Ch 21 "You are not going to Switzerland"
Author's Note. My apologizes to "The Wizard of Oz."
More dialogue and descriptions from my beta Deb, plus another pointed question that caused me to clarify something.
A very angry Draco Malfoy met Scorpius and Cleopatra when they arrived by Floo in the front parlor from twelve Grimmauld Place. "You are going to stop spending time with those blood traitor Weasley's and their friends!" he yelled at Scorpius, then looked disdainfully at Cleo. "You are not going to Switzerland. You are going to spend the summer here learning how to be true Malfoys."
"I'm not a Malfoy," Cleopatra muttered.
"Traitors and killers like your ancestor who killed my namesake Scorpius, the second ghost of Slytherin?" Scorpius asked, trying to be calm. "Killers like my grandfather Malfoy, who killed innocent Muggles? There does not seem to be much in our family history to be proud of, father."
"Impertinent bastard!" Draco snapped, getting into Scorpius' face.
"So I'm a bastard, father? What does that make you? A rapist?" Scorpius looked at his father with contempt, "What does that make that unloving piece of …," Scorpius waved at Astoria, "whatever sitting over there? She has never been much of a mother, so I guess I am a bastard."
The whole family was in the living room, all but Narcissa looking at the children with varying degrees of contempt. The two children moved over to the side of the room where Narcissa Malfoy was standing and she put her hands on their shoulders. Flanking Draco on the other side of the room were great-grandmothers Black and Malfoy. In the middle, sitting down and obviously not happy to be there, was Scorpius's mother.
Draco glared at Astoria, and she glared back at him. Whatever there was between them, it sure was not love.
Cleo took out her wand, and tried to read what it was between Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy, like she did when she was working on soap and shampoo and perfume for people. She had made soap and shampoo for enough married couples to understand that each marriage was different, but that there was something there in every marriage that she could sense. Whatever it was, it seemed to be missing in the relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy.
"Give me your wands!" Draco demanded, moving forward, his hand out. Narcissa grabbed both of the children's shoulders and put them slightly behind her.
"NO!" Cleopatra yelled, holding her wand in both hands and jerking it away. The wand started to glow, and the room shook with a magical earthquake, the room glowing and shimmering, like some movie special effect had gone wrong. Everyone (except Narcissa and the Children) looked around the room fearfully. Narcissa gently squeezed Cleo's shoulder and nodded at her, so Cleo put her wand back into a pocket and the earthquake calmed down.
"I do not think Scorpius 'Snakeslayer' Malfoy, the hero of finding the Chamber of Secrets, should give up his wand either," Narcissa mildly suggested, smiling proudly down at Scorpius and giving his shoulder a squeeze.
"You are on the wrong side in Slytherin, Scorpius," Draco suggested haughtily.
"I should have been with the idiots that tried to raise basilisk, father?" Scorpius wondered, his voice filled with scorn. "So I could be killed, and your frigid wife would not give you another heir."
"DO NOT TALK TO ME LIKE THAT," Draco yelled, storming forward, his arm raised as if to slap his son. He stopped when Narcissa pulled out her own wand and the tip glowed in his face. He swallowed hard and turned away to glare at Astoria, who frowned an angry frown, looking like being there was making her sick. Astoria's contempt for Draco was evident when she looked away from him.
"Go to your rooms, both of you," Draco commanded. "You are spending the day with me tomorrow, Scorpius."
Narcissa nodded to the two of them, and Scorpius and Cleopatra went to their rooms, Dis, the Elf that shadowed Cleo following.
Cleopatra did not see Scorpius until dinner on Saturday, and he looked like he was not all together mentally. After dinner she and Dis went into Scorpius's room. He was sitting on his bed and staring unfocused at the carpet, blinking his eyes as if to clear them. Cleo went up to him and it took a few seconds for him to focus on her. She frowned and asked him, touching his forehead to see if he was ill, "What did you do today?"
