Plop.
A glob of white frosting fell from my fork and onto my black dinner jacket, leaving a long white smear in its' wake.
"Don't worry about it," said a voice from behind me. I turned around, and Kate came to sit next to me. "Just take it off and stick it under the table when no one's watching. Your mum and dad won't find it until we're back at school."
I laughed, and quickly slipped it off as James laughed, too, his mouth filled with more frosting than I had previously thought humanly possible.
"Still mad at me, mate?" Kate asked, taking a dainty bite of her own cake.
I shook my head, not really wanting to elaborate, or for James to know the nature of our fight. I would hex the Queen before I told James that I was jealous of…well, you know. Apparently, Kate picked up on my hesitance, and dropped the subject. Or maybe she was just really hungry (another Weasley trait).
I looked around the room, and thought about how wonderful of a job all of my aunts and uncles did. They had each been in charge of something different, and I was very glad that Aunt Angelina, the editor of the Enchanting Entertainment magazine, had been in charge of hiring the band. The whole purpose of the night was to try to recreate my grandparents' wedding reception, right down to the original guest list, and I knew that Aunt Gina worked hard to find a good swing band for the party.
The ballroom in our new house had been done to match the pictures of the wedding fifty years ago, and actually matched rather well. Most of the original guests were in attendance the second shot around, as well as a lot of the friends that were made by the original Weasley family over the years.
People were swirling around the dance floor, even Emily (who had been sulking about wearing a dress until now) and Rachel (who loved dresses) were spinning around and around in the middle of the floor, causing couples to trip over the little girls every now and then.
James decided to take this moment to be the ladies' man, and cut in on his parents who were dancing, but tapping Uncle Harry on the shoulder, and bowing politely to Aunt Ginny. She laughed and curtsied, and began to dance with James.
Mum saw the "cuteness" of it all, and came over to me, holding out her hands and saying, "What do you say, Landon? Care to take a spin around the dance floor?"
Why not?
Because I couldn't dance.
I took Mum's hands, and attempted to dance, apologizing every…oh, every three seconds, I'd say, for stepping on her feet. She had to lead, of course, because dancing wasn't really one of my strong points.
After Mum winced for about the billionth time, someone tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Let a real man show you how it's done, son." Mum and I laughed, and Dad began to dance with her. He was frighteningly good, as well. I suppose that Mum must have forced him to learn before their wedding or something, not wanting to be made a fool of thanks to a horrible partner.
James was still dancing with Aunt Ginny. Surprisingly…he was good, too! I could just picture him in a couple of years with clumps of girls following him around at Yule Balls. I suppose it pays when your best friend is a chick magnet.
Someone tapped me on the shoulder (people were doing that a lot tonight) and Kate was standing next to me.
"Don't know how to dance, eh?" she said knowingly.
Oh, no! I'm Landon Weasley, Lord of the Dance!
I shook my head.
"Come on," she said, taking my hands, "I'll show you." She led me (rather, forced me) onto the dance floor, put my hand on her waist, and held my other hand. "Step, two, three; step, two, three; step, two, th-ouch!"
"Sorry."
"No, no; it's all right," she says with a wince on her face. Right. I think that she was almost relieved when the song was over and I took my hands away (James charmingly dipped his mother back on the final chord- excuse me whilst I blow chunks…).
Kate seemed eager not to dance with me this time, and I don't blame her. I thanked her for the dance (I did have manners) and walked to get something to drink. James came and joined me, and we both sat down. I thought that this might have been a good opportunity to tell him about what I saw, and…you know, discuss things. He was talking about Charlotte though. I passed the time while I was supposed to be listening to "Charlotte this" and "Charlotte that" by watching all of my relatives on the dance floor.
Uncle Harry seemed quite pleased that Evie had finally consented to dance with her father. It really was rather uncanny how much the two looked alike; Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny's children were the only three Weasleys without red hair. Evie's was cropped short, to just below her chin, and was dreadfully messy, just like Uncle Harry's. Although, not in a bad way. It rather worked in her favor, because the look that she had was one of those that Muggle and Magical girls alike emulated. They both had the same brilliant green eyes, and the same smile. Kind of funny, if you ask me. James looked almost exactly like Uncle Harry, as well, minus the scar. And, I'm told, that Uncle Harry looks exactly like his father did.
I don't think that I looked too much like Dad. Of course, I had the trademark red hair, and blue eyes like Dad. I wasn't quite as tall as he was when my age, but I'm still taller than James. Mum says that I have the same smile as Dad. It's kind of lopsided, I think, but Mum says that she adores it every time that Dad and I are sitting next to each other and end up laughing; for some odd reason, she thinks that we look alike when we smile. I don't think so, because my eyes don't crinkle up in the corners, like Dad's do. And I don't have as many freckles.
"Don't you think so, Landon?"
