Chapter seven - One big ... family

'I'm always disappointed, by the dullness of this world,' Simone said. Sighing, she stared out the window as the rain came trickling down.

Lauren looked out the window and grinned. 'Ever the depressed, are we?'

'Wouldn't want to have it any other way,' she replied smoothly, returning her eyes on the dishes. 'I think I know what's going on.' She said after a long silence. Lauren raised her eyebrows, 'you mean with Parson?'

'There was one name between the "accomplices" that caught my attention,' she said.

'Oh dear,' Lauren didn't like the sound of this at all.

'Indeed,' Simone said grimly. 'You'd think he'd change his alias after last time.'

'Why didn't you tell this to professor Dumbledore?' Lauren asked, but she already knew the answer. Simone shrugged, 'I don't know… I want to be sure first. I don't want to go around accusing people when this time he might be innocent…. As innocent as it goes, though.'

'What now?'

'I'm thinking about paying my dear cousin a surprise visit,' Simone said. 'Besides, going to him will bring me to Parson and Parson will get me to the list. It's a win-win situation.'

Ignoring the feeling of dread that seemed to boil up in her stomach, she said softly (quickly checking if no one was listening at the door) 'Cover for me while I'm gone?'

'Isn't it better to wait for Dumbledore's return? He'll need you to open the portal for him,' Lauren reminded her. Professor Dumbledore had left for his realm last night, to check up on a few facts and to see how everything was faring there.

'Right,' she sighed. She'd preferred to leave straight away, who knew how much time it would take Dumbledore to return. After all, mere seconds in their world, equalled a day in her world.

That night everyone was sitting in the living room. Lauren and Rob had left on 'urgent business', business that had nearly sent Simone after them if they hadn't reminded her (once more) that she had to wait for Dumbledore to return here.

Ron was watching the first Harry Potter movie, every now and then commentating on things that were horribly wrong.

'That school doesn't look like Hogwarts at all. And look at the kid they hired to act you, Harry! Isn't your aunt blond.'

'It's just a movie, Ron,' Simone said, looking up from a book, trying to hide a smile that sometimes tugged at the corners of her mouth. 'The book describes all of you far more accurately.'

When Snape first came into view, the three were looking more intently. 'He's much better looking than Snape,' Harry said after a while.

'Malfoy's hair is the worst,' Hermione said. 'What did they do, bleach it? He doesn't resemble the real Malfoy at all.'

'Of course not,' Simone said exasperated. 'No one here really knows what you look like, do they!'

She was pointedly ignored. When they neared the end of the movie, Simone shifted uncomfortably. She wasn't sure if Harry would appreciate the last scenes much, in which he faced lord Voldemort.

Thankfully, he didn't seem to be bothered too much. He only grinned, lopsided, as he said, 'I never turned Quirrel into stone.'

'There's a second, third and fourth movie if you want to see it.' Simone said, returning to her book again.

'I want to see the third movie,' Harry spoke up after a while. 'The Prisoner of Azkaban, right?' He held it up, there was a strange look on his face and the atmosphere changed drastically.

'Uh… yeah,' Simone said.

When the movie was playing, there was a dense and nervous atmosphere in the air, which was lifted considerably when the episode of Aunt Marge began. They all laughed as the fat woman slowly blew up like a balloon and uncle Vernon tried to hold her down.

It became more serious again when the dog first came into view.

'Maybe we should turn it off,' Hermione said quietly, looking at Harry nervously. No one responded and Simone didn't dare to shut the movie off, while Harry was so intend to watch it.

'Are bad things going to happen this year?' Harry asked, still looking at the TV screen.

'Bad things,' Simone repeated, avoiding the question.

'Yeah,' he gave her his full attention. Unwillingly, her eyes were drawn to the scar. 'As long as Voldemort is around, bad things are bound to happen,' she mumbled. She couldn't help but feel guilty, as she hastily turned her eyes away, to the book she was reading.

'Is anyone else going to die?' Harry continued his questioning.

'I can't tell you Harry,' she said firmly.

'Why not?' Ron said hotly.

'Because,' she said, trying to sound as patient and friendly as possible, 'I would be meddling with things I shouldn't meddle with…'

'Because we are just fictional characters from a book you like to read,' Hermione filled in for her.

'Don't make me a bad guy here,' Simone said, slamming her book shut. 'I'm just afraid that if I change anything, even the slightest thing…'

'But you haven't read the seventh book yet, have you,' Harry pressed. 'You don't know if the ending will be good or not.'

'Harry Potter is a children's book,' Simone countered. 'I have yet to read a children's book in which the hero fails at his cause.'

'There's a first time for everything innit?' Ron said.

