Even Angels Make Mistakes!
Chapter 5
By bunny chan & Ginny :)
Sorry this took so long... it's the usual time zone problem. Ginny :) wants to say 'CONGRATULATIONS' to her other co- author [CheyLeah, who has nothing to do with this story, actually], who now has a lovely little baby girl called Cheyenne. We apologise for the beginning of this chapter sounding so serious... but with people like us writing this, do you really think we can keep this up?! Incidentally, although this is the chapter before the ending, we ARE plotting and planning a new story, so keep an eye out! And no, we don't plan a sequel.
Enjoy reading our story!
Bunny chan & Ginny :)
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It was dark. Night time. Silver moonlight streamed in through the gap in the curtains at Gryffindor dormitory window. The wind sang around the castle turrets, it's own quiet, moaning, haunting melody, dying down now and then, but always regaining it's tuneless and lonely refrain. It was a night when the senses are heightened. Even the cut of the wind seemed to be visible. You could almost taste the stars. The forest danced it's own private dance to the wind's bittersweet cradle-song.
The moon's paper face stared over the world, like a benevolent protectoress. She seemed to smile to herself. Maybe she knew that something was going to happen.
Students and angels slept. The raucous of the spider incident now forgotten, left to fester in the past. Melissa was deeply asleep, looking almost innocent. Neville was snoring gently. Henny had made herself scarce, no doubt sensing that both she and her daddy long legs were less then welcome. The school dozed.
Lily was not asleep. She couldn't. Like the all-seeing moon, she knew that something was going to happen. She gazed down on her sleeping son. His thin face was distorted by the strip of moon light that lay across it. He looked so young. Lily wished with all her heart that she could talk to him, cradle him in her arms, tell him how much she loved him, just once more. A tear fell hot from her eye onto his face. It lingered, ran down his cheek and off his nose. The only way in which Lily could touch her beloved child.
She shut her eyes, determined to keep the melancholy inside her own mind, for once it escaped, there would be no stopping it.
Someone mumbled something through the mists of sleep.
A star fell, glittering. Down, down, down to Earth. Lily couldn't see it, but she could feel it. It made her insides tingle and her hair try to stand on end.
What Lily had not been expecting, was exactly what happened next; the dormitory flashed brilliant gold for perhaps a second, before darkness returned, thick like a blanket. Figures appeared in the room - black figures - that Lily could not make out. And then the whole room was full of noise. Shouting, arguing, pushing, shoving, the air seemed to pause. Lily screamed, and all was confusion. Shouting, swearing, yells, throbbing air, the pull and heave of the atmosphere...
Silence.
Only one of the boys had woken. The rest slept peacefully onwards. Harry rubbed his shoulder, where someone had knocked on. Neville sat on his bed, couched, his hands over his face, frightened eyes peeping out between stubby fingers. He was breathing hard.
The two gaped at each other.
"W- who--?" Neville stammered, yet to catch his breath.
"I don't know. But that must have been Angels. There was a shooting star."
Neville nodded. They had have been Angels, as only he had noticed them.
"Wonder what they wanted."
Silence.
This wasn't right. Lily didn't know why. Silence wasn't what was supposed to happen next, was it? It didn't work... someone was supposed to do something... something must have happened... something had to happen... Lily checked quickly on Harry, but he continued to doze, unharmed. Everyone looked just as they had done before, with the obvious exception of Neville.
He swung his legs over the side of the bed, and sat there, his large eyes pale and bulbous in the moonlight.
"Melissa?"
Lily realised what was wrong. Where was Melissa? She should have been shouting, cursing, throwing insults left and right... But instead, there was this almost vibrating silence.
"Melissa? Where are you?" Neville tried again. He felt a bit relieved, but suspected that, had anything happened to her, he would be landed with the ultimate blame, her being his guardian angel and all that.
She was, very definitely, not there. However, there was no time to wonder at is, as the doors burst open.