"I cannot remember," Scorpius responded and shuddered. "I feel dirty, like I did something wrong or saw something wrong, but I cannot remember anything. We need to leave! We need to escape this place."
"How?" Cleopatra asked, sitting on the bed with a sigh. "Your father has closed the Floo, and did something to make apparating impossible. I do not know all that he has done, but I saw your grandmother arguing with the great-grandmothers today."
Dis noted, as she stared at her young charges, "Mr. Malfoy has done something to keep even Elves from apparating with someone else. I might be able to take Miss Cleopatra, but it would be risky. I could not go back for Scorpius."
"So we just walk out the front door," Scorpius suggested with a shrug. "We call the Knight Bus, and get a ride to Grimmauld Place. After all, Rose is fond of saying that Wizards have no common sense, and I'll bet that Father forgot about the simple escapes… the non-magical ones."
"I can shrink our trunks," Cleopatra suggested, nodding her head. "Albus taught me how to do that. It is an innie spell, where you have to stuff things into another dimension or two or, well something like that. You have to define a boundary, or have one like the trunk, but then you just have to push or, you don't really compress it you just shrink, but not exactly shrink because it has to go somewhere. Well, it works."
Scorpius had learned not to question Cleo when she described spells, what kind they were or how she did them. The explanations were strange at their best, and at times so weird and convoluted that it was impossible to understand what she was talking about. The only person who could understand her was Albus, and he had confessed that even he had a hard time understanding her at times.
Dis shook her head and suggested, "The front door is probably a bad idea. Most of the perimeter of Malfoy Manor is very well guarded from getting in or out. There is a very well-guarded way into or out of the property that the Elves use to get groceries and supplies. Elves are not to use the main entrance! Everyone but grandmother Narcissa is upset when I come in the front door or the Floo with Cleo."
"Let us go right now!" Scorpius pled, shuddering. "This house is beginning to make me feel dirty inside and outside."
"Give me half an hour to pack." Cleo replied. "I will meet you in your room with my trunk shrunk, and then I will shrink your trunk and we can go.
Half an hour later Cleo and Dis re-entered Scorpius's room. She shrunk his trunk, and together the three of them left by a rear servants stairway. In the kitchen they were met by the house elf BB, the youngest of the adult elves that maintained Malfoy Manor. "We have been ordered not to let you leave," BB told the Scorpius, Cleo and Dis.
"Do not let us leave, then," Scorpius suggested. "Just not be around when we leave."
"House elves do not disobey their owners," BB mumbled.
"But hired Elves with uniforms and pay, no matter how small the pay, are not house elves," suggested Scorpius, gently reminding the young elf of his place.
"Maybe Cleo's Elf had something to do with helping them escape," suggested Dis, referring to herself. "Maybe she distracted you, or something."
"Dis and I were talking, and then she left, and Scorpius and Cleopatra were gone," BB thought out loud, looking relieved at, she hoped, not getting into too much trouble with Mr. Malfoy. Since the Ministry orders that Elves were not to be punished or ordered to punish themselves, all they had to put up with was Mr. Malfoy's impotent yelling.
Scorpius and Cleopatra left, leaving the kitchen and going to the Elf doorway of the Malfoy property. Dis and BB stayed behind, engaged in some sort of conversation. Scorpius and Cleo opened the door and rushed outside.
Scorpius looked up, and saw Dementors screaming down at them. "Knight Bus!" he yelled.
"Help, Albus," Cleo thought out loud.
The Knight Bus popped into view, and Stan Shunpike, the conductor, popped out of the door, looked up at the Dementors, and yelled, "Inside, you two! Them things are not allowed in here. They cannot pay the fare."
"It wouldn't be fair to the other customers to let them in," Scorpius quipped. "Even if they were riding to a fair."
"You's the bloke that killed them basilisk," Stan observed as he pointed to the newspaper in his hands. "Then you joke at Dementors. You trying to be the new Harry Potter? He was on this bus, you know. Before he became a hero."
