Thanks to those who gave feedback about the last chapter. It's
true, the characters
do seem to develop their own personalities, after a while. ~ Kim
:o)
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HARRY POTTER AND THE JADE DRAGON
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Chapter XXVI
The Flight of the Swallow
Fly home, little
bird
Before it's too late.
The gift you are holding
May yet change your fate.
The
concert was going to begin in half an hour. People were running
up and down, doing
last-minute preparations. Pixie was in high spirits, having asked
Ron to perform a Cheering
Charm on her. She was carrying a pair of elevated boots, which
Fatty had obtained because
he was shorter than Chee Chong and felt that, as the King, he
would look more dignified if
he was taller than the Concubine.
"I'll polish your boots for you, Fatt," said Pixie, taking a jar and a small brush out.
"What on earth for?" said Fatty. "They can't be seen anyway; they'll be hidden by my robes."
Pixie just dimpled at him, and proceeded to apply the contents
of the jar to the boots. Harry,
Ron and Hermione were sitting by, watching as Shan helped Fatty
and Chee Chong into their
elaborate costumes. She had already applied their makeup on for
them, and they looked
extremely strange and painted-up. Shan herself was wearing her
dance costume, and had
removed her glasses and put on her makeup. She looked very pretty
indeed, and Harry
had been speechless for a few minutes, when he first saw her.
Parvati came rustling up, resplendent in her Kathak costume.
She was clutching a set of tabla
drums, the bells about her ankles jingling.
"Hermione, let's practise those Special Effects Charms
again," she said, looking flustered. "I
want the lights to match my costume orange, not yellow,
and they have to come bursting
out more brightly at the end."
Hermione got up and followed her to the stage, feeling around in her robes for her wand.
Dean came hurrying up.
"Where's Robert?" he said. "I need help putting up the supports for the Chinese palace."
"Actually, we don't need such an elaborate palace, Dean,"
said Fatty, adjusting his robes, "You've
totally overdone it. Props in Chinese opera are usually very simple
and few in number."
Dean just shrugged, and hurried off to look for Robert. Fatty looked impatiently at Pixie.
"Xiao-Yan, hurry up with those boots," he said. "I
tell you, no one will be able to see them; you're
wasting your time and shoe polish."
"Just a few more layers," said Pixie, with a mulish
expression on her face. She had almost used up
the entire jar of polish.
Shan gave Fatty and Chee Chong their Voice Potion, and they
sounded extremely queer after
drinking it, their voices having become exceedingly high-pitched.
"The reverse potion is in this flask," said Shan,
placing it on a side table. "You can take it after
your performance."
Fatty nodded, pulled his boots away from Pixie and put them
on, and then disappeared off
toward the stage with Chee Chong.
Shan came and sat next to Harry, who was watching Parvati and
Hermione rehearse the Kathak
dance. Parvati's tabla drums were busily playing themselves at
one end of the stage. After a while
Ron went over to Pixie to help her with something. Several Gryffindors
went past, and giggled
when they saw Shan and Harry together, but Shan didn't seem to
notice them. She glanced
around from time to time, and Harry knew that she was looking
for Robert.
After a while, everyone got into position, and the lights dimmed.
Seamus went up and did his
hornpipe. He tripped once, but nobody seemed to mind. After that,
Pixie mounted the stage,
and began to play her er-hu.
Shan was twining her long dance ribbon around in her hands,
and was beginning to look more
and more agitated.
"Robert's not around," she whispered to Harry. "I'm afraid something's happened to him."
Harry glanced around. There was no sign of Robert.
"We can check the Marauder's Map," he whispered, seeing how anxious she looked.
Shan looked relieved. They quietly left their seats, and went
up the spiral staircase to the
dormitory.
Harry scanned through the Map; Robert was in the Astronomy Tower, near the top floor.
"What's he doing there!" said Shan, looking alarmed.
She evidently thought he was going to
jump. "I'm going to look for him."
Harry laid a hand on her arm.
