, pointing to a spot just to his right in the middle of the pier, nowhere near the railing. "Now they're gone. I can't explain it. They were surrounded by me and the rest of my group. There was simply no place for them to hide and nothing to duck behind," Chase pleaded with her.
She narrowed her eyes. Knowing his reputation around the orphanage as a bully, she wouldn't have put it past him and his gang to have threatened Harry and Mena. "What do you mean you had two of my children surrounded? Just what exactly were you planning, Chase Davies?" Had he done something to them? She had come across the three of them several times before at the orphanage, but Harry and Mena had always shrugged it off.
"We weren't going to do anything, really. Besides, don't you need to find them?" She could tell he was trying to divert the attention away from himself, but she sighed, realizing that he was right. Janet turned around in a circle, scanning for the telltale messy dark head with a slightly shorter redhead beside it. Seeing nothing, she headed out in the direction that Chase had pointed toward in regards to where they were last.
Harry and Mena had disappeared almost like magic, Chase said. Could it be? No way. But wouldn't their magic have been activated if they felt threatened? But surely if what she was thinking was true, it would only be one of them. What were the chances that both of them would be magical? Pretty slim. Okay, so where could they have gone?
She tried to remember if one of her sisters had ever 'disappeared' like this growing up. Magic had been a constant in her house growing up. Well, constant, except by her of course. Saffron never seemed to perform magic like that as far as Janet could remember, but then Saffron was younger than her by several years. Pandora, on the other hand, was only older than her by two years. Her accidental magic had been very volatile while they were growing up. She still didn't remember Pandora ever disappearing like Harry and Mena supposedly did. But then none of them had ever felt threatened by a bully growing up. She herself had never felt threatened, not even when she told her parents that she was changing her name to Janet since apparently she wasn't 'magical' enough for the name Calliope.
Thinking it over, she looked around for someone from the Ministry of Magic. If accidental magic had occurred, then someone would be sent to modify the memories of all those who saw what had happened. But no one dressed unusually was around. She continued looking for her wards.
Spotting a messy dark head on a bench near the railing on the opposite side of the pier from where she talked to Chase, she headed toward it to see if it was her charges. Getting closer, she saw Harry sharing a cotton candy with Mena. Janet smiled at how sweet their friendship was to watch. Deciding not to confront them about the disappearance, she simply watched the two best friends finish their candy and wander the pier, resolving to herself that she would keep an eye out for possible accidental magic from the pair.
May 24, 1987--Brighton Beach
Mena tugged on Harry's hand, trying to pull him down to the water. "Harry," she pleaded with him. "Harry, please. Come in with me. We'll have loads of fun."
"Mena, I'm not going in," Harry replied very frustrated that his best friend wouldn't leave him alone about this decision. "I'm perfectly satisfied by staying on the beach and reading. You go with Fiona or Ivie and play all you want," Harry replied. He refused to get into the reason behind his aversion with Mena. She didn't need to know that Dudley had played a horrible trick on him once during their primary school's swim lessons. Ever since that day, Harry refused to set foot in water more than he had to have for a shower.
"Harry, you can't come to the beach and not go in the water. Come on. At least put your feet in." His best friend turned her best pout with puppy dog eyes toward him.
Harry shook his head vigorously. "No. What part of that word don't you understand? I don't care to put my feet or any other part of my body in the water. Now please let me be."
Mena, with a stubborn look on her face, continued to pull on his hand. Harry tried to dig his feet into the beach, but the pebbles prevented him from getting very far. Mena gave a tug so hard that she stumbled backward into a boy that had been walking with a girl behind her.
Harry threw a hand over his mouth as he struggled to stifle his laughter, knowing his best friend would have his head if he laughed. Mena was sprawled out on top of the boy, who had been pushed to the ground face first. Her face a bright red, Mena tried to clamour to her feet, but the pesky pebbles kept causing her to slip and land back on top of the boy. Finally, getting a handle on his laughter, he reached down to help Mena up.
"Is this what I get for trying to get you to loosen up and have some fun? And don't think that I didn't see you trying hard not to laugh, Mr. Potter," Mena said plaintively. She turned her back on Harry to talk to the other boy, who was just now flipping over to sit up with help from his blonde friend. "I'm so sorry. My best friend here," she elbowed Harry right in the stomach. "was refusing to join me in the water. I was doing my best to convince him that he shouldn't be a stick in the mud as my mum used to say." She plastered a huge grin on her small face. "I'm sorry for ploughing into you."
Harry looked at the red-haired boy sitting on the ground. Tilting his head, Harry pondered the fact that the boy's hair seemed to match Mena's. While Harry had seen others with red hair, none had seemed to be really even close to the colour of Mena's, which had always made her seem even more unique to him. Now he had met someone whose hair was almost an exact match. Harry decided that it didn't lessen Mena's uniqueness to him at all.
He noticed that the boy hadn't responded to Mena yet. He watched the boy shake his head as if to clear it. He smirked at Mena before saying, "I always knew you packed a wallop, but really, Mena. The poor boy looks as if he was knocked over by a lorry."
The boy grabbed the hand of his friend and levered himself up. Harry was a little taken aback by the fact that the boy was taller than both he and Mena since he hadn't seemed anywhere near that tall while on the ground. Yet, strangely Harry didn't feel the least bit scared of him.
"It's okay. I'm used to being bowled over by my brothers, but then they mean to knock me down," the boy quipped while flashing a familiar grin toward Harry and Mena. Harry was again struck by similarities between Mena and the boy. Could it be possible that they were related somehow?
"Ron," the blonde girl said, "I think we better find Mum and Dad. I don't see them anywhere and I'm sure they'll get worried if we don't come back soon. We were only supposed to be looking for sea dragon shells." Harry took that comment as a sign that Ron definitely couldn't be Mena's brother as the blonde girl, who looked slightly familiar to him, seemed to be about Mena's age.
"Sure, Luna, let's go." Turning to Harry and Mena, he said, "Well, I would say nice bumping into you, but then I'm not supposed to lie, according to my mum. Instead, I'll just leave you with a bit of advice--be careful with your prodding. Someone could get hurt."
