Adventures At Echowick

Disclaimer: I own exactly none of the rights to Harry Potter. Let's be honest: I don't even own all the merch I want. If I owned the franchise, I would be in deep trouble. Anyway, only the original elements of this story are mine.

Wrapping Up

With a relieved sigh, Lydia shrunk the full-length mirror, resting it gently in her bad, and canceled the charm on her footlocker. Cari followed suit on the last task and they both stood back, surveying the now empty and undecorated room. "I can't believe another year is over," Cari said, half lamenting and half victorious.

"I know," Lydia agreed. "It's crazy that we're going to need a new theme in just a few months."

"Not exactly what I was getting at, but… Now that you mention it, since we've each had a theme, what is your plan for next year's decorations?"

Lydia smiled secretively. "Oh, Cari. You know I can't answer that. It would take the surprise out of it and surprises are fun. You'll just have to wait and see."

Cari would have pressed further, but they were cut short by a frantic knocking on the door. When it was opened, a frazzled-looking Shadow stood on the other side. Still not thrilled at his choice in romantic partner, Cari asked coolly, "What is it?"

"We really need your help. Both of you. See, Eric's mom sent all of this stuff for him to decorate our room with and we left packing until last minute since we thought we could just shrink it and be done with it. Well, apparently, this is pretty rare stuff, and Eric's mom must have put a spell on most of it so that it can't be shrunken down. We have to be out of the dorms in half an hour and we'll never get everything packed in time without help. Will you give us a hand?"

Lydia beamed. "Of course we will!"

Casting them a grateful look, Shadow hurried off across the hall while Cari turned to Lydia. "Seriously, we're helping them? Why? I thought we were mad at Shadow."

"We can't just leave our friends to get in trouble when they don't have their things cleared out in time, Cari! That's now how you treat people." Lydia's face was serious, but Cari knew better than to take her roommate at her word.

"Yeah, whatever. I think this is just because you have a massive crush on Eric."

Lydia's lips twitched and she eventually gave in to her smile. "Okay, it helps that the boy is very, very good-looking. But we would do this for anyone. Come on, let's get it done."

As they walked into Shadow and Eric's room, Cari couldn't help but give an impressed whistle. The walls were literally filled with shelves, and less than a quarter of them were empty. Eric blushed slightly at the sound and explained apologetically, "My mother thought it would be a good idea to send me the souvenirs I've collected over the years. She never told me how much stuff it was going to be."

Immediately, Cari and Lydia each grabbed a duffel bag and began carefully packing it with delicate objects. "How did you get so much stuff?" Lydia asked in the silence of the room.

From the corner of her eye, Cari could see Eric shrug. "My father is an ambassador and my mother is an archeologist. I traveled a lot growing up and I always wanted to have something to remember each place. You end up with a lot of stuff that way."

Even working as quickly as she possibly could, Cari couldn't help but notice that many of the objects she was packing were not the typical tourist fodder. Instead of plastic and cheap materials, Eric's keepsakes ran more to creations of stone and wood, pictures of his family in some of the most famous places in the world, and a lot of carved figures that seemed absolutely ancient. Saying a silent prayer that none of the ceremonial-looking figures were cursed, Cari packed as many as she could into a single expanded-interior bag.

When the room was finally empty, their half hour was almost over. Lydia, whose parents had been waiting for the past ten minutes, hurried off to the cafeteria after saying a quick goodbye to everyone and promising to write to Cari.

Shortly afterward, Eric's mother walked in. "Hello, Eric. Oh! I see that you have all of your articles packed away. You didn't have to do that. There's a simple spell that shrinks all of them and they fit in this bag." She gestured to the padded black bag in her hand and frowned. "I told you that when I dropped you off here in August. Didn't you remember?"

Everyone turned to collectively glare at Eric, who smiled sheepishly. Mrs. Wilkerson shrugged, shrunk all of the expanded bags, and packed them inside the single black bag. "If you're ready, Eric?"

"Sorry, guys!" Eric whispered. "I'll see some of you over summer break. Thanks again for the help!" He and his mother left the area, walking quickly toward the cafeteria.

"Well," Chayton said in the silence. "That was a completely pointless waste of my time. Almost as much as this year has been." He turned to Shadow. "Can we please go to the cafeteria now? I want to get out of here before Echowick gets another chance to sucker-punch me."

"You didn't have to stay this whole time if you didn't want to," Lionel pointed out.

"No, I can't. He's my ride," Chayton said, jerking a thumb over his shoulder at Shadow.