"Nice wizard, that Harry Potter," Ernie Prang, the ancient driver remarked, as he slammed the bus into gear and it jumped what felt like two counties ahead.
A small, scared girl squeaked as she picked herself up off the floor again, "Harry Potter is real? My father says that mother was not a witch, and I should forget all about magic."
"Of course magic is real," a witch that was just coming down from upstairs said. "Arthur here goes to Hogwarts," pointing to a boy a little older than Scorpius, "and his sisters will go when they are old enough. Saw Mr. Potter my last year at Hogwarts. Never met him, though.
"Follow me out, children. We are almost home."
The bus jerked a couple more times, and deposited the little family, including a very harried looking wizard carrying, obviously with magic, over a dozen bags, on a very rural street.
"Who are you?" Cleo asked the little girl after the wizard left.
"Jane Clark, mam," the little girl answered. "I'm running away from my father. He is mean."
"Where are you going?" Cleo asked, putting her arm around the young girl.
"I don't know," the little girl cried, looking quite frightened.
"We have to pick up any witch or wizard that is in distress," Stan explained, "but I don't know what to do with that one." He nodded to Jane before going back to his paper.
"We are running away from my father too," Scorpius announced, sitting with aplomb next to the girl.
Jane looked at Cleo who also nodded, "May I please run away with you," Jane begged.
Scorpius looked at Cleopatra, and they nodded at each other.
"Come with us," Cleo sang. "We're off to see the wizards, the wonderful wizards of," stopping for a moment, she thought, and finished with, "Potters. We're off to see the wizards, the wonderful wizards of Potters."
The bus jerked again, and a disreputable looking wizard smelling of way too much to drink stumbled into the bus.
"Sleep it off on the third floor," Ernie yelled. Turning towards Scorpius and Cleo, Ernie told them, "I see that one often. Sleeps off his drunk on the bus, he does."
While Ernie was yelling, Stan was helping the drunk wizard up the steps. When Stan came down he asked, "Who is going to pay for her," pointing towards Jane.
"I will pay for all of us," Scorpius replied, paying the fare for Jane as well as for Cleo and himself.
The bus jerked again, and then flew through the streets of London, suddenly stopping at a short street with fourteen or fifteen houses on it. Scorpius jumped out of the bus, ran up to the front door of number twelve, rang the doorbell, knocked on the knocker and yelled, 'Help!"
Cleo took Jane's hand and followed Scorpius up to the door. The girl stumbled a bit as it had been a long time since she had been on a solid unmoving, unjerking surface.
A very old house elf in a dress, really a servant's uniform, slowly opened the door. "Master Malfoy, Miss Smith, what are you doing here?" she asked.
Almost immediately Albus Potter appeared, and invited the three inside. "Please come in. What is the matter, Cleo?"
"We were attacked by Dementors, but they cannot ride the Knight Bus because they cannot pay the fare." Ernie said before tipping his hat at the group and going back into the bus, which disappeared with a flash.
"They are not fair folks, that's for certain," Albus countered.
"Jane is running away with us," Cleo announced cheekily.
"I do not know if I should call dad or Mrs. Blackburn," Albus thought out loud. "Well, dad is the easiest, since he is upstairs in the drawing room."
The assembled group tromped upstairs to the drawing room. Ginny Potter was sitting in a comfortable chair, a laptop in her lap, and was reading something to Harry.
"Sometimes dad helps mum with her column," Albus whispered.
"Are you Ginny Potter," Jane asked, eyes wide open in astonishment. "I saw your photograph in the Daily Prophet, but my father says that all that magic stuff is not real."
"I am Ginny Potter, and I assure you I am quite real. What are you doing here?" Ginny asked, looking at the trio.
"We are running away from home," Jane proudly announced. "Misters Ernie Prang and Stan Shunpike didn't know what to do with me until these two entered the bus. They said I could run away with them. My father says there is no magic and no Quidditch and no Harry Potter. When mum died we stopped receiving the Daily Prophet, but I read every issue before."
