Note from Kim :
1. After this, there are 3 more chapters and then the story
ends. I will be releasing
the last 3 chapters all at once, because they run together. I
don't want to post any more
footnotes in those chapters, or it will break the continuity,
so I'd just like to mention
here, in case anyone is interested in reading more of my writing,
that I do intend to
write a few more fics, but not for some time. For various reasons,
I had to cram writing
Jade Dragon into 3 months, including researching all the background,
and it was a bit
exhausting. I'm going to take a break from writing for a while,
and just do a bit of
reading. I will update my author profile now and then to let people
know if I am getting
anywhere with the next story, so please check my profile if you'd
like to know when my
next fic will be out.
Erm...I've noticed that my account doesn't update unless I
upload a fic. This means that
whenever I update my profile I might have to upload a dummy fic
and then erase it ...
so for those who have me on author alert, please don't be surprised
if you receive an
alert and then find that I haven't uploaded a fic after all. I
am going to email Xing and
hopefully get this fixed.
2. About this chapter - I have allowed something here to
remain hidden, so you may not
understand everything you read here. I did this for a reason,
but after some thought have
decided that it's better to leave it unexplained. However not
knowing shouldn't make a lot
of difference to your enjoyment of the story. (email me if you
have any objections to this!)
(If I one day decide to write a sequel to this, I promise it
will all be explained there. But at
the moment I have no plans for a sequel in the near future)
~ Kim :o) gryffindor1970@yahoo.com
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HARRY POTTER AND THE JADE DRAGON
------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter XXVII
Chinese New Year
The year is ended
Spring has come,
But I must take leave of my home
Knowing that the trees in this eastern garden
Without me, will still bear flowers.
~ Su Ting, Tang Dynasty
Harry
found himself sometimes thinking about the exchange programme
over the next
few weeks, and wondering if Shan and Robert were managing to talk
things out. At night,
he would lie in the dark and somehow, he would imagine himself
back in the Astronomy
Tower again, watching the meteors. He often lay awake in bed,
looking at the images of
his parents on his palm, and when he closed his eyes and went
to sleep the images persisted
in his mind, as if they were there with him, keeping watch over
him.
Shan and Robert appeared in the Gryffindor common room shortly
after breakfast on the
fifteenth day of the Lunar New Year. Something seemed different
about them, but Harry
couldn't figure out what. They looked the same as usual, Shan
cheerful, and Robert placid.
Shan, after greeting Harry, spent a while smiling and saying hello
to the others. Robert,
spotting Hermione in a corner doing her homework, took a rather
battered book out from
his robes, looked at it for a few moments, and then went over
to her.
"This is for you," he said, holding the book out.
Hermione looked surprised.
"I'm sorry I couldn't get a new one," said Robert,
as she took the book from him, "But it's
a good book. One of my favourites."
Hermione was examining the book, an odd expression on her face.
"Are you sure you want me to have it?" she asked slowly.
Robert nodded.
"I've read it so often, I practically know all of it by heart, anyway."
Hermione turned the book around in her hands, looking thoughtful.
Then, she took her quill
out and handed it to him.
"Will you write something inside? Something I can remember you by."
Robert looked surprised, but took the book and quill. He thought
for a few moments, then
began writing. Hermione stood by, looking over his shoulder.
"Don't worry, I'll write the English translation out, as well," he said, when he saw her expression.
Shan, seeing that Robert was busy, came over to Harry.
"Come and see Chien-Mei with me, Harry," she said,
"and you can watch an old Chinese
custom who knows, you might come away slightly richer,
as well."
She grinned mischievously at him, then turned and climbed out
of the portrait hole. Harry
followed, feeling curious, but pleased that she was going to see
Jeanne at last.
The minute Jeanne opened the door, Harry knew she wasn't well.
She looked pale and
tired, and appeared to have lost some weight. However, she was
very pleased to see Shan.
Shan greeted her prettily in Chinese, and then reached inside
her robes and took two large
Mandarin oranges out, and offered them to Jeanne.
Jeanne looked surprised, but smiled and accepted the oranges.
She then took several small
envelopes made of bright red paper out of her pocket.
"Here you are, and you might as well take Robert's for
him, too," she said, handing the
envelopes to Shan. She smiled at Harry. "And there's one
for you too, sir."
Harry took the red envelope and looked at it; a picture of
a dragon was embossed on it,
in gold. Opening it, he saw a bright gold Galleon inside.
"Thanks," he said, rather surprised.
