THAT SUMMER, Chapter 15
By Reija Linn
Harry
The next day, our travel back to England started, though we used the root over Romania as we had planned. Our gear, except for a light travel bag and our brooms, had already been brought there by the FastWiz travel company, since Apparition was more trying the more you had to take with you.
Our breaks along the way were filled with nice, easy conversations at cafés and restaurants, though both of us were unusually drawn back, and the silence that sometimes spread in between subjects was not comfortable but strained. I guess we were both more than a little nervous about our return to England and whatever would come to pass there.
Additionally to this, I was experiencing some strange emotions that had nothing at all to do with Voldemort and his followers. Bill and I had been living together for two months, sharing the flat, our meals, our leisure time, even a bed - what would life be like without him, again? Would I be able to go back to that? To the loneliness? Would I be able to watch Sirius and Remus come out of their bedroom in unity each morning, the more feeling lonely with my own room and my own bed and no one to share it? But if I chose to move out of my godfather's house, I would have no company at all...
I wondered if I had made the wrong choice that night in Bill's bed, after all, but then, I couldn't seem to imagine any kind of future with Bill, and wouldn't it hurt even more to loose something you had already had, once, than to yearn for something you never had experienced?
I could not imagine a future with Bill, but would I manage a future without his presence?
I couldn't help but think about what Sesheta, the snake at the Pharaoh's temple, had told me. I had been so sure then, that Bill was to me what she described as a 'Chosen' - someone who complemented you, made you whole, someone who meant more to you than a friend or a brother or a lover...
Yes, Bill was all of that to me, but what was I to Bill? I had no doubt that he enjoyed my presence as much as I enjoyed his, and after that night I knew that he desired me, too - I hadn't known that night that Bill was gay, that I had learned only after the singer at that nightclub had implied it, but still, did I mean as much to him as he meant to me? Could I ever? It was hard to believe someone could feel such strong emotions for me, anyone, especially Bill, who always seemed so independent and free, that I simply couldn't imagine it.
Our stay at Charlie's place was planned to be brief, and it was all in all a little strained, since all knew where Bill and I were heading, and none of us knew whether we would return, ever.
We had intended to stay there over night, of course, since we had to spend the night somewhere and rather it be Charlie's place than some hotel - besides, it was good to spend some time together with the uncertainty of ever seeing them all again. The Weasley's had come to be a family to me, even Charlie whom I'd hardly ever met, and I felt fully accepted as a brother to all of them that evening.
As we sat together after a late supper, talking and trying to convince ourselves that it would not be the last time we could be together like this, Charlie approached us on a subject that had obviously cost him several sleepless nights. He had waited until the twins and Ginny - who looked much better since I had last seen her, and had taken on some weight again, almost finding back to the unique beauty she had once possessed - were busy with washing up in the kitchen.
It turned out he was having an inner conflict about the upcoming battle Bill and I were intending to fight. On one hand, he wanted to join us, on the other, he was afraid of leaving the twins and Ginny behind - the unspoken understanding was that if Bill died, he would be the one who would have to take responsibility for the others, and though all but Ginny were past adult age, he knew they all needed someone to guide them after all the tragic events that had passed up to then.
In the end, this problem solved itself. Surprisingly to all of us, Percy showed up very late at night, breathlessly stating that the ministry had finally fallen to the Death Eater's, and all former ministry members were either dead or being persecuted. Charlie and Percy left the room together, returning after almost an hour, stating their decision. Percy was to stay here and take care of the twins and Ginny, and Charlie and his friends would join us back to England - together with the dragons they had trained best (Fred and George protested loudly at this, claiming they would join us, and that they could master riding a dragon by now, but after Charlie had a quiet talk with them, too, they grudgingly agreed to stay, not the least of arguments being that with Percy being persecuted by Death Eater's, he needed more protection than he and Ginny could provide together).
So it was settled, and we extended our stay at Charlie's since we needed the official permission of various governments to travel with dragons (a permission that had to be granted by a multitude of different offices, various bureaus concerned with the restriction of magical creatures, offices of concealed travel, and of course the permission of each country we would have to travel through underway). Luckily, most governments had previously sworn their assistance to England (one of the things that combined all magical governments was the fight against wizards and witches who performed Dark Magic), and all permissions were assembled within a week.
Thus, when we continued our journey, it was not only Bill and me, but the two of us, Charlie, and the three friends he was now living with... by the way, those were the same people whom I had met during my first year, during the business with Norbert the Dragon - who was actually one of the four dragons we were traveling on. Phil, Collin and Mitchell, Charlie's friends (whom I hadn't recognised during my first visit at Charlie's, but who introduced themselves again before we started continuing our journey), had attended Hogwart's with Charlie, were just as shocked about the fall of the ministry as all of us, and though they had not been personally involved in the war going on in Britain since they had not lost any relatives or friends left there, they felt it was their duty to help in any way they could - and dragons were a powerful source, if you knew how to manage them, which was a very difficult art indeed.