"Your dance is up next," he said. "I'll go."
He led the way down the staircase, having stuffed the Map inside
his robes, and watched her
make her way to the stage before going over to the portrait hole,
and climbing out.
Harry checked the Map and saw that Robert was still in the
same location. He went up the last
flight of stairs, rounded the bend, and then stopped, expecting
to see Robert in front of him.
The corridor was not lit, and there was no moon that night,
but a faint, diffuse light was shining
in through a window set rather high in the north-facing wall.
Someone was standing at the
window, just where the Map showed Robert to be, looking out.
Harry went a bit closer. It should be Robert, looking out of
the window. It should be. But it
wasn't. It couldn't be. The person standing there was tall, taller
than Harry. And yet, as he
turned and looked at Harry, Harry saw that the boy was Chinese,
and that he wore glasses,
as Robert did, only these glasses were normal ones
Harry stood there in amazement, staring at the tall boy, who
looked gravely back at him for
a moment, then smiled.
"There are meteor showers tonight," he said casually,
as if it was perfectly natural for Harry to
have come popping up out of the darkness. He turned back to the
window and looked out
again. "Chee Chong and I planned some time ago to come up
here and have a look, but then
the concert came up."
Harry went over to where the boy was, and looked out of the
window. The night sky was
alive with shooting stars. They were arriving in great numbers,
pouring like waves of shining
rain through the sky.
Harry watched them for a few moments, but the person standing
next to him intrigued him
more, and he soon turned back to look at him instead.
It was Robert; it had to be - he had the same voice, and it
looked like him - that is, the
way he should have looked, if he had been of normal height.
Robert, seeing his expression, smiled again, and then started
shrinking. Smaller and smaller
he became, until he had reached his usual height. He stood there,
now too short to see out
the window, looking up at Harry, a faintly amused look on his
face.
Harry found his voice.
"Howhow did you do that?"
Robert gave a small shrug.
"I don't know," he said. "I just can."
Harry was silent for a moment. Were all the Chinese people
he met going to turn out to be
shape-shifters?
"Are you a shape-shifter?" he asked. "I mean,
can you change your appearance, as well as
your size?"
Robert looked thoughtfully at him, then shrugged again.
"I don't know," he said, "I never had to try.
I know I can change my height, because there
have always been occasions, like now, where it would have been
more convenient to be tall;
but I've never encountered any occasion where I needed to transform
into another animal."
It was on the tip of Harry's tongue to suggest he try now,
but somehow, it didn't seem quite
the thing one could ask Robert.
Robert, turning back to the window, grew himself to a height
where he could look out of it
again.
Harry looked at him. Although he had known for some time that
Robert was several years
older than all of them, he had not been able to believe it till
now. Robert had always seemed
twelve or thirteen to him, some sort of child prodigy, able to
perform practically any spell.
But now, looking at him, he suddenly realised that Robert was
in fact, nineteen. He looked
so much nicer now too, and with his glasses like normal ones,
that Harry wondered why he
didn't just permanently stay this way.
"Why - " he began, and then broke off, not sure exactly how to ask the question.
Robert, however, seemed to read his mind.
"Shan prefers me the other way," he said, as if this
was the most important consideration. "She
says that's the way I was born, the way I really am." He
paused, then added, "And she's right."
"You mean, she's seen you like this before?" said Harry.
Robert nodded.
Harry couldn't think of anything further to say, so, seeing
Robert looking out of the window
again, turned and looked out at the meteors once more.
The darkness around them felt comforting, and Harry guessed
that Robert had allowed
his glasses to revert back to normal because there was no one
up here to hide his emotions
from. After several minutes of silence, he turned and looked at
Robert again.
"It seems as if there's nothing you can't do," he
said. "Have you thought about what you plan
to do, once you finish at Shao-Lin?"
Robert continued to look out of the window, and didn't reply at once.
"It's true," he said, after a while. "Sometimes
I feel as if I could do almost anything, if I only
wanted to try. But " he paused, as if considering how
to phrase what he wanted to say.