Jeanne smiled in response, but then suddenly held one hand
up to her mouth, and retched.
She turned, and ran into the bathroom, and was violently sick.
Harry watched as she disappeared inside the bathroom, startled.
Shan gave a small squeak
of excitement, and grabbed his arm.
"You know what this means, don't you?"
Harry didn't; he looked at her, confused. "What?"
Shan was looking at the partly open bathroom door, an excited expression on her face.
"She's throwing up!" she hissed. "Surely you know what that means!"
Harry was rather nonplussed.
"She's eaten the wrong thing?"
Shan stared at him for a moment, as if to see whether he was joking, and then began to laugh.
"Oh, Harry," she said, chuckling, "You don't know anything, do you?"
Harry looked at her, bewildered. Shan pushed her glasses up
her nose, still shaking with laughter,
then controlled herself with an effort.
"She's pregnant, silly."
"What?" Harry was even more startled. Then he said quickly, "But that's not possible."
Shan raised an eyebrow.
"Jeanne can't have children, Shan," he said in an
undertone. "She told me so, ages ago; Madam
Pomfrey checked her when she first came here."
"Then why - " began Shan, but Jeanne was now coming out of the bathroom, her face white.
"Are you all right?" asked Harry awkwardly.
She nodded, and then sat down. Seeing Shan's expression, she shook her head.
"It's not what you think, Shan."
"You should at least go see Madam Pomfrey again, and check,"
said Shan. "I heard about the
Stardust - maybe it cured you!"
There was a slight flicker in Jeanne's eyes.
"I'd hoped that, myself," she said, slowly, and then
hesitated, "But right now, I don't want to
know. And please, don't tell Remus." She looked anxiously
at both of them.
Harry and Shan looked at her, puzzled. Jeanne shifted uneasily, her eyes on the floor.
"Deorg is coming back," she said quietly. "Somehow,
I just feel it in my bones. That's why
I'm not feeling well. I think the throwing up is due to bulimia.
I feel under stress, all the time
now. It's always on my mind. I have dreams about it, at night
that he's coming, to kill me."
She glanced at them, then continued.
"If he does kill me, then believe me, if I am expecting
a child, it would be better if Remus
never knew."
Shan was silent for a moment, then said softly, "Even
if you don't see Madam Pomfrey, you
would know, wouldn't you? If you missed you know"
Jeanne shot a glance at Harry, then shook her head and said,
"Mine is very irregular, Shan;
sometimes, I don't have it for a few months."
Shan sat down next to her, pleased at the prospect of a woman-to-woman talk.
"That happens to some people," she agreed. "Mine
is very regular, though. I'd know, straight
away."
Harry didn't have a clue as to what they were talking about.
Jeanne smiled, then looked at the clock.
"I have to get to work," she said. "Shan-Shan,
you'll be here for the next three days, won't
you?"
Shan nodded.
"You and I must have a talk," said Jeanne. "I'm
busy now, and Remus won't be well, tonight
and tomorrow, because it's full moon tonight. But tomorrow night,
Parvati and Lavendar want
me to prepare a steamboat buffet they are using your presence
here as an excuse to have
one, and Professor Dumbledore has agreed. After that, we must
talk."
Shan nodded again. Jeanne put an arm around her, and gave her
shoulders a quick squeeze,
then saw them to the door.
Shan was quiet all the way back to the Gryffindor common room.
Harry was still wondering
what she and Jeanne had been talking about, but he assumed it
was some woman's thing.
"What's a steamboat buffet?"
Shan, who had been lost in thought, came back with a jerk.
"It's not really what it sounds like," she said,
laughing a bit, "It's something like a barbecue,
only you cook the food in boiling stock; it's quite fun."
She fell silent again, thinking, and then suddenly said,
"You know, Harry, I think we should ask Madam Pomfrey to check Chien-Mei."
Harry looked at her, surprised.
"If Chien-Mei is really expecting a child, then she must
be hidden away somewhere, where
this Deorg can't find her, till she gives birth," said Shan.
"I doubt if Jeanne is pregnant, Shan," said Harry. "Madam Pomfrey has checked her before."
Shan didn't seem convinced.
"The Stardust could have cured her," she said obstinately.
"She should at least find out. Don't
you see - if she's expecting, she must have the child. If Deorg
does kill her one day, then what
about Professor Lupin? He won't have anyone left. If they have
a child, at least he'll still have
that, to remember her by."
She fell silent for a few moments, and then said softly, as
if talking to herself,
"If you're going to lose someone you love, that's one way
to keep a part of him that will
always stay with you, even when he's gone."