"Okay, whiner. Let's go before I have to call the whaa-mbulance." Chayton punched Shadow in the shoulder, though he smiled as he did it. Rubbing his shoulder – though trying to look like he wasn't – Shadow held the door open and motioned for all of them to leave the apartment ahead of him.

Cari had expected that the cafeteria would be mostly empty, but was surprised to find it still extremely crowded. Sure, the Floo could only handle one person at a time, but students had been allowed to leave for nearly two hours. Even the younger students, who weren't allowed to Floo by themselves, were still accompanied by parents who Apparated onto the school grounds.

Tessa, Toby, Willa, and Jael approached, parting the crowd. "There you guys are! Where have you been?" Tessa called in a loud greeting.

Briefly, Shadow explained what had happened, different people pitching in in as they went along. When he finished, Jael burst out laughing. "It figures! He's the only one that kind of thing would happen to – well, other than Fletch, here." She reached out and patted Fletchmeister on the back, but the boy pulled away sharply.

"Fantastic," he bit out. "I'm glad I'm one of the two people everyone expects to screw stuff up." Jael tried to explain that she had been joking, but he raised a hand, cutting her off. "You know what? I think I hear my parents. I'm going to go track them down. See you guys later." He walked off, smoothing down his dark red hair.

"Well, that was weird," Cari said, stating the obvious, but needing to break the silence.

"I really didn't mean anything by it," Jael stated, looking distraught by Fletchmeister's reaction.

"We know," Tessa said soothingly. "He's been acting strange lately, really angry and upset all of the time. Or he just doesn't talk at all. Does anyone know what's going on?"

Chayton shrugged. "He's lonely." They all stared at him, the girls in confusion and the boys in accusation. He made a face. "Don't tell him I told you."

"He's lonely." Willa repeated, studying Chayton. "What does that mean, exactly?"

"It means," Shadow explained, "that Fletch decided he wanted a girlfriend, but none of the girls he asked out were willing to give him a chance. Most of them said he was too much of a goofball or that they didn't think he was smart enough." He began to grow visibly angry. "They were horrible about it, totally ignoring that he's a really good guy. He's not stupid or a goofball; he just likes to make people to laugh. It isn't like-"

"Shadow!" Tessa cut in. "We all know how great Fletch is. He would do anything for anyone."

"Would you happen to have the names of the girls who were so terrible to him?" Willa asked. The fierce, chilling look sat oddly on her lovely face, but was no less threatening because of it.

Jael interrupted, raising her voice to speak over the others. "If you boys would just talk to us and let us know what's going on, so many of these problems could be avoided." The group quieted, paying attention now. "I happen to know of someone who thinks that Fletchmeister is the most attractive boy at Echowick."

"You're kidding!" Toby looked shocked. "You like Fletchmeister?"

"What? No! I mean, he's a nice kid, but I prefer a little more… Anyway, no. My apartment-mate, Jackie, has quite a crush on our friend."

Willa turned to Jael, seeming startled. "She does? How do I not know that?"

Jael smiled softly at her friend. "Because you scare her. But, yes, she has a crush on him. If Vertie asked her out, she would be the happiest girl in the world."

Shadow rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Vertie..? I don't think I know of anyone named Vertie."

"Hmm, I don't know," Chayton added. "I think I might have heard something about him at the beginning of our first year, but he disappeared pretty quickly. Better tell your friend Jackie that she's out of luck."

"For Merlin's sake!" Tessa cried. "You just heard that there's a solution for all of your friend's problems and you're going to waste time making dumb jokes about his nickname?"

"Dumb?" Shadow asked, offense written across his face. "You are sorely mistaken, madam. I believe the word you were looking for is 'hilarious'."

She glared at both of them and Chayton cleared his throat. "I'm going to go see if I can find the meister of Fletch, tell him the good news." He disappeared into the crowd, followed closely by Jael and Willa, both walking on tiptoes in an attempt to see over the crowd.

Once they had walked away, Shadow, Tessa, Toby, Lionel, and Cari were left sitting at the second-year table, surrounded by students waiting to leave. After a few moments of chatting among themselves, something strange started to happen: girls of all ages were coming up to the table. Specifically, they were approaching to speak to Shadow. From what Cari managed to overhear, Shadow's parents knew a lot of people and were open to entertaining guests on a regular basis. The girls were mostly ones whose parents were friends with Shadow's family and they wanted to flirt with him and mention casually that they would see him over summer vacation.

After the fourth visit, Lionel leaned back in his chair and fixed Shadow with a calculating look. "So, sounds like you have a lot of company lined up for the summer, huh?"

Shadow waved this away. "Not me, really. More my parents and their parents and they get dragged along so we just hang out."

