1Disclaimer: I do not own anything that is in this story, except the plot, and any characters that you do not recognize. Everything else belongs to J.K. Rowling!
Yankee Accents
Chapter Twenty-two: South American Animosity
Written by: Auburn Lily
"Harry!" Hermione screamed shrilly. At the sound of her screechy voice, he awoke with a start, jolting into a sitting position. Unfortunately, he had fallen asleep with his glasses on and now they sat on his face, terribly askew. His hair was mused and standing on end more than usual, and he stood up slowly, stretching like a languid cat.
"Harry," Hermione repeated loudly. "Where are the babies?"
As soon as Harry heard this, he stood up and looked quickly at the basinets, and after noting that they were indeed empty, began running around nervously, checking anywhere and everywhere they could possibly be.
Hermione turned to the staircase and, peeling her dress off as she went, took the stairs two at a time. As soon as she closed the door behind herself, she tore the dress hurriedly off her and hunted for a jumper and a pair of jeans. She pulled her hair up to a messy bun and tied her tennis shoes after getting dressed.
She owled both Draco and Ginny succinct notes, and paused before discarding a strip of parchment with Headmaster scrawled atop it in quick handwriting. After sending the notes off with Hedwig, she grabbed her cloak and ran back down to the common room.
"C'mon, Harry, we have to hurry," Hermione said, plucking her wand up from a small table on her way to the door. "Draco and Ginny are meeting us in Hogsmeade."
"Did you owl the Headmaster?" Harry demanded as Hermione moved to the fireplace in order to floo over to the Three Broomsticks.
"No," Hermione replied as she pinched the powder from the jar on the mantle place. "The babies didn't move themselves and I doubt they're anywhere in the castle. Getting Dumbledore involved would be a hassle I don't need to deal with right now."
Harry looked quite dubious and was about to open his mouth to argue when Hermione interrupted him by throwing the powder into the fireplace. "We're meeting them at the Three Broomsticks. I'll see you in a few moments."
And with that, Hermione stepped into the emerald flames and yelled "The Three Broomsticks" loudly. The next second she opened her eyes, she had been spilled out onto the cold stone hearth of the pub. She stood up slowly and looked around herself. It was quite late at night, 11:45 according to the clock on the wall above the entrance, but seeing as it was Halloween, the pub was still full and rowdy.
'Good,' Hermione thought to herself. 'At least we'll be guaranteed some privacy.'
As soon as she finished that thought, a swishing sound could be heard from behind her, announcing Harry's arrival. She didn't move fast enough, however, and the next thing she knew she was on the dirty floor again, with Harry's foot sticking in her face.
"Get off, Harry," she demanded anxiously, pushing him off her.
"You were the one who didn't move," he replied irritably, standing up to brush himself off. He offered her his hand politely and pulled her up to stand next to him.
"Now," Hermione started. "Where shall we sit?"
They searched the room fruitlessly, in hopes of finding a table big enough for the four of them to sit at.
"There's a two seater in the corner," Harry said after a few moments. He pointed to a table over near the door.
"That's the only table left," Hermione replied. "I guess that will have to do."
They walked over to the table, managing to steal two vacant chairs along the way, and positioned them uncomfortably around the mini-table. Then they sat down to wait.
Madam Rosmerta, now in her late forties, managed to venture over to their table five minutes later and take their order. Hermione tried to order a pint of mulled mead, but Harry ordered her and himself a glass of cherry soda instead.
"What did you do that for?" She demanded as Madam Rosmerta slunk away.
"You don't need to get drunk right now," he replied.
"I suppose you're right. I just can't stand sitting here waiting. Caddie and Thomas are in danger now!"
At that moment the bell on the shop door tinkled, and considering how close Harry and Hermione were to the door, they were met with a blast of cold, wet air. Ginny walked in, soaked through to the bone and Hermione grabbed her immediately, pulling her over to sit next to her.