Harry knew she was talking about something else now, but he
wasn't sure what she meant.
He was going to ask, but they had reached the portrait hole. Shan,
on entering the common
room, went over to Robert and gave him his red packet. Harry had
to go for Transfiguration;
when he came back to the common room after the class, he saw Shan
and Robert still there,
quietly talking in Chinese.
Harry felt certain that Shan must have told Robert about Jeanne's
condition. He hesitated, then
took the Translator out of his pocket.
"Leave it be, Shan it's between Professor Lupin and Chien-Mei."
"But Chien-Mei won't do anything what if Deorg
kills her, and she really is expecting? Isn't it
unfair to Professor Lupin?"
"It's none of our business. She doesn't want him to know,
anyway. What if she really is pregnant,
and Madam Pomfrey tells Professor Lupin then if Deorg kills
Chien-Mei before she gives birth,
Lupin will never get over it."
"That's precisely it if she's expecting, we should double the protection around her."
"She's already as safe here as she can possibly be. How
much can the protection around her be
increased?"
Harry took the Translator off, feeling slightly relieved. Shan
tended to be impulsive, and he wouldn't
put it past her to take it upon herself to tell Madam Pomfrey
about Jeanne's condition. At least,
Robert was talking some sense into her.
After a while, they seemed to have resolved the issue, and
seeing Harry, Ron and Hermione doing
their homework in a corner of the common room, came over to join
them.
Robert had brought his usual collection of books to read. Shan
had brought some of her Tian-Long
assignments, which she had yet to finish, but ended up spending
most of the time listening to Harry
and Ron talking about Quidditch. Just before they were due to
go for lunch, a postal dragon flew
into the Gryffindor common room, and over to Ron.
Ron, guessing at once that the dragon had been sent by Pixie,
took the letter from it with shaking
hands. He spent a few minutes reading it, then lowered the letter,
looking stunned.
The others, who had been watching, looked expectantly at him.
"It's all right," he said, now looking relieved,
"Pixie's mother, that is. That project Lady Han-Yin
was working on - it was to develop an antidote for the poison.
Snape gave some to Pixie in a
crystal swallow before she left. She said that the minute she
got home, the swallow containing
the antidote flew out of her bag and over to her mother, and tipped
its contents down the mother's
throat. She says her mother is well on the road to recovery, right
now."
"That's great, Ron," said Harry.
"What about the wedding?" asked Shan cautiously.
"Pixie says that she's managed to get it postponed until
she graduates from Tian-Long," said Ron.
"She says she's going to figure out a way to get it cancelled
altogether."
They went for lunch after that, Ron looking much more cheerful
than he had for days. On the way
to the Great Hall, Shan turned to Harry.
"Harry," she said hesitantly, "Do you think I can borrow your Invisibility Cloak tonight?"
Harry looked at her in surprise. "Why?"
She hesitated.
"It's full moon," she said, flushing slightly, "and
I know Professor Lupin is going to transform. I
know it sounds silly, but I would really like to see him as a
wolf again, one last time."
Harry was amused.
"OK," he said. "But I'm coming along, too."
So, around eleven that night, which was about half an hour
before the moon was due to rise,
they checked the Marauder's Map and saw that Jeanne and Lupin
were in their room. Taking
the Cloak, they made their way there, and then Harry checked the
Map again. Both Jeanne
and Lupin were still visible, so he figured they were not doing
anything private at the moment.
Then Shan took her wand out and tapped the wall just next to the
door. A spyhole appeared,
wide enough for both of them to look in.
"Are you sure they can't see us?" hissed Harry.
"Yes," whispered Shan. "I learned this spell
from Xiao-Yan. She's spied on countless people
with it."
This didn't really enhance Harry's opinion of Pixie, but he
supposed he couldn't judge, since he
wasn't behaving any better himself, at the moment.
He and Shan peered through the spyhole into the room. A postal
dragon had just delivered a
letter and was flying over to the window and out. Curiously enough,
the letter appeared to be
for Lupin, and not Jeanne. Jeanne was sitting in a corner, keeping
away some herbs; she had
evidently just finished preparing the usual tonic for Lupin.
Lupin was standing some distance from the window, opening the
letter with a surprised look on
his face. Jeanne, for some reason, was watching him rather tensely.
Lupin's expression became even more surprised as he continued
to read the letter, and then
hardened, and became rather angry. Jeanne began to look even more
tense.