Harry, feeling there was more coming, stood and waited.
"The only things worth doing in life are those that you
do for other people," said Robert, at
length. "Not for oneself. I've never done anything worthwhile
for anyone, all my life, because
I'm a loner. Besides Shan and my parents, there isn't anyone else
I care about, and I don't
think there will be. My parents won't always be with me, and Shan
and I will one day go
our separate ways. What will happen then, I have no clear idea."
He fell silent, still looking out of the window.
"You can join forces with us, and help fight Voldemort,"
suggested Harry. "You've got so
much talent, you might be able to defeat him, one day."
Robert didn't flinch at the mention of Voldemort's name. He
turned, and the look that he
gave Harry was very direct.
"It's not in my destiny to face Lord Voldemort, Harry,"
he said, quietly. "It's in yours. You
know it, as well as I do. It is your destiny to face him, and
has always been."
Harry looked numbly back at him, then let his gaze fall to
the floor. He felt as if someone
has just thrown a bucket of icy water onto him. Yes, he knew it.
The thought of it chilled
him, but he realised he had known it, all alongever since
that day, when Hagrid had first
told him how his parents had died
He looked at Robert again.
"You see inside people, don't you," he said. "You
know what frightens each of us most, like
Yu-Lin. You're the only one who understands Shan."
Robert looked at him, and seemed to hesitate; then he reached
a hand out, and gently placed
it on Harry's shoulder.
Harry felt a faint surge, as if something was being pulled
out of him, from the depths of his
being. It flowed out of him, and took shape beside him, a few
feet from the window : the
images of his mother and father were standing there, next to him,
looking at him.
Robert lowered his hand.
"I can see someone and know what's inside," he agreed,
looking at the images, which were
beginning to dim. "I know what you desire most."
He was quiet for a moment, watching as the images faded away, then turned to Harry.
"I wish I could bring them back for you," he said,
"but I can't. I can give you something else,
though."
He reached out, and took Harry's left hand, and held it palm
up, near the window. Harry felt
a surging force again, fainter this time, and then a misty light
also started pouring in the window.
Robert was collecting the starlight from the meteors. It poured
in onto Harry's hand, and
concentrated itself there, forming silvery images of James and
Lily Potter on his palm, looking
up at him. The expressions of love on their faces was very evident.
Robert let go of Harry's hand, and Harry brought it near himself and looked at his palm.
"You'll be able to look at them at night, when it's dark,"
said Robert. "Our hands are not made
of a substance that retains starlight well, so they'll fade in
a week or two, once the starlight
diffuses out. You'll always remember the looks on their faces
though, especially when things
in your life are difficult. It will help you through those times."
Harry didn't trust himself to speak, at that moment. He looked
at his parents' faces, smiling up
at him in the darkness.
Robert was silent for a minute or so, looking at the images
he had just created. Then he said,
"It's my parting gift to you, I guess; after tonight, the
exchange will be over, and we may not
meet again."
Harry looked at Robert. It seemed that after four months in
the exchange programme, he still
didn't know Robert at all. The question came into his mind, "Who
is he, really?"
But it wasn't quite the sort of thing to ask, or that had an answer, so what he said in the end was,
"What about you? What do you desire most?"
Something seemed to flicker in Robert's eyes, and Harry held
his breath, hoping his glasses
wouldn't change back to their usual state. Robert glanced at him,
then turned and looked
out at the star-filled sky.
"What do I want most?" he said. He looked out at
the meteors, and then Harry saw that the
starlight was collecting again. In it poured, onto a spot near
the window in front of them, and
formed into a life-size image of Shan : a different Shan, with
head held high, and a serene smile
on her face. The expression in her eyes was confident and happy,
with none of the hopelessness
and despair that so often clouded it.
"That's what I would like," said Robert, looking
at the image with satisfaction. "That's how she
should look, if life hadn't treated her the way it has. I can
do almost any spell, or conjure up
anything I want, but I can't give her that."