"Ginny, finally," Hermione gushed as Ginny plopped down, sending water flying everywhere. "Now, all we have to wait for is Draco."
"Draco?" Ginny questioned. "Did you owl him too?"
"Yes, of course," Hermione replied. "Did you honestly think I wouldn't?"
"Hermione," Ginny started. "Don't you think Draco will be confused as to why you are including him in this? I mean, I know he has good intentions and I'm sure he will be politely worried, but if you have Draco come with us, you do know that you will have to tell him, right?"
"Tell me what?" Drawled a heavy voice. Draco had walked up behind their table at that very moment, only having just arrived. Hermione glanced up and paled, grimacing at the predicament she had caught herself in.
"Oh, dear," she muttered under her breath, leaning back in her chair. At that moment, Madam Rosmerta arrived with the drinks, and took Ginny and Draco's orders. Hermione, torn between telling the truth and hunting for her children, took a deep breath and sipped some of her drink. She could still hear the storm raging outside.
"Tell me what, Granger?" Draco demanded of her, as Madam Rosmerta walked away.
Hermione opened her mouth to speak, ready to tell him the entire truth in full and complete detail, when he spoke again.
"What's all this nonsense about missing children anyway?" Draco asked conversationally, throwing the matter aside.
Hermione sputtered indignantly, forgetting for a moment the peculiar circumstance she was in. "What do you mean, 'What's all this nonsense?' Those missing children are just as much yours as they are mine and if you cared one ounce about them instead of prancing around-" She stopped speaking at that moment, realizing the effect that the words she had spoke had on Draco.
"What are you talking about?" Draco asked after a few moments of silence. He had completely dropped his sarcastic, annoyed manner.
Hermione gave up. "Cadalyn and Thomas are your babies." She replied in a defeated manner. She couldn't cover it up anymore and she needed to find them both as quickly as possible. There really was no time to explain. "They're not Harry's, they aren't anyone's except yours and mine."
Draco was silent for a few more seconds, as he let the information sink in slowly, and then he gained his composure. "You mean to tell me that all this time you've been carrying them they've been mine and you never told me? I can't believe you carried around such a lie. And you think I'm bad. You're just as bad as me. You're so hypocritical. All those times you yelled at me for backstabbing you and doing you wrong! How dare you keep this from me."
"Draco, please stop," Hermione begged. "You're only making it worse-"
"Making it worse?" He exploded. "It couldn't be any worse."
"Malfoy," Harry intervened, as the pub hushed under Hermione and Draco's loud voices. "The whole pub's going to hear."
"Good, Potter," Draco replied, turning on Harry. "Good, then they can all see what a traitorous woman your girlfriend is."
"Draco Malfoy, you're acting like a jealous teenager." Ginny berated suddenly. "You shut your mouth and listen to everything Hermione has to say. She never does anything irrationally. We all know she had a perfectly good reason for keeping this from you and if you think for even a second that hiding this from you was an unwise and awful thing for her to do than you're not at all the person I want to think you are!"
Draco paused for a second, and turned to Hermione, who was fully equipped with silent tears running slowly down her cheeks. He opened his mouth, rethought what he wanted to say, and turned around just as Madam Rosmerta arrived with more drinks. He reached into his pocket and drew out a few sickles, paying for all the drinks at once.
Hermione drained her mug in one quick gulp, and then stood up. "Well, there really isn't any time to waste. We're all here and together, so we better get a move on."
Ginny stood up to join her, wrapping her clock more tightly around herself. Her drink was in her hand, and she looked at Hermione questioningly. "Where are we going?"
Harry and Draco glanced up, waiting for Hermione's reply. She thought for a second, and then answered.
"We need to find Jessa, but I have no clue where she is. I guess finding out where her house is will be the thing to do now."
"How on this earth are you going to do that?" Harry asked.
"Well, I know where she attended school. That's about as much information as I have right now, and I guess that's where we need to head to first."
