The Aftermath
Chapter Fourteen
New Arrivals
They entered the dining room and Liz and Ginny went off to get Kairi some Plimpy (which, to Harry's knowledge of magical creatures, was just a ball shaped fish).
Harry sat down just as Hermione and Ron came stomping in. They were jabbering at each other at the same time so their dialogue was indecipherable.
Liz and Ginny returned to the table, Kairi feasting on Plimpy and milk on the counter corner.
"Whoa! Pacey, Joey, to your corners!" Liz said.
Kairi hissed, making her real opinions about the squabble to Liz, Ginny, and Harry, but not to Ron or Hermione, otherwise they'd have been highly offended, and surprised that a Kneazle could know such foul language.
"Shut UP you two!" Ginny said, barely able to control a laugh, "You're upsetting Kairi!" She got up to calm the creature down.
Harry sighed. "What are you two fighting about this time?"
Ron's ears turned beet colored. "Vicky sent Hermione a Tebo cape."
"His name, for the last time, is not Vicky!" Hermione yelled at him.
"A coat?" Harry said in disbelief. "Is that all?"
"Harry!" Ginny said, still petting Kairi, "Don't you know how expensive those are?"
"So?"
Liz rolled her eyes at him, and then gave him a small wink.
"And he assumed that I was going to send it back!" Hermione said. "I can only imagine how much trouble Viktor went through to get that for me!"
"It doesn't take a lot of imagination 'Herm-o-ninny'" Ron said. "He is a Quidditch player after all."
"But it'd be rude to give it back!" Hermione said.
"Oh, that's just an excuse to keep it," Ron said. "Never thought you were into material things."
"I'm not!"
"Then why don't you just give it back?"
"I already said this a billion times," Hermione answered Ron, "It would be impolite of me."
"Well," Liz said hesitantly.
"What?" Ron and Hermione said to her, rather snappishly.
"You aren't with this said 'Viktor' are you, Hermione?" Liz said, her expression shrewd.
"No, I'm not," Hermione said.
A little color faded from Ron's ears. Harry saw this and looked over at Liz, who gave him a side-glance as well as well as a small conspiratorial smile.
"Then you can't keep the cape," Liz said to Hermione.
"Why's that?"
Harry was guiltily enjoying seeing Hermione confused, especially since she was supposed to be the one who understood people's feelings best.
"Because then it would be like making a commitment to this fellow," Liz said. "Don't you watch movies? There was a scene dedicated to this stuff in the film 'Le Divorce.'"
Hermione looked thoughtful a moment.
"I mean, a bloke only gives a girl a diamond bracelet or something if it's one of their year anniversaries," Liz added. "And only a ring when they get engaged. He only gives her chocolates or flowers if it's Valentine's Day, or perhaps their first date. Books and stationary are gifts that go with the casual friendship."
Hermione thought a moment. "That is true."
"So," Ginny said. "What're you going to do?"
Hermione sighed. "I guess I'll have to give it back."
"Well?" Ron said.
"What?" Hermione snapped.
"Anything you want to say?"
"For heavens' sake, I'm not apologizing!"
"I didn't expect you to," Ron said scathingly.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Hermione replied testily.
"Why do you always have to be right?" Ron asked. "Can't you admit when you're wrong?"
"What am I wrong about?"
Silence from Ron.
Hermione snorted. "Right. That's what I thought."
They still weren't happy with one another, but at least they weren't yelling anymore.
Hermione looked over at Ginny. "That cape is really that valuable?"
Ginny nodded. "Yup. I don't know anyone rich enough to own one . . . unless Liz has one."
Liz froze a moment, and then she shook her head. "Nah, my mum would never approve of that sort of thing. She's a sort of environmentalist type person. Save the whales, protect our rainforests, stop werewolf persecution, that sort of thing. She once said to me, 'Every living being has the right to live a worthwhile existence.' That's a lesson I've had since I was five."
"Yet you still have house elves," Hermione said quietly.
Liz looked at her. "Touché, but have you ever heard of a little thing called The House-Elf Relocation Act?"
"No, actually I haven't," Hermione said, interested. "What is it?"
"Since house-elves won't stop working for free," Liz said, "And refuse to take sick leaves, the only thing we can do as wizards is make sure they aren't mistreated. The Relocation Act helps stop abuse of house-elves and puts dismissed house-elves back into work, as explained by Mum and Dad when they were working on instating it back when I was about seven years old."