'Look,' Simone said impatiently now. 'As I said, bad things are bound to happen. If I could change anything I would. If I could make it easier for you, Harry, if…' she stopped, as if she hadn't been worried about this ever since she first met Dumbledore and accepted that he truly was alive? As if she hadn't cried for nights in a row when it turned out he was dead! Why were they suddenly so keen on turning the tables on her?

If there was one thing she had learned…

'But most of all that will happen had already been decided by the time I met Dumbledore….'

'You could have stopped Sirius from dying,' Harry countered.

There was a long silence and Simone pursed her lips. 'Perhaps. Perhaps not.'

'You knew what was happening in my fifth year long before I did!' Harry said hotly.

'Will you STOP trying to blame everyone for his death!' Simone screamed. 'If I could've walked up to Fudge and said, hey by the way, I've got a book here that says he's not killed Wormtail, I would have done that ages ago. But the books are dangerous. Ask Dumbledore. Ask anyone. The story was told by one of you, it must've been. Which must mean that in the end everything will turn out to be OK. That one of you meant this story to be inspiring and…'

'Or that everything turned out for the worse and we hoped someone would pick it up and be smart enough to change it,' Hermione said softly.

'I can't change what is supposed to happen,' Simone snapped. 'I've thought for ages about this. I've discussed this with professor Dumbledore. We both agreed that I am not in a position to…'

'But you've helped Dumbledore at times, haven't you?' Ron asked, 'he told us that you've sometimes helped him with some riddles and…'

'Things he was bound to find out in time,' Simone interrupted him. 'Sometimes I even did it without realising it. I just thought something I wasn't supposed to think and he, being the Legillimens that he is, caught it. But those are rare occasions…'

'You could have saved Sirius,' Harry said, his eyes seemed rather shiny. 'I've blamed many for his death… but you knew, you knew all along. You could have stepped up and saved him.'

'I'm beginning to think that Dumbledore made a mistake,' Simone said in a low voice, 'for bringing you here. You just don't understand. Do whatever you want to do. I'm going to bed.'

She walked away before anyone else was able to reply. She'd never felt so guilty in her life. It'd been easy to ignore the fact that people actually died in the story when she'd never met anyone that was affected by it.

It'd been easy to not tell anything when no one was really depending on it.

But she couldn't tell.

She'd sworn to Dumbledore that she never, ever would until the story was finished. It was the best way. It was a far to great risk to change events. After all, when he came, Harry had already been marked by Voldemort. He'd already started his first year and been with the Dursleys. Sirius was already in Azkaban.

The story had begun before she had time to stop it.

Harry, Ron and Hermione stared at the television for the longest time, none of them really knew what to say. Eventually it was Ron who broke the silence. 'Sirius does look ugly in this movie, doesn't he?'

'A bit fat, yeah,' Harry muttered.

'Well, if they're wrong on one thing it's definitely professor Lupin. Just look at him! Does he look like Remus to you?'

'Far too ugly as well.' Ron nodded. 'The Hermione is pretty cute though.'

'What are you trying to say?' Hermione's voice sounded extremely dangerous, and Harry cringed inwardly. Ron hadn't noticed. 'Well, she doesn't look like you at all…'

'Are you saying that I'm ugly?'

Ron's eyes widened at that comment and he began to splutter.

'So you really do think that I'm ugly!' Her voice was high-pitched.

'I didn't say that!'

'You said she was cute and than that she didn't look like me at all, what am I supposed to think!' Hermione said.

'He probably meant that she was cute as in, far too childishly cute, didn't you Ron?' Harry tried, but even he found it was a lame excuse. 'None of us think you're ugly.'

'No, we really don't,' Ron said, sounding slightly relieved. 'I said she was cute. And she doesn't look like you at all because you are, well, you are beautiful.' He turned pink after he had finished that sentence for some reason.

Not that Harry couldn't guess why. The atmosphere changed drastically and Harry didn't like this turn at all. He preferred the shouting match at Simone. Anything other than this. Another silence fell in the room, long until after the movie had finished playing. Eventually Hermione said that she was tired and going to bed.

Ron and Harry looked at each other.

'Want to see another movie, mate?' Ron said.

'I don't really know how that thing works,' Harry said, staring at the DVD-player. 'We got a VCR but this works completely different…'

'Yeah…' Ron said, staring at it at well, 'I don't want to break anything that isn't mine.'

'Let's go to bed too,' Harry said. 'Dumbledore said he'd be back by noon tomorrow. We'll probably have to leave afterwards.'

Dumbledore held true to his promise. The next day at noon he had returned. 'Where are Rob and Lauren?' was his first question.

