A/N: For the funeral portion of Chapter Twelve, listen to track seven ("Answer") of Sarah McLaughlan's "Afterglow." Idunno why, but it really stirs up feelings of sadness…probably the depressing piano part. If you don't have the cd, I'm sorry…you'll just have to go out and buy this beautiful collection of music (she's a goddess!! OMG, I wish I could sing like her….)
This has taken way to long to get out. My only excuse is AP testing, followed by a series of bone-crushing projects, followed by finals cramming, followed by studying to take the written and the drive to get my license (YAY!!!!), followed by the fact that I had a very, very early case of senioritis. For you medical students who randomly read my book, don't get technical with me with the suffix…. X
D/C: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
[Insert long list of names here that's posted in chapter five]are based upon actual people, but their names have been changed to protect the actual persons from a life of fame and wealth (hah! You wish…).
"Talking inside of each other's heads" was made up by the real Kirsten and Inad. They came up with it freshman year. I have yet to figure out whether they actually do it or not.
The majority of the comments in this story actually came from the people that are said to have said them. A few were added by me, but I won't tell you which ones, 'cuz that would spoil the whole story. ::sticks out tongue::
Some of the italicized lines are from Sarah McLaughlan's song "Answer". I strongly suggest that if you are a fan of light rock that you go out and buy the CD. OMG, it's heavenly.
… means that it's a memory…
Chapter Eleven – Dry Your Tears
"There are some things you just gotta do."
Kaori Hirashi
"—uck!"
Lia stood there, Daniel's words ringing strangely in her ears. She felt as though she had been doused in a bucket of ice-cold water; icicles were now growing from her heart, which was being squeezed so hard she thought it would burst.
She didn't see Chris' face pale rapidly, even though she was looking right at him; nor did she hear Jack denying their actions: "We didn't mean it, it just happened!"
She didn't register any of it. Jack glanced at Lia, as though hoping she would realize what had happened.
"How could you?" Lia whispered hoarsely. Jack gave up and looked away. Just as she had felt that she didn't have any more tears to cry, Lia knew that her face was shining and wet from the new ones that were crawling down her cheeks. "How…how co—" her voice broke, and she turned and ran from the room.
No one followed.
&
Hermione was laughing. Her smile covered her entire face, and her eyes sparkled brightly.
She felt so happy, happier than she could remember feeling for a long time.
Harry grinned back at her. He playfully pushed her shoulder, in a joking manner. Hermione only laughed harder. The force of the push, combined with her laughter caused her to lose her balance. She suddenly found herself on the floor of the hotel room, her body aching from the fall.
"Thank the Gods," a sneering voice said. "If there's one thing I hate more than a sleeping Gryffindor, it's a sleep-talking, sleeping Gryffindor!"
The head girl, very disoriented, got to her feet and untangled herself from the bed sheets that had come with her when she fell. "Ten points from Slytherin, Zambini. You could have hurt me."
Blaise sneered and brushed her shining auburn hair from her face. "It's a pity you weren't."
"Another ten points, and a detention with Filch when we get back to Hogwarts."
"Ms. Granger," said a new, sleepy voice. Hermione saw that their conversation had woken everyone else in the room, including Professor White. "I believe that the school we will be attending supports detentions. Why don't we check with them on what they do?"
"I will not serve a detention there!" Blaise cried indignantly. "With—" she scoffed, and then continued—"with Muggles?!"
"Yes. With Muggles. Oh, yes, I nearly forgot: you will turn your wands into me tomorrow morning. You took this trip to experience life as a Muggle, so you will live as a Muggle for the next four months." She smiled sweetly as the words sunk in.
&
Jack picked at her blanket, her heart hammering in her chest. I can't believe that just happened, she thought to herself. Daniel and Lia just walking— She stopped suddenly and looked up again at Daniel's livid expression. Daniel! "You…you're dead!"
"Yeah, I keep hearing that," he replied sarcastically.