They stood looking at the silvery image, which was already
beginning to fade, but which was
still smiling at them. Harry, glancing at Robert, was startled
by the expression in his eyes.
He does care for her, thought Harry. Hermione had been right.
"Maybe you can - " he began, but then a noise from
behind made him stop, and he saw that
Robert was now looking at someone behind him.
Harry turned around. Shan was standing there, in her traditional
dance costume and with
makeup still on her face. Her dance must have ended, and she had
come up to find out
where they were. She appeared rather pale, in the dim light, and
was looking at Robert.
"We have to talk," she said, not looking at all surprised
that he was taller than her, or that
his glasses were normal.
"All right," said Robert quietly.
Harry turned to look at the starlight image. It was rapidly
disappearing, the starlight diffusing
away in all directions and fading.
He turned back, and saw that Robert was looking at Shan's outfit with approval.
"You look nice," he said, smiling at her.
Shan looked at him for a moment, and her lips trembled. She
suddenly came forward, and
put her arms around him, and buried her face in his shoulder.
Robert said nothing, but simply held her quietly and let her
cry everything out. Harry, watching,
suspected that he must have comforted her in a similar way, many
times in the past.
He knew he shouldn't be there, so he turned and made his way
down the Tower, looking at the
images of his parents on his palm, which became invisible once
he reached the brightly lit lower
floors.
The concert still hadn't ended when Harry got back, and he
saw that Fatty and Chee Chong
were just starting their act. Dean's props looked magnificent;
he had copied the Tian-Long
palace, using the photographs Hermione had taken in China as a
guide, and he had created
several pagodas as well, which reached almost to the ceiling.
They looked rather unstable,
though, and Harry kept his fingers crossed, hoping they wouldn't
topple over before the
performance ended.
Fatty and Chee Chong were making the strangest cat-like sounds,
accompanied by the
occasional beating of a drum. They were half way through when,
to Harry's astonishment,
two furry black-and-white balls suddenly rolled onto the stage,
over to Fatty, and disappeared
under his voluminous robes.
Fatty, feeling the Pandas attaching themselves to his boots,
took a step back, and then kicked
one leg forward, then the other, in an attempt to dislodge them.
Pixie, sitting nearby with Ron,
began to giggle. Ron looked suspiciously at her, and then whispered,
"What did you put on
those boots?"
Fatty kicked violently with one foot, and one of the Pandas
flew out from under his robes and
over to Chee Chong, who promptly jumped aside and knocked over
one of the pagodas. Fatty
took a few steps backward, and then lost his balance, and fell
onto one of the palace walls.
The pagoda toppled over, onto the next pagoda, which promptly
fell on the next as well, in a
kind of domino effect, the last one falling straight off the stage
and into the audience. The palace
walls gave way, and the entire structure collapsed on top of Fatty,
at the same time knocking
the stage lights over and plunging the entire common room into
darkness.
Several of the girls screamed, and those in the audience in
front of the falling pagoda leapt up
in an effort to get out of the way. There was confusion for a
while as people began running up
and down in the dark, knocking into each other, and taking their
wands out and lighting them.
Fatty and Chee Chong appeared to be unscathed, for they were shouting
angrily at Pixie in
their high-pitched voices. Pixie, as far as Harry could tell,
was still sitting in her seat, crying
with laughter.
Hermione set off her Special Effects Charms, which illuminated
the room to some extent.
Fatty and Chee Chong came off the stage, and went over to the
Restoring Potion and
swallowed it, so that they could get their normal voices back.
They then came grimly after
Pixie, who, still overcome with mirth, darted toward the portrait
hole and disappeared
through it.
Order had been restored, the mess on the stage cleared away,
and the food and drink
brought out, when Shan and Robert finally came down from the Astronomy
Tower.
Shan's eyes were slightly red, but she looked fairly calm. She
had washed her makeup
off, and changed back into her normal robes. Robert had shrunk
back to his usual small
self, and his glasses were reflecting the surroundings again.