"Hermione, if you don't mind me asking, why do you need to find Jessa?" Ginny inquired, as Harry and Draco stood up from their seats.
"I just want her here with me, is all," Hermione replied irritably, as she made her way towards the fire place. Truthfully, however, Hermione had a bad feeling concerning Jessa, and she needed to verify that her suspicions weren't true.
When they all reached the fireplace, Hermione turned to the other three, pinching floo powder as she turned.
"Now, Jessa's school is called 'Guadahara's Witchcraft Institution for Women'. It's located in southern Colombia, on the coastal side. I'll floo there first, and then you three follow me. I've no clue as to whether we are allowed to apparate onto the grounds, but it would be pointless anyway, seeing as I have no clue what the school looks like." And with that she turned, threw the powder into the flames for the second time that night, and stepped into the fire. "Guadahara's Witchcraft Institution for Women!"
Hermione spun around and around, her eyes screwed tightly shut and her elbows tucked in. Her long black cloak swirled around her legs and after a longer time than it normally took to floo, seeing as it was across the Atlantic, Hermione was spit out on cold, unfamiliar ground.
She stood up slowly, wiping hair out of her face, and stared around herself.
She had been dumped into a circular room, with whitewashed walls and open doors leading out to a balcony. Sheer, white curtains billowed in the breeze. Past the balcony she could see the bright, crystal blue of the Pacific, and the scent of some exotic flower Hermione couldn't name wafted through the doors. The smell of stale cigarette smoke lingered in the air. She walked away from the fireplace, anticipating someone to shoot through, all the while observing the room she was in.
The clay floor was painted a bright yellow, and on top of it lay several different colored, woven rugs. The walls were covered in landscape paintings and portraits of old Hispanics. The desk centered in the room was covered in tons of torn parchment and broken quills. Behind it stood a huge, black, leather office chair. Bottles of ink could be seen among the disorder which littered the desk, as well as a half-full coffee mug, and a rather large ash tray with cigarette butts sticking in the air.
However, Hermione had no time to nose further, for a loud "hmph," announced Ginny's arrival, closely followed by Draco and then Harry.
Ginny joined Hermione's side in the center of the room, while Draco and Harry lingered by the mantel place.
"I wonder if this is the Headmaster's office?" Ginny inquried.
"Or Headmistress'," Hermione replied, pointing to a brass name plate that sat on the desk. It read 'Headmistress Natalia Alvarez.'
Hermione nosed around some more, trying to find a door to get deeper inside the school, but to no avail.
"How on earth are we supposed to get out of here?" Hermione demanded. She was getting more and more irritated by the second.
"What's this?" Harry asked innocently, pointing to a large red button situated on a spot on the wall above the mantel. "It says 'push here for assistance.'"
"Well, then push it!" Hermione replied, as if this were the most natural thing to do, which it were.
As soon as he pushed it in, a pleasant 'ding' noise could be heard emitting from no place in particular in the room, followed almost immediately by an automated voice messaging system. The voice was of an Hispanic woman's, but it was no where near as pleasant sounding as the recording in the phone booth at the Ministry. This recording was that of an older woman, who seemed to have smoked most of her life, for every few commands were interrupted by a wheeze or cough.
"Buenos noches," the voice began. "Vuelva a dirigir por favor su atención al centro del cuarto, en donde nuestro quiosco numerado debe hacer una entrada."
None of them understood fluent spanish, and so the only way they knew something was happening was by the clicking, vibrating noise coming from the center of the room. They all turned to watch a slot open up in the floor, and a device, much like a muggle number keypad, rose automatically up.
The voice continued. "Español, prensa una. Português, imprensa dois. Français, pression trois. English, press four-"
Hermione pressed four, and waited for the voice to continue.
