Chapter 70 The Harry Potter Show
They all headed to the lake, and saw an open patch of ground near one of the trees. They wondered why it was open since it was such a perfect place and there were so many people around. As they made their way over, they saw two people in the open area. It looked like Remus Lupin sharing the space with Voldemort. Lupin waved.
"Harry, Hagrid, all of you, come on over. Tonks and I've been saving a space for you."
Ron looked into the blood red eyes in the snakelike skull Tonks was displaying and said, "Tonks, you're a sick, sick woman. I am not going to try and watch fireworks with Lord Voldemort, so unless you're game for a duel, just choose some other freaky look!"
"You'd be surprised how wide a berth I get like that," Tonks laughed. Then she changed herself to look like a smaller version of Ron. "This'll probably scare 'em even further away."
The rest all had a good laugh at Ron's expense, and then Tonks changed back into a more normal appearance, at least for her.
They all grabbed places to sit while waiting for the show to start. Harry was next to Lupin.
"It's truly magical," said Lupin to Harry. He was looking up at the sky.
"What d'you mean, Remus? It hasn't even started," said Harry.
"I mean the moon. It's nearly full. Even as an adult, seeing the moon that near to full would scare me to tears before. Harry," Lupin looked at him, "Madame Pomfrey had to examine me. She checked my spine, my ribs, my nostrils, my eyes – I've got a clean bill of health. I thought maybe you had just changed me back for this month, but that next month, it would be a choice of either the same old transformation to a werewolf or drinking that awful potion and being doped up for days. Nope. I'm not a werewolf. I'm not a werewolf anymore!"
"That's great, Remus. I can't be happier than to know that," said Harry.
"Yeah, me too," said Ron, with a laugh. "You were a beast at that time of the month."
Hermione stared at him. "Ron! I can't believe you said that!"
"Yeah, like no one else ever thought of that line – I may never get to use it again!"
While trying to tell Harry about being cured, Remus had begun crying with joy. Tonks gave Harry a playful shove.
"Thanks a lot, Potter: I just had him calmed down, and you go setting him off again. I've been dealing with this since he came from Pomfrey's office."
Smiling, Lupin composed himself. "I wouldn't have asked you to do it. When I heard Hermione say in the Great Hall that you actually underwent the werewolf transformation, I nearly fainted. It's an awful thing to go through," he said, shaking his head.
"Yeah, it's bad enough – I'm glad I don't have to keep coming back every full moon," said Harry.
"I wouldn't let you. Just keeping me from dying was plenty," said Lupin. "I've lived my life hoping not to cause anyone else to suffer what I have."
Harry thought a second and said, "Well, for one thing, I can't fine-tune it like that, at least not so far. When I heal, I heal everything that's ailing. Too bad, you'll just have to take your cure. But even if I could have held back, I wouldn't have. I was in enough pain from your injuries – what's a little werewolf transformation for a friend then. Besides, that wasn't even the most painful cure I did last night."
"Still, I can't help but think how fortunate I've been, considering the circumstances. Dumbledore let me get my magical training, I had friends and they became animagi to keep me company and help me through it, and now you've gone to great pains – very literally - to cure me. It's quite overwhelming."
"Remus, we all found you worth it. I know I don't regret it. Just don't let yourself get bitten again, okay?" said Harry with a smile.
"You can count on it," Remus laughed. "I can't imagine why I'm laughing - that's just too sick a thought to be funny - but I feel too good not to laugh."
Harry then got more serious. "Remus, can I talk to you about something? I have a concern, and I want to ask someone who has known pain. I'm afraid that one of these days, I'll lose my nerve, that I'll look at someone who really needs help, and my mind will say 'I really want to help that person,' but there'll be this nagging doubt about taking the pain, and I won't be able to do it. I've got to be able to freely accept it all to make it work."
All of a sudden, there were gales of laughter behind Harry, from both Luna and Ginny.
"That'll be the day!" cackled Luna.
"Poor ickle Hawwy Potter, afwaid to be a hewo!" added Ginny, giggling.
That was more than enough for Harry: he stood, lifted Ginny up and tossed her into the lake. However, he hadn't realized that she had grabbed hold of the hood of his robe, so he was pulled in face-first as well. They fell together, then bobbed up waist-deep laughing. They tried to walk up the muddy lake-bottom, but Ginny slipped and grabbed Harry's robe again. This time they fell holding each other. And when Harry lifted her up, she was standing so close that her body, in her soaking Hogwarts robe, was right against his. They were no longer laughing.
They looked at each other a few seconds, then Harry said, "Erm, would you, … do you have your wand?"
"It's right here," she said distractedly, patting near her left shoulder, causing some jiggling in her noticeably feminine body. "Do you?"
