No Expense Spared
Dumbledore and his gathering had taken the garage entrance into the Visitor's Center. One thing this meant was that it would take them up a different flight of stairs than were connected to the back exit.
But if flying all those hours hadn't wound them down, they wouldn't have been once they climbed to their first landing.
Here, Dumbledore discovered the next flight of stairs would turn a corner near a white sign with a red arrow, reading Kitchen/ Restaurant 'Les Gigantes' in black.
"Tired are we, my friends?" Dumbledore mused.
The others grumbled at him, Tonks most of all, as Bones would deem such a thing unprofessional. Remus simply exhaled, as he had too good of a nature to say anything rash.
"It seems we've run into some extra luck, Albus," he replied, looking up.
"We may benefit from a change of scenery, no doubt Remus?" Dumbledore agreed.
As he gestured to the sign, a fresh resurgence of spirit or indulgence swept over Tonks as she pulled herself up to the front of the line, before racing in the direction the sign pointed. Bones as well brushed ahead of Dumbledore, as she thought she'd learned to keep her mouth closed before.
"Nymphadora..." she huffed.
"Come on!" Tonks hissed from atop the next flight.
Lupin himself jogged after her, startling Bones as he swept past, though not Dumbledore so much.
"I'll go after her," he offered.
"Say no more," Bones insisted.
The others followed Tonks to the next landing, where another metal door awaited, a round window at the center would have indicated where it took them.
All Tonks needed was a peep through before getting grabbed back by the shoulder. Turning around, she spotted Lupin gesturing to a white label below the window, reading in the same black, Kitchen Staff Only.
"What it says," he pointed out.
"Oh well," she dismissed. "First come, first serve."
Tonks dashed through the door, laughing madly, while Remus grabbed it before it closed. The others followed her into the back left corner of a graywall kitchen with high windows and fans near the paneled ceiling. The steel adornments surrounding the walls perhaps made it the most sterile room they'd ever been in;
Underneath the trolleys and counters opposite the stove were stacks of unused buckets, as opposed to the dirty pots and pans piling the tops and sinks.
"Crikey!" Tonks sighed. "Not a bit of food to be scrounged in here, is there?"
Remus brushed last her towards the sink, where he picked up an empty frying pan whose edges were still slightly wet. With his index finger, he wiped some squishy, light yellow residue from the rim, sticking it out offeringly.
"Charming Remus," Bones mumbled, wrinkling her nose.
But Tonks's childlike energy got the better of her as she got on her knees, searching through the trolleys for food. Finally, she came upon a chrome door at the other end of the room, whose weight made her struggle to open it.
She was thankful no one had noticed her crawling, as once she stopped staggering, she shivered from the cold mist that blew in from behind the door.
"In here!" Tonks cried.
She jiggled her wand, which emitted in ripples, what sounded like a Muggle air conditioner. She stuck it down the back of her t-shirt before entering the strange room, which was filled with shelves of the same steel, all piled with large sacks in dull blues and whites.
The others followed Tonks's voice to this seemingly frozen chamber, where they caught her hand reached for an air tight package whose contents were a more vibrant red.
"We've been in a kitchen before, Tonks?" Bones interjected.
"There's an oven in here," she panted. "If one of you can fire it up..."
But Tonks drew her hand back, whimpering as she felt frost gathering on its surface. Her foot also slipped forward, at which she noticed the same frost being crushed under her boots coupled with the laughter outside.
"What?!" she demanded.
"I bet your parents don't often ask you home for dinner," Remus chuckled.
"They do," Tonks insisted. "Although Mum says I need to learn my way around a kitchen."
She placed another foot forward, but stumbled on ice again until Lupin stretched out his hand, swiftly taking hers, missing the others standing by, shaking their heads.
"I pity the cook who catches one making a complete mess of herself," Bones sighed.
Dumbledore located another window door ahead of them. He pressed his nose against the glass before tapping it and clearing his throat.
"I believe that won't be necessary, Amelia," he replied. "There yet may be a selection for us elsewhere?"
He pointed at the window, ignoring Tonks pushing him aside to find a long table draped in blue-green and white tablecloth, topped with wicker baskets and glass bowls. Standing at either end were thick flaming candles and strange volcanic-looking amber sculptures. But the clincher had to be the round side table carrying assorted cakes on platters. If not that, it was the chrome dome trays in the back he weren't certain on the purpose of.