"What is your name?" Ginny asked.
"Jane Clark, mam," Jane replied.
Ginny looked at Harry, and he nodded. "I will call Lavender and see what she can find out." Harry took out his Magic/Muggle mobile and intoned, "Lavender Brown Blackburn."
"Hello, Harry," Lavender answered. "Why the call?"
"There is a Jane Clark is at our house," Harry replied.
"In your living room?" Lavender gasped.
"Well, we are in the drawing room, but yes, she is here," Harry replied, "along with Scorpius and Cleopatra."
Harry heard Lavender tell her husband, "Gray, all three runaways are at the Potters. I'm heading over there now."
"Where is Dis?" Harry asked, looking at Cleo. She shrugged. She had no idea where the Elf was. Harry then looked a Frerin, Albus's Elf and Dis's partner.
"Dis is in a very awkward position," Frerin replied. "Lies, things not as they seem. She is dressed as a Malfoy Elf, but she is really not. No way to say what she is in Elfish or to do what she does. BB not stop Scorpius and Cleopatra from leaving. Mr. Malfoy very upset. All house elves should be very upset, but is not house elves but is playing house elves and is very difficult and awkward."
"And the head of the house elf department is the Elf Harriet Tubman," Harry laughed. "Draco is not going to plead his case before any Elf, but especially not HER!"
Harry thought back to Professor Snape being a double agent. Dis was nominally a Malfoy Elf, but in reality she was more a Department of Magical Law Enforcement Elf. If Draco had any idea that Dis helped Scorpius and Cleopatra leave, escape, he would be furious.
Draco was probably furious that Scorpius and Cleopatra had left in any case. Since they were officially runaways that was putting Harry in a very difficult position.
Everyone waited for Mrs. Blackburn to show up by making small talk. When she came up the stairs Gus Gudgeon was with her.
"I have two situations here," Lavender announced. "Jane Clark is officially a Muggle runaway. Legally I need to return her to her father within forty-eight hours."
"He is mean, and he doesn't believe in magic!" Jane protested, looking quite tearful. "I don't want to stay with him!"
"We have been aware of your situation for the last four years, Jane," Lavender kindly replied. "We felt that eventually we would have to deal with your father. It is just not easy."
"In forty-eight hours we are going to be in Switzerland," Albus suggested. "If she came with us, then she would not be in Britain. Could you make it so Jane did not have to go back to her father if you had a couple of weeks to work on it? That way someone could talk with her father and explain things to him?"
"It is not going to be easy to explain things to Jane's father," Lavender admitted. "It can be construed as kidnapping and Mr. Clark could press charges, Harry would have to play a little fast and loose with the rules, but we could get away with it.
"Jane's father was never very comfortable with magic, but her mother was not very good at explaining it either. He is too controlling, but she should not lose all contact with her father, and he doesn't deserve to lose all contact with her.
"We are not sure how Jane's mother died, but we know she and a Rosier have had conflicts. She may have been raped after Hogwarts but before she married. Her death is suspicious, but we do not have any proof of anything."
"Does Jane have any other family?" Harry asked.
"Maternal grandparents and an uncle who have not seen her in four years," Lavender explained. "She would be better off living with them. Give me some time to work on it."
"We should be able to do that," Harry replied. "You can honestly say that Jane is safe but not available after this weekend."
"I am going back home in a bit," Lavender announced. "I will leave the Malfoy family drama to Gus."
"Thanks," Gus grumbled.
"We want to go to Switzerland," Scorpius told everybody. "That's why we ran away."
"I NEED to be in Switzerland," Cleo insisted. "I do not see why I even have to stay with Mr. Malfoy. Grandmum Malfoy is not so bad, she is actually nice, but no one else is the house is nice at all."
Gus said, "I will go over to the Malfoy house tonight and say that the children are safe, and that we are working on getting them home. I expect some rough negotiations over the next few days."