"Thank you for choosing 'English.' Welcome to Guadahara's Witchcraft Institution for Women, the most renowned on all of the continent. If you would like to schedule your child for enrollment for the 2009-2010 school year, please select one. If you would like to collect a child who is currently enrolled in Guadahara's Witchcraft Institution for Women, please select two. If you would like to schedule an appointment to speak with Headmistress Natalia Alvarez, please select three. If you would like to schedule an appointment to speak with any of the staff members, please select four. If it is an emergency, and communication with the Headmistress must be now, please select five-"
Hermione pressed five immediately, and was greeted with another pleasant 'ding.'
"Thank you," the voice continued. "Headmistress Alvarez will be here shortly."
And with a finalizing click, the kiosk descended back into the floor.
Hermione stared at the spot on the floor through which the kiosk had just disappeared, and grumbled loudly.
"What a joke," she said crankily, leaning against Headmistress Alvarez's desk. "I knew we shouldn't have come here, what a waste."
Harry and Ginny merely rolled their eyes, but Draco couldn't simply brush the comment aside.
"Hermione, you're the one who insisted we come here. If it's anyone's fault, it's yours."
Hermione, already on very short temper due to the state of her missing children, turned to him with the most horrific glare painted on her face. Ginny and Harry drew back in absolute fear.
"I'm just using my instinct in order to find Caddie and Thomas. Do you have any brighter ideas right now? If you were a decent father, you would be just as concerned about their whereabouts as me."
"Not thirty minutes ago, I thought they were Potter's children. I'm still getting over the initial shock of being betrayed and lied to the last nine months."
"Don't you pull that crap on me, don't you dare. You had no right to know about it, no right-"
"No right?" he interrupted again. "So, being an immediate blood relation doesn't count for anything now, does it?" he added matter-of-factly.
"Not when said 'immediate blood relation' is an immature, pompous git who shags and lies everyday."
"Oh right, but you're Mother Teresa now?"
Hermione screamed in frustration and could barely control her urge to launch herself at him.
Fortunately, at that precise moment, a loud clicking noise interrupted the argument, and they all redirected their attention. It sounded as if someone where unlocking many locks all at once. Immediately, one of the portraits (one of an extremely obese Hispanic man sleeping) swung to the side, and presumably "Headmistress Alvarez" stepped into the room.
She was extremely short, the house elf standing next to her rivaling her height. Her head was engulfed by a larger, pointed, witches hat, and Hermione assumed that the hair pulled tautly underneath it (for there was not a stray hair to be seen) was dark gray. Her skin was a shade darker than topaz, and was as wrinkly as a grape left in the sun too long. Her eyes were magnified greatly by the large, round glasses that were perched on her pert nose, and her mouth was twisted into a cross between a pout and a scowl. In one small hand, she held a cigarette holder (explaining the dominant scent of the room), which wafted smoke up in furls towards the vaulted ceiling.
Without a word to the four of them, she stalked over to her desk, the click from her shoes vibrating against the walls, and the house elf scurrying around behind her, carrying what looked to be an extremely large briefcase for the Headmistress to possess.
There was a slight delay when she got behind the desk, for she barked at the house elf in harsh spanish. In response, the house elf set the brief case down on the ground, and conjured what appeared to be a step ladder. The house elf placed it on the floor in front of the Headmistress, and then stepped back so she could climb into her swiveling office chair, which looked ridiculously too big. She then turned to face them, flicking her cigarette over the edge of the desk in the process. Before the ash came in contact withe the clay floor, it vaporized.
She waved her hand, and four seats appeared in front of her desk, motioning for them to take a seat.
They consented, and before Hermione could open her mouth to begin, they were accosted by the house elf, who offered them cigarettes, Colombian cigars, sweets, plates of exotic food, and margaritas, which Hermione grabbed whole-heartedly before Draco (who was sitting next to her) snatched it away and placed it back on the tray. Hermione glared at him, mumbling obscene words underneath her breath.
Finally, after the Headmistress was sure that they had been offered every type of food known to Hispanic-kind, she stuck her cigarette holder in a tall vase, the tip of the cigarette just escaping the top, and presumably folded her hands in her lap, for they could not see below her upper chest.