"Though in such experiences as this, there usually appears to be a sort of all seeing eye, does there not?" Dumbledore suggested.
He gestured to a security camera mounted into the corner above them, whose lens could function as an eye for the technologically illiterate.
"Right," Remus muttered, scratching his head.
Tonks swung the door open, dragging him and the others into a larger, round space with a light green jungle mural at the far end, painted with a single velociraptor in the foreground, with some unfamiliar dinosaurs behind it; the longer necked, bipedal Gallimimus, and the nasal horned, thickly bipedal Parasaurolophus.
The floor was filled with more tables, both long and round, with all the same coverings, surrounded by rattan chairs, which were sculpted to look as though their pieces were tied together.
To their left was a large set of windows and glass doors to an outdoor deck, where more of these settings were placed, surrounded by jungle foliage.
Across the room was a small shop whose shelves were filled with stuffed Tyrannosaurs, Triceratops, and Brachiosaurs in red, green, and violet. Hanging from racks were others items splashed with the Jurassic Park logo, from t-shirts to lunchboxes with thermoses.
The whole place was quiet until Tonks crashed the kitchen door open, at which point, they noticed three silhouettes exiting the shop. It was Dr. Sattler leading the Grangers, into the restaurant, Phipps and Fobbs following them guardingly. Both Sattler and Jane placed a hand on Hermione's shoulder, while Paul was patting her back, but Hermione's head was bowed in defeat.
Dumbledore swore he'd have recognized her bushy mop, but her face was down. Still, with the penetrating stare of the men in sunglasses, there was no backing away and thus, only one thing to do.
"Excuse me," Dumbledore began, clearing his throat. "Now that I've had a catch-up, I wonder if you may tell me where we might be..."
Their heads perked up at the gentle sound, but the adults cried out as the speaker wasn't who they'd anticipated, all except Phipps and Fobbs.
Hermione stared with the others at the unexpected gathering for a split second, as she hadn't met three of these strangers. Neither couldn't imagine the bearded man would have a taste in such a Hawaiian shirt as the one he wore. But she was close enough that anyone could spot even the tiniest shred of grandfatherly essence in his irises.
"Professor Dumbledore?" she gasped.
"Miss Granger..." Dumbledore exhaled.
He knew it could only be true, as anyone in Hogwarts would have recognized her by now. Hermione ran out of her parents' grip, close enough to Dumbledore to face him seriously.
"Professor!" she cried in a rapid-fire patter. "What are you doing here?! How did you get here?! Who are..."
But Hermione too was interrupted by a clearing of the throat, from her father, appropriately enough, as he and Jane eyed their daughter with parental suspicion. Of course, they also took enough steps forward again to pull her back into their embrace.
"Professor Dumbledore..." Paul mused. "If I recall correctly, you might have mentioned that name in one of your letters, no?"
"Hermione dear," Jane interjected. "Are you going to introduce us?"
"Oh right," Hermione sighed. "Mum and Dad, this is Professor Albus Dumbledore... my headmaster."
After a couple of simple 'how-do-you-do's' Paul and Jane firmly shook hands with Dumbledore. They also expectantly waved at the rest of the gathering, but Hermione was equally clueless.
"I'm sorry about the dramatic entrance, Mr. and Mrs Granger," Dumbledore apologized. "But some trouble at home has apparently summoned us here."
"Sure, don't mind me," interrupted the voice of Dr. Sattler. "A jerk doesn't need to explain what's going on, does he?"
"Perhaps you should have asked the jerk himself?" Phipps suggested.
Dumbledore froze for a split second, as he knew he'd landed himself in a deep ditch. In most situations, he could have easily explained his presence, but he'd just put himself through a tropical storm.
"This... is Dr. Sattler," Hermione stammered. "She's another guest here this weekend. Mr. Phipps and Mr. Fobbs are our..."
"Administratives, Ms. Granger," Fobbs finished.
"Of course," Hermione resolved. "Everyone, meet my headmaster."