Hermione blinked. "Seriously?"
"They got it established in the States," Liz said, "but it's barely been approved here, and places like Canada, the Atlantic coast of South America, other countries in Europe . . . the governments there are still debating whether or not to try it."
"It'd be so cool to meet your parents, Liz," Ginny said. "They sound brilliant!"
Liz looked at Harry for a split second. She wasn't sure how to respond to that, but she was saved from answering by the arrival of Mrs. Weasley, who began distractedly making sandwiches. She seemed worried, at one point she put mayonnaise on her hand instead of a slice of bread.
"Er . . . Mum," Ginny said, looking over her mother's shoulder. "Are you doing all right?"
"Yeah," Ron said, taking residence on Mrs. Weasley's other side. "And why are we only getting sandwiches?"
"What?" Mrs. Weasley was wiping mayonnaise off her hand. "Oh, I need to be back at Headquarters soon. Bethy, dear, be sure to visit the Streelers this afternoon and get some of that venom – the Horklumps are getting far too widespread in that garden of yours. I'd do it myself but I won't be here for a few hours. You kids are on your own today, but don't worry, we'll send someone over by dinner."
She left five minutes afterward.
"What's so important that the Order has to be away the rest of the day?" Harry asked.
"Who knows?" Ron said.
"You know," Ginny said, "Sometimes I kind of wish we were back in London. At least then we'd know more."
Hermione however dashed to grab a copy of the Daily Prophet sitting in the corner. "Oh my!" she said.
"What?" Ginny asked.
Hermione pushed the paper onto the table. The headline said in bold print "Recently Recaptured Death Eaters On the Loose Once More."
They all started talking at once and in the confusion no one seemed to notice Liz was oddly quiet. The jabbering lasted for a good five minutes, which is a long time for nonstop chaotic conversation. Obviously the Order was trying to find and recapture the Death Eaters, and obviously they didn't want the kids in any way involved.
"I'd like to stick around and discuss this with you all," Liz said, sighing, getting up to get a few peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to go, "But I've got some color confused snails to deal with."
"Oh, you can put that off," Ron said.
Liz smiled. "No, don't think I can, though there's no doubt that I'd like to," she said.
"Do you have anything at all to say about this?" Ginny said, poking the Daily Prophet.
"I'd rather not think about it," Liz said, her nose scrunching up as if the story in the paper was emitting some repulsing smell. "However, I have to think about those stupid prickly mushroom things that are going to cover the whole golf course by morning if I don't go deal with them now."
"You have a golf course?" Harry asked (thinking it might not be so bad to have a distraction from about a dozen dangerous refugee wizards . . . at least for the others. It might lead to dangerous conversation.).
"Yeah," Liz said heavily. "I despise the game. I suppose there isn't a use for it now, though, since it was my dad who played."
"But your dad would be mad if he came home to find his runway covered in Horklumps, wouldn't he?" Hermione said.
Harry's eyes widened and he looked at Liz fearfully. He was pretty sure everyone would notice if he punched Ron to tell him to layoff, so stopping him was out of the question. But maybe Liz would finally enlighten them and tell them all about her family status; as of this summer, an orphan.
Liz looked away and seemed awfully devoted to packing her sandwiches as quickly as possible. She rushed off to find two baskets, one for food and one for jars (to hold the venom). At practically the speed of light she grabbed gloves. She finally answered Ron. "I suppose he would. But he's not coming home." She left the room so fast Harry could swear she caused wind.
Ginny, Hermione, and Ron stared after her.
"What?" Ron wore a puzzled expression on his face.
"My sentiments exactly," Hermione said, cocking her head to the side.
A few minutes passed as the others grabbed some sandwiches and started eating. Harry noticed that Kairi, the Kneazle, shifting uncomfortably. He heard the cat like creature's message in his head. "Go after her! Pretend to take me to the menagerie as an excuse to leave, but don't just stand there like an idiot!"
Remembering that the animal inhabitants of the manor could communicate with one person without being overheard, Harry picked her up and said, "I'm going to take Kairi up to the roof, she must be tired."
He trotted out of the dining room.