"We ARE going to Switzerland," Scorpius insisted.
Gus looked at Harry, who agreed, "They really need to be in Switzerland with us."
"Always do what is right, not what is easy?" Gus wondered, "Or what is customary or, strictly speaking, legal?"
"Do you look to the law, or to doing what is best for your clients?" Harry asked. "Do not answer; I know you are always concerned to do what is best for all the people you are working with."
"I will go to Malfoy Manor tonight, eventually," Gus replied, agreeing that he did not wish to answer Harry. Gus knew that there was more at stake, and that the situation was more complex than that of normal runaways.
"I had better call Hermione and Rose so you can stay with Rose tonight," Ginny told Cleo, who nodded happily. She called Hermione, and then called for Mitzi, the Elf that helped her with her balance. "Please get Lily Luna," Ginny instructed the little Elf.
A short time later Lily Luna came down the stairs. Ginny told her daughter, "You are going to have a guest for a couple of nights, Jane Clark."
Lily looked at Jane cautiously. She then sighed, looked at her mother, and asked, "Why?"
Jane volunteered, "I'm running away from home because my father is mean, and he doesn't believe in magic and says that mother was not a witch and I'm not a witch and I'm not going to Hogwarts in the fall because there is no Hogwarts."
Lavender added, "It really would be best if Jane stayed with you for a couple of days."
Lily looked at Lavender suspiciously, then back at Jane, then her mother, and back at Lavender. Eventually she asked, "Are we the only people she can stay with, Mrs. Blackburn?"
"Jane staying with you is not the only thing we could do, Lily, but it is the best thing for her," Lavender explained. "Please just let her stay with you."
"She can stay with me," Lily agreed. Lily fidgeted, Jane looked at Lily. Eventually Ginny had to say, "Lily, you two need to go to your room and show her around. I will have Mabel come up and make sure Jane has food and clothes."
"I have a few things in my backpack," Jane explained as she pointed to a modest size backpack she wore.
Lily led Jane up through the floor with her parents' room and the nursery, through the "boy's floor" with Albus and James bedrooms, to the top floor where her bedroom and her mother's home office, which doubled as a guest bedroom, was. There were Elf quarters in the attic above the floors for Magi.
Lavender stood up to leave, but before she did she told the group remaining, "We have been aware of the Clark family for years. We thought about four years ago we were going to have to rescue Jane and her mother from Jane's father. A little over two years ago Jane's mother died under suspicious circumstances. We do not think Jane is being physically abused, but we have plenty of magical evidence she is being emotionally abused.
"Our problem is that Jane's father is both abusive and possessive. Getting her out legally is not going to be very easy."
A short time later Hermione and Rose came into the drawing room, both looking rather disheveled. Rose was in skimpy and obviously old nightclothes, with a house coat open in the front that she hastily closed when she saw Scorpius. Rose had matured, and the garments she was wearing revealed more than her normal school clothes. Scorpius grinned and shrugged, and Rose blushed and glowered.
"Rose, take Cleo back to your bedroom," Hermione ordered. The two girls went down the stairs to the kitchen. The magical Closet that was gradually taking the place of the Floo was connected to both houses, so you could go from the Potter house at twelve Grimmauld Place to the Granger-Weasley house next door at thirteen Grimmauld Place without going outside.
Once Rose and Cleo were gone, Hermione continued, "Harry, could you please make sure Lily, James and Jane are in their bedrooms."
Harry took out his map of his house, and watched as Lily and Jane went up to the top floor to Lily's bedroom.
"Everybody please sit down," Hermione instructed. "Scorpius, why did you leave? You seem to have rushed out of the house like something bad happened."
"I do not know what I did today," Scorpius explained and shuddered, rubbing his hands together like he was washing them, "but I feel it is wrong or dirty or something."
"I hate this," Hermione muttered, rubbing her eyes. "I had hoped that when Tom Riddle was defeated we would all at least live somewhat happily ever after. I had hoped that no children would have to face the problems we are facing."