Sattler, Phipps, and Fobbs each presented Dumbledore with a more perplexed how-do-yo-do, while he tried to maintain his cool with a firm handshake.
"Anyway Professor, I'm sorry to rush things here," she apologized. "But who are the others?"
"Miss Granger," Dumbledore exhaled. "I'd like you to meet the head of our security, Amelia Bones."
"You mean... head of school security?" Hermione interjected while double taking.
"Correct," Bones confirmed. "A fine deduction indeed, Miss Granger. My niece, Susan, has spoken of much you from afar."
"You mean Susan Bones of Hufflepuff?" Hermione queried, her eyes lighting up. "I remember her from sorting..."
But another cleaning of the throat reminded Hermione that she had forgotten herself. Over her shoulder, she noticed it had come out of Dr. Sattler, while Phipps and Fobbs awaited behind.
"Oh, I suppose I should explain..." Hermione muttered. "Harry and I go to a rather... exclusive boarding school in Scotland...
"We have specific halls which students are sorted into, not unlike Britain's universities," Bones interjected. "I myself have attended, as has my protégée over here, Ms. Nymphadora Tonks, and our other colleague there, Mr. Remus Lupin."
"We appreciate the formalities, Bonesy," Lupin chuckled.
"Oh Merlin, you too?" Bones gritted through her teeth.
"I taught him well, why not open with a joke?" Tonks laughed, clearly thankful for her tactics.
"Yes well, this brings us to Mr. Lupin over here," Dumbledore interjected. "He will hopefully be your... defense instructor come September."/
"Defense in what?" Sattler murmured, glancing back to Phipps and Fobbs.
"Professor, Harry's lost somewhere out there!" Hermione cried.
"I know," Dumbledore replied. "Yet I'm afraid all the commotion in here will never equal up to what we've witnessed out there..."
"Clearly," Phipps interrupted. "Yet I assume one with defenses like yours wouldn't be as selective towards one's taste in icebreakers."
Speaking of which, Dumbledore was interrupted by another throat clearing, this time from one of the tables off to the side.
This was possibly the nearest long one, where John Hammond was seated at the head, surrounded by white plastic buckets, with sugary colors glowing from the insides. On closer inspection, he was eating ice cream scooped from several of those buckets.
Actually, he had just downed a spoonful and his head was turned towards the gathering, who didn't pay any mind to the fact that the hairs left on his head were in total disarray.
"Mr. Hammond!" Hermione gasped.
Ellie must have assumed there was some sort of look in Hammond's eye, since she pulled Hermione and her parents away from the other witches and wizards.
"Look, we swear we're just as confused as you are..." Sattler insisted.
"Not to worry, I heard it all," Hammond finished.
"Quite a hefty meal you've laid out there, isn't it?" Paul muttered. "No need to be nonchalant on the whole thing?"
"They were all melting," Hammond clarified. "Either way, I'm glad to have found part of the missing link in reaching out to Mr. Potter."
"If you don't mind, Mr. Hammond, hair has been standing on the rest of us as well for the last few days," Dumbledore assured him. "Right now, I believe we could all do with some refreshment."
"You can take here or from the bar," Hammond offered, gesturing to the ice cream.
He then gestured to the king table at the back, where the wicker baskets were filled with buns. Interspersed between them were ceramic bowls containing assorted fruit and mixed vegetables, along with platters at the end, bearing different cakes. There was no sign of meat, but that didn't matter, as Tonks had already dragged Remus to the end and sampled for him a massive hunk of what appeared to be a chocolate cake.
Madam Bones could only shake her head at such behavior, but Dumbledore grew quite an amused smile, which he noticed seemed to slightly twitch at the edge of her mouth.
"Trying to feed your date Tonks, or have afters before supper?" Bones mused.
"He who stops to recall what he keeps on his desk may as well join them, Amelia," Dumbledore suggested. "To who knows, it may be still delectable."
Bones watched Dumbledore seat himself at Hammond's left, his plate occupied by something jiggling and topped with whipped cream, possibly some sort of custard. But of course, next to it was a sample of another cake, topped with yellow frosting and a strawberry.
Lupin and Tonks seated themselves at the left back end of the table where Hammond pushed one of the larger tubs. A brown ring stuck to the rim, which could only indicate the bucket contained chocolate ice cream.