"Uh-huh."
" And I think that your mum looks like a boarhound, wouldn't you agree?"
"Yep….what?!"
"Way to listen, man," James said, clapping me on the shoulder. "And I didn't mean that about your mum, by the way."
"You'd better not have," I said in a rather threatening way, causing James to laugh. I wonder what he was thinking…Yeah, like you could beat me up…
We sat in silence for a little while, before James said, "Well, this is boring…"
"Yep."
"Yep."
"Hey," I said, "I've got to tell you something! Come on, let's get out of here."
"All right," he replied, as eager to leave as I was.
We opened the door to get out of the ballroom, making a huge mistake. In opening the door, we allowed our golden retriever, Beatrice (I don't understand the name, either. I think it was one of those Mum/Dad/Uncle Harry inside jokes), to come bounding in the room, knocking over caterers, making people jump out of the way, as she ran happily over to where Mum and Dad were dancing. She promptly jumped on them, causing them to fall to the floor under the force of it, as she ecstatically licked their faces.
Emily giggled as Dad pushed the dog off and the two of them stood up, wiping dog slobber off of their faces with napkins that caterers rushed to bring them. Emily clapped her hands to her knees, calling "Beatty! Beatty!" (She couldn't say 'Beatrice' without spitting). The dog bounded over to Emily, who petted her joyfully, and hugged her. Adults found this to be adorable, and sounds of "Aw…" could be heard throughout the room.
Sure, she was cute if you didn't have to live in the same house as her.
James and I were about to make a clean getaway, when house elves came running in after the dog (they were having a hard time with the running bit, because they kept hitting themselves). Mum, Dad, and everyone else in the world noticed that, and they caught the two of us red-handed.
"Landon," Dad said, unbelievably calmly (although Dad wasn't one to get upset easily, I knew how much he, and the rest of the family, wanted this night to be perfect for my grandparents), "Would you please take Beatrice back outside before she desecrates another ballroom?"
I nodded, called for the dog, and led her out of the room.
"James, dear," I heard Mum saying, her voice laced with worry, "would you please tell the house elves to kindly stop abusing themselves?"
"Yes," he said, and turned to the house elves. "Erm…you'd better stop that, or Aunt Hermione's liable to have a conniption."
The party erupted into laughter, and even Mum found it rather funny. James turned and winked at everyone (always the center of attention), and led the house elves out of the ballroom. I was waiting for him in the living room, and when he came in, he was practically doubled over in laughter.
"What's so funny?" I asked him.
He was shaking so hard that he could barely stand, let alone answer. James' laughter, for some reason, had always been contagious, and I soon found myself laughing hysterically as well, for no reason other than…well, because he was.
We were just calming down when a wizard came walking through the living room, carrying a huge book that resembled something that Mum would have in her library. I recognized him; his name was Draco Malfoy. I had no clue why he was at our house. He had only been released from Azkaban a year ago, why on earth would he be in the house of two once-Aurors while the Minister of Magic was just a yell away? A tall witch with long blond hair came in as well, and I knew her instantly as Professor Delacour.
"Do you know the way?" Malfoy asked her quietly. She nodded, and he followed her.
*
"Landon, I don't get it," James was saying to me as he ran with me to the library. "What's going on? Why are we running? Answer me!" He never could stand not knowing anything.
I ran into the library, and shoved the heavy wooden door shut after James jogged in behind me. I ran around the shelves and climbed ladders, finding the books that I needed, before darting over to the B section and looking for Wuthering Heights, or anything else by Charlotte Bronte. I shoved Wuthering Heights back into the shelf and nothing happen. Then I grabbed Shirley; Jane Eyre; Villette and The Professor, trying to get back into the mirror room. Nothing was happening. I then tried all of the other Bronte sisters' work, but nothing was happening.
"Bugger!" I swore. James looked at me in a mixture of surprise and admiration. I never swore. I turned to him. "James," I said, "we've got to talk."
*
James and I sat in the common room, skipping our classes for the day. When I wanted to explain everything to him at home, but couldn't for Malfoy and Professor Delacour walked into the library, and proceeded to tell us that they would tell our parents that we were snooping if we didn't go back to the party. James was ready with a smart remark, but I kicked his leg. They knew what our parents knew, I surmised, and after the episode on Halloween, our parents would be livid.
"So wait," James said, a look of that of a confused vulture on his face (at least I think a confused vulture- his eyes were all crinkly, his brow was furrowed and wrinkly, his jaw was all locked up and his head was cocked to one side, but his eyes were definitely the thing that made me think hey, my friend looks like a vulture), "Who's double crossing who?"
"Whom."
"What?"
"Who is double crossing whom, and why would you ask that? Isn't it obvious?" I said.
"No, not really," he said, scratching his head and easing up on the vulture-ality.