"Erm, no." said Harry, patting around. "Accio wands" he said without a second thought, and they rose from about ten feet away and leapt into his hand. The surrounding witches and wizards goggled at his wandless wand retrieval, but Harry wasn't paying attention.
"Alrigh' now, you two," said Hagrid, laughing and stepping into the lake with one leg in its enormous boot so he could lift them out in turns by their shoulders. "The show's supposed to be over the lake, not in it."
As Hagrid set them on the bank in turns, Tonks dried them with a quick charm. Just then fireworks figures that looked just like Fred and George, except for glowing and being over 100 feet tall, came striding out over the lake. It was like something between a muggle laser show and a well-drawn cartoon, thought Harry, except the figures were three dimensional and moved more naturally. The stars, moon, and mountain made an awe-inspiring backdrop. One of the twins was using the Sonorus charm to amplify his voice.
"Muggles and magicals, beings of all types and species, Weasley's Wizard Wheezes is thrilled to present for your evening entertainment the following fireworks show, based on the exploits of our favorite wizard not named Weasley. This entire show may be purchased as a box set, ready to activate by charm for display, in various sizes: room, backyard, field and WOW, and may we say it would be the perfect display every year on THIS day, which we recommend be named Potter Day.
"However before we begin the main event, we have a special tribute to another good friend. His name is Remus Lupin. He fought brilliantly alongside all of us yesterday and today. He has just this day learned that he has been cured of lycanthropy. That's right, folks, he WAS a werewolf, but he's not anymore, and consequently, he no longer fears a full moon. So Remus, we have a question for you – if you're not afraid of ONE full moon, how about TWO full moons?"
And with that the fireworks Fred and George turned around, bent over and dropped their trousers, waving their twenty-foot wide bare ends in a coordinated waggling routine. Almost the whole crowd began to roar, none more so than Lupin. The one holdout from the amusement was soon heard over the entire tumult, as Molly Weasley's voice was heard shrieking, "I'll kill them!"
The fireworks twins then peeped between their legs and said, "Oh, hi, Mum. So without further ado, we present to you The Adventures of Harry Potter." Then the fireworks twins faded away.
"Oh, no!" said Harry, aghast. "I need this like I need flobberworm earmuffs."
"Ooooh!" squealed Ginny, Luna, Tonks, and Hermione, laughing and kicking their feet. "Our hero!"
"Oh, shut up," said Harry, not harshly, but a bit exasperated.
"Quiet, you lot," said Ron. "I want to see how this comes out. No spoilers, hear?"
Just then the main show started. It began with a modified version of the Dark Mark – even the twins were not so cheeky as to make the actual sign. But it was near enough to cause scattered screams amongst those who had lived through the horror of Voldemort's reigns of terror.
The depiction of Voldemort's attack on Harry's family was not exactly as his memories had it, as he had never described all the details he remembered, but was quite dramatic. The whole crowd gasped as Harry's father fought with Voldemort, spells blazing back and forth until he finally was killed, and then his mother pled with Voldemort for Harry's life and was killed. The real Harry put his forearms across his knees and rested his forehead on them, while Remus put an arm around his shoulder and whispered, 'It's alright, Harry, let it out; it gets to me too,' and Ginny and Tonks rubbed his back.
Next the firework Voldemort turned to baby Harry. The wizards and witches in the audience knew what had to happen and many were jovially shouting "No! No!" Despite their protestations, a bolt of green light shot at the toddler's head, but it bounced back and the firework Voldemort became a silvery wisp and then disappeared. The magical folk in the audience cheered, knowing that this meant the first downfall of Voldemort, but the Grangers were appalled.
"Oh, my word," said Mrs. Granger, aghast. "Bad enough he attacked those adults, Hermione, but an infant?"
Quietly Hermione responded. "Mum, that child was Harry."
The Grangers glanced over toward Harry and then just stared upwards in shock, as the tiny lightning bolt scar on baby Harry's head grew and grew till it was the only light in the show. Then the twin's voice boomed out again.
"Ten years passed, and Harry came to Hogwarts, where the Philosopher's Stone of Nicolas Flamel had been moved from Gringott's for safekeeping. Headmaster Dumbledore had been reading the signs and knew that what was left of You-Know-Who was seeking it. Harry and his friends, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, (figures of the three appeared in fireworks battling a troll – or more accurately dodging a troll) figured out that an attempt was going to be made to steal the stone."
The firework figures then passed through a door which had appeared and were confronted with the giant three-headed dog.
"My word, Hermione!" exclaimed Mr. Granger loudly. "You fought Cerberus?"
"No, no, Dad, that's Fluffy, one of Hagrid's pets." (Mr. Granger glared at Hagrid, who grinned proudly at him). "And we didn't fight it: we played music to make it sleep."