Phil - behind whom I was to ride - was especially gifted with dragons, I learned that he was one of the few people who could communicate with them. Dragons did not talk, like humans, or even snakes, but transmitted their thoughts to each other, and the rare gift of being able to communicate with them was granted only to those who had especially high PSI-levels (PSI was one of the things I had heard about in Divination classes at Hogwarts, during the moments I hadn't been doing something else or sleeping, and was the foundation for the arts of telepathy, empathy and telekinesis, magical disciplines that were even more trying than Advanced Transfiguration).
It was a strange sensation, riding on dragon-back, stranger still as it has been with a Hippogriff in my fourth year of school - dragons were such huge creatures, and though they sailed through the air with an amazing grace, it was quite terrifying at first - for one, dragons flew much higher than I ever had on a broomstick, and secondly, though their flight had nothing of the humping sensation of riding a Hippogriff, it was awkward to be at the mercy of a creature so unpredictable. The knowledge that Phil, who was sitting in front of me, could transmit his thoughts to the beast was very assuring, though.
Our means of travel was amazingly fast, though - counting in the many breaks we would have had to have taken if traveling by Apparition, we hardly lost any time at all, and through the courtesy of the various governments, we always found wonderful accommodations along the way - there weren't many places that could take in four dragons without risking the discovery by Muggles, but those that could were usually very well equipped for both dragons *and* humans.
Bill was obviously enjoying our means of travel - he'd done this before, a couple of times, during his visits at Charlie's, and was more used to it than I was - plus, he was riding behind Charlie, which gave him some extra security (after all, if you couldn't trust your own brother's abilities, whose *could* you trust?)
Thus we arrived in France, our last station before finally going over to England. The closer we had come to Britain, the more we had heard about the disastrous going-ons in our home country, and our journey, which had started out quite pleasantly with a lot of joking along the way, grew more strained with every mile. During our last evening before crossing the channel, the feeling of nervousness and even fear was so palpable you could probably sense it all around us.
That last night, Bill and I returned to our old custom of sharing a bed again. Along the journey, we'd always been given separate rooms, and though it had felt awkward to sleeping alone again, we'd grown used to it - but that night in France, we both needed the reassurance, and decided what the heck with what everybody thought about it. Charlie did wink at us when he noticed I passed my own room to share Bill's, but refrained from commenting, simply whistling some tune in mock innocence while disappearing into his own room, barely hiding his chuckles.
France was also the point where Bill and I took our leave from Charlie and his friends - we decided that entering the country with four dragons and four people was conspicuous enough, and hard to hide as it was, with two extra riders, one of them being me (I, after all, was one of the main people the Death Eaters were trying to spot, knowing I would not flee from my old nemesis Voldemort)
So while the four of them stayed back, Bill and I traveled to England by Muggle means, using a ferry (the Death Eater's foresaw many things, but one of their draw-backs was that they could simply not imagine relying on Muggles, and would not oversee these passengers as harshly as those using wizard transportations as the controlled Apparition that was used for travel across borders, or portkeys.
In England, we were received by one of Dumbledore's people, a witch by the name of Margarita, who luckily managed to bring us to the castle of Hogwart's without being intercepted.
Hogwart's had changed a lot since I had last been there, I could hardly imagine it had only been two months. Though the castle and it's grounds were undamaged (other than the town of Hogsmeade, which was, by now, deserted), it seemed like more of a fortress than the school it had once been. With the current war going on, the school function had been shut down, Hogwart's was now a refugee camp for those who had lost their homes or parents, as well as the main camp of the resistance group around Albus Dumbledore.
Upon arrival, we were at once lead to the former headmaster, who was still living in his old rooms with the adjourning office I'd visited a couple of times during my school years.
Dumbledore had visibly aged during the two months since I had last seen him. There were deep shadows beneath his eyes, and his usual laughter wrinkles were supplemented by lines of worry. Still, he smiled when his eyes fell upon us.
"Ah, Harry. It's so good to see you again - and Bill Weasley... what a pleasure for my old eyes to see you both so healthy. As you surely have seen, England is not facing good times indeed. But please, sit down. We're just waiting for some more people, before we come down to business. Would you like a cup of tea, in the meantime?"
Without waiting for an answer, he conjured up a huge pot of tea and a number of cups, and so we waited for our round to be completed.