"It all makes sense," I said, adjusting my position so I was facing him a bit more, and using my hands to gesture (something that both of my parents did when they were excited- I wonder if all children are so closely related outwardly to their parents? That could make an interesting study indeed) as I said, "Draco Malfoy, you know that guy with the book at my house? Well, he used to be a Death Eater, I think that our parents were the ones who put him in Azkaban in the first place; they've always hated each other. He got out by bribing the court and saying that he was under the Imperius Curse when he did all of those things, and Mum had a big set-to with the Ministry about it, but anyway, he used to be a Death Eater. Remember on Halloween when Professor Delacour was off in the potions room talking to the mouse guy?"
"Mouse guy?"
"He looked like a mouse to me, ok? You looked like a vulture for a second, so it is definitely possible that someone can look like a mouse. Now let me finish my story!" In the midst of all of this, James still managed to laugh, but I had to punch him and tell him, while laughing, mind you, that this was serious and we had to concentrate.
I readjusted my position on the couch to better face him, and began speaking over his laughter and motioning with my hands to better get my point across. "So, Professor Delacour was talking to Mighty Mouse, who, at least I think, is Peter Pettigrew."
"The guy with the Marauder's Map?" James asked, the name of Pettigrew snapping him from his laughing fit.
"Exactly. I looked him up in The Rise and Fall of the Second Dark Age; he's also in tons of other books that Mum had in her library, including this one," I said, ducking to pull a heavy book from my rucksack. It was called Double Jeopardy: Key Cases in the Fall of the Second Dark Age- Commentaries by Sirius Black and Hermione Granger-Weasley. James looked at me quizzically still.
"What's so important about it?" he asked me. I flipped open to the case regarding Uncle Sirius's official declaration of innocence, and the incrimination of Peter Pettigrew.
"Look at this," I said. "Peter was the man who betrayed your grandparents to Lord Voldemort [we children had always been raised to say his proper name]. Uncle Sirius got framed for it; it's a really long story. But they finally caught up with old Peter in a Muggle pub, and the entire story came out. This was after the war, of course, and he pleaded innocence. After that didn't work, he tried for the insanity plea, and then as a last resort, he claimed that he had been under the Imperius Curse. Mum was fighting against him, but the courts sided with him, since there was no real evidence that he had or hadn't been under the curse. After what happened with Uncle Sirius, they didn't want to put another innocent man into Azkaban, so they let him go free. He disappeared again, and after he was long gone, it came out that he had been working for Voldemort the entire time. You know, before our parents killed him."
"What does this have to do with anything?" James asked, nodding dumbly along with everything that I had been saying. Honestly, had the boy no brain at all?
"It means that-"
Bugger. The portrait of the Fat Lady swung open, and Mum climbed in, eyeing us suspiciously.
"You two weren't in classes today," she said. It wasn't a question. "Why?"
James and I looked at each other, and I said, "Well…erm…we wanted to finish up the homework that we missed before starting anything new." I elbowed James, and he nodded his head in consent.
Mum was still looking at us apprehensively, but she said, "All right…" Her eyes darted to where the book Double Jeopardy lay. She crossed and picked it up. "Where did you get this?" She asked. "This isn't in the Hogwarts library, I don't think."
"I brought it from your library at home for a bit of light reading," I said. Mum raised her eyebrow at me, but then must have thought about something from her school days and her reading fetish.
"It's very good, if I do say so myself," she said, setting the book back down on the coffee table. "You should enjoy it; just send it back home with Hermes or give it back to me. Make sure that you get all of your homework done, and there will be hell to pay if you're not in classes tomorrow," she said with a small wink at us. She turned to leave, but thought better of it. She turned around and took a seat in one of the armchairs. "Actually, Landon," she said, leaning forward on her knees a bit, "I've been meaning to talk to you."
James looked rather uncomfortable, and said, "I'll be back later, then."
"Oh, no, James," Mum said. "You don't have to go. Actually, I'd rather like you to hear this."
James sat back down on the couch, and Mum continued.
"Landon, your father and I have been doing some thinking. We…we were wondering what you might think of another addition to the family?" she asked. I figured that this was one of those things that were already decided.
"You're having a baby?" James asked.
Mum chuckled a bit. "Oh, no," she said. Before she could explain further, James opened his mouth again.
"So, what, are you getting another dog or something?" he asked stupidly.
Mum laughed at that. "No, James, we're not getting another dog." He was silent before opening his mouth again. Mum cut him off. "We're not getting any form of animal that may serve as a pet," she said. He closed his mouth immediately, showing me that that was exactly what he was going to ask.
I ignored everything that James had said and went back to Mum's original question. "What kind of…addition…are you talking about?" I asked her.
"Well, James was almost right. I'm not having a baby, but your Dad and I have decided to adopt a little boy from an orphanage in Scotland," she said. "He's one and a half."