"You tried to kill me!"
"Well, I guess it's too bad I failed, then, isn't it?" He glared at Jack and Chris. Jack felt herself trembling again, and she glanced quickly to her right. This being her second time in a hospital in three months, she knew where the nurse service button was.
And the security button.
&
[QoC: Here ya go, Inad. You can quit asking me to put more parts with you and Kirsten in, now….]
Inad crossed her legs among the pile of fuzzy pink pillows and leaned back contentedly. "So, what do we do now?"
Kirsten gathered her platinum blond hair behind her head, and then stretched her arms back, so the curls bounced perfectly. "We could pester Zack and Jack more."
"Nah, that got old when Zack came to the conclusion that he was talking to himself."
"Well, what about Jack?"
Inad turned to glance behind her at what should have been a wall, but instead was more like a giant window, showing Jack in a hospital bed, Chris on the floor near the bed, and Daniel at the door. The latter of the boys had a furious expression on his face, while Chris seemed to be almost scared.
"I wonder what happened?" Kirsten said.
"Why do you say that?"
"Well, Daniel looks about ready to kill Jack, which is just a little bit abnormal."
"Just a tad."
"Shall we see what happened?"
"Okay! Would you like some Skittles?"
"I didn't see any when we got here."
Inad looked down at the floor, and a bowl of brightly colored candies appeared. "I think that all we have to do to get anything we want here is just will it to be."
"Cool! So I could wish the hottest guy in the universe to be here, and he'd appear?"
"Is that all you can think about right now, guys? We have this juicy drama about to unfold right here, and the first thing you think about is men." Inad laughed.
Kirsten frowned. "Maybe later then. Drama, now; boys, later."
&
Daniel watched Jack's face as it darted to the side. What's she looking for? he wondered. Probably something to throw at me.
Then he thought back to what she'd just said:
"You…you're dead!"
"Yeah, I keep hearing that."
"You tried to kill me!"
"Well, I guess it's too bad I failed, then, isn't it?"
Oh. That makes sense. Shit! "Jack, wait!" He lunged at the bed, and grabbed her arm so that she couldn't press the security button. Jack shrieked loudly, and started to beat him wildly with her free arm. "Jack, stop, stop!" Daniel grabbed her other arm, and was surprised as Chris barreled into him, knocking him from his perch on the bed.
"I don't know who—"
"Chris! It's me! I know what happened!" Daniel glanced quickly to Jack, who had frozen in her place, one arm outstretched for the button. He saw Chris back away out of the corner of his eye, and Daniel slowly got to his feet, his hands in the air. "I know what happened."
So he explained everything.
&
Back at the police station, Lia stuck the key in the ignition and turned the engine, listening to it splutter as it tried to catch. She sat there, tears pouring down her face, trying to ignore the image of Chris kissing Jack. She tried to ignore the pain she felt in her heart from losing Kirsten and Inad.
She tried to ignore the pain of losing Chris.
Finally, she gave up on trying to start the car and just leaned against the steering wheel, sobbing so hard that she didn't know if she'd ever be able to stop.
&
Jack sat on her bed, numb, as Daniel finished telling his story.
"Lia found me—well, she and Mrs. Graham nearly ran me over, actually—and told me what had happened to you. I don't know who that man was, but he wasn't me. I can tell you that much." Daniel was looking right into Jack's eyes. For some reason, she believed him, but the guilt at her and Chris's actions drove her to look away.
His hand gently grasped her chin, and she looked back to him again.
"As for what you and Chris have done," he said, "I don't know what to say. Walking into the room where my girlfriend is supposed to be lying unconscious in to find her making out with one of my friends was extremely unsettling."
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Chris shift uncomfortably.
Daniel closed his eyes, and with a jolt Jack realized just what he was doing.
"I don't want to see you anymore."
&
Tears dripped silently down Pyro's face as she laid on her bed at home, her arms pillowed behind her head. Nik sat next to her, gently stroking her hair.