"COME BACK HERE, POTTER! I'LL HAVE YOUR HEAD FOR THIS!!!!" Peeves yelled, flying - no, zooming - into the boy's dormitory after the said Potter. Harry sat up at once, hearing Peeves yelled his last name.
"The candles!! The candles!!!" Harry yelled, before staring blankly. "Huh? What? Peeves?"
"Ssh! Get back to bed," Lily said to Harry. Of course, he didn't hear her.
"Peeves, get outta this room and let me sleep in peace..." he frowned, and turned over in bed.
"POTTER!!! WATCH OUT FOR MY WRATH!!!!!" Peeves yelled, swinging a candle stick at what seemed to be empty air.
"What are you talking about, Peeves? I'm here," Harry said in confusion.
"No! Duck! Duck!" Neville cried at the empty air Peeves was trying to hit. Lily slapped her white hand on her forehead. After the very serious conversation she and Neville seemed to have had (although it was only a few exchange of solemn words) this seemed to be really out of place. Really out of place.
"James Potter, can't you at least choose a different room?" Lily called. A clanking of metal swords seemed to punctuate this. Neville, Lily and Harry all turned to the door, in which the Weasley twins jumped in, both yelling at the top of their voices. Both were carrying swords, apparently purloined from the wall in the Gryffinor Common Room.
"En garde!!!" George yelled, clanking swords with Fred.
"En garde!!!" Fred called, poking the sword into Ron's blanket. The younger Weasley brother woke up with a yell enough to deafen the dead.
"What's HAPPENING in here?" McGonagall bustled into the room, "Honestly, it's always you boys isn't it? Can't you go through one single night without makign enough noise to wake the dead...?!"
Harry stared blankly at the frozen faces of Neville, Peeves, Ron, George and Fred, his eyes clearly missing his mother's white form.
"Howdy, Professor McGonagall!" an invisible someone called suddenly.
"Show yourself!" McGonagall barked. James Potter's form showed itself, bowing low to the professor. She went a little pale as she looked at him, and her eye's quickly flicked to Harry and back, but she recovered herself, "Oh. You. You're dead, I suppose."
"Very. Now living in this castle as Poltergeist Number Two. Ain't you all glad that I'm replacing Peeves?" James Potter said, beaming from ear to ear.
"Harry!!!!!!!" Ron yelled. "You're a ghost!!! A Poltergeist!"
"I'm here, Ron," Harry said flatly, still staring at his father's ghost. Something funny was happening inside him. Something he couldn't explain.
"And what business have you here, Weasley and Weasley?" McGonagall said sharply, deciding to ignore James. You never annoy a poltergeist.
"Playing swords aren't we, Fred?"
"Aye. En garde, George!"
"I SAID, WHAT BUISINESS HAVE YOU HERE?" MgGonagall barked, causing both the twins to freeze in fright.
"Er, we came on a report," George said, his metal sword dropping.
"Dumbledore - Professor Dumbledore - sent it to Harry," Fred said, also dropping his sword.
"Very well, tell and be gone," McGonagall said.
"HarryYou-Know-Whoisafteryouagainandwehavetotellyouthissoyoucanblahawayintimetosaveyourself."
"What? Harry wasn't paying attention, but staring at his dead father's form. The other boys exchanged glances, and Dean muttered something to Seamus nervously.
"You-Know-Whoisafteryouagainandwehavetotellyouthissoyoucanblahawayintimetosaveyourselffullstop."
"Okay... I caught You-Know-Who and the full-stop," Lily said uncertainly to James. This, James repeated to the room dwellers rather loudly.
"Slowly please," McGonagall said, yawning. She had been rudely awaken from her Dreamland of jumping kitties and rainbow clouds.
And the twins repeated it. Slowly.
"Oh, that's normal," Ron said, trying to sound casual, rubbing his arm (Fred poked it) with some ointment. However, there was a definite note of worry in his voice, "I mean, he's ALWAYS after Harry, isn't he?"