By Reija Linn
Harry
The next day, our travel back to England started, though we used the root over Romania as we had planned. Our gear, except for a light travel bag and our brooms, had already been brought there by the FastWiz travel company, since Apparition was more trying the more you had to take with you.
Our breaks along the way were filled with nice, easy conversations at cafés and restaurants, though both of us were unusually drawn back, and the silence that sometimes spread in between subjects was not comfortable but strained. I guess we were both more than a little nervous about our return to England and whatever would come to pass there.
Additionally to this, I was experiencing some strange emotions that had nothing at all to do with Voldemort and his followers. Bill and I had been living together for two months, sharing the flat, our meals, our leisure time, even a bed - what would life be like without him, again? Would I be able to go back to that? To the loneliness? Would I be able to watch Sirius and Remus come out of their bedroom in unity each morning, the more feeling lonely with my own room and my own bed and no one to share it? But if I chose to move out of my godfather's house, I would have no company at all...
I wondered if I had made the wrong choice that night in Bill's bed, after all, but then, I couldn't seem to imagine any kind of future with Bill, and wouldn't it hurt even more to loose something you had already had, once, than to yearn for something you never had experienced?
I could not imagine a future with Bill, but would I manage a future without his presence?
I couldn't help but think about what Sesheta, the snake at the Pharaoh's temple, had told me. I had been so sure then, that Bill was to me what she described as a 'Chosen' - someone who complemented you, made you whole, someone who meant more to you than a friend or a brother or a lover...
Yes, Bill was all of that to me, but what was I to Bill? I had no doubt that he enjoyed my presence as much as I enjoyed his, and after that night I knew that he desired me, too - I hadn't known that night that Bill was gay, that I had learned only after the singer at that nightclub had implied it, but still, did I mean as much to him as he meant to me? Could I ever? It was hard to believe someone could feel such strong emotions for me, anyone, especially Bill, who always seemed so independent and free, that I simply couldn't imagine it.
Our stay at Charlie's place was planned to be brief, and it was all in all a little strained, since all knew where Bill and I were heading, and none of us knew whether we would return, ever.
We had intended to stay there over night, of course, since we had to spend the night somewhere and rather it be Charlie's place than some hotel - besides, it was good to spend some time together with the uncertainty of ever seeing them all again. The Weasley's had come to be a family to me, even Charlie whom I'd hardly ever met, and I felt fully accepted as a brother to all of them that evening.
As we sat together after a late supper, talking and trying to convince ourselves that it would not be the last time we could be together like this, Charlie approached us on a subject that had obviously cost him several sleepless nights. He had waited until the twins and Ginny - who looked much better since I had last seen her, and had taken on some weight again, almost finding back to the unique beauty she had once possessed - were busy with washing up in the kitchen.
It turned out he was having an inner conflict about the upcoming battle Bill and I were intending to fight. On one hand, he wanted to join us, on the other, he was afraid of leaving the twins and Ginny behind - the unspoken understanding was that if Bill died, he would be the one who would have to take responsibility for the others, and though all but Ginny were past adult age, he knew they all needed someone to guide them after all the tragic events that had passed up to then.
In the end, this problem solved itself. Surprisingly to all of us, Percy showed up very late at night, breathlessly stating that the ministry had finally fallen to the Death Eater's, and all former ministry members were either dead or being persecuted. Charlie and Percy left the room together, returning after almost an hour, stating their decision. Percy was to stay here and take care of the twins and Ginny, and Charlie and his friends would join us back to England - together with the dragons they had trained best (Fred and George protested loudly at this, claiming they would join us, and that they could master riding a dragon by now, but after Charlie had a quiet talk with them, too, they grudgingly agreed to stay, not the least of arguments being that with Percy being persecuted by Death Eater's, he needed more protection than he and Ginny could provide together).
So it was settled, and we extended our stay at Charlie's since we needed the official permission of various governments to travel with dragons (a permission that had to be granted by a multitude of different offices, various bureaus concerned with the restriction of magical creatures, offices of concealed travel, and of course the permission of each country we would have to travel through underway). Luckily, most governments had previously sworn their assistance to England (one of the things that combined all magical governments was the fight against wizards and witches who performed Dark Magic), and all permissions were assembled within a week.
Thus, when we continued our journey, it was not only Bill and me, but the two of us, Charlie, and the three friends he was now living with... by the way, those were the same people whom I had met during my first year, during the business with Norbert the Dragon - who was actually one of the four dragons we were traveling on. Phil, Collin and Mitchell, Charlie's friends (whom I hadn't recognised during my first visit at Charlie's, but who introduced themselves again before we started continuing our journey), had attended Hogwart's with Charlie, were just as shocked about the fall of the ministry as all of us, and though they had not been personally involved in the war going on in Britain since they had not lost any relatives or friends left there, they felt it was their duty to help in any way they could - and dragons were a powerful source, if you knew how to manage them, which was a very difficult art indeed.