And sure enough, first fireworks-Harry, then fireworks-Hermione played a flute and the dog slept, as the three figures dropped through the trapdoor into the Devil's Snare. The crowd cheered as fireworks-Hermione conjured a fire to make the plant retreat, and the Grangers beamed with pride. The key chase was absolutely stunning with thousands of swirling glittering lights like a school of herring being first chased by and then chasing the three figures. They darted through a door which appeared.
The narration then returned. "Luckily the next hazard, a troll, had already been disposed of by the wizard whom Voldemort – sorry folks, we've learned to say it and especially now that he's gone, we're not going to stop - had possessed. Then they faced a life-size wizard's chess set, only they had to play the roles of pieces. Luckily Ron Weasley is quite the chess whiz - Way to go, little Bro!"
Then figures of an entire wizard chess set appeared above the lake, with the figures of Ron, Harry and Hermione taking the places of three pieces. The game was quite spectacular, as wizard chess played at high speed in fireworks must be, and when fireworks-Ron sacrificed himself, wincing as the queen's blow came down, so that fireworks-Harry could gain a checkmate, the whole crowd gasped and applauded. The real Ron stood and bowed all around, until Hermione kicked his legs out from under him.
More narration: "Next was a barrier of potions and logic which would make a nice read, but quite a poor show, so we just show some bottles flying around their heads and give due credit – Hermione Granger solved the logic puzzle. But only one could go on. Hermione returned to help Ron and try to get help for Harry. Harry then proceeded."
The fireworks then showed the whole confrontation with Professor Quirrell, the unwrapping of the turban (everyone screamed very nicely) and the final fight, with the fireworks-Quirrell screaming in pain as it touched Harry. It ended with fireworks-Harry standing alone, holding up the Philosopher's Stone. Harry groaned at that, knowing he had been knocked out by the fight, but he had to allow for dramatic license.
"The next year," the narration continued, "Voldemort's 16-year-old self was released through the medium of an enchanted diary and opened the Chamber of Secrets at Hogwarts. Several students were petrified by the monster released, including Hermione Granger (and with this the fireworks-Hermione was shown going flat as a board, then floating down like a leaf to rest on the surface of the lake), but not before she figured out that the monster of the Chamber was a thousand-year-old basilisk. Armed with this knowledge, Ron Weasley and Harry Potter entered the Chamber with Gilderoy Lockhart when our sister Ginny Weasley was taken by the diary-Voldemort into the Chamber so that he could become a physical being."
The figures of Ron, Harry and Lockhart appeared, with fireworks-Harry hissing at the loo sinks to open the Chamber and the three of them sliding down. The real Ginny had her face covered with her hands, but looked through her fingers at the show.
Fireworks-Lockhart tripped fireworks-Ron and then tried to curse fireworks-Harry, with the wand backfiring and collapsing the tunnel between them. The cave-in was awesome in fireworks. Fireworks-Harry went on and found the unconscious fireworks-Ginny. The real Ginny began sobbing openly. Harry put his arm around her and she rested her head on his shoulder. The fireworks showed the entire confrontation with Tom Riddle and the basilisk.
"Cor, mate," said Ron. "Was that beast really that big?"
Harry glanced up again as the twins' representation of phoenixsong was heard (nice, but nothing like the real thing) and the fireworks-Fawkes pecked out the eyes of the basilisk. "Actually a good bit bigger."
Ginny kept sobbing as she peeked up at the show, becoming more rapt as the fireworks-Harry thrust the sword through the roof of the basilisk's mouth, then withdrew with a fang in his arm, followed by Fawkes's healing tears and Harry's destruction of the diary with the fang. As the fireworks-Harry comforted the fireworks-Ginny and helped her up, the real Harry did the same.
"C'mon, Ginny, that's all of this I can take, too. Let's have a walk."
A/N Since I was asked, I thought I should say that I do have a sequel in the works. It picks up the morning after HP and The War Within ends. Some of it was originally in a six-chapter epilogue that I had previously written, but I have reworked most of it and I am expanding on it greatly. Without giving much, if anything, away, it deals with Harry finding that life without Voldemort and the war is not as simple and rosy as he had anticipated. I'll have to confess, though, it's been coming along kind of slow.
And by the way, thanks to everyone who has been reading, and especially those giving feedback. I realize that to non-religious people, the religion may have been a bit heavy, but I was writing also to religious people and trying to express my view of what doing God's will trulyrequires, and why. In the words of the old hymn, "To worship rightly is to love each other, each smile a hymn, each kindly deed a prayer." And while a few sections may have been a bit heavy, it's not as if the beginning didn't warn you there would be religious content.