"Why them?" she asked, finally breaking the quiet of the room. "Why did it have to be them?"
"Why not?" Nik said bitterly. "If it hadn't been them, who would you rather it had been?"
Pyro closed her eyes in pain and tried to stop herself from sobbing. "I didn't mean—didn't mean it like that."
Nik's lips brushed the tip of her nose, and then he pressed his face to the top of her head. "I know that. You need to think of it this way, though: I know that you miss them, but sometimes it just ends up being their purpose in life, to have made that little touch on yours."
"Nik, don't go all religious on me," Pyro scoffed through her tears.
"I'm not," he said softly.
They remained silent for a while, and then Pyro asked, "You're thinking of her, aren't you?" When Nik didn't respond, she sat up and looked at him. "Your mother?"
Nik's eyes looked strange as they gleamed with tears. "You should treasure the time you had with your friends," he told her. He got up, collected his jacket, and left through Pyro's bedroom door.
Taking a deep breath, Pyro did the only thing that seemed sensible to do at that moment, and began to get ready for bed. It was going to be a long day tomorrow…and the next…and the one after that….
&
Hermione took a deep breath as they approached the school. She hoisted her bag back up onto her shoulder, and glanced around at Ron, who stood nervously beside her. This was the first time any of them had been without their wands in a long time, the first time that any of them had encountered Muggles in this number.
"Well, let's go in, then," she said.
Ron nodded, looking as though he had a snitch lodged in his throat.
Hermione closed her hand on the metal handle of the door and pulled it open. Instantly, noise burst from the hall, causing more than one of the students to jump back in surprise. Raucous laughing filled their ears.
"Okay," Ron said. "I'm ready to go home now."
Hermione straightened her back and led the way through the doors into the commons.
It wasn't actually so bad once they got inside. All they received was a passing glance, nothing more than a customary look that barely acknowledged their presence.
"So…this is Skylook?"
"Skyview, Ron."
"Yeah, that. This is it?"
"I guess so."
He paused and glanced around. "D'you think there are any wiz—"
"Shhh!" Hermione rounded on him and clamped her hand over his mouth. Then, in hushed tones, she continued. "You're going to have to stop doing that, mentioning stuff from the you-know-where," she told him.
Ron practically ignored her warning. "Well? Do you?"
Hermione thought for a moment, and then answered, "I don't think so. They have you-know-whating schools over here, too."
"Oh." They stopped as the mass of Americans in front of them stopped in the middle of the hall as well.
Hermione waited patiently for them to move, and when they didn't, she turned around and tried to find another way around. Finally, she located a way, but it, too, was blocked by a gaggle of giggling girls, all wearing excruciatingly short skirts that were alternating blue and white, with a silver lining.
"Goddamn preps," someone muttered behind her, and Hermione jumped in surprise as two girls, quickly followed by about five more, pushed past her and rudely ploughed their way through the teenagers in front of them.
"Now what?" Ginny asked from behind Ron.
Hermione suddenly grinned. "Well, when in Rome…."
&
It could be said that Lia wasn't in the best of moods that Monday morning. She pulled into the parking lot as usual (barely missing two girls who were standing on the corner of the parking lot, cigarettes in mouth, busily becoming human chimneys), glanced around for a parking spot, and quickly drove to the first one available. It was reasonably good, one that would definitely be easy to get out of once school ended for the day.
Lia killed the engine and rummaged around in the back seat for her book bag. She pulled it into her lap, and glanced in. The first thing that she saw was that she had left one of her binders at home. The next thing was that someone had slipped a bag of Skittles in without her knowing.
Biting her lip to hold back tears, she opened the door and immediately had to shut it again to avoid having it be swiped off by a blue beater car that quickly rolled in. After murmuring a few choice cuss words, Lia stepped out and glared at the owner. "Therese, you need to be more careful."
"Why?"
"You just about took off my door!"