"Just get to sleep and shut up. And do NOT make me up again, just for an excuse to play swords at twelve midnight! And this joke about You Know Who is extremely poor form." McGonagall said, slamming the door behind her.
"But it's true!" George called.
~*~
"Mel's gone," Neville said sadly to Lily as they sat at table the next morning. She was accompanying him, since it was James's turn to watch Harry. Besides, Harry was just only opposite, so she'd be able to reach him in time if James forsake his duty as a father. In her view, Neville needed someone to look after him, be it her, Melissa, or someone else entirely.
"I thought you wished she was gone," Lily said, keeping an eye on Harry and James.
"Yeah, but..."
"Hey, heard the news?" James said, swooping to his wife. "Voldemort's after Harry. For real."
"That's normal, like Ron said," Neville said, hopefully.
"Aah... But we need help if Harry wants to run away alive," James said. Neville sat up.
"What do you mean?"
"He probably won't survive this match." James and Lily excahnged serious glances. Lily bit her lip.
"Why?"
"Lily, for the last time, let's go to Heaven!" James said, ignoring Neville. "I don't care tuppence for your idiot sister, kay? Go, or I'll make sure I drag you there!"
"You're taking care of Harry, James Harold Potter," Lily said sourly.
"Go to Heaven?" Neville repeated. He stared doubtfully at the enchanted ceiling above him, where the beautiful white puffy clouds sat. He turned back to Harry's parents. "It's up in the sky, isn't it?" A thought hit him, "It's where they've taken Melissa."
"Well, where do you expect Heaven to be, then? In Hell?" Malfoy's drawling voice sauntered, before bursting into laughter, whilst the other Slytherins sniggered.
"Leave him, Malfoy," Harry said quietly.
"Longbottom believes in Heaven! More fool him! And he's been talking to himself again!" and the Slytherin howled with laughter, joined by both his faithful cronies. James was visible, but Lily was not. The vast majority of the school now considered that Neville was completely mental and should be locked up by the men in pretty white coats.
"What's wrong with believing in Heaven?" James snapped. "I've been there once, and it isn't as pleasant as YOU would like, Malfoy." He threw a pack of dungbombs at Malfoy and his fellows.
"Hello... Dad," Harry said uncertainly to the poltergeist. He looked pale, peaky, like he hadn't slept. He didn't know why he hadn't spoken to James before now... but it had just felt... wrong... he forced himself to ask the question; "Are you really my father?"
"Yes. And I definitely don't regret my choice on being your guardian an--uh, ghost. Poltergeist. Whatever. Your mother's the angel, for more obvious reasons."
"Where is she?" Harry said, looking around wistfully. If only he could see his mother...!
"I thought you don't believe in us?" Lily said in amusement.
"She said, she thought you don't believe in her," Neville said solemnly. Suddenly he wished very strongly that he could see his own parents. Better dead, then mad, after all.
"Well, I do now after I was kicked in my dormitory last night. It was a full moon and I definitely trust my eyes that I saw shadows!" Harry said impatiently. "Also, I... I kinda saw a falling star."
"You were asleep," Lily said. James repeated this to Harry.
"I heard some noises. Someone was definitely having a war in that place," Harry said, "And I means someone other then Fred and George." He paused again, "Where exactly is mum?"
"Here," Neville said, pointing at Lily's nose.
"My nose is my nose, not me," Lily said, pushing the hand down.
Just then, an annoying cackle of laughter was heard as Peeves the Poltergeist flew into the Great Hall, Fred and George right under his heels, swearing spitefully after the mischievous ghost. James clucked his tongue and Harry stared wistfully at his father, wondering what on earth James would do.
What James did was simple. He pulled a face at Peeves and the face pulling competition began between him and Peeves, who refused to be beaten by a "simple common Poltergeist like Jimminy Potty Potter".
Lily sighed.