Kairi squirmed in his arms. "Okay, getting a bit uncomfortable put me down."
"Lead the way," Harry said.
They found Liz inside a giant glass case full of giant snails and she was wearing thick gloves and a bandana to protect her hair. She seemed to be humming what sounded like "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes."
That was an amazingly fast change, Harry thought.
Much to Harry's surprise, the snails were changing colors as he looked at them.
Tearing his eyes away from the brightness of the shells, Harry knocked on the open glass door.Liz's tunefaltered at the strain that was meant to say "in dreams you will lose your heartache" aspaused a moment, stock stiff, before deciding not to look up at him. She continued to hum "whatever you wish for you keep"as if she didn't know he was there.
"Kinda ran out on us, didn't you?" he said.
She stopped humming. "What was I supposed to say, Harry?" Liz said, looking up at him with her eyebrows raised, holding a jar that was full of acidic looking yellow slime. She put on a mock thoughtful expression. "No Ron, I don't think Dad will mind not having a golf course anymore because, well, he's dead and can't enjoy it anyway," she said, her words dripping with sarcasm.
"You've got to tell them sometime, Liz," Harry said. "It might even make you feel better."
"Like you talked to them about your godfather?" she said. "Like you told to them about the prophecy?"
"Hey, that's different," Harry said calmly.
"Sorry," Liz said a little brusquely, stooping to scoop up more slime. "And they'll know about Dad eventually."
"How's that?"
"They'll be invited to the funeral," Liz said with an innocent shrug.
"That's not the point," Harry said throwing his hands up in irritation.
"Harry," Liz said, a little angrily. "I can't do it. There are a lot of things I can do, but trust me this isn't one of them. It's killing me that I can't do it, but the fact remains that I just can't do this." (A/N: can you say obsessive-compulsive disorder? Just thought I'd say so – some people don't always catch things like that.)
"Well," Harry said, "it's up to you. You tell them when you're ready. You don't need to be able to deal with it now, nobody expects you to be that perfect."
Liz looked at him a brief moment seeming surprised. "Thanks, Harry," she said, closing a jar, wrapping it in foil (or what looked like foil), and put it in one of the baskets. She finished her song out loud:
"No matter how your heart is grieving
If you keep on believing
The dream that you wish
Will come true . . . "
"Figures that you sing a Cinderella song when you're doing a chore. Need help with that?" Harry asked, picking up an empty jar.
"Yeah, actually," she answered. "Go put on some gloves. This stuff stings like a swarm of murderous bees."
"Nice to know."
Harry went back down into the house as Liz was putting the Streeler venom into what looked like glass golf balls with an amazingly heavy syringe. He had told her he was going to replenish their sandwich supply, and he did, but he had another mission. Going as quickly as possible, Harry went to find the other kids.
He found them in the Owl Post room, where there were about fifteen regular post owls (mainly tawny owls, eagle owls, and horned rimmed owls) and five express post owls (Pig sized). Hermione, it seemed, was returning Krum's package.
"You guys want to help kill some pests?" Harry said.
"You mean the Horklumps?" Ginny asked.
"Yeah."
Ron scratched his head. "Hey, Harry, do you know anything about, you know – "
"I'd suggest you not bring it up," Harry told him. "She'll tell, er, us when she's ready."
"I'm really worried about her, Harry," Hermione said. "I wonder what's wrong . . . "
Harry nodded. "But it's best if we drop it for now, so please, don't mention it, at least not now."
Hermione looked at him suspiciously but nodded and said, "All right."
"I'm going to go deliver these," Harry said, holding up the basket of sandwiches. "Follow in a minute."
Taking the express (those teleporting sofas), Harry soon found Liz at hole seven on the golf course. A golf cart was parked behind her, and it had a golf bag full of clubs in it. Harry looked at the runway and saw that this part of the course was covered in mushroom looking things from the middle of the runway to the hole.
"Hey, Harry," she said. She took the basket of venom balls out of the golf cart.
"Hey," he answered, still looking at the flag that was about 200 meters away from where they were standing. "A little far, aren't you? It's another sixty meters before the fungus actually starts."
"No," Liz said, cocking her head and measuring the distance with her eyes. "This is good," she said giving a satisfactory nod.
She started unloading the golf bag as well. She stopped and waved at Ron, Ginny, and Hermione who were coming up towards them.