"Oh. Sorry."
"Yeah." Lia pulled her jacket tightly around her and then swung her bag over her head.
"You okay?"
"Huh?"
"You seem…I dunno, detached. And where are Chris and Zack?"
Lia shifted her head just so slightly so that Therese wouldn't catch the tears now rolling freely down her face. In her best, everything's-fine-nothing's-wrong voice, she replied, "They're getting a ride from Jack today."
"But it's way out of her way! And you always—"
"Never mind, Therese."
"But—"
"Dammit, I said, 'never mind'!" She rounded on the girl, her eyes fierce and wild.
Therese looked as though she'd been smacked in the face. "Well, fine then. Be the bitch you are."
Lia sighed unhappily and walked away. Her fights with Therese were almost as frequent as they were with Jack, except she always seemed to leave them feeling more annoyed than amused.
As she approached the building, she saw a group of students and two adults standing outside, warily looking at the doors. A girl with fairly bushy hair reached forward and pulled the door open. Lia almost laughed out loud when several of the students jumped back.
Walking quickly, she reached the doors about the same time the last student walked in, so she followed. They stopped when they saw the blockade of preps. Lia waited for a few minutes, listening to them talk.
"So…this is Skylook?" The boy had a thick, British accent, which completely betrayed the fact that these kids were the foreign exchange students. Plus, getting the name of her school wrong was another complete giveaway that it wasn't just another transfer student.
"Skyview, Ron."
"Yeah, that. This is it?"
"I guess so."
Lia rolled her eyes.
"Do you think they're gonna move?" Therese asked her, seeming to forget that she was mad at Lia.
"Probably not. I'll bet they don't know that the only way to get through here is to attack your way through." Lia waited for a few more seconds as the bushy-haired girl thoughtfully watched the preps, and then exploded. "Goddamn preps!" She barreled through the Brits, and on through the now very startled preps, who quickly cleared the way for the enraged teen.
Lia continued onward to the table, where she plopped down in a chair and brooded. Seeing Jack on the opposite side, Lia ignored her and pulled out her current reading book for English and began her adventure of catching up. She didn't see any point, as she knew that her teacher, who was, incidentally, the coach of Skyview's swim team, would extend the reading date for her.
Well, most likely, anyway.
Rubbing her arm angrily, Lia stood up again and threw her bag over her right shoulder and felt it collide with someone.
"Ouch!"
Lia turned in surprise and saw that she had knocked over Zack. "Oops, sorry…."
Zack stared at her from the floor, and when a blank look came across his face, she panicked.
"What'd you do?!" Therese asked, kneeling down beside him and tapping his glasses slightly, as though it would make a difference in his comatose state.
"Backpack," she said distantly.
"Could you have hit him any harder?"
"Probably."
Lia watched Zack closely, examining his pale face, the circles under his emerald green eyes, and his dark hair. She squinted slightly: was there a scar above his right eyebrow? Resting her left arm on her knee, Lia leaned forward to brush the hairs off of his brow.
An iron hand clamped around her wrist, and the teen jumped. Zack appeared to have awoken, and was quickly sitting up.
"Er, sorry," he said sheepishly, a bit of color staining his cheeks. Lia didn't shift her gaze: when he had sat up, his bangs had shifted and revealed a lightning-shaped scar. She stared at it, wondering where it could have come from. It was old, she could tell that. But where could such an unusual shaped scar come from? She leaned forward and touched it gingerly with one finger.
There was a loud zaaaaap!, and Lia was thrown backwards into the crowd of people, excruciating pain shooting up and down her left arm.
&
The hairs crackled strangely on the back of her neck. Hermione turned, recognizing the sensation as powerful magics being unleashed. They had all received the same warning: If you use your magic while at Skyview, you will immediately return to England, and be suspended indefinitely from Hogwarts.
So who was being foolish enough to cast something with force enough to even turn Neville's head in confusion in the very center of Muggles?
