So, I haven't heard from many of you for a while. Did I have too long of a hiatus? I apologize immensely! Tell me what I'm doing wrong?
Anyway, although this is a short chapter, it is revealing...and... Pregnant tiems!
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
Leigh Ann Returns (Again)
Leigh Ann Nelson
July 10, 1996
Washington D.C.
The crowd was going wild. "I've got it, I've got it!"
Chasing.
Catching.
Throwing.
Celebrating.
What was that man in the audience doing? What did I care. I'd just won our Little League game. I was being celebrated by my teammates and by my parents. I was getting praised and petted. What could be better?
Victory lap!
But suddenly my broom jerked. The man in the audience was mumbling to himself, all alone in the bleachers. He was wearing all white. He pulled his hood up over his head to hide his face from me and kept mumbling. My broom jerked again.
A woman screamed. I started crying out in fear as the man with the pointy white hat raised his hand to me. That was when I lost the grip on my broom and fell. My hip hit first, fracturing the bone. Intense pain shot through me as I looked up to the man and saw ice blue eyes, salt and pepper hair, and—
I sat up, sweating, completely awake as I grasped my stomach and held back a sob. I hadn't had that nightmare in a long time. I never made it to the part where I saw the man's face, though. I always woke up right before I hit the ground. Maybe I'd kept going because my hip really was hurting. It was tingling and numb, something normal that happened quite a bit now that I was heavier with child. I stood and stretched. The child inside me moved irately, telling me that I should be sleeping as well. I couldn't, though. Not when he or she was pushing on my bladder.
I waddled to the restroom and sat on the toilet, putting my face in my hands and breathing deeply. I was now in my 27th week of pregnancy. My second trimester was over...and any time I gave birth, my baby would be healthy. I still had a little while to go. But I missed my mother. I wanted advice on sleeping, on getting my baby to stay still and to stop kicking me in the ribs. He or she was a regular Karate Kid, that was for sure.
I wanted to sleep with my husband again. But the more I thought about it, the worse my prophecy sounded. To forget a love to fight a war... Did I have to forget about him to win? Did he have to forget about me?
Why couldn't this be as easy as infiltrating a government agency?
Getting out of the Pentagon had been almost as easy as getting in, especially since I'd had my mother's clearance codes. I didn't get stopped. I wasn't discovered. It was almost too easy. And now, sitting on a toilet in a hotel in D.C., I was just...tired. I wanted to have a normal pregnancy. I wanted to go shopping for baby clothes and look up baby names. But it was kind of difficult to do when I was being plagued by KKK Members and reading about the deaths of even more innocent Muggleborn.
God, I didn't want to think about any of it. I didn't want to wonder why the General and his family was involved with my prophecy. I didn't want to think about death or running or death...
When I was done peeing, which I tended to do every other hour, I decided that it was time to return to the Academy. There was nothing I could do by hiding out. More and more people were dying while those bastards looked for me...the last thing I needed was to lose a family member.
While friend and family wait at heaven's door...
There were a few things that need accomplished first, though...
Viktor Krum
July 31, 1996
4:38 P.M.
War Room
"Igor Karkaroff's body has been found," Viktor told the meeting room, looking into the eyes of Albus Dumbledore, Madame Maxime, General Harrington, and Borislav Slavnic, the new headmaster of Durmstrang. "He was found in a deserted cabin in the north of Bulgaria."
As none of the other headmasters knew of the location of the Academy, only Viktor and the General were the only two figures in the room. Instead, three magical holograms of the other headmasters were standing straight and see-through on either side of the long table in the War Room. Special Agent Gloria was standing in a dark corner, arms over his chest as he watched what was going on.
"Do we know how he was killed?" Albus asked as he stroked his beard.
The General shook his head, his hands behind his back as he stood up proudly. "No. It appeared as though he was tortured to death, though. I sent troops up to bring his body back for autopsy."
"Take heem to St. Mungos," Borislav said with a sneer, rolling his eyes. "I find thees...gross." Obviously he meant that he found it repugnant, but Viktor was sure that the new headmaster wasn't very good with English. "I do not vant that bastard in mine country."