Phil - behind whom I was to ride - was especially gifted with dragons, I learned that he was one of the few people who could communicate with them. Dragons did not talk, like humans, or even snakes, but transmitted their thoughts to each other, and the rare gift of being able to communicate with them was granted only to those who had especially high PSI-levels (PSI was one of the things I had heard about in Divination classes at Hogwarts, during the moments I hadn't been doing something else or sleeping, and was the foundation for the arts of telepathy, empathy and telekinesis, magical disciplines that were even more trying than Advanced Transfiguration).
It was a strange sensation, riding on dragon-back, stranger still as it has been with a Hippogriff in my fourth year of school - dragons were such huge creatures, and though they sailed through the air with an amazing grace, it was quite terrifying at first - for one, dragons flew much higher than I ever had on a broomstick, and secondly, though their flight had nothing of the humping sensation of riding a Hippogriff, it was awkward to be at the mercy of a creature so unpredictable. The knowledge that Phil, who was sitting in front of me, could transmit his thoughts to the beast was very assuring, though.
Our means of travel was amazingly fast, though - counting in the many breaks we would have had to have taken if traveling by Apparition, we hardly lost any time at all, and through the courtesy of the various governments, we always found wonderful accommodations along the way - there weren't many places that could take in four dragons without risking the discovery by Muggles, but those that could were usually very well equipped for both dragons *and* humans.
Bill was obviously enjoying our means of travel - he'd done this before, a couple of times, during his visits at Charlie's, and was more used to it than I was - plus, he was riding behind Charlie, which gave him some extra security (after all, if you couldn't trust your own brother's abilities, whose *could* you trust?)
Thus we arrived in France, our last station before finally going over to England. The closer we had come to Britain, the more we had heard about the disastrous going-ons in our home country, and our journey, which had started out quite pleasantly with a lot of joking along the way, grew more strained with every mile. During our last evening before crossing the channel, the feeling of nervousness and even fear was so palpable you could probably sense it all around us.
That last night, Bill and I returned to our old custom of sharing a bed again. Along the journey, we'd always been given separate rooms, and though it had felt awkward to sleeping alone again, we'd grown used to it - but that night in France, we both needed the reassurance, and decided what the heck with what everybody thought about it. Charlie did wink at us when he noticed I passed my own room to share Bill's, but refrained from commenting, simply whistling some tune in mock innocence while disappearing into his own room, barely hiding his chuckles.
France was also the point where Bill and I took our leave from Charlie and his friends - we decided that entering the country with four dragons and four people was conspicuous enough, and hard to hide as it was, with two extra riders, one of them being me (I, after all, was one of the main people the Death Eaters were trying to spot, knowing I would not flee from my old nemesis Voldemort)
So while the four of them stayed back, Bill and I traveled to England by Muggle means, using a ferry (the Death Eater's foresaw many things, but one of their draw-backs was that they could simply not imagine relying on Muggles, and would not oversee these passengers as harshly as those using wizard transportations as the controlled Apparition that was used for travel across borders, or portkeys.
In England, we were received by one of Dumbledore's people, a witch by the name of Margarita, who luckily managed to bring us to the castle of Hogwart's without being intercepted.
Hogwart's had changed a lot since I had last been there, I could hardly imagine it had only been two months. Though the castle and it's grounds were undamaged (other than the town of Hogsmeade, which was, by now, deserted), it seemed like more of a fortress than the school it had once been. With the current war going on, the school function had been shut down, Hogwart's was now a refugee camp for those who had lost their homes or parents, as well as the main camp of the resistance group around Albus Dumbledore.
Upon arrival, we were at once lead to the former headmaster, who was still living in his old rooms with the adjourning office I'd visited a couple of times during my school years.
Dumbledore had visibly aged during the two months since I had last seen him. There were deep shadows beneath his eyes, and his usual laughter wrinkles were supplemented by lines of worry. Still, he smiled when his eyes fell upon us.
"Ah, Harry. It's so good to see you again - and Bill Weasley... what a pleasure for my old eyes to see you both so healthy. As you surely have seen, England is not facing good times indeed. But please, sit down. We're just waiting for some more people, before we come down to business. Would you like a cup of tea, in the meantime?"
Without waiting for an answer, he conjured up a huge pot of tea and a number of cups, and so we waited for our round to be completed.