A/N: I've had a few questions about Shannon's mum, and here is the chapter with the answers. Hope you enjoy it! And no, Silvermoon, she's not a Death Eater!
Disclaimer: Yadda yadda yadda, blah blah blah.
Dedication: Happy birthday to Fangz!
Harry Potter and the Crystal of Dreams.
Harry left Shannon to rest for about half an hour, even though he knew she hadn't gone to sleep. Madam Pomfrey had tried to give her some medicine to knock her out, but Shannon had spat it out into an empty cup on her bedside cabinet as soon as the nurse left.
Eventually, Harry got out of bed again and pulled back part of the curtain tentatively. "Shannon?" he whispered.
Her head jerked round immediately, expression relaxing when she saw who it was. "Hey."
"How are you?" he asked, pulling a chair up beside her bed. She shrugged.
"OK. You?"
He nodded vaguely. "What about your foot?"
"I'll show you if you want." She smiled somewhat impishly and tossed back the duvet awkwardly, pulling her feet up until the injured one came into view, heavily bandaged. Seeing his shocked look, she shrugged and covered it back up. "Doesn't hurt. Madam Pomfrey did a good job even though...well, the bones were a little more than fractured."
Harry nodded. "Shannon, I heard earlier. About your dad saying he was going to get you to go back to Italy. I didn't mean to eavesdrop, I just overheard it."
"Oh." Her eyes darkened, and she shook her head. "That's OK. He's not sending me anywhere."
"What if he tries?"
She shrugged again. "It's not so much the fact I'll have to go back to Carnia. I mean, I do have friends there, good friends, but it's that he keeps moving me around. I only just really got settled here and then he expects me to move again? Not happening."
"Maybe he's right. Maybe it would be safer."
Shannon snorted. "I don't care. Did you hear what Dumbledore said anyway? What's to stop You-Know-Who trying to take over Italy or anywhere once he's gotten in control here?"
There was a silence for a few long moments, during which something started to nag at the back of Harry's mind. Eventually, he asked, "Shan?"
"Yeah?"
"You know when...with Voldemort..." Shannon seemed a bit paler at the mention of the name, but she nodded slowly. "What did he mean when he said about your mum?"
Shannon's body tensed. "My mam? It's...it's kind of complicated..."
Harry paused as she stared at her hands. "Do...you want to talk about it?"
She gave him a long sideways look, obviously thinking intently before she said, in barely a whisper, "OK. But...bear with me. This is kind of hard to tell because I actually haven't said before."
He nodded. "It's alright. I'll listen. Take your time."
So, taking a deep, calming breath, Shannon began in a voice that was quiet and sad.
"My mam...she was born in County Galway, down near a river called the Shannon." She made a sound halfway between a laugh and a sob. "Her name was Eileen. Eileen McKinnon."
Harry blinked. The surname sounded familiar.
"You see, at this time, You-Know-Who had just started to get really powerful. Lots of supporters, that sort of thing. And he decided that to prove his strength, he was going to start killing off some of the oldest wizarding families around. And first on his list were the McKinnons.
"My mam was only a baby at the time, just under a year old I think. One night, some Death Eaters burst into the house and killed the entire family. Grandparents, parents, children..." Shannon trailed off, looking at her lap and appearing very ill. "They never found out who did it. But all that was left was my mam in her crib, and she must have been woken up by the noise and started crying or something because the Death Eaters found her. And...and WHY, nobody knows, but they must have thought it was great fun, because...because they put the Cruciatus Curse on her."
Harry understood why Shannon looked sickened now. He thought of a baby under the Cruciatus Curse and felt exactly the same.
Shannon swallowed hard, gasping for breath a bit now as she rushed on. "Of course, she was only little, and the Cruciatus does enough damage to an adult as it is without..." She shut her eyes. "Anyway, it left her problems. She used to have really bad pains in her joints for years after. She had to have all kinds of operations just to sort things out when she was little.
"What happened was that the Death Eaters must have thought that the Cruciatus would kill her, or that it wasn't important, or something, because they left her there. When they saw the Dark Mark over the house, some of their magical neighbours came running and found what had happened. My mam was given to friends of her family, who adopted her and moved to another County. So You-Know-Who didn't know that she was still alive, they gave her their last name, and she grew up as Eileen Hope."