"Understood," the General said, picking a cell phone up off the table and walking away to make a call to the troops.
Viktor sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. He felt as though he'd aged twenty years in the past month. Not seeing Leigh Ann...not knowing if she was healthy, if the baby was healthy, was killing him. "Half any of you seen Leahn? Heard from her?"
There was silence for a moment until Maxime spoke up. "Oui. I 'ave."
He instantly was staring at her, walking closer to her hologram before realizing that she wouldn't see his hostile stance. "Vhat?"
She looked slightly uncomfortable as she fidgeted wrung her hands in front of her. "Well, you see, Leahn Anna was at Beauxbatons. She was recruiting moi for an army."
This caught the General's attention—as well as every other headmaster in the room. The General snapped closed the bottom of his large cell phone, striding over to the table. "What?"
The headmistress looked rather uncomfortable. "Well, she told me not to tell. She will be back soonair or latair. She was gathairing...friends to fight ze Klan."
"I have seen her as well," Dumbledore said with a bow of his head. All eyes then snapped to him, especially Viktor's angered ones. "Unfortunately, I could not aid her. We are having our own problems over here. Harry Potter and his family were attacked at his sixteenth birthday just today. Death Eaters have taken over Millennium Bridge. Mr. Olivander has disappeared. With all that has happened, it does not seem that we can help America."
"Priorities first," the General said with a deep frown on his face. He obviously understood but didn't like it. "So, the Lieutenant is gaining forces for us..."
"Vas she alvight?" Viktor asked Dumbledore, feeling as though all of the energy had been sucked out of him. "Please, vas she healthy...?"
Albus nodded and smiled, his face kind and fatherly. "Of course. She and the baby were perfectly fine when I saw her this morning. Miss Nelson was just complaining about not being able to see her feet..."
Her stomach is so round with our child... Viktor thought with a laugh, happiness in his eyes as he thought of her. He missed her so much. "Did she say vhen she vould return?"
Dumbledore smiled once more and nodded his head behind Viktor—he turned and looked, seeing a haggard- but otherwise healthy-looking Leigh Ann standing in the floo. He then raced over, grabbed her face, and pulled her in to a kiss.
She laughed when he released her, placing her forehead on his and smiling. "I'm fine, Viktor. And so is our little girl."
Her words shocked him—he couldn't speak for a moment. Instead, he took in her glowing skin, her hazel eyes, her thick, shining auburn hair, and her full lips that were set in a smile. "Ve are...halfing a girl?"
She smiled wider and nodded, grasping his hands and placing her forehead on his. "Yes."
Suddenly there was a clearing of a throat from behind them. Viktor turned to see Agent Gloria standing there with his arms crossed, a glare coming from his Latino eyes. "I hate to break up this reunion, but Leigh Ann, you have a lot to account for."
Leigh Ann's face went from glowing and beautiful to glaring and furious. She let go of Viktor and walked—more like waddled—over to Gloria, getting up in his face. "Look, amigo, I don't have to answer anythin' to you or the government. The only person I'm trustin' with my own investigation is myself, is that clear?"
Viktor never wanted to get on the bad side of a pregnant woman. One moment they were all smiles and laughs, the next they were holding a gun to an Agent's face. To stop an international incident, Viktor gently grabbed Leigh Ann's arm and pulled it down. "Leahn, I am not sure that is necessary..."
"Necessary? Is bringin' a psychotic Special Agent into the Academy necessary? Was the death of my best friend necessary?" Suddenly she stopped ranting and grasped her stomach with the hand not holding the gun. She gritted her teeth and pulled her arm away from him, furiously straightening her maternity shirt which was getting much too small for her. "If you will excuse me, I have to waddle to the restroom. Again."
It was only slightly comical as he watched his love exit the room. He turned back to the room full of men and one woman and said, "I'm not sure vhat just happened."
Poor Viktor...no one is sure.
I would love your thoughts!