"You-know-Who's coming! You-Know-Who's coming!" Fred and George chanted. "Dumbledore said so! Dumbledore said so!"
"They sound like magpies," Ron commented.
"Come, we had better get Melissa Johnns as soon as we can," Lily said urgently, "The more help we can get, the better."
Neville frowned. The words 'Melissa' and 'help' had never seem to be connected, in his mind.
"She says, we need to get my Angel-- Melissa Johnns-- to help us."
The others nodded.
"Does anyone know where I can get the nearest public phone?" Lily added.
"A public what?" Neville repeated. He had obviously not heard of a telephone before.
"A public telephone. You know, the one you make calls with," Lily snapped. "Oh bother! None of you knew what a phone is! Ask Harry to point us to the nearest Public Phone!"
"Uh, Harry, your mother asks you to point her to the nearest Public Phone," Neville said uncertainly.
"There's none here," Hermione said automatically. "Where IS Harry's mum?"
"Right next to me."
"Where???"
"Here! On my left."
"Right... We'll have to go to the nearest village for a phone, then?" Harry said. Neville sensed that what Harry really wanted at that moment, was to talk with his parents. But now was not the time.
"Probably. And the nearest is most likely thirty miles off," Hermione replied.
"Let's use the Summoning Charm?" Ron suggested.
"Or get Dumbledore to make one," Neville suggested.
"You are all really unobservant!" Hermione scolded. "Dumbledore has a telephone! Here! Right in Hogwarts." And Hermione pointed at a red telephone box outside the window. The others blinked. That phone box definitely hasn't been there before. Without hesitating, Lily grabbed James and Harry before flying downwards through the wall. James went through quite easily, because that's what happens when you don't have a body, but Harry rammed tightly and fell down in a daze.
"I think she wants us to follow her," Neville called to Harry before running out and downstairs with Hermione and Ron.
"O...kay..." Harry mumbled.
~*~
Harry's parents were waiting impatiently by the red telephone box. By the time Harry had reached it, he was out of breath. James dragged Hermione into the phone box.
"You're a muggleborn, aren't you?" James said.
"Yes," Hermione confirmed.
"You know how to use this, er... Lifellotone?"
"Yes, and it's TELL-LEE-FONE, spelt t-e-l-e-p-h-o-n-e."
"Whatever. Now dial in this number," James said, holding a scrape of parchment in his ghost hands.
"Where is it going to? And Harry, have you got any coins?" Hermione said, fumbling her pockets.
"Duh! This is Hogwarts we're talking in here! The scene we are in is Hogwarts! You don't need any coins!" Lily said, rolling her eyes.
"She says you don't need money. This phone's, er, magic. Or something." Neville informed them. Harry stared dreamily
"Ah... Yeah... Um, right..."
"all right, listen up. The number is 724665-367-347787833-164357."
"724665--What?" Hermione frowned. "There's no such number! Telephone numbers are only 12 digets long! And where is this call going to?"
"Yes, there is such number and it's going to Heaven. I mean, it's bringing us to Heaven," James said. "It'll take us automatically to School For Disrupted Angels, and I think, with Melissa's attitude, she'll be in there by now watering some pot- plants or learning to play the flute."
Neville snorted. The vision of seeing haughty Melissa trying to water plants and doing flower arts was as ridiculous as turning a Flobberworm into a Centaur. It was just stupid, and plain wouldn't work. Hermione was mumbling to herself as she punched in the numbers to go to this School for whatever Angels, and with Ron, Harry, Neville and James and Lily and her in that tiny phone box, it was nearly impossible to even breathe, as they kept on pushing themselves to fit in.
"...357. Finished! I have a blister now..." Hermione said, just before they were swallowed into a porthole of bright, swirling colours that kept on spinning like there was no tomorrow.
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THE END! There's one more chapter left... 2 maximum *sob*... but don't give up on us, cause we have plans for more stories!!!! Yay!!!
Eleen and Rachel
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