Ginny saw Liz handling the golf bag. "I thought you didn't like golf," she said smiling.
"I don't," Liz said simply.
"What's 'golf' anyway?" Ron said.
"Muggle sport," Harry said to him. "Point of the game is to get the ball into that hole right underneath that flag in the least amount of hits by the club."
"That's awfully boring," Ron said.
"Where's the fun in that?" Ginny commented.
Hermione then said, "The attraction of the game is that it's pretty difficult. I play a little myself. My father is a member of the country club."
"Want to take the first shot?" Liz said to picking out a nine iron. She looked at the club at arm's length a moment with a slightly disgusted expression on her face. She handed Hermione the club and put a venom ball on a tee. "The glass is charmed so it breaks only on the second impact. So you hit it, it hits the ground, it breaks, and the venom kills the Horklumps."
"I'll right," Hermione said. "I'll take a whack at it." She did whack at the ball. It veered a little off course and it landed just within the start of the Horklumps.
"Only a slight hook, and I'd say about sixty-five meters," Liz commented.
"I thought you didn't like golf!" Ron commented, repeating Ginny's words.
"I don't," Liz said again as they all watched a ten foot radius of Horklumps shrivel up and die.
Liz then got another tee and another venom ball. She also picked out a driver. She put the ball on the tee, adjusted her stance, swung back swiftly and gracefully and swung down again and the club head met the ball with a clean, crisp WHICK. They all watched in surprise as the ball soared all two hundred yards to the middle of the green and Harry could have sworn it landed within a foot of the hole before it exploded and cleared off most of the green.
"I thought you didn't like golf!" Harry exclaimed.
"And I keep telling you," Liz said, "I don't."
"But you're so good at it!" Hermione said.
"If it were a real golf ball," Harry said, "it would have been a hole in one!"
"Yeah," Ginny said. "Whatever that means."
"You don't know that," Liz said lightly.
"How can you hate the game, though?" Ginny asked. "And still be good at it?"
Liz thought a moment. "I don't know . . . just because you're good at something doesn't mean you have to like it. But if you like it you have more of 'drive' so to speak to be better. Sometimes I just like whacking the heck out of the ball at the driving range."
"Why?" Ron asked.
Another pause as Liz got another ball. She shrugged as she put the ball down on the ground. "Some people used chi gong balls to relieve their stress. There really isn't much of a difference between this – " she hit the ball, "and that," she finished looking back towards Ron.
They spent the next hour or two hitting venom balls into the runway. Liz let them use the irons and woods as well as some old beaters clubs.
When that was done, they went to Liz's room to watch a movie. The first hour of that was spent attempting to explain the concept of a movie to Ron and Ginny. Finally, after much debate, they finally came to a conclusion that "a movie is a series of moving pictures that have sound and deliver a story." Hermione, slightly annoyed that it had taken Ron so long to grasp the movie concept, chose Spiderman as the movie they were to watch. Harry saw that Ron bolted to the bathroom during the whole field trip scene at the beginning of the movie. Harry also observed Liz's excessive blinking at the scene where Peter Parker's Uncle Ben died. Hermione and Ginny joined Liz as they all teared up at the end where Peter was talking to Mary Jane at Norman Osborn's funeral.
Girls! He thought.
"Whatever life holds in store for me, I will never forget these words: with great power, comes great responsibility. This is my gift, my curse. Who am I? I'm Spiderman."
"What?" Ron and Ginny said simultaneously.
"That's how it ends?" Ron said.
"That's not fair!" Ginny cried out.
"Is that Osborn kid going to kill Spiderman?"
"Are M.J. and Peter going to get together?"
"I don't like movies!" Ron said.
Liz laughed. "Don't worry, there's a sequel!" Shebegan singing along to the song that was playing for the credits.
"Oh," Ginny said. "Good."
Ron got up and stretched. "You know, I think Spiderman is the only spider that I can stand, but then again, he doesn't have eight limbs. Spiders better not know how to swing on their webs, though. And if they did, they better not know how to aim."
"I really liked it," Hermione said. "But that end was so sad!"
"What? The Green Goblin died, didn't he?" Ron said. "Poor idiot, if he hadn't done that experiment thing or tried to kill Spiderman he'd have been okay. Did you see that? He got himself killed with that glider."