They sat down at the end of a long table, where Harry was sitting
with Ron and Pixie.
The latter had returned earlier, still giggling, together with
Chee Chong and Fatty, who
were still scowling and looking extremely disgruntled.
Pixie was in high spirits, laughing and chattering away, when
a silver postal dragon suddenly
flew in the window, and over to her.
Pixie cheerfully took the letter and dismissed the dragon.
She looked at the handwriting, and
pulling a face, said, "It's from my father."
The dragon, however, did not fly away. It circled once around
the room, then came back
and perched itself on Shan's shoulder, staring at Pixie, as if
waiting for something.
Shan, who was looking slightly subdued, reached a hand out
and stroked the dragon.
Pixie, noticing, gave an impatient little toss of the head. She
didn't bother to read the letter
yet, but slipped it inside her robes for later.
The dragon gave a displeased chirp. It spread its wings and
flew over to her, and gave a
disapproving hiss. Pixie, afraid it would set fire to her hair,
shooed it away.
"Xiao-Yan, I think you should read the letter now,"
said Shan, quietly. "It might be something
important."
"What's so urgent!" said Pixie crossly, raising a
partial Shield so that the dragon, which was
still trying to land on her shoulder, couldn't get near her. "I'll
be home in a few days, anyway."
"That's an Express dragon," said Shan. "Your father might want a reply straight away."
Harry looked surprised. "Express dragon?"
"New breed," explained Shan. "They've been crossing
this species with the Silverwing. It's still
small, but it can Apparate, meaning you can send a letter anywhere
within a few minutes. But
it's horribly expensive."
Pixie, tired of fending the dragon off, finally brought the
letter out and opened it. She stared at
it for a few moments, then went pale, and stood up.
"What's the matter?" said Ron quickly.
But Pixie had already gone off to the other end of the table,
where Fatty and Chee Chong
were sitting with Seamus and Dean, drinking rice wine. The four
of them had been at it for
a while, and were beginning to look slightly tipsy.
"Fatt, I need to borrow your globe," said Pixie, tapping him on the shoulder.
Fatty looked up at her, his face red.
"Forget it," he said thickly, turning away, "You
think I'm lending you anything after what you
did?"
"Fatt!" said Pixie, becoming angry, "I need
to call home, urgently!" She gave him a small kick
on the ankle.
"No," said Fatty sulkily. "Go 'way. You ruined our performance."
"Fatt!" said Pixie again, looking rather desperate. She tugged at his sleeve, "Pei-Pei is dead!"
Fatty suddenly became completely sober.
"What?" he said, looking at her; his face had gone white. "What - what about your mother?"
Pixie's eyes widened, and she went as pale as Fatty.
"Give me the globe," she said, in a dangerously quiet voice. "You knew all along, didn't you?"
Fatty didn't reply; he took the globe out, and gave it to her.
Pixie turned around, and saw that Ron and all the others had
followed her, and had been
listening.
"Ron, come with me," she said, looking sick. Clasping
the globe, she hurried out of the room,
a frightened look on her face.
"What's happening, Fatt?" asked Shan quickly, as
Ron and the postal dragon also started
heading toward the portrait hole.
Fatty waited until they had disappeared, then said, "Someone has tried to poison her mother."
"What?" All of them stared at him. Harry noticed that Hermione had come over as well.
"I read the letter that Yu-Lin's father wrote, which Draco
Malfoy destroyed," said Fatty. "In it,
he said that he had taken care of my family, and Chee Chong's.
He also mentioned that Singapore
was too far away to bother doing anything to Shan or Robert, but
he had enough connections in
Taiwan to do something to Xiao-Yan's family."
"Who's Pei-Pei?" asked Hermione worriedly.
"The house-elf I recommended to her family," said
Fatty. "Yu-Lin's father said that the easiest
thing would be to poison Xiao-Yan's mother, because she was already
sick anyway, and always
trying all kinds of remedies. Yu-Lin's father mentioned a poison
he had access to, for which no
antidote existed.