Why were they adopting a baby? Why didn't they just…ew ew EW!!! I am not thinking about my parents' sex lives!!!
"What's his name?" James asked.
Mum cleared her throat. "Actually, he doesn't have one. They…they don't name them in the orphanage. It's quite horrible. They leave them in cribs all day, and don't speak to them, or hold them, or…never mind." She was getting very worked up about this, and I could tell that she didn't want to explode in front of us. "Uncle Ron and I are going to wait until we see him to name him."
"Erm…Mum?" I asked.
"Yes, Landon?"
"Why are you and Dad adopting a baby?" I was dying to know the answer.
Mum smiled sadly. "Your father and I…we've been privileged enough to give you kids a life that many children could only hope of, Landon. We want to make a difference in at least someone's life by making him as happy as he deserves to be. In this case, we're going to give a little boy a family who loves him." Her eyes were strangely cloudy.
"That's not the only reason, though," she continued. "No, the orphanage contacted the British Ministry saying that one of their little boys, your brother, was doing strange things, almost magical thing. There's a member of the British Ministry who is married to a witch, and he was smart enough to recognize what was going on. He notified the Ministry of Magic, and I was one of the first people to get wind of it. Your father and I had been tinkering with the idea of another baby, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity for us."
Silence.
"That's pretty cool, Aunt Mione," James said.
Mum smiled. "I'm glad that you think so, James. What do you think, Landon?"
Let's hope a little brother is better than a little sister…
Actually, it wouldn't be all that bad, I'm sure. I could be a positive male influence in this kid's life. I would teach him how to study, how to perform spells and charms, and how to play chess. I could teach him everything that he needed to know, since they didn't teach the kids anything in that ruddy orphanage. I could teach him how to play Quidditch (that's a laugh- Emily and Dad would probably be the ones to do that), and even how to avoid Mum and Dad when they were mad.
I smiled at Mum, in the way that reminded her of Dad (although I still don't see it), and said, "Sounds great, Mum! When do I get to meet the kid?"
Mum smiled, and said, "Tomorrow."
Why was it that my parents had this…this thing with waiting until the last minute to tell me things?
"Well, I'm off," Mum said, standing up. "Emily has a Little League game. First of the season! Did I tell you that she made the travel team that she wanted to? Youngest Seeker in the league. She's pestering Dad and I to let her be on England's team, you know, the world-class team. They offered her position as Seeker, but your father and I don't want her to be away from home so early. Not until she's at least in her third year, we've decided. It's enough to travel back and forth to England for all of her games, but she doesn't know Italian! We couldn't put her on an Italian team; you know Em, she never would have lasted. Anyway, I'm off, you two. Go to dinner."
Not a question once more, and the two of us got up and walked to the Great Hall. Once more, we would have to finish our conversation later. I wanted to go to the library after dinner, but it was closed on Wednesday nights. Charlotte seemed a bit put out that James and I had been ignoring her since we got back, but we didn't pay attention to it. We were speaking in hushed whispers throughout dinner, not really paying attention to anything at that. One thing I did notice, however, was that there were two empty seats at the staff table. Mum's seat was vacant, which I knew it would be, but so was the Headmaster's. I wondered where he was, but then decided not to worry about it. He had always been a somewhat secretive man, and I had learned not to question.
*
At ten o'clock that night, I was still rifling through my books, trying to find as much information on Peter Pettigrew as I could. I was determined that somehow he was a link to everything. My theory, in entirety, was summed up on a roll of parchment that was sitting in front of me:
Key People
Mum (Hermione Granger-Weasley)- working for the Ministry, undercover at Hogwarts? Not making sense, she's been teaching here for years and has been retired as an Auror for a while, too.
Dad (Ron Weasley)- working with the Ministry on the same case as Mum?
Uncle Harry Potter- working with the Ministry on the same case as Mum and Dad?
Uncle Sirius Black- Case Director?
Peter Pettigrew- Bad guy? After evading Azkaban he rejoined Death Eaters and is now serving as the Dark Lord's (albeit, he's dead) liaison?
Professor Delacour- Working on the same case as everyone else? Either double-crossing them, or a double agent? Or, she's double-crossing the Death Eaters?
Draco Malfoy-???
Missing Pieces
What the hell is this case anyway? All I know is that something is wrong, and all of those people have something to do with it.
Other Theories
1. Peter Pettigrew looks like a Mouse
2. Mum is somehow protecting the school. Perhaps Prof. D. was sent here to spy and find a right time for the D.E.'s to attack. Note: why would they want to attack?
All right, so it wasn't much, but at least it was something. James had gone to bed a long time ago, tired of talking about it. I don't think that he found anything as fascinating as I did, but for some reason, my curiosity was just dying to know what was going on. Something was going on, I just knew it was, and I was going to find out what it was.