"As opposed to Spiderman murdering the Goblin himself?" Harry said quietly. Like I have to do. At least I know that no one'll be missing Voldemort - no little Riddle to take care of.
"Yeah," Ron said, with a puzzled look as he saw Harry's strangely displaced expression.
The discussion ended there as they all went off to see if anybody from the Order would show up for dinner. Harry's mind however was full of thoughts about the prophecy. He didn't have a choice of how he dealt with Voldemort. He had to actually murder one of the most powerful wizards in the world. Harry sighed. If Voldemort got himself killed Harry's life would be so much easier. But Harry knew that just wasn't going to happen. It wasn't even an option.
Harry's steps were lagging as the group headed off. Liz sprinted to catch up to him because she had been delayed putting away the movie.
"It's been years since I first saw that movie and I still love it," she said, stopping to frown when she saw Harry wasn't in much of a chatting mood. "Hey, you okay?"
Harry shrugged. "Guess so."
"You know," Liz started slowly, "you remind me a lot of him."
Harry laughed. "You mean I look like Thomas Maguire?"
Liz rolled her eyes. "It's Tobey Maguire, and no, that's not what I mean."
"Then what?"
"You were born with a remarkable destiny, Harry. You were destined for power and greatness and you've shown yourself worthy of such a future."
"And what price do I have to pay for it?" Harry said. "I have no parents, not even a godfather anymore, I've lost a friend, and the number of casualties in this Godforsaken war is rising and I'm sick of it."
"Harry – " Liz started to interrupt.
"I never asked for this!" Harry said. "I never wanted my life to be like this."
"Harry, calm down – "
"Actually, I was never given the chance to find out what I wanted my life to be," Harry said, ranting now that the others were out of earshot. "It was all decided before I could."
"Harry!"
"What?"
"What I was trying to say is that you," she paused and glared at him in frustration, "you're strong enough to handle it. You are among the rare people who could shoulder this magnificent burden. There are so many people out there who have faith in you, Harry. Everyone, it seems, except you. Go figure."
They had stopped walking and Liz stood facing Harry with her arms folded across her chest. She was looking at him expectantly.
How exactly does someone respond to that? Harry thought.
"Er . . . okay . . . " he said, and as an afterthought he added, "Thanks."
Liz shook her head and said playfully, "You worry me, Harry."
"Thank you for the concern," Harry said.
"And besides . . . it wasn't as if your path was decided for you. You really make your own destiny. I mean, maybe you were destined to fight Voldemort . . . but looking back, would you change what you've done? Does it really matter that it's your destiny? Don't you think you did what you did because you wanted to?"
Harry stared at her.
Liz lingered for a moment, biting her lip. She was genuinely worried over Harry's welfare, but she had a feeling he didn't need to see another person fretting over him. The moment passed and she trotted after him.
(A/N: Don't read too much into the Spiderman movie pick, I just wanted to use the dying father figure and spiders, and those last few lines of the movie, nothing else, and plus, I just watched the sequel and to tell you the truth I'm a little addicted at the moment – more of a Tobey addiction actually – you can so tell how long ago I wrote this. Oh, and I'm tired of all this drama too. Geez. But I just can't seem to stop. I need a little more comic relief.)
Dinnertime came and went and nobody came. Hermione started to boil water to make macaroni and cheese while Liz was teaching Harry how to grill hamburgers (Liz oddly enough humming "Hero" sung by Chad Kroeger). Ron and Ginny were setting the table when the door of the dining room banged open. There were a few recognizable Order of the Phoenix members who were all sweaty and sooty, as if they'd been through the fires of hell and back. They also dragged in some new arrivals, all of whom coughing and shaking. The current inhabitants of the dining room had to look twice before they realized these new arrivals were people they knew.
A/N: That's not a very suspenseful cliff hangar, but it is one. Who are they, and why are they there? Hm. I know, but do you? This is something new, I didn't hint at it before, but it is just common sense that it probably would happen in the sixth book. Sorry about that whole badly written scene with the mention of Spiderman, but I'm going through a slight Tobey Maguirething right now, as I did when Pleasantville came out. Okay, review people! Kind of crappy, I know, but try anyway to flatter me, okay? Lol, just playing, but please review. Thanks!