"Most of our house-elves are quite money-minded, but Pei-Pei
was the worst. When she heard
about the situation, she volunteered to go work for Xiao-Yan's
family, and test all the mother's
medication before allowing her to consume it. Lady Wen-Li also
read the letter; but she didn't
tell Xiao-Yan or her family about its contents, because it might
alarm them unnecessarily after
all, it seemed doubtful Yu-Lin's father would go ahead with the
plan, now that the letter had been
discovered. Still, Lady Wen-Li wanted to take precautions, and
she was willing to pay a handsome
sum to any house-elf who would volunteer for the job."
"But, that's cruel!" protested Hermione.
Fatty shrugged.
"Pei-Pei knew the danger," he said. "She was
given a full set of the existing antidotes. She didn't
believe Yu-Lin's father would go ahead with his plan, anyway,
because the letter had already
been discovered."
Ron came back a few minutes later, looking rather shaken, and handed the globe back to Fatty.
"Pixie's mother has been poisoned," he said. "The
poison was a slow-acting one - the house-elf
didn't feel its effects till an hour after drinking it. Her mother's
got twenty-four hours to live. Her
last wish is to see all her daughters married before she leaves
this world, and Pixie's father has
arranged a match for her. She's to be married the minute she gets
home."
He sank down in one of the chairs, looking stunned.
"Where is she now?" asked Shan quickly.
"Packing," said Ron, pouring himself a goblet of
rice wine, which Hermione, frowning, took away
almost immediately.
Shan got up, obviously intending to go and help Pixie. She
hesitated, then tugged at Robert's sleeve,
indicating she wanted him to go with her. Harry, watching as they
both went up to the dormitory,
knew that Shan was now treasuring every minute she had left with
Robert.
"Hermione, give it back!" said Ron crossly, trying to retrieve his goblet.
"Don't be silly, Ron," said Hermione worriedly. "You
can't drown yourself in drink. You should be
giving her moral support now, while she's still around."
Ron covered his face with his hands and groaned. Then he nodded,
and gloomily got up and made
his way over to the spiral staircase.
An hour later, they all gathered in the Entrance Hall to see
Pixie off. Her eldest sister had Portkeyed
over, and was waiting for her at the foot of the marble staircase.
Pixie looked too depressed to hug anyone, or shake hands, as
she normally would have. She nodded
at all of them, then turned to Ron, who had been following her,
carrying her bag.
"Thanks," she muttered, taking it from him. She looked
as if she wanted to say something, then
changed her mind. Reaching inside her robes, she took out a small
bundle, wrapped in silk. She
looked at it for a moment, then held it out to Ron.
"Goodbye, Ron," she said quietly.
Ron's face went very red, and he reached out and took the bundle.
His hands were shaking slightly,
and he seemed unable to say anything.
Pixie looked at him for a moment, then suddenly went up on
tiptoe and gave him a quick kiss on
the mouth. She then picked her bag up, and went over to where
her sister was waiting.
Lavendar sniffed, and wiped a few tears away from her cheeks.
The rest all watched silently as
Pixie's sister took the bag from her, and they took their positions
next to the Portkey. Pixie turned
and faced all of them, her face pale. Then she and her sister
reached their hands out and touched
the Portkey, and were gone.
Ron stood there, staring numbly at the spot where Pixie had
been standing. Hermione, next to
him, put a sympathetic hand on his arm.
"What's in the bundle?" she said softly.
Ron looked down at the bundle in his hands, as if he had forgotten
it was there. He unwrapped
the layers of silk, and eventually a delicate carving of two birds,
side by side, in pale green jade,
was revealed.
"Oh," said Shan softly, "Mandarin ducks. She carved it for you, Ron."
Ron's face went even redder. He looked afraid to speak, in
case he broke down. Harry, seeing
this, said, "C'mon," and taking him by the arm, pulled
him away from the group and started
leading him back up to Gryffindor Tower.