"Who is the letter from?" she asked, quietly.
Lupin was still reading.
"Master Kung," he said, with a slight edge in his voice.
Jeanne went pale. She automatically lowered her hand to her
pocket, as if to feel if something was
in there, and then sat, watching Lupin anxiously.
Lupin had finished reading. He slowly lowered the letter, and
looked at Jeanne. Then, he took his
wand out, and pointed it at her pocket.
"Accio!" he said.
Something black shot out of the pocket, but before it could
reach Lupin, Jeanne had cried out in
dismay, and raised her hand and pointed at it. The black object
suddenly seemed to hit something
like an invisible wall, and fell to the ground with a clatter,
midway between Jeanne and Lupin. Harry
heard Shan give a small gasp, even as he recognised the object
on the floor : it was the onyx tiger.
There was a dead silence in the room. Lupin was looking angrier
than ever, while Jeanne was looking
even paler.
Lupin looked at her.
"Why didn't you tell me?" he said quietly.
Jeanne hung her head.
"I knew you wouldn't let me go ahead with it."
Lupin eyed the tiger on the floor for a moment.
"So all the while, I thought you were Portkeying
to Tian-Long for lessons. But instead, you
were with Snufflegint, practising in the grounds!"
Jeanne looked upset, because he was so angry.
"Remus, you don't understand," she said. "I had to do it. There's no other way."
"No other way?" said Lupin. "What about the
Shielding? Isn't that enough to prevent Deorg from
possessing you?"
"Yes, I can protect myself from him," said Jeanne. "But I can't attack and defeat him!"
"You're not supposed to!" said Lupin, angrily. "That
task belongs to Dumbledore, or Bubcek and
his people!"
"I thought so too, last time," said Jeanne quietly,
"but not any more. You should know why - I told
you, everything that she told me."
Lupin looked slightly exasperated.
"How reliable is she?" he said. "And Snufflegint? How can you trust him? You know his background!"
"Who are they talking about?" whispered Shan.
"Don't know," Harry whispered back.
"I trust him," said Jeanne. "You don't know
his story. He joined the Tomb Sect because he wanted
to learn their secrets and who their members were. Why do you
think the Sect was overthrown so
quickly after he left it?"
"How do you know he's telling the truth?" said Lupin.
"He did his share of killing, while he was still
in the Sect!"
"There's no proof of that," said Jeanne, sounding distressed.
"Deorg was his Sect Leader," Lupin reminded her grimly.
"How do you know he isn't trying to help
Deorg regain control of you again?"
"He isn't," said Jeanne stubbornly. "He came
here to make amends. He told me, it was through him
that Deorg first learned that shape-shifters existed, and conceived
the idea of capturing one for his
own purposes. When Septimus discovered who I was, he persuaded
Master Kung to give him the
onyx tiger, and came to Hogwarts to look for me."
"That onyx tiger is sucking the life out of you, Jeanne!"
said Lupin, angrily. "I've been wondering
why you've been looking so run-down for weeks. I thought Master
Kung was working you too
hard. And all the time, you've been hiding this from me!"
"It's the only way!" said Jeanne. "Septimus
knows Deorg's weaknesses. One either has the gift
to wield the Devil's Curse, or hasn't. Deorg does not have the
gift. Neither did Liu Pei; that was
why he couldn't use the tiger on Yang-Kang. The Devil's Curse
is the only way I can defeat Deorg."
She suddenly noticed the time, and automatically picked up the goblet on the table.
"We can talk later," she said, going over to Lupin, "It's almost time; you'd better take this."
Lupin, however, ignored the goblet.
"We'll talk now, Jeanne," he said firmly. "You
have to stop using that thing. It's draining the life out
of you. Even Master Kung is worried; he said in the letter that
he was shocked at how run-down
you looked, when you started taking lessons from him again last
month. He said he told you to
stop using the tiger, but you seem to have ignored him - which
is why he wrote to me."
Jeanne was looking rather desperate.
"Remus, you're going to transform any minute," she
said, "for goodness' sake, take the tonic, and
then we'll talk."
"The tonic isn't vital," said Lupin, "but this talk is."
Harry suddenly saw the clouds shift through the window, and
the moon came out. Bright moonlight
shone in; Lupin began to shake. Jeanne was watching, looking dismayed.
She made a quick
movement forward with the goblet, but it was too late; Lupin had
already transformed into a wolf.