Hermione looked at Scorpius, and sighed. "At least you have proved that you are brave, Scorpius, and that you do not panic in a dangerous situation. You also seem to be a good person. With Mr. Potter's permission, I am going to ask you to help us."
Harry took a deep breath, looked over at Ginny as a world of emotions flew between them, and then nodded. "I think we are in one of those 'do what is right, not what is easy' situations," he finally agreed.
"Let us start with some history, as best as we can figure out," Hermione started, pacing as she spoke. "There were twelve families, we think, that established themselves in Britain when the Romans conquered. They were not related to the original Druid Magi. These twelve always seemed to have money that no one could trace, maybe hidden farms, maybe slave labor, something not quite right about them. Whatever it was, it passed down to one male child, normally the oldest. These male children seemed to be uncommonly mean. Occasionally one of these families did not have a male heir. We theorize that another family took over whatever it is that these families have. A few times a bastard son seemed to appear out of nowhere to take over the family. There are six families left of the original twelve.
"These six families seem to be allied with between five and seven similar families in France.
Hermione turned to look at Scorpius, "The Malfoy family is one of these families. I would guess that you are under some form of the Imperius Curse when you cannot remember what you did. You must be resisting it, at least partially, if you feel that what you did is not right in some way.
"We really need you to be the heir of the Malfoy Estate if we are ever going to get to the bottom of this,"
"Live under my father's domination for the next one hundred years," Scorpius shrieked in horror.
"If he is using the Imperius Curse we can send him to prison and you would be acting head of the Malfoy family," Hermione replied, holding up her hand to calm him. "Then maybe we could get to the bottom of this. It would really be ideal if you were at least seventeen before we tried to replace your father.
"We will try to minimize the amount of time you spend at Malfoy Manor, but you are going to have to spend at least a little time there on a regular basis."
"As one of the MELL students he has an obligation to the whole community of Magi to continue to spend time with them," Harry argued. "That may help us keep Scorpius from spending too much time with his father."
"I will try to make that argument," Gus Gudgeon interjected. "I will tell Draco that Scorpius has obligations to the whole community of Magi. Besides, by seeming to be either the spokesperson or the recorder of their meetings he is becoming a very prominent Magi, and that could only benefit the Malfoy family."
"I really do not like the feeling that I am doing something wrong or dirty when I am with my father," Scorpius protested, but sighed and nodded his head. "I guess I really ought to, for the good of our world, but I do not like it."
"You probably should not like it," Harry confirmed. "That is what makes you a good person."
"I hate it that I have had to kill people," Albus added. "When I had to levitate that machine gun and the only way to point it was at the Magi wielding it, and he was reduced to the bloodiest mess of bone and flesh and blood, I felt horrible. I really didn't have a choice. The alternative would have been to have many innocent people killed. Bishop Scherica has spent enough time letting me know that I need to forgive myself for things like that." He turned to look at his friend with worried eyes.
"I think you need to do this, Scorpius. I just feel very sorry for you. It is going to be hard."
"I agree," Harry added. "I think this is going to end up being a very hard job, and a potentially dangerous job. I would like you to agree to do it, however."
"I want to make up for all my evil ancestors," Scorpius grimly responded. "I do not like it, but I will do everything in my power to help you find out what is going on."
"You should sleep in Albus's bedroom tonight and Sunday night. Monday we will go to Switzerland," Harry told the boys.
When the boys were upstairs Hermione told Harry, "Someone is going to have to teach Scorpius Occlumency if he is going to remember what he is doing when Draco is taking Scorpius wherever they are going."
"I would be very cautious about that," Harry replied. "Whatever Scorpius is doing, it is making him feel guilty. Until he is much older and stronger I do not want him to be able to remember any evil thing Draco is making him do."
"You are using Scorpius just like Dumbledore used you," Hermione argued.
"And I do not like it," Harry admitted. "Do you have an alternative plan?"