The common room still had people in it, though it was getting
late, so the two of them started
going up to the dormitory. They were halfway up the spiral staircase
when Ron suddenly turned
to Harry.
"Think I need to be alone for a while, Harry," he
muttered, "All happened so fast need to
sort things out in my head. I feel all fogged up inside."
"OK," said Harry, looking rather worriedly at him.
Ron looked gloomily at the jade carving in
his hands again, then turned and went on up the staircase.
Harry descended the staircase, to find that the others had
come up as well. Fatty, seeing him,
took him by the arm and led him to one side.
"Harry," he said, looking at him very seriously,
"I must tell you this before I leave. Mui Sing
and I have completed a project which has been a huge success.
I have made enough money
to let my father start over again."
"That's great, Fatty," said Harry.
Fatty looked even more serious.
"So I must thank you, Harry," he said earnestly,
"You see, Madam Tang was right after all -
you brought me good luck!"
"But - " began Harry.
"So, I must give you a share of the profit," said
Fatty, not letting him finish. He was looking
rather guilty and embarrassed now. To Harry's alarm, he took a
cloth bag out, which clinked
and jingled, and obviously contained a lot of money.
"Fatty, I can't take that!" protested Harry. "I didn't do a thing. You earned it; you keep it!"
"You must!" said Fatty, worriedly. "I could
not have succeeded without you. It will be on my
conscience, if I do not reward you!"
"No," said Harry flatly, "Out of the question.
I'm not taking a single coin. If you really want to
give that money away, give it to Chee Chong. It'll help his parents
get the farm going again."
Fatty pleaded and cajoled, but Harry remained unmoved. Finally, Fatty relented.
"Chong needs this money," he agreed. "But I
must consider how to give it to him he won't
accept it, either"
He stood there, frowning, and Harry left him at it after a while.
Ten minutes later, Harry saw Fatty taking his lacquer box out;
he tapped it with his wand, so
that it swelled and became three times as large. He then started
going from student to student,
offering the box to each, and letting them draw a gift from it.
"My way of saying good-bye," he said, winking at Harry, as he offered the box to Shan.
"Oh, do we get something too?" said Shan, putting
her hand in and taking out a small box of
pineapple tarts.
Fatty left Chee Chong right to the last. He managed to lead
him to a quiet corner, then held the
box out to him.
Chee Chong put his hand in, and took the cloth bag out. He
held it up for a moment, looked
absent-mindedly at it, as if wondering why it was so heavy, then
opened it and looked inside.
Fatty stood there, watching him, and holding his breath. Chee
Chong was staring at the contents
of the bag as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. He rubbed
his eyes, then looked again.
Then, as Harry had feared, he began to turn the bag upside down,
to tip its contents onto the
floor.
"No, don't," hissed Fatty, putting a restraining
hand on Chee Chong's arm, and darting a
worried look at the students in the room who had still not gone
up to bed. "You've got the
grand prize. The box only yields one such prize on each occasion;
we mustn't let the others
see, or they will become jealous."
Chee Chong was still staring at the bag, his eyes bulging.
"It is money!" he pointed out, in case Fatty hadn't noticed.
"Yes, yes, I know," whispered Fatty hurriedly. "I
told you, you've managed to draw the grand
prize. I tell you what, why don't we bring it up to the dormitory
and show it to Chester."
He took Chee Chong by the arm, and began firmly leading him
up to the dormitory. As they were
both disappearing inside, Fatty turned around and winked again
at Harry, who was still standing
below, watching the two of them with a grin.
Harry had a slightly hollow feeling inside, as they went down
the following morning to see the
Tian-Long students off. It had been an eventful and pleasant exchange
programme, and it was
almost a pity it had to end.
Chen-Kang had already arrived, and Hagrid was there, petting
the Silverwing. Shan was talking
to Dumbledore, while Professor McGonagall was shaking hands and
saying a few words to each
of the other Chinese students.