Shannon was faltering now, twisting her hands in her lap. The same instinct which had led him to comfort Chloe kicked into Harry again, and he hesitantly reached out to put a hand on her shoulder, which made her look at him again with a sigh.
"Well, anyway, my mam grew up and got accepted into Hogwarts, which is where she really got to know my dad- they went to the same school before. A while after they left school, they got married, and they were living in Kilmare, which is where I grew up, when they found out that Mam was pregnant. They were really happy about it, but...then they got some bad news...
"There were some complications, really bad ones. Basically, they were told that if Mam carried on with the pregnancy and gave birth, she was going to die." Shannon choked slightly, bringing her hands up over her face as her shoulders shook slightly. Harry, unsure of what to do, rubbed her shoulder slowly in a comforting way. She swallowed hard and uncovered her face, hugging her elbows instead as she quickly glanced at him, then back to her lap.
"Well," she said quietly, so quietly that he had to strain to hear her voice. "I'm here now and she's not, so I guess that says it all. And that's the end of the story." She snorted in something like a laugh, only much sadder.
"Shannon..." Harry sighed, wondering what he could say that might help. "Shannon, none of it's your fault. You know that, right?"
She gave a tiny nod, then looked at him. "My Nana Hope was the one who told me most of this, and she said it's nobody's fault but the Death Eaters'. But that doesn't stop me feeling guilty, does it? It's still true that if I hadn't been born, maybe Mam would have been alive today."
"You shouldn't think like that." Harry hesitated for a moment, thinking. "Maybe you should talk to your dad."
Shannon raised her eyebrows. "Yeah. Even though he hasn't mentioned Mam in years. He has Julianna now. I don't think he'd want to talk about her."
Harry shrugged. "Give it a go."
Shannon pursed her lips. "I don't know, Harry..."
"You don't know unless you try, right?"
She sighed. "I guess not. Alright then."
"Thank you."
There was a longer silence now, before Shannon suddenly started. "Harry?"
"What is it?" He frowned at her tone.
"The Crystal...what happened to it?"
Harry blinked. "I put it in my robes. It's in my pocket."
"Are you sure?" She grabbed his arm suddenly. "Just...check. Please. Just make sure."
Harry wondered at her nervousness as he got up, Shannon detatching her grip on him to allow him to walk back through the curtain into the section around his bed. He was in nightclothes now, but his robes, still torn and dusty, were folded neatly on one of the bedside chairs. He began to search through them.
"Is it there?" came Shannon's hushed voice.
Harry put his hand into one of the pockets at this moment, colliding with something solid and oddly shaped. He clasped it and drew it out, finding himself staring straight at the Crystal. The smooth faces of its sharply prismatic form glinted in what little light there was available in the hospital wing, and he could just about make out some type of smoke moving within it...
"Harry?"
His gaze snapped up to the slight gap in the curtains. "Yeah. Yeah, it's here, Shannon."
"Dumbledore said he'd want to see you tomorrow." She replied. "Make sure you keep that safe and give him it."
Harry nodded, even though he knew she couldn't see it. "OK. We'd better sleep. Are you going to be alright?"
"Sure." There was a pause as Harry made his way over to his bed again and sat down, Crystal still tightly clasped in his hand. "And...thanks. For listening, I mean."
He smiled at the awkwardness in her voice. "That's alright. Any time. Go to sleep."
"I will." She gave a laugh that wasn't all genuine. "No dreams, I hope."
"So do I." Harry murmured as he lay back down.
Silence fell as the pair drifted off into peace and the sky gradually began to lighten with the approaching dawn.
*****
Thanks for all the nice reviews I've been getting! Here's a few lil' notes:
Shrimpo/Jewels: First off, interesting penname! Also, don't worry about not reviewing in 12 chapters...I have a habit of forgetting what I'm reading too!
I Am A Sly Slytherin: It's like how she pronounces it. Just how in America it's 'mom' and in England it's 'mum'...so for her, it's 'mam'.
Silvermoon: Thank you so much for updating Rinoa Heartilly- finally! Also, don't let those poor imploding shrimps go to your head, lol! Oh, and you're still eeeeeeeevvvvvviiiiiilllllll!!!!!