"Hola," she began.
"Hi," Hermione answered, after no one else said anything for a few moments.
"I hope you understand I am an extremely busy woman, and I can not stay here long," she continued, in broken English. "Whatever it is you need, make it quick."
"Right," Hermione replied. "I need information on a certain alumni of yours, Jessamine Sanchez."
Immediately, the file cabinets that were situated behind Alvarez's desk opened of their own accord, and an invisible hand began rustling through the folders. After a few moments, a folder was pulled out and placed in front of the Headmistress. She picked it up, and opened it, pulling out several official looking forms.
"What sort of information is it that you need?" she asked, looking up at Hermione with a suspicious gleam residing in her huge black eyes.
"I need to know exactly where she resided for the time she attended your institute, and possibly where her parents are currently living."
The Headmistress opened her mouth for a second, and then shut it, twisting it grotesquely as if she were in deep thought.
"I am unable to disclose that information at this current time," she replied finally.
"This current time?" Hermione demanded. "Will there be another time that is better for you?"
"Never," she replied simply and shortly. She slipped the forms back into the manila folder, and they flew back over her head and into the slot they had been retrieved from. The cabinet snapped close with a resounding click. "I suggest you leave. Now." She added forcefully, plucking her cigarette holder out of the tall vase, and hopping down from the chair onto the stepping stool. She waved her hand, causing all four of the chairs in front of her desk to disappear with a resounding crack. All four of them fell onto the ground. With that, she stepped down from the stool, and made her way to the portrait of the fat man, the house elf scuttling after her once more. Before Hermione could gain her composure, Alvarez had disappeared behind the portrait, the loud clicks meeting their ears once more.
"Get off me, Draco!" Hermione said, shoving his foot out of her face. When they had fallen from the chairs, he had landed directly on top of her. "Dammit! Now what?"
"We could always break into her file cabinets," Harry suggested.
"No, she's not stupid. They're either heavily guarded or they're connected to alarms, and even if we were able to somehow get into them, we would only have a few moments before she came back or guards arrived or something like that. She's very powerful, I could sense it." Hermione reasoned.
"I wonder what it is they're hiding," Ginny wondered, tapping her lip inquisitively. "There has to be something amiss, or else she would've told us everything we needed to know."
"We need to trip the alarms." Draco said finally. "I'm not entirely sure that this will be what will happen, but it's a guess. For a few seconds after the alarms are tripped, the magic will become unstable, and you will be able to grab the files you need. This will only be for a few seconds though, and the Floo network will automatically seal itself up after the magic restablizes. By then, we'll be trapped."
Hermione considered this for a few seconds, measuring the distance between the file cabinets and the fireplace. Unfortunately, the desk was obtrusively blocking the pathway that she would need.
"There's no way I'll be able to get from the file cabinet to the fireplace in a matter of seconds. There isn't even a fire lit," Hermione remarked. "And that takes time."
"Well, all of us won't be able to leave, Hermione," Ginny said. "There isn't enough room in the fireplace for all of us and there most certainly isn't enough time for all of us to Floo individually. I'm sure only two of us will be able to go, and the other two will have to stay here."
"Right," Hermione agreed, settling into command mode. "Someone will have to toss the files to me from the cabinet, and then Draco and I will Floo away."
"Right," Draco replied. "Where are we flooing to?"
"Um," Hermione replied, trying to think of somewhere in the States they could go to, but then she remembered that she hadn't come in contact with magic while she lived there.
"Malfoy Manor," Draco decided after a few more moments of stuttering on Hermione's part.
"Fine," she agreed. She hurriedly walked over to stand next to Draco by the fireplace. "Are you sure you two will be okay?" Hermione asked Harry, who had situated himself near the file that Jessa's folder had come through, and Ginny.
"Yes, Hermione," Harry assured her.