&
Inad's eyes widened. "What was that?"
"I don't know…I've never seen anything like that before," Kirsten answered, overturning the bowl of Skittles as she hastened to her feet to pause the huge window they were looking through. Lia's face radiated the pain that she felt, and her right hand was clamped around her left arm.
"It was almost as though he was full of electricity, and just kinda pushed her backwards!" Inad joined Kirsten by the window. With her mind, she rewound the view until it was focused on the very millisecond that the strange occurrence happened. A strange, red light was lining most of Lia's body, with the exception of a pure, bluish-white portion around her left arm.
"Whatever is going on, it's not normal," Kirsten told her. The girls sat stunned, and then continued to watch.
&
Jack's jaw dropped. "What the hell?!" She turned to Zack, her eyes lingering only briefly on his befuddled expression, before returning her gaze to Lia, who was now halfway across the commons. Most of the students were screaming, thinking that someone was trying to attack them, while others were running in a frenzied panic. In either case, Lia quickly vanished in a sea of people trying to get out of the commons. She spotted Pyro diving in (when had she arrived?), and Nik following after her. Therese stood next to her, staring open mouthed at the din.
"What the hell just happened?" she heard Zack saying behind her, she turned again, seeing him rubbing his forehead.
"That's what I'd like to know," she responded. "Let's get out of here, though! We're going to get trampled if we don't move."
The fire alarms went off suddenly, and Jack started moving towards the closest exit: the front doors, where 80% of the school was also heading. If there really was a fire, they were going to be in a lot of trouble….
&
Lia dimly heard the screams of the people around her. The pain in her arm was radiating up and down so badly she thought she was going to pass out.
Instead, just as Pyro and Nik broke through the crowd, it ended so quickly, that she saw stars in front of her eyes.
"Lia!" Pyro's voice was saying, seemingly through a cloud. "Lia!"
Lia shook her head to clear the stars, and opened her eyes again. The fire alarm went off, and she got quickly to her feet.
"What the hell was that?" Pyro demanded.
Lia glanced to Nik, and he seemed to know. Or, if he didn't, he was just looking at her in a very strange way.
"Let's get out of here," Lia, said, and they ran to the doors with everyone else.
&
"What do you mean, she got away?!"
Lucius Malfoy flinched involuntarily as a buzz of red, crackling energy zipped past him, missing his face by mere inches. "It is just that, milord. She was locked in the closet, and when we returned—"
Voldemort narrowed his already slit-like crimson eyes. "Yes, I am aware of what happened. I am also aware that you captured her boyfriend, used his hair in a polyjuice potion with Crabbe."
"Yes, that is true."
"Crucio!"
Malfoy felt himself seized with an intense pain, and couldn't keep himself from screaming.
"Crabbe is dead, killed by Muggle police. Goyle, when sent out to take care of the boy, was hit by an automobile. He is in St. Mungos now."
"And the boy, milord?" The pain had stopped, and Malfoy was now breathing heavily.
Voldemort leaned forward on his chair, chin in his hands. "The boy escaped with the automobile that hit Goyle. It turned out they were friends of his."
Malfoy said nothing.
"If the authorities get a hold on this boy, we are in trouble. He was no twin."
Again, Malfoy said nothing. They were in more trouble than Lord Voldemort realized. The boy knew his name….
&
Lia sat on the cot in the nurse's office, a bored expression on her face. The students had been allowed back in the school when they realized there was nothing wrong. Someone claimed to have popped a balloon when the explosion was heard, and since nobody was hurt, they decided that the situations were coincidental.
Except….
I know that something isn't right, Lia thought to herself as the nurse unwrapped her arm. My arm hasn't stopped throbbing in days, and now it just…stops? Random….
The rest of the bandage came away, and the nurse gently lifted the gauze.
The stitches—and any other evidence of her injury—were gone. Lia stared transfixed at where the wound should have been, and then felt suddenly light-headed. What had happened when Zack touched her? Why was her arm, so grievously wounded in a crash that should have killed the boy, miraculously healed?
