A month came and went. Gryffindor won the next Quidditch match against Ravenclaw—a big disappointment to Matt, who had apparently gained some pride in his House. Ron and Rochelle got began getting along better; at least, Rochelle didn't slap Ron nearly as much as she had at the beginning of this mission, but Isabel wasn't sure if she should accredit this to Ron's having learned how to screen his thoughts from the Truthseer, or to Rochelle's having tuned down her temper. Either was likely, but since Rochelle was the only Truthseer the group had, it was very unlikely that anyone else would ever discover why Ron and Rochelle were now getting along better.
Ron had even come to tolerate Hermione's "relationship" with Ethan. At least, Hermione and Ethan could now hold hands in his presence. But anything more than that—even a small kiss on the cheek—would set Ron yelling out his frustration with PDA's. And then Rochelle would snog him to get him to shut up, an activity that Ron did not appear to object to in the least.
Smiling, Isabel thought about her wonderful friendship with—of all people—Harry Potter. She knew that any girl would willingly pay any amount of money, or give any one of their limbs, to be in her boots. Isabel enjoyed getting to know Harry better… and of course the fringe benefits of pretending to be his girlfriend weren't too bad, either, although Harry was still uncomfortable with much more than a short kiss.
Even Matt seemed to have found some semblance of a romantic relationship at Hogwarts, although in Isabel's opinion it was more to get back at Rochelle than it was to actually get to know a girl better. Matt certainly didn't act the way he had with Rochelle when he was around Ginny. Of course, Ginny was probably only dating Matt to get back at Harry. Isabel began to think of the possibility of an agreement between her brother and the younger girl while she watched them interact at the Three Broomsticks during the first Hogsmeade trip of the year.
"So what should we do while we're here?" Ginny asked Matt, rubbing the boy's forearm with a finger and casting furtive glances at Harry. "How about we stop by Madame Puddifoot's?"
Matt nearly choked on his butterbeer. "Madame Puddifoot's?" he asked, wiping butterbeer off of his chin off on the back of the sleeve that was not currently being rubbed by an attractive redhead. "But that's—that's—let's not…"
Rochelle, seated next to Isabel and with Matt's arm slung around her shoulders, smirked when she saw Matt give up on his description of the lovers' paradise; she had already been there with Ron, leaving as soon as she had seen the heart-shaped confetti. The place was a lovers' paradise.
Giving Harry another glance, Ginny offered in a slightly frustrated voice, "Then how about we go to the Shrieking Shack? Not many people really go down there…"
Matt looked at Ginny, a disgusted look on his face. "We've only just started dating!" he exclaimed, scooting a bit farther away from Ginny. "How about we do something more fun for a first date?"
"Well what do you think Hogsmeade is?" Ginny exclaimed, her face now revealing all of her frustration at her foiled attempts at showing Harry how "in love" she and Matt were. "It's a town, not the Quidditch World Cup!"
Matt now looked at Ginny as if she was insane. "You call going to a place and being chased into the woods when Death Eaters start levitating Muggles over their heads fun?" he asked.
"Quidditch is fun!" Harry, Ginny, and Ron exclaimed together. "The Death Eaters just got in the way!" The three friends stared at each other when they finished their second simultaneous sentence.
Harry turned to Isabel, smiling. "So what do you guys do for fun?" he asked, stroking the back of Isabel's hand with a thumb.
Isabel noted Ginny's look of sadness before answering, pulling her hand out of Harry's to avoid a scene before she did. "We train, and go on missions."
"That's it?" Ron asked, amazed. "You do this every day?"
"Well, not exactly this," Ethan replied from his seat next to Hermione, across from Isabel. "We don't usually go on missions like this one… but all of our missions are interesting, to say the least."
"Remember that one time," Isabel said, grinning at Ethan, "when I was only there for observation, but your dad started trying to wake you up? And I had to save the prince?"
Ethan grunted. "I don't recall it being quite so amusing."
Isabel shrugged. "Well, at the time it wasn't because I didn't really know what was going on. But now it's hilarious!"
"You go and say that when I try to wake you when you're training your first Apprentice," Ethan said, an evil grin spreading across his face. "We really need to stop talking about this now, before we give anything about ourselves away."
Harry took a swig of butterbeer, his first since ordering it awkwardly from Shaun; he was so used to ordering from Madame Rosmerta. Harry made a face at the tankard when he was done, and handed it to Ethan. "Does this taste funny to you?"
Ethan took the tankard and drank deeply, trying to compare the taste to the butterbeer in his own mug. Isabel could tell by Ethan's confused face that did taste different.