"Perhaps taking merely a quarter size isn't enough to satisfy one's cravings," Hammond chuckled.
Sattler sat at the back of the table, opposite Hammond, but Hermione firmly stood her ground. She eyed Madam Bones as if she expected a look of pride, but Bones eyed her back with the same concern her parents shared.
"Darling, why not take perhaps a slight portion from the salad bar..." Jane began.
"I suppose it's not possible to starve contentedly, is it?" Hermione shot back.
"Sit," Paul commanded.
He held out a chair off at Sattler's right, while Jane pressed her hand on her daughter's shoulder and planted her into the chair. Hermione tried unseating herself, but Paul pushed the chair tightly into the table, while Jane darted off to the left end of the bar. Ultimately, she sank back into the chair once she found it was useless to resist.
Fortunately her headmaster wasn't sitting too far from her, only about a chair or two down, as Hammond seemed eager for conversing.
"So it was your tutelage that brought Lily Evans from my locality?" He queried, picking up a fork.
"Indeed," Dumbledore confirmed with his head down. "Had I not let her son slip from under it, his relatives may not have met their fate."
Neither of them noticed the glare presented from two men standing opposite them, each removing a pair of shades. Something else coming from them, however, would make them turn heads.
"Excuse me," interrupted the voice of Fobbs. "Who are you taking about?"
"One of my finest students, good man," Dumbledore replied. "Her future lied with another talented, although unorthodox student of mine, young James Potter. Their untimely end nearly left their son in quite a quandary."
"James Potter... Harry Potter?" Phipps muttered. "Whom when last we saw was the ward of the non-perished Dursley family..."
"Who were apparently incapable of performing menial tasks," Fobbes continued. "Thus sending for the only labour union they had lying about."
"Of course, one mustn't worry in regards to trivial matters like academics?" Phipps concluded. "Even the said ward can't be the slightest bit behind, can he?"
"It doesn't quite take the look of, how do you say, a 'scrawny specky git' to know that," Fobbs reiterated.
Now, Dumbledore placed his hand on the table, still clutching the fork. He then presented Phipps and Fobbs with an eyebrow raised, which didn't seem quite as unfortunate as the the slightly receding twinkle in his eye.
"You suspect flaws here, gentlemen?" he puzzled.
"Of course not," Phipps replied with sarcasm. "After all, we can't expect one's family situation to be all under the nose of a mere headmaster."
"I'm quite capable of eyeing student affairs, gentlemen," Dumbledore pressed gently. "Including those who have lost family... considering I left young Harry in the Dursley's charge."
All Phipps and Fobbes needed do now was remove their shades, even as Dumbledore's great control prevented him from hanging his head. They also noticed the Grangers from eyeing him similarly, to which they shifted their focus back and forth from.
"You were there, somehow from afar you knew," Phipps began. "All of you."
The Granger parents glanced at each other with uncomfortably large eyes and high eyebrows. Hermione, meanwhile, kept her head up even though her expression was the same as her parents.
"We didn't know anything!" Paul insisted. "You saw us on the plane here!"
"I only knew what Harry and Professor Dumbledore told me," Hermione assured them. "Look at them! I'm sure they did too, didn't you Madam Bones?"
She gestured towards the other end of the table, where Phipps and Fobbs had missed the upturned heads of both Ministry workers and an old ally.
"I'm afraid Miss Granger is quite astute," Bones replied. "Even over the last few days Dumbledore deemed certain things within Potter's best's interests. He called it the 'Greater Good', if you will."
"We all love him," Tonks sighed. "Even if he sounds like a bunch of old tossers that are the rest of my family. They who pass onto their spawn the notion that manual labour is beneath those of their... caliber, or should I say 'money'?"
"Perhaps Mr. Dumbledore can tell you a lot of money can go a long way in education," Fobbs suggested. "Old money, if Mr. Potter has any."
"My good man, he's had his name listed to attend since the day of his birth," Dumbledore reassured them.
"Is that right?" Phipps mused. "I reckon you're all a part of some sort of cult that pries into family business?"
"That must be why they call it 'special'?" Fobbs added.
"There are graduates and members of the faculty that do play favorites with old families, I shall say that much," Dumbledore replied. "But I can promise you that Harry will be delivered to this building safely."