"You said you had a cut here?"
"Y-yes…umm…." The light-headedness hadn't yet left her, and she had to lean against the wall, she was so dizzy. "It…it was there this morning…."
"Well, it isn't there now, Ms. Florence. If you continue to fake injuries like this, you will be given detention. Claiming an injury and then using up precious time of a school nurse is seen as a bad thing. You will be excused this one time, Lia, because you were thrown across the floor. Now, if you have no further practical jokes…?"
Instantly, Lia was angry. She shook her head to clear the dizziness, and rolled up the ACE bandage. As she got up to leave, she turned to face the nurse. "It wasn't a joke, ma'am. You can ask anyone else who was in that wreck with me. I had a cut from here to here." She traced a light line on her arm to demonstrate. "If you don't believe me that—"
"Ms. Florence. If you are quite finished…?"
Lia got the point, and stormed angrily out of the office to her morning classes.
&
Two days later couldn't have been more different from the atmosphere of the school that day. Dressed all in black, something unusual for the normally bright and cheerful teen, Lia stood alone next to a tree. The only protection she had from the weather was an umbrella, big enough for only one person. The tree seemed to be the only thing keeping her up.
Ahead through the haze, Lia could just make out the procession of people, all filling past tombstone after tombstone. They carried between them two coffins, both holding the bodies of two of her friends.
Tears further blurred the curly-haired teen's vision, threatening to fall down the curves of her face. Somehow, she held them back, and began to walk forward. Somewhere, a lone yet powerful voice sang a song.
I will be the answer
At the end of the line
As Lia got closer, she could make out the individual faces of the people in the procession. The coffin bearers were people that she didn't know, but the people surrounding them were friends, family, admirers. She noticed Jack leaning heavily onto Chris, as though he was the only thing that kept her moving. Nik and Pyro, and even Daniel had come. He looked up at her, as though sensing her arrival.
I will be there for you
While you take the time
In the burning of uncertainty
I will be your solid ground
Lia fell into step beside him. Neither of them said a word. They didn't have to. He understood that she was in a lot of pain, what with losing two of her friends, and practically losing another with Chris and Jack being….
And Lia understood Daniel.
I will hold the balance
When you can't look down
The minister of the church (Lia couldn't remember the name. In any case, it didn't matter) began to read The Order For The Burial Of The Dead. Instead of listening to the minister, though, Lia focused in on the singer.
If it takes my whole life
I won't break, I won't bend
It will all be worth it
Worth it in the end
'Cuz I can only tell you what I know
That I need you in my life
When the stars have all gone out
You'll still be burning so bright
Lia looked towards Jack, and noticed that she was looking back at her, her eyes full of tears.
Cast me gently into morning
For the night has been unkind.
I'm so sorry, she mouthed. Lia closed her eyes and felt the tears that once again threatened to overflow. She walked over to Jack and embraced her. The whirling pain that she'd felt deep within her heart finally overcame her, and she began to sob into her friend's shoulder. Over the noise she was making, she could hear Jack doing the same thing.
Take me to a place so holy
That I can wash this from my mind
The memory of choosing not to fight
"Here," a voice whispered. Both girls broke the hug and looked at Chris, who, with red-rimmed eyes, looked back with sympathy. He held two tissues in his hands. "You can use these to dry your tears."
Lia couldn't help but smile through her tears. Somehow she knew that she couldn't be mad at Jack for doing what she did. Somehow she knew that, had she been in her place, she would have done the same thing.
Cast me gently into morning
For the night has been unkind
Somehow she knew they would all heal. But, as all deep wounds do, they would forever be scarred.
QoC: the phrase that is stared is something that I found on another story. I have never been to a funeral, and therefore do not know what is said at one. I know the "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust" thing, but not what it is called…if what was quote is incorrect, please let me know so I can correct it.