'Urgent business,' Simone replied shortly. 'They're probably not back for a couple of days… I was told to wait here for them, but they asked me to follow them asap.' She was lying and very aware that Dumbledore knew this. She looked at him, he seemed on the brink to say something in return but thought the better of it.

She turned to Rita, who looked about the same. She'd been there when they'd held the conversation with Lauren and Rob. One look, though, was enough to shut her up. Rita just raised her eyebrows slightly but then turned around to take some more notes of the current situation in the present time.

'Harry, Ron, Hermione,' professor Dumbledore said. 'Let us concentrate on finding the portals. I have brought a book with me which may tell us more about it all.'

Simone had not spoken to the trio since she went to bed last night and there was still some tension hanging in the air, but she purposefully ignored it. 'I better get going,' she said. 'My bags are packed, I'll be back tomorrow. It won't be long…'

She walked up to her room. She had thought about asking them to warn Lauren and Rob if she was not back by tomorrow, but she was afraid to give to much of her lie away and she did not want that either. Besides, Dumbledore was Dumbledore. If she was not back by tomorrow as promised, he must guess that something had gone amiss.

But what could go wrong? After all, she was only going away for a visit wasn't she. She'd be back by tonight if she could keep it short. She hoped she'd be back by than, because the feeling of dread that had been building inside of her since yesterday had been growing. Her hands were shaking as she packed her bags and walked down. She said goodbye one last time and set off. There was a busstation nearby.

'I'll be back by tomorrow,' she promised herself firmly. And everything was going to be alright.

Simone knocked on the door.

For a while there was no answer, she was about to force entry when the door suddenly opened and nearly hit her in the face. 'Watch it will you!' she said angrily.

'Simone,' the one standing in the doorway said confused. 'What are you doing here?'

There was an immediate look of distrust in the man's face as Simone brushed right past him and went into the living room. She found it to be entirely empty. Thank God. She'd been afraid that Parson might be here and that would've left her to explaining a lot. She didn't want any of that.

'I'd expected you'd be glad to see me,' she said switching to Dutch. 'What's wrong with visiting a cousin?'

'Your visits are rarely just a visit,' the man responded. He motioned for her to sit on a chair. 'To what do I owe the pleasure this time?'

'Several things,' she said shortly, sitting down. 'And I think you know very well why I am here.'

He sighed heavily, slumping down in a chair himself, 'you're not serious are you? What? Are you stalking me or something?'

She laughed coldly. 'There is no need for that with you, you may be the sloppiest burglar I have yet to meet. It's almost like you want me to find out!'

'Let's not exaggerate,' he said, grinning widely. 'How about a cup of tea? Or no, you're more of a Pepsi person aren't you?'

'Yeah,' she said. She lit a cigarette, 'you don't mind do you?'

'Would it matter,' he replied.

She smiled, 'no.'

'Well, you have your answer right there,' he said, he walked over to the kitchen and returned with two glasses of coke. 'Now, what have I done wrong and what exactly are you planning to do about it?'

'You're planning to steal the Harry Potter books,' she answered. 'And I'm making sure you won't.'

There was a long silence which was filled with a staring duel. None of them one. They grew tired of it, as they always did.

They had been in this situation so many times they didn't even feel the need to pretend to be macho towards one another. They knew what they both could do.

Simone herself was getting more than tired of this. This would be the last time that her cousin crossed the line. She was done with this. She was sick of having to clean up after the mess he created. This time he was in way over his head. On the other hand, when was he not in over his head?

'Look, Moses,' she said, in order to break the silence. 'When are you just going to grow up?'

'Grow up?' he said, 'Growing up is so dreadfully dull. When are you going to act your age, let's talk about that. You're always so uptight! I swear, there really is nothing wrong going on. Nothing that our favourite grandmother could worry about… It's just a bit of a game, really.'

'It's not just a game and you know that as well as I do,' she barked.

'Are you expecting me to cry and beg for mercy now,' he shot up, his friendly manner suddenly forgotten. 'I thought you'd understand about this one! But, I can see I was mistaken.'

'Yes, you were,' she said roughly. 'And I was mistaken to help you last time. This time it's different, Mose. This time we're going to do it my way and my way alone. Am I making myself clear?'

Another staring duel began. This time it was more vigilant than the last. The man drank his drink in one gulp, as if it was whiskey instead of Pepsi. Simone snorted at this stupid gesture, which only seemed to make him angrier.

'No,' he said at length. 'I'm afraid you're not.'

A/N: Next chapter, who is Moses and what is Simone exactly up to? Things are going to pick up a swifter pace from here. I'm thinking this one's going to be a short fic.