"Yeah, it does," Ethan confirmed, handing Harry his tankard. "Mine tastes sweeter somehow."
Matt gestured for the tankard, which Harry handed over. After drinking deeply, Matt drank from his own mug again, a look of concentration on his face. After shrugging, Matt returned the tankard to Harry, who swallowed the remaining drop.
"I know what we can do," Isabel said, smiling. "We can introduce Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny to our parents."
This got the other Guards at the table excited. Isabel, Ethan, Matt, and Rochelle began urging Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny to finish their butterbeers quickly so that they could meet the people pretending to be their parents—or, in Ethan's case, the person who actually was his father.
As soon as the entire group had exited the Three Broomsticks, Isabel asked Harry to put his wand arm into the air. Knowing what was going to happen, Harry half-heartedly put up his wand arm.
Immediately, the Knight Bus came rolling out from nowhere with a loud BANG! It rolled to an uncontrolled, swerved stop. The doors opened to reveal what looked like an eighteen-year-old, blue-haired, violet-eyed man.
"This is my father," Isabel said, running up the steps of the triple-decker bus to greet the man. Not really realizing what she was doing, Isabel wrapped her arms around him. When she finally realized that she was embracing someone who was not her "boyfriend"—this someone in particular—Isabel pulled away, blushing furiously. "Arkarian," she finished lamely, tucking some of her blonde hair behind one ear. Isabel looked back at the rest of the group.
Ethan was laughing silently at Isabel's greeting of Arkarian, although why he was laughing Isabel had no clue. She saw nothing funny in it—hadn't Ethan been the one to kiss her in John of Gaunt's bed that one time? Ethan had no right to be laughing at her.
Hermione was looking from Isabel to Arkarian with a small smile growing on her face. Isabel was nearly certain that Hermione, intelligent and observant as she was, was quickly piecing together that Isabel had a strong crush on Arkarian. Isabel felt her cheeks flush even deeper while she tried to catch Hermione's attention with her eyes, to warn her not to say anything that could compromise the mission—or her relationship with Arkarian.
Matt was scowling at Arkarian, probably because Arkarian had actually hugged Isabel back. But whereas Isabel's hug could have given them away, Arkarian's hug had definitely been a part of the father-daughter act; it had been a more familiar hug than a romantic one.
Harry, Ginny, and Ron were greeting Arkarian, shaking hands and looking as if they had a million questions that they were working hard not to ask. Rochelle had clapped Arkarian on the shoulder before going to take a seat behind him.
"Daughter," Arkarian summoned in a slightly aggravated voice, his eyes dancing at the game, "will you please get your friends to settle down so I can drive? And where would you like to go in Hogsmeade?"
Isabel snapped her fingers in mock disappointment. "Gosh, Dad, you caught me!" she sighed, seeing Matt's negative reaction to the word "Dad" out of the corner of her eye. "I was trying to run away from Hogwarts, the best school in the entire world, so I could come here and grow up to be a bus driver like you!"
Arkarian chuckled before shutting the door of the bus and telling the group to sit down. "So where in Hogsmeade would you lot like me to chauffeur you to?"
Rochelle leaned forward in her chair. "Could you take us to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes?" she asked Arkarian in an über-polite voice. "My dad works there."
"So I've heard," Arkarian responds with a grin. The Knight Bus began speeding off down the street.
For the first time in her life, Isabel learned just how horrible a driver Arkarian was. He drove so badly he made whole buildings have to jump out of the way of the careening Knight Bus. People had to Apparate out of the way, and students—after desperately trying a few spells to force the bus into a different direction—had to simply jump out of the way or complete side-along Apparition with the nearest—and not often voluntary—adult. The people in the bus were flung all over the place.
"ARKARIAN!" Ethan bellowed after being shoved out of Rochelle's lap, where the last sharp turn had tossed him. "Can't you drive any better than this?"
"I never thought it was possible," Harry added, pausing when the next turn nearly threw him out the window, "but you are a worse driver than Ernie was!"
Arkarian gave the group an aggravated look. "I was born in the fourteenth century," he reminded them. "At the age of twenty, I moved into the Citadel. When have I ever had the opportunity to learn how to drive?"
"Then why are you the driver of the Knight Bus?" Rochelle asked, her face buried in Ethan's chest where it had been shoved when Ron had accidentally landed on top of her.
"Because Knight Bus drivers are traditionally terrible!" Arkarian said. "It would have looked bad if we had sent Shaun or Carter, who have been driving for years, to take this position."
"Yeah, well, it feels terrible to have you in this position," Ron commented