Disclaimer: Yadda yadda yadda, blah blah blah.
Dedication: Happy birthday to Fangz!
Harry Potter and the Crystal of Dreams.
Harry left Shannon to rest for about half an hour, even though he knew she hadn't gone to sleep. Madam Pomfrey had tried to give her some medicine to knock her out, but Shannon had spat it out into an empty cup on her bedside cabinet as soon as the nurse left.
Eventually, Harry got out of bed again and pulled back part of the curtain tentatively. "Shannon?" he whispered.
Her head jerked round immediately, expression relaxing when she saw who it was. "Hey."
"How are you?" he asked, pulling a chair up beside her bed. She shrugged.
"OK. You?"
He nodded vaguely. "What about your foot?"
"I'll show you if you want." She smiled somewhat impishly and tossed back the duvet awkwardly, pulling her feet up until the injured one came into view, heavily bandaged. Seeing his shocked look, she shrugged and covered it back up. "Doesn't hurt. Madam Pomfrey did a good job even though...well, the bones were a little more than fractured."
Harry nodded. "Shannon, I heard earlier. About your dad saying he was going to get you to go back to Italy. I didn't mean to eavesdrop, I just overheard it."
"Oh." Her eyes darkened, and she shook her head. "That's OK. He's not sending me anywhere."
"What if he tries?"
She shrugged again. "It's not so much the fact I'll have to go back to Carnia. I mean, I do have friends there, good friends, but it's that he keeps moving me around. I only just really got settled here and then he expects me to move again? Not happening."
"Maybe he's right. Maybe it would be safer."
Shannon snorted. "I don't care. Did you hear what Dumbledore said anyway? What's to stop You-Know-Who trying to take over Italy or anywhere once he's gotten in control here?"
There was a silence for a few long moments, during which something started to nag at the back of Harry's mind. Eventually, he asked, "Shan?"
"Yeah?"
"You know when...with Voldemort..." Shannon seemed a bit paler at the mention of the name, but she nodded slowly. "What did he mean when he said about your mum?"
Shannon's body tensed. "My mam? It's...it's kind of complicated..."
Harry paused as she stared at her hands. "Do...you want to talk about it?"
She gave him a long sideways look, obviously thinking intently before she said, in barely a whisper, "OK. But...bear with me. This is kind of hard to tell because I actually haven't said before."
He nodded. "It's alright. I'll listen. Take your time."
So, taking a deep, calming breath, Shannon began in a voice that was quiet and sad.
"My mam...she was born in County Galway, down near a river called the Shannon." She made a sound halfway between a laugh and a sob. "Her name was Eileen. Eileen McKinnon."
Harry blinked. The surname sounded familiar.
"You see, at this time, You-Know-Who had just started to get really powerful. Lots of supporters, that sort of thing. And he decided that to prove his strength, he was going to start killing off some of the oldest wizarding families around. And first on his list were the McKinnons.
"My mam was only a baby at the time, just under a year old I think. One night, some Death Eaters burst into the house and killed the entire family. Grandparents, parents, children..." Shannon trailed off, looking at her lap and appearing very ill. "They never found out who did it. But all that was left was my mam in her crib, and she must have been woken up by the noise and started crying or something because the Death Eaters found her. And...and WHY, nobody knows, but they must have thought it was great fun, because...because they put the Cruciatus Curse on her."
Harry understood why Shannon looked sickened now. He thought of a baby under the Cruciatus Curse and felt exactly the same.
Shannon swallowed hard, gasping for breath a bit now as she rushed on. "Of course, she was only little, and the Cruciatus does enough damage to an adult as it is without..." She shut her eyes. "Anyway, it left her problems. She used to have really bad pains in her joints for years after. She had to have all kinds of operations just to sort things out when she was little.
"What happened was that the Death Eaters must have thought that the Cruciatus would kill her, or that it wasn't important, or something, because they left her there. When they saw the Dark Mark over the house, some of their magical neighbours came running and found what had happened. My mam was given to friends of her family, who adopted her and moved to another County. So You-Know-Who didn't know that she was still alive, they gave her their last name, and she grew up as Eileen Hope."