"How do you reckon that one out?" Phipps queried.
"There are others we've brought along out searching for him," Dumbledore replied. "Thankfully, he hasn't quite covered up his tracks. I have reinforcements on the way as well, so let's do try to remain positive, shall we?"
Phipps and Fobbs looked ready to question Dumbledore again, as did the Grangers since there were things Dumbledore hadn't quite specified yet. Sattler's expression was indifferent but off to her left, neither Bones, Tonks, nor Lupin allowed their mouths to open, as it all seemed to be figured out.
Yet seated across from her, Hammond's eyes were wide, like a child waiting for a stressed parent to break the silence.
"Malcolm's okay for now," she sighed, lowering her shoulders. "I gave him a shot of morphine."
"They'll all be fine," Hammond grinned, reassuringly. "Who better to get the children through Jurassic Park than a dinosaur expert? He may be of use to your people as well, don't you agree Mr. Dumbledore? Well, we'll know when we meet them."
Hammond chuckled and dug back into his ice cream, but those who surrounded him shared a look of hope that he wouldn't let the silence last much longer. Those who'd known him earlier than the last few minutes, however, weren't too keen on his taste in icebreakers.
"You know the first attraction I ever built when I came down from Scotland?" Hammond began. "It was a Flea Circus, Petticoat Lane... Really quite wonderful... We had a wee trapeze, a merry-go... carousel, and a seesaw... They all moved, motorized of course, but people would swear they could see the fleas. 'span style="font-style: italic;"Oh I can see the fleas, mummy! Can't you see the fleas?/span' Clown fleas, high wire fleas, fleas on parade..."
"Listening to Hammond trail on that way, Bones, Tonks, and Lupin turned their heads towards Dumbledore, as they knew this was the sort of mood he'd been in to break out the sherbet lemons. Even Hermione stretched her neck his way, having been in his office enough to know what he was talking about.
Yet Dumbledore busy watching Hammond, who hadn't noticed the twinkle from his eye was completely gone.
"But with this place, I wanted to show them something that wasn't an illusion..." Hammond continued. "Something that was real... Something they could... see and touch. An aim not devoid of merit."
"But you can't think through this one, John," Ellie whispered. "You have to feel it."
By now, Dumbledore placed his spoon down, not even touching his dessert. Possibly he recalled the disdain others might express at his fondness for sweets at the wrong time. On the other hand, he finally noticed his colleagues staring at him, possibly put off by Hammond's so-called 'optimistic' grin.
"You're right," Hammond chuckled. "You're absolutely right! Hiring Nedry was a mistake, that's obvious. We're over-dependent on automation, I can see that now. Now the next time, everything's correctable..."
"John..." Ellie whispered pleadingly.
"Creation is an act of sheer will..." Hammond continued. "Next time, it'll be flawless."
"It's still the Flea Circus," Sattler insisted. "it's all an illusion."
"When we have control again..." Hammond interjected.
"You never had control!" Ellie cried. "That's the illusion! I was overwhelmed by the power of this place! But I made a mistake too! I didn't have enough respect for that power, and it's out now! And some of us at this table didn't even realize that power until it was too late!"
While Hammond's face of hope had was hit hard with unhappy irony, Dumbledore's was far more resolute, quicker to notice the dirty looks from the others.
"Did we not charge into unknown territory this afternoon, Albus?" Bones muttered.
"Clearly no more than one of us know the answer, Amelia?" Lupin piped up for the first time in minutes.
"I think we all get the point here!" Sattler cried. "But the only thing that matters now are the people we love; Alan, Lex, Tim, and especially Harry. They're out there where people have died, and even more run the risk!"
Ellie paused before letting her hands down again, before grabbing a spoon for her own sample of ice cream.
"It's good," she exhaled.
"We spared no expense," Hammond replied with hesitation.
The others continued tucking into their ice cream and desserts, although Hermione's hands remained behind the table. Her parents returned had to her a small plate slightly loaded with lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, and cherry tomatoes. She cautiously drew her salad fork, though her neck remained in the same position as before.
"Professor..." she began. "Exactly who is out there, looking for Harry? And what of those reinforcements?"