After a few minutes, Robert and Chen-Kang mounted the dragon,
and flew over to the lake where
Sang Nila was waiting. While Robert was securing the Merlion to
the Silverwing's tail, Shan came
over to Harry.
"I've asked Professor Dumbledore if Robert and I can come
back on the fifteenth day of the Lunar
New Year, Harry," she said. "The next few weeks will
be the Lunar New Year holidays, you know,
and although the fifteenth day is the last day of the New Year,
school will not begin until three days
later."
"Oh," said Harry, and suddenly felt better. At least,
he would see Shan and Robert again. Then he
asked the next obvious question. "Why?"
Shan glanced at Jeanne, who was saying goodbye to Fatty and
Chee Chong. Jeanne was looking
subdued, and Harry knew she was worried because she had still
not given Shan the message from
Mrs Chen.
"I need to apologise to Chien-Mei," said Shan quietly.
"I know it was wrong, the way I've been
treating her, and she did so much for my mother." She saw
Harry's expression, and quickly
explained, "I don't feel ready to talk to her right now -
I still need some time to sort my thoughts
out ... I need to talk to Robert - I can't get used to the idea
of his going to Shao-Lin. I don't think
I'll feel ready to speak to her till I've settled all this within
myself, and I hope I'll have done that
by the time the holidays are ending."
She stopped then, because Chen-Kang and Robert had returned, and Robert was coming over.
"I guess Shan had told you that we're coming back,"
he said, taking Harry's hand and giving it a
quick shake, "so I won't say goodbye, but see you soon."
Fatty and Chee Chong were now coming over as well. Robert released
Harry's hand and gave
him a smile, then turned and made his way over to Jeanne.
"Good-bye, Harry," said Fatty, crushing Harry's hand
in his, "Come and visit me in Hong Kong
one day."
"And visit me at my palent's farm too," added Chee Chong. Harry grinned at them.
"I will," he said.
Robert, who had finished talking to Jeanne, went over to the
Silverwing and was about to mount
it, when Hermione went up to him with a small packet in her hand.
"This is for you," she said, her cheeks rather pink. "A small farewell gift."
Robert seemed astonished. He hesitated, then took the packet, and looked at her.
"I don't have anything for you," he said.
Hermione smiled, and gave a small shrug.
"It's nothing much, anyway; it's a bookmark, in the form
of a Merlion. It pokes its head out of the
book and growls at you when you're looking for your page."
Everyone gathered around as the Chinese students mounted the
Silverwing. Ron was clutching the
Chinese Chess set, which Chee Chong had given him as a farewell
present. Jeanne was looking
relieved; Robert must have told her that Shan would be coming
back.
Shan, seated behind Chen-Kang, was carrying the Pandas inside
her bag. Their heads were poking
out of the bag, and Ping's sad little face was turned toward Harry.
Harry suddenly heard her furry
voice in his head. He didn't have the Translator on, but he knew
that she was saying goodbye.
As the Silverwing turned and faced away from the castle, Harry
saw Ting-Ting suddenly materialising
on Shan's shoulder. Seamus and the other Gryffindors were waving,
and shouting that they were going
to come to China one day. The Tian-Long students just grinned
and waved in reply, and then the
Silverwing launched itself into the air, and flew rapidly away.
"Well, that's it," said Hermione, as the dragon disappeared
into the horizon. "It was good while it lasted,
wasn't it?"
"Yeah," said Harry, looking at Ron, who was looking depressed and obviously thinking of Pixie.
They turned, and made their way back into the castle, because
classes were going to start. In a few
minutes, the open field in front of the Entrance Hall steps was
empty of people. The exchange programme
was over, at last.
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[Although the exchange has ended, this is not the end of the story, there are still a few more chapters. ~ Kim :o) ]
Chinese Notes :
Mandarin ducks are symbolic of marital fidelity and happiness. It is believed that the ducks die of sadness if separated.
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