The Aftermath

Chapter Nine
A Tour

"How in the world is this place so damn clean?" Ginny asked.

The party was sitting in a circular room that had a long couch lining the circumference of the room and several big armchairs in the middle. In the exact center of the room was a completely circle sofa, where Liz was sitting. The rest of them were lying down on different seats, burnt out.

"Well, there's Moochi and Dolly," Liz began.

"You make them clean this whole house!?" Hermione said with clear disapproval.

Liz simply smiled and continued, "But Mum made sure that a lot of the rooms were self dusting." She stopped suddenly, staring blankly off into space. She paused a moment, then said, "You guys can rest here a bit. I suspect you're tired. I'm going to check what the grown ups are doing." She tapped the circular sofa she was sitting on with her wand. It disappeared, but in its place was a spotlight. She stepped into it and suddenly, she wasn't there anymore, but the sofa was back. They all sat up and called her name. She dropped onto the sofa, apparently from nowhere. "What?" she said, looking confused.

"How in the - ?" Ron began, but couldn't finish.

"Oh," she understood, and looked somewhat distracted. "My parents invented this little household thing. It's like Apparating, only it only goes inside of houses and can only go where there's another device just like it. There's one in about a third of the rooms here." More blank looks. "Well . . . it's kind of like teleportation, if you know what that is." Even more skeptical stares. "All right, I'll show you." She tapped the sofa again and shooed them all into the spotlight. Suddenly, it seemed as if all of them were made up of floating lights instead of flesh and blood.

"Beth's room!" called Liz's echoing voice. And suddenly, Harry recognized that they had dropped into the corner of her room.

"And if you still don't get it, we can watch Star Trek if you want," she said simply.

"Star Trek?"

"Never mind," Liz said with a sigh.

Ginny was standing staring at the sofa. "It's kind of like . . . traveling by floo and portkey mixed together."

Liz seemed relieved that someone finally had the idea (someone other than Hermione of course). "Yeah, that's it."

Hermione was looking around. "So this is your room?" She was in the center of the room and was turning endless circles. "It's gorgeous!"

Liz blushed, looking uncomfortable. "Um, sure, but I guess I'm not the one to judge . . ."

Ginny looked around as well, and her jaw dropped. "It's wonderful! Ron, have you seen this room?"

"Yeah . . ." he said hesitantly.

Harry looked at him. "What?"

"Well," Ron glanced at Liz uncomfortably. "No offense or anything, but it's kind of . . . girly."

Harry laughed. "It's not all girly. You should see all of it – she has her own Quidditch room!"

Liz giggled as well. "That's true. But sometimes I do get tired of this bedroom theme. That's why I have back ups."

Nobody bothered to ask her about them because they sensed she was getting a little tired of explaining things.

"Well," Ron said with a small hint of bitterness in his voice, "Your parents must be loaded."

Harry knew that Ron was sensitive about his family's financial status, but Harry saw by the way Liz's eyes flashed that the matter of her parents was also a touchy subject. She looked confused, as if she half wanted to say something comforting and half wanted to make a snide remark.

Apparently, she compromised by shrugging. "Does it matter?" she asked. "It's not like I'd be any less happy with them if they weren't, as long as they were with me." Her voice faded. "I'm kind of tired, can the rest of the tour wait? Thanks, I'll see you guys at dinner." She then practically shoved them out of the door. The lock clicked once they were all safely outside.

Ron shrugged too and walked away. Hermione hurried after him.

Ginny gazed at the door. "What was that about?"

"What?" Harry asked, hoping she would just walk away. He didn't want to vocalize his suspicions, because they were after all, only suspicions.

"I dunno," Ginny said quietly. "She acted kind of weird. Do you know why?"

Well, Harry thought, if I'm going to answer, I'm not going to do it right outside her door. He started to walk slowly away, and Ginny followed suit.

"Well?" she asked.

Harry stopped at the end of the hallway. "Have you ever seen her parents around?"

"Oh," Ginny said. "What happened?"

"I don't know, maybe nothing," he answered truthfully. He turned and looked at the door. "For all I know they could just be on vacation so she spent vacation with her uncle . . . but there are things that make me think it's more than that." He stopped.

Ginny looked at him a moment, realized that he was done talking, and walked away quietly leaving him to his own musings.

Harry stared at that door for what seemed to him like hours. He slowly turned away and headed back to his room.

"Hey Harry!" Ron said to Harry when they met in the hallway of the guest rooms. "What took you?"

"Nothing," Harry said. Then he realized something. He hadn't seen Percy around. "Hey, Ron?"

"Yeah?"

"Did Percy ever apologize?"

Ron looked up at him surprised. "Blimey, I thought you knew! I didn't tell you?"

"Obviously not."

"Oh, okay then. Yeah, he did apologize. It was kind of uncomfortable though. He just arrived at the house right when we came back from the school train. He came up to us all red and said 'Sorry I didn't listen to you' all quiet and stuff. Then Dad said he wasn't totally mad about that and that it was more that he didn't trust us, or you, or Dumbledore, but as long as Percy was sorry about that, it was forgiven. Then Perce said he was and then everybody just went kind of quiet. I swear you could hear crickets chirping! Then Mum asked him in for a cup of tea and that was that."

"Is he in the Order?"

"Nah, he was too embarrassed to even mention it and I don't think they trust him enough to let him," Ron answered him. "He still lives in his flat, but he still comes over to the house for family dinners every Sunday. That's where I'll be tomorrow – home."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Ron said grinning. "I'm really glad you brought it up Harry! Because I would have forgotten to tell you you're coming too!"

"Great!" Harry stopped. "Kind of sad though, us leaving Liz here all alone with no one her own age."

"Yeah, it would be," Ron said, nodding. "But it's not a problem, because Mum already invited her. She's nice enough; still don't know her all that well. I know where I've seen her before though. We bumped into each other in a corridor I think. I remember because I shattered my bottle of vanishing ink all over her books. Took us forever to find them. I can't believe I didn't recognize her at once though."

Wait till dinner, you'll be in for a surprise, Harry thought to himself. He wondered what she'd look like then. Maybe in another one of those flower dresses, or maybe even leather, maybe her hair would be dyed black and spiked. Harry smiled. She'd still be pretty, and she'd still be Liz. His heart beat a little harder and he felt his face turn red. And for the life of him he couldn't tell why.