"No," Hermione sighed. "No I do not. I do not like it, but I have no idea what else to do."
"Everything we have talked about is to be kept top secret," Harry told Gus and Ginny.
"I will go to Malfoy Manor when I leave here," Gus said as he left the meeting.
Jane Clark followed Lily Luna Potter into her bedroom and looked around. It was a large bedroom with what looked like a walk-in clothes closet.
"Could I take a shower?" Jane asked. "I feel dirty after two days in the Knight Bus."
"That door leads to the loo, and beyond that is a door that leads to the bathtub and shower," Lily pointed out.
Jane took a nightgown out of her backpack and went into the room with the shower. When she came out of the shower it appeared that someone had cleaned both the nightgown and the clothes she had just taken off. When she came back into Lily's bedroom there was another bed in the room, and she went over and sat on the bed. On a nightstand next to the bed were two sandwiches and a glass of pumpkin juice, which Jane eagerly consumed. When Jane was finished with the food she looked over at Lily, who was glumly staring at Jane.
"Is this the first time you have had to share your bedroom?" Jane asked, trying to understand Lily's attitude.
"When the family gathers at the New Burrow and Potter's New Burrow I sometimes have to share a bedroom," Lily admitted. "The two houses are huge, well big, but there are more and more people. Cousin Fred is married so he and his wife and their baby take one of the rooms. Roxanne is not married yet, but she is formally engaged so she and Frank Longbottom take another bedroom. We are going to have a couple of weddings this summer, Roxanne Weasley to Frank Longbottom and Molly Weasley to Rich Hudson."
Lily sighed. "I hope I don't have to take care of more babies. It is bad enough that I have to take care of my little sister."
"I didn't know you had a sister," Jane inquired. "I haven't seen the Daily Prophet in a couple of years, though."
"She was born a year ago May second," Lily explained. "My room was next to mum and dad, but when Minerva was born I was banished to the top floor. I really don't mind too much. The room is bigger, but I have to climb through the boys' floor to get here. Mum and dad say that climbing from the kitchen through the living and dining room floor and the drawing room floor and their floor and the boys' floor is good practice for Hogwarts and all the stairs there. I really don't mind the exercise, but it is lots of stairs sometimes."
"Your mum and dad are really Harry and Ginny Potter?" Jane asked. "The famous Harry and Ginny Potter?"
"It's not as great as you might think. I cannot go anywhere without a guard or escort or something," Lily grumbled. "Well, I can go into the whole garden area between the houses on Grimmauld Place and NewBright Street, and the property where grandmother and grandfather Weasley live is pretty large and well-guarded, so I can roam there, but I cannot go out our front door to the park across the street alone, or go to Diagon Alley alone, or most anywhere. Dad keeps insisting that I am only safe in 'safe space.' It's not fun being the child of Harry and Ginny Potter sometimes."
"I didn't think about that," Jane replied.
"I guess dad's rich, but I sure don't see any of the money," Lily grumbled some more. "I do have an expensive broom, and nice things, but we have to make money by transplanting magical plants at the New Burrow, and even in the Longbottom greenhouses across the street. The work isn't too bad, although you get dirty and sweaty, but we have to earn our spending money. And I get paid for babysitting once in a while, but James does more babysitting than I do, a lot more, at least in the summer, so he earns more money. They do not trust me to do much babysitting all on my own. Mum writes her column and I take care of Minerva, but we are in the same room, the other big room on this floor."
"Does Albus babysit?" Jane asked.
"Albus is always busy, and he and Cleopatra make soap and shampoo and perfume and seem to make all kinds of money," Lily grumbled. "Mum has James take care of Minerva, and Albus, the little snot, does whatever he wants. Cleopatra gloms on to Minerva whenever she can, but I don't think she gets paid for it. She is really crazy about babies."
Jane yawned. "I'm sorry, Lily, but I really am tired."
Lily admitted, "I really should be in bed too. I will see you in the morning."
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