"Mm-hmm," Tessa hummed skeptically. "And it didn't strike you as being at all strange that every one of them is female and close to our age?"

"Not really. But hey, you guys are always invited to come over, too! My parents wouldn't mind, and it would be nice to see some people I actually like when we aren't in school."

"That… Kind of sounds like it would be fun, actually," Toby said, sounding surprised. "Are you sure that you wouldn't mind having everyone at your house?"

"Mind? No, not at all. Like I said, it's either you guys or the kids of my parents' friends. Would any of your parents mind? We're hooked up to the Floo and everything, or they could just side-along you if they would rather Apparate."

"I'm game. What do you think, Cari?"

Lionel's question rather put her on the spot and Cari blushed. "I don't think it would be possible for me, sorry." Somehow, the story of her parents had never come up, and Cari gave a brief explanation of the situation with her mother.

When she had finished, Tessa seemed horrified. "That's a pretty major secret to keep from your mother! I'm sorry. It must be tough."

Cari smiled dismissively. "To be honest, I don't really think about it much anymore. But I doubt I could get away to hang out, as much fun as that sounds."

The revelation caused an awkward silence, one Cari was about to break when another girl walked up to speak with Shadow. It was Arsenia and Cari just managed to stifle a groan. "Hi, Shadow," she purred, flipping long hair over a shoulder. "Did you hear? Our parents already have a dinner party planned for next week. Sounds like we'll be on our own again. Do you still have the gazebo by the lake?"

Before Shadow could answer, Jael and Willa approached, followed shortly afterward by Chayton. Arsenia eyed Willa, giving the gentle girl a hate-filled glare. "Well, I don't want to keep you from your friends." The last word was pronounced with something close to scorn, but her face never moved from its carefully attractive lines. "I'll see you next week, Shadow." With a little finger wave, she was gone.

"Ugh," Chayton commented as the girl left. "Why was Arsenic Aguilar talking to you?"

Shaking his head at the nickname, Shadow said, "She's coming to my house with her parents next week. They have some kind of a dinner thing planned."

"Wow, whose familiar did you kill to deserve that kind of curse?" Jael asked, eying him with fake sympathy.

"Hey, now!" Lionel said defensively. "Shadow's one lucky guy to have her at his house. Arsenia is super hot."

Everyone but Lionel and Shadow groaned. Chayton shook his head, "Nah, man. Trust me, she's not worth it. She's poisonous in every sense of the word. Shadow needs to keep as far away from her as he possibly can."

"Did you find Fletchmeister?" Shadow asked, obviously trying to change the subject.

"No," Willa said, sounding regretful. "He had already left by the time we got to the other side of the room. Can anyone get in contact with him at his house?"

"Yeah, definitely! That was Jackie Burkes, right?" Shadow literally had a scrap of parchment out and was already jotting down a quick note to Fletchmeister. Before he finished it, he filled Jael, Willa, and Chayton in about the get-together at his house and all seemed on board, so Shadow added it into his letter.

Before long, the cafeteria had grown noticeably emptier and students continued to filter out slowly. One by one, everyone left, leaving Chayton, Shadow, and Cari. Cari had known she would be stuck at the school until Daniel's shift ended, so she settled in as Chayton made yet another trip to the snack-filled table set up on one end of the room.

"I hate that you won't get to come over during the summer," Shadow said suddenly.

Cari shrugged self-consciously. "That's the price you pay for having a complicated life, I guess. Anyway, it sounds like you'll have plenty of other company."

"I always prefer quality over quantity." Shadow's direct gaze was making her oddly uncomfortable, but in a nice way. The whole thing made her blush, especially since he was so close, sitting directly beside her instead of across the table as usual.

"See you soon, Shadow!" Arsenia's simpering voice called. Shadow lifted a hand in acknowledgment, smiling briefly.

Cari gritted her teeth and began talking before Shadow could think about pitying her again for her situation. "You know, I came across an interesting idea in my Broomsmith classes and I've been dying to bounce it off of someone. You know, get a fresh perspective."

This worked fairly well as a topic-changer, as Shadow's expression changed from one of regret to one of intrigue. "Of course! I'd love to hear it."

"Well, there's a theory that brooms are highly attuned to their riders if the two are compatible. The author of my textbook compared it to how a wand responds to its witch or wizard. That got me thinking: what if someone made a broom that was essentially a wand?" Shadow looked slightly confused, so Cari elaborated. "What I mean is that a broom is made of enchanted wood just like a wand is. If you could find a way to infuse a magical core into a broom, they would basically be the same thing. Think about your wand. It's rowan with a rougarou-hair core, right? Well, if I made a broom from rowan wood with a magical core of rougarou hair, it should function as a closer match to you magically than a regular school broom made of whatever wood they had lying around without a core at all. Make sense?"