Jeanne stared at the wolf for a second, and then something
seemed to snap inside her. She cried
out in frustration, and taking the goblet, went over to the window
and flung it out in a fury. Raising
her arms, she transformed into an owl. Swooping over to where
the onyx tiger was lying, she caught
it in her talons, and headed back toward the window.
The wolf leapt at the owl, as if to prevent it from leaving,
but the owl swerved aside, darted over to
the window and out, and was gone.
The wolf bounded over to the window and stood there, resting
its front paws on the sill, watching
as the owl disappeared. Then it raised its muzzle to the sky and
let off a long, anguished howl.
Shan abruptly tapped the spyhole with her wand, and it disappeared.
She and Harry turned, and
began quickly making their way back to the common room.
"We shouldn't have seen that, we shouldn't have seen that,"
Shan kept muttering, as they stumbled
along in the dark. "Oh, my poor wolf!"
"That explains everything," said Harry, his mind
still in a whirl from everything he had just heard.
"What she and Snufflegint were doing in the grounds - he
was teaching her how to use the onyx tiger!"
"And he didn't take the tonic," said Shan, still thinking about the wolf.
"Looks like Jeanne really intends to have her revenge on Deorg," said Harry.
"Oh, she mustn't, Harry," said Shan, softly. "From
what we heard, I don't think she has mastered the
Devil's Curse well enough yet."
"Well, I guess we don't need to worry," said Harry,
"Lupin will be keeping an even sharper eye on
her, now that he knows."
Shan seemed rather preoccupied the next morning. When Harry
came back to the common room
after his Charms class, she told him that she'd gone back to Jeanne
and Lupin's room, and seen
through the spyhole that Jeanne was back.
"I knocked on the door, and spoke to her," said Shan.
"I told her to cancel the steamboat buffet,
since she's not feeling well; but she refused to."
"How is Professor Lupin?" asked Harry.
"Chien-Mei said he was resting," said Shan. "I
guess he feels worse, because he has not taken
the tonic."
Hermione and Ron came up then; Hermione was holding a letter.
"Chee Chong just sent this, Harry," she said.
Harry, turning his attention to them, didn't notice Shan still
looking preoccupied. She slipped out
of the room, after a while.
Hermione was reading the letter. Ron was reading a newspaper
cutting that had come together
with the letter.
"He says the farm is all right," said Hermione, and
then her eyes widened slightly. "He says he's
received news that Yu-Lin's father has disappeared. It seems he
got into trouble with some triads."
"Serves him right," said Harry.
"No one knows if he's still alive, but Chee Chong says
that it's unlikely, knowing what the triads
are like," said Hermione, and then lowered the letter. "He
says he's enclosed a month-old
newspaper article that we might be interested in reading."
She looked at Ron, who was still
reading the cutting. "What's the matter?"
Ron was reading with wide eyes. After a while, he lowered it, and looked at Harry.
"Blimey, Harry," he said, and hesitated, then held
the cutting out to him, "Guess you'd better read
it, yourself."
--------------SOUTH CHINA WIZARD'S POST-----------------
------------------POTTER MANIA IN HONG KONG-----------------
English boy wizard Harry Potter has been creating a storm among
the Hong
Kong wizarding elite without ever having been to the Fragrant
Harbour. The
latest fad among Hong Kong's rich and famous has been the "Harry
Potter
autograph", strips of parchment signed by the boy wizard
during his recent
trip to China.
It appears that the Potter autographs became popular when several
businessmen who had obtained copies brought them to Fook Man Look,
the posh and exclusive club in Tsimshatsui frequented by the Hong
Kong
wizarding elite. The businessmen apparently first heard of the
autographs
from their children, many of whom attend Tian-Long Academy in
Long-Shan,
which Potter attended for two months during an exchange programme
last year.
Subsequent autographs were released in limited numbers, resulting
in auctions
being eventually held for those impatient and desperate to obtain
a copy for
themselves. It is not known how much each autograph came up to,
but sources
speculate that the bidding could have gone as high as five figures.
"It is de rigueur, at the moment," enthused
Cantopop star Benita Mui, wife of
the tycoon Wee Ka-Shing, "Anyone who is anybody here must
have one of
the autographs."
But surely, one might ask, it would be more economical to take
a holiday in
Britain and personally obtain an autograph from Potter himself.
"No, indeed," says Macau casino king Stanley Po,
"These autographs mark
Harry Potter's trip to China. They are unique."
The elite will not divulge where the autographs came from,
but insiders say
the supplier is Mui-Fatt Enterprises, a small upstart company
which
garnered huge profits this year. It is believed that a member
of the company
attends Tian-Long Academy, and managed to obtain the autographs
there.