"Don't worry, Hermione. We'll be fine, you and Draco just get to Caddie and Thomas, and fast." Ginny said.
"Okay, I just hate leaving you here, with Alvarez. She doesn't seem very understanding, at the least."
"Hermione, there are bigger things happening right now," Harry said. "I don't know what they are, but they're so much more significant than worrying about Headmistress Alvarez and her entourage."
"Right,"Hermione reassured herself. "Okay, ready Harry?"
Harry nodded, and without further ado, yanked the cabinet open forcefully. Surprisingly, it opened without resistence, but as soon as the cabinet clicked open, a high pitched, screeching noise became omnipresent around them.
Draco quickly grabbed a handful of Floo powder, while Hermione whispered "Incendio" into the fire place. A roaring fire appeared, and as soon as Hermione turned to look at Harry, he threw Jessa's file at her. She caught it deftly, as Draco threw the powder into the fire, grabbing her as he jumped into the emerald flames.
"Malfoy Manor!" he yelled audibly, and the last thing Hermione saw before she was spinning faster and faster was Harry and Ginny being stunned by two huge trolls.
A/N: Hi everyone! I'm back, planing for a long and extended stay. I hope you enjoyed what I did with this chapter, and you're not confused about anything. Chapter hasn't been edited by Serenity yet, I just sent it to her and hopefully she can get it back to me soon. I haven't heard from her in a while, but I'll upload the edited version as soon as possible. Just a heads up on what my schedule is for the summer (btw I graduated from high school just last Wednesday :does dance:):
I start work next week, but that's ok, because my job is being an at-home nanny for one of my mom's clients (you see my mom runs a daycare). So, one of her clients had a baby, and my mom doesn't have any room for her here(the babies a girl named Natalie :D), so I'm going to watch her all summer. I babysat for her once already, and she's so good. She's content sitting in her little seat sucking on her binky, and she doesn't cry or demand attention at all. This is wonderful for me (and for those of you who are eagerly awaiting updates, however few there may be) because I am able to write all that I want!
I am also going on vacation the last week in July, I believe, but I'm pretty sure that's it.
Now, for the important stuff: I don't know if many of you guys know what's been going on on but a lot of my favorite stories have been kicked off the site due to song lyrics being in the text. In case you haven't realized, a lot of my earlier chapters in Yankee Accents contain song lyrics. Granted I do acknowledge the material as someone elses, but I'm still kind of flipping out, because the site won't warn me when the story has been removed. If this happens, which I'm anticipating to be sometime soon, I will be posting the story on another site, such as Portkey, The Astronomy Tower, or the Great Break. Check my profile for updates or websites where it will be posted.
And just in case you guys were wondering, I have copied and pasted all of the reviews I have recieved thus far. See, they do mean a lot to me! You may want to send me an email with your review though from here on out, just in case. That way, I can keep better track of them, and I won't have to copy and paste anymore. My email address is in case you already didn't know. If it doesn't show up here, it should be in my profile. XOXO :D!
Irishsodabread: Hi! I don't usually address reviewers, but you I will make an exception too since you addressed something in my story and you had a strong opinion about it. I understand where you are coming from with the whole "Hermione-being-strong" kind of thing, but I think a lot of people overestimate Hermione. Yes, she is very independent and strong (that is how she managed to stay away from him for such a long time), but somewhere down underneath all of that cover is weakness that I was just bringing to light. For example, when she gets completely pissed in chapter six. I know it seemed completely out of character for her to do something like that, but she was thinking irrationally because of what was going on in her life. I am just trying to make it seem as believable as possible, and considering what was going on in her life at that time, I thought it was very fitting for her to get drunk. Every woman has that weakness for that one particular person whom they will never get over (including Hermione) and I really appreciate you looking so much into my story and bringing that to light. I love when people do that and comment on something they don't particularly agree with, et cetera. I hope you continue to read my story and review! XOXO!