"It makes perfect sense!" Shadow exclaimed, unexpectedly hugging her tightly. "You're a genius, Romana! Do it."

Pulling back, Cari studied her friend. "Do… what?"

"Build it! Make a broom that matches my wand and I'll gladly be the first one to test it. It's an amazing idea. I'll be the best Quidditch player anywhere and you'll make a fortune selling custom brooms to wizarding society!"

Abruptly realizing how close they were sitting, Cari pulled back. "Sh-Shadow, I can't make a broom like that. For one thing, I'm not even sure it's possible. For another, I wouldn't know where to get all of the materials. It just isn't feasible."

"Of course it is! I'll get the materials. Please, Cari?"

It was a bad idea. A horrible idea, actually, and yet Cari was finding that her willpower couldn't stand up against Shadow's pleading eyes. "I- I really- Oh, all right."

"Awesome! I'll send you an owl and you can tell me what you need."

"It might be kind of expensive, Shadow," Cari warned, making one last bid to change his mind.

He shrugged. "It doesn't really matter. I'm a half-blood, but my parents both make a lot of money. Not bragging, just letting you know. I'll just tell them I'm working on a project and they'll get me whatever I need."

"Shadow!" Chayton called. "Your mom's here. Let's go!"

Sure enough, there was a red-haired woman with Shadow's bright blue eyes standing next to Chayton. She smiled and waved at the pair, both of whom waved back. Shadow turned back to Cari, grabbing her hand before she knew what was happening. "I'll miss you this summer, Cari," he said earnestly, making her blush once more. "Think of me, okay?"

He was gone before Cari could say anything else. Chayton smirked at her from across the room. When Shadow and his mom fell into conversation, headed for the fireplace, he called, "Have a good summer, Romana!"

It was easily the fastest-moving summer of Cari's life. Between wondering what Shadow had meant with his final statement, she spent time with her mother and Byron, wrote back and forth to her friends, and started working on the blueprints for Shadow's broom prototype. Naomi seemed determined to spend more 'family time' together, so weekends were set aside for hiking, carnivals, movies, and every other excursion they could think of. During the week, days spent at home usually meant swimming, climbing trees, playing games in the yard, or planning their next adventure.

Byron was constantly asking Cari to draw with him, but was only ever interested in drawing castles. He was starting to draw them extremely well, but his preoccupation with the particular subject made Cari curious. Some of the buildings looked familiar, but when she asked if they were from movies or pictures, Byron always said no. They just popped into his head, he explained. When Cari brought it up to her mother, Naomi only laughed. "He only draws castles when you're around, Cari. Maybe you should lay off the Disney movies or something." Cari laughed along and conceded that her mother might have a point. Still, something niggled at the back of her mind.

When Byron went to his yearly summer camp, Cari and Naomi spent as much time together as possible. They watched gooey movies, went on several shopping trips, and had lunch at their favorite bistro nearly every day. It was strange for Cari to have her mother all to herself, but she had to admit that it was nice. She had grown to love Echowick, and wouldn't trade her time at the school for anything, but she did miss having the chance to see her mother every day.

Before she knew it, the time had come for Cari to return to school. Each time she had left home, the departure had gotten a little bit easier. Now, Cari and her mother both got a little watery, but could keep the tears at bay with jokes and reminders of the decently short time until Christmas vacation. While Daniel cooled down the car, Naomi and Byron gave Cari tight hugs as they said their goodbyes.

"Cari!" Byron said, holding up a carefully folded square of paper. "I drew this for you. I've been working on it forever."

"Aww, thank you, Byron! Do you want me to open it now or wait until I get to school?"

Byron looked conflicted while Naomi laughed. "He's worked so hard on it. You better open it now so he can see your face."

After finding out that Byron had put so much work into a present for her, Cari knew she had to react like it was the most wonderful thing she had ever seen. That was just how things worked. Steeling her fact to have a stunned expression ready, she opened the paper and felt herself blanch.

It was Echowick.

Author's Note - Bum bum buuuuhhhhh! Hey, nice to see you. I noticed you were suffering from a distinct lack of cliffhanger in your life, so I went ahead and fixed that for you. You're welcome. Sorry for rushing through the summer, but there are only so many ways to say, 'she really didn't do much of anything except spend time with her family'. In any case, we'll pick right back up again next week! Drop a review if you so choose, and whoever my guest reviewer was last week, thank you so much for the feedback! It means a lot. Have a great day!