Shannon was faltering now, twisting her hands in her lap. The same instinct which had led him to comfort Chloe kicked into Harry again, and he hesitantly reached out to put a hand on her shoulder, which made her look at him again with a sigh.
"Well, anyway, my mam grew up and got accepted into Hogwarts, which is where she really got to know my dad- they went to the same school before. A while after they left school, they got married, and they were living in Kilmare, which is where I grew up, when they found out that Mam was pregnant. They were really happy about it, but...then they got some bad news...
"There were some complications, really bad ones. Basically, they were told that if Mam carried on with the pregnancy and gave birth, she was going to die." Shannon choked slightly, bringing her hands up over her face as her shoulders shook slightly. Harry, unsure of what to do, rubbed her shoulder slowly in a comforting way. She swallowed hard and uncovered her face, hugging her elbows instead as she quickly glanced at him, then back to her lap.
"Well," she said quietly, so quietly that he had to strain to hear her voice. "I'm here now and she's not, so I guess that says it all. And that's the end of the story." She snorted in something like a laugh, only much sadder.
"Shannon..." Harry sighed, wondering what he could say that might help. "Shannon, none of it's your fault. You know that, right?"
She gave a tiny nod, then looked at him. "My Nana Hope was the one who told me most of this, and she said it's nobody's fault but the Death Eaters'. But that doesn't stop me feeling guilty, does it? It's still true that if I hadn't been born, maybe Mam would have been alive today."
"You shouldn't think like that." Harry hesitated for a moment, thinking. "Maybe you should talk to your dad."
Shannon raised her eyebrows. "Yeah. Even though he hasn't mentioned Mam in years. He has Julianna now. I don't think he'd want to talk about her."
Harry shrugged. "Give it a go."
Shannon pursed her lips. "I don't know, Harry..."
"You don't know unless you try, right?"
She sighed. "I guess not. Alright then."
"Thank you."
There was a longer silence now, before Shannon suddenly started. "Harry?"
"What is it?" He frowned at her tone.
"The Crystal...what happened to it?"
Harry blinked. "I put it in my robes. It's in my pocket."
"Are you sure?" She grabbed his arm suddenly. "Just...check. Please. Just make sure."
Harry wondered at her nervousness as he got up, Shannon detatching her grip on him to allow him to walk back through the curtain into the section around his bed. He was in nightclothes now, but his robes, still torn and dusty, were folded neatly on one of the bedside chairs. He began to search through them.
"Is it there?" came Shannon's hushed voice.
Harry put his hand into one of the pockets at this moment, colliding with something solid and oddly shaped. He clasped it and drew it out, finding himself staring straight at the Crystal. The smooth faces of its sharply prismatic form glinted in what little light there was available in the hospital wing, and he could just about make out some type of smoke moving within it...
"Harry?"
His gaze snapped up to the slight gap in the curtains. "Yeah. Yeah, it's here, Shannon."
"Dumbledore said he'd want to see you tomorrow." She replied. "Make sure you keep that safe and give him it."
Harry nodded, even though he knew she couldn't see it. "OK. We'd better sleep. Are you going to be alright?"
"Sure." There was a pause as Harry made his way over to his bed again and sat down, Crystal still tightly clasped in his hand. "And...thanks. For listening, I mean."
He smiled at the awkwardness in her voice. "That's alright. Any time. Go to sleep."
"I will." She gave a laugh that wasn't all genuine. "No dreams, I hope."
"So do I." Harry murmured as he lay back down.
Silence fell as the pair drifted off into peace and the sky gradually began to lighten with the approaching dawn.
*****
Thanks for all the nice reviews I've been getting! Here's a few lil' notes:
Shrimpo/Jewels: First off, interesting penname! Also, don't worry about not reviewing in 12 chapters...I have a habit of forgetting what I'm reading too!
I Am A Sly Slytherin: It's like how she pronounces it. Just how in America it's 'mom' and in England it's 'mum'...so for her, it's 'mam'.
Silvermoon: Thank you so much for updating Rinoa Heartilly- finally! Also, don't let those poor imploding shrimps go to your head, lol! Oh, and you're still eeeeeeeevvvvvviiiiiilllllll!!!!!