How the company member managed to obtain such a large number of
autographs is not known, but it is rumoured that the member knows
Potter
personally, and that the latter must have obliged him. The autographs'
popularity has since spread to several other countries as well.
So far, all
the autographs have passed the Authenticity Charm tests carried
out on
them, and Douglas Dimbleby, the representative of the British
Ministry of
Magic in Hong Kong, has himself testified that the autographs
are genuine,
having been to Long-Shan and heard it from Mr Potter himself.
Harry closed his mouth, which had begun to hang open. Robert,
who had initially been reading a
book nearby, but had come over to have a look, now appeared extremely
amused. Hermione
was looking amazed.
"That Fatty," she said.
Harry was fuming.
"He must have employed those first-years," he said
indignantly. "No wonder they knew our timetable
inside out!"
"Calm down, Harry," said Ron, looking serious, although
he was trying not to laugh, "After all, you've
helped Fatty's father start his business over again."
Harry looked grumpily at Robert.
"All of you knew, didn't you?" he said crossly.
Robert shook his head, still looking amused. "We didn't;
but it doesn't surprise me. Fatt has always been
able to come up with ingenious ideas for making money."
At this moment, the portrait of the Fat Lady swung open, and Lavendar came in.
"Is Shan sick, Robert?" she said, seeing them there. "I saw her going to see Madam Pomfrey."
Robert suddenly looked rather tense. "What?"
"Shan," repeated Lavendar, "I saw her going into the hospital wing."
Robert had gone pale. He stared at Lavendar for a moment, then
suddenly bolted over to the portrait hole,
and out of the common room.
The others watched him as he disappeared, startled.
"What's with him?" said Lavendar, astonished.
"Guess he's worried about Shan," said Hermione, looking sympathetic.
Harry said nothing; he couldn't believe Shan could be so interfering.
She must have gone to see Madam
Pomfrey about giving Jeanne a checkup. Hopefully, Robert would
be able to stop her in time.
They had classes after that, and Harry didn't see Shan and
Robert again until lunchtime. They came in
late, and there weren't any empty seats near Harry and the others,
so they sat down at the end of the
Gryffindor table, some distance from them. It was hard to tell
Robert's expression, but Shan was looking
annoyingly pleased with herself. In fact, she seemed to be positively
glowing.
"What's the matter, Harry?" said Hermione, seeing Harry glowering at the two of them.
Harry hesitated, then, in a low voice, told her and Ron about Jeanne's condition.
"Oh, how nice if she really is expecting," was the first thing Hermione said.
"Don't think you need to worry, Harry," remarked
Ron, "Madam Pomfrey's close to Jeanne. It's unlikely
she'd tell Lupin anything if Jeanne didn't want her to."
Harry, however, couldn't help feeling a bit worried. Maybe
he was imagining it, but Robert seemed to be
looking rather subdued. Perhaps Madam Pomfrey had discovered that
Jeanne really was expecting, and
Shan had persuaded her to tell Lupin about it.
They came over to Harry and the others after lunch, and Shan
was looking so happy that Harry didn't
have the heart to be cross with her. After all, this was her last
day at Hogwarts, and he probably
wouldn't see her again for a very long time.
Harry had classes throughout the afternoon; Shan and Robert
spent most of that time in the Gryffindor
common room, quietly talking. Surprisingly, Robert seemed to be
doing most of the talking. Harry hoped
he was telling Shan off for being a busybody. When evening came,
Shan said that she was going to help
Jeanne prepare the steamboat buffet, and she and Robert disappeared
out the portrait hole.
The buffet was to be held in another room near to Jeanne's,
which Dumbledore had said they could use.
When Harry arrived, he found Jeanne, Shan and Robert already eating.
"The table's not that large, and there might not be enough
room for everyone," said Jeanne, "so we figured
we'd eat first."
The buffet had already been arranged on the table. Several
large dishes of noodles had been placed at
one side, and there were plates and plates of uncooked dumplings
of all types, and meat and prawns,
and vegetables. A large tureen of steaming fish porridge sat at
one end of the table. The steamboat
consisted of several pots of boiling stock, into which the food
was to be placed until it was cooked.
Ron was looking at the chopsticks.
"I've forgotten how to use those," he said.
Jeanne handed some bowls of noodles to them, and then pointed
her wand at several small, slim,
long-handled wire nets, which were lying on the table. The nets
jumped up in the air, and flew over
to her, making a dipping motion as if bowing in attendance to
her.
"Just put whatever food you want cooked in these,"
she said. She placed three fishballs in one of the
nets, and it immediately flew over to one of the pots and immersed
the fishballs in the boiling stock
until they were cooked. It then rose up in the air and flew back
to Jeanne, and tipped the cooked
fishballs into her bowl.
Harry, Ron and Hermione sat at the table, dropping the uncooked
dumplings into their nets and
watching them fly over to the pots of stock. Ron was having so
much fun cooking the dumplings
that there was soon a small hill of cooked dumplings sitting in
the bowl next to him.
"You can't possibly eat all that, Ron," said Jeanne,
looking amused. "I suppose you might as well
put some of it aside for the others."
Parvati, Lavendar and a crowd of other Gryffindors came in
after a while. Harry, Ron and
Hermione promptly brought their food over to a corner of the room
to eat, so that there
would be more room at the table. Jeanne was sitting just nearby,
with Shan and Robert. Harry,
noticing that Jeanne was looking slightly worried, glanced around,
and then whispered to Shan,
"Where's Professor Lupin?"
"At a staff meeting," she whispered back. "Chien-Mei
says he still isn't feeling well, but he insisted
on going. She says he'll be joining us later."
After a while, Seamus, seeing that they had finished eating,
came over and asked Ron if he could
borrow the Chinese Chess set. Hermione took a book out from inside
her robes, and went to
another corner to read.
Ron came back with his Chinese Chess set, and proceeded to
teach the others how to play the
game. Shan was quietly talking to Jeanne, while Robert simply
sat next to her, listening. Harry
was watching them, pleased that Jeanne and Shan were talking at
last. They were speaking in
Chinese, and he wondered if Shan had been given Mrs Chen's message
yet.
Half an hour later, Seamus came over and handed the Translator,
which he had borrowed for the
chess game, back to Harry, saying that he was familiar enough
with the chess pieces to get along
without it. Harry sat looking at the Translator in his hands for
a while, then couldn't resist the
temptation, and put it on. This would probably be the last chance
he'd have of using it, anyway.
Shan didn't look as if she was saying anything personal; her manner
looked more as if she was
telling some amusing story.
As far as Harry could tell, Shan was talking about her childhood
and what it had been like,
growing up in China. Jeanne was listening with a rather wistful
expression on her face, and
Harry guessed that she was thinking about her own childhood and
what she had missed out
on.
Hermione was still seated in one corner, reading. The book
she was reading was obviously
very touching, for she was indulging in a good cry. Harry saw
Jeanne's eyes sometimes straying
to the clock, after which she would glance anxiously at a goblet
which had been placed on a
table nearby. Lupin obviously still hadn't taken his tonic.
As it grew later, the Gryffindors started leaving. Ron came
over to join Harry. A shout from
outside distracted Shan, who was sitting near the window, and
she stopped talking and went
over and peered out.
Harry went over to have a look, as well. The moon was out,
and Hagrid's large figure could
be seen standing below the window, holding an exhausted-looking
postal dragon in one hand.
The dragon was lying sprawled on its back, its wings drooping,
and its eyes bleary and half-open.
Hagrid's other hand was holding a large parcel, which looked too
big for one small postal dragon
to carry.
"Parcel fer Jeanie," called Hagrid, and then shook
his shaggy head, looking at the dragon,
whose tongue was hanging slightly out of its mouth, "People've
no sense, sendin' one small
dragon wi' a large parcel li' that. Goin' ter take me half th'
night ter revive him."
Harry could see that the prospect of having a dragon in his
cabin, small and tame though it
was, for half a night, appealed to Hagrid.
Shan opened the window, and got ready to climb down the ash
tree outside, which was
practically touching the castle walls, in order to get the parcel.
"Shan, what are you doing?" said Jeanne. She was
seated at a table, absently running her
finger over the goblet that held Lupin's tonic.
"I'll get it," said Shan, already descending the
tree, "We're quite near the ground floor,
anyway."
"You can just Summon it up," said Jeanne. Robert, however, looked amused.
"She wants to have a look at the dragon," he explained.
Jeanne watched as Shan disappeared out the window, then laughed
softly and shook her
head. Harry swung the window back so that it was almost shut,
to prevent too much of
the cold from getting in. He then went back in and sat down next
to Robert. At this moment,
the door opened, and Professor Lupin came in.
Harry could immediately tell from Lupin's face that something
was wrong. He guessed that
Jeanne and Lupin probably hadn't completely made up, yet.
Lupin placed his briefcase on a chair near the door, glanced
around the room, and then
looked at Jeanne.
"Where is Shan?" he asked, quietly.
Jeanne was looking slightly tense, and automatically placed
one hand near her pocket, where
Harry guessed the onyx tiger was still hidden.
"She went to get something from Hagrid," she said,
indicating the partly open window. Even
as she spoke, the window swung open again, and Shan hoisted herself
in, clutching the parcel.
Lupin waited till Shan had climbed in and closed the window, before speaking.
"I'm sorry I'm late," he said, glancing at Shan,
and then at Jeanne. "I was held up by Madam
Pomfrey, for a while."
Both Shan and Jeanne went pale. Shan's eyes went wide, and
she stood where she was,
holding the parcel tightly, as if she couldn't move.
Jeanne's eyes strayed to Shan and then to Harry, and then back to Lupin.
"What - what was it about?" she asked.
Lupin glanced at Shan again, and then Robert, and then looked
at Jeanne, and said something
in Russian.
Harry was startled. He'd forgotten that Lupin must have picked
up some Russian, during his stay
in Kamchatka.
Jeanne's eyes widened, looking at Lupin. She said something,
also in Russian, and Lupin replied.
Jeanne then turned to look at Shan, an angry expression in her
eyes.
"Shan, why have you done this?" she said.
Shan was looking nervous. She glanced at Robert, then let her gaze fall to the floor.
Hermione had finished her book, and had come over to sit next
to Harry and Ron. Except for the
three of them, all the other Gryffindors had already left the
room.
"What's happening?" she whispered.
"I think Jeanne really is pregnant," muttered
Harry, "and Madam Pomfrey has told Lupin about it.
Jeanne's now furious with Shan for telling on her."
Jeanne turned to Robert, a reproachful expression in her eyes.
Robert was looking subdued. He
glanced at Shan, and then looked at Jeanne. Harry felt sure he
was going to say something in Shan's
defence.
Robert and Jeanne sat where they were, looking at each other
for several long moments. Then,
Robert finally spoke.
"You don't understand," he said, very quietly, so
that Shan, who was still by the window, wouldn't
be able to hear, "I initially thought, too, that she should
be left free, to find someone else, when the
time came. But you don't know what the crystal showed me. She'll
never have a happy life. It's the
only thing I can leave them the only thing I can give her,
that will make her live."
Harry didn't understand. He glanced at Ron and Hermione, and
saw that they were looking blank
as well.
Jeanne was also looking perplexed. Shan now came over, holding the parcel.
"I don't regret doing it," she said, softly and rather
defiantly, placing the parcel on the table in front
of Jeanne. Harry recognised the Tian-Long seal on it.
Hermione saw the Translator around Harry's neck, and frowned
because she knew he had been
eavesdropping. Harry, feeling guilty, took it off and put it in
his pocket.
Jeanne's eyes widened when she saw the parcel. She had evidently
been expecting it. She began
unwrapping it, but refused to allow her attention to be totally
diverted from Shan.
"You and I are going to have a talk after this, Shan,"
she said firmly, glancing at Shan, even as she
tore off the last of the wrapper and revealed a cardboard box
inside.
Lupin had also come over, and placed one hand on Jeanne's shoulder. "What is it?"
Jeanne's face went slightly pink when she felt the hand on her shoulder.
"It's the jade cups," she said. "Master Kung
said he'd keep an eye out for them for me, and send
them over if he managed to find them."
She opened the box, and Shan gave a small gasp.
"Those belonged to my mother," she said softly.
Ten beautiful little jade cups lay in the box, pale green in
colour, delicate and polished. Jeanne smiled
when she saw them.
"Yes, she left them to me," she said. She reached out and took hold of one - and immediately vanished.
Harry and the others were startled. Lupin, whose hand had been
on Jeanne's shoulder, had disappeared
as well.
Shan was also reaching out to touch the cups. Robert suddenly darted forward.
"Shan, don't touch them!" he said sharply, pulling
her away. But it was too late; her finger had touched
one of the cups, and both she and Robert vanished.
Harry, Ron and Hermione jumped to their feet.
"They're Portkeys!" shouted Harry. "We've got to go after them!"
The three of them didn't stop to think. As one, they each reached
out and took hold of a jade cup.
Harry felt the familiar jerking feeling behind his navel, and
then he and the others were speeding
forward, to where they knew not, in a howl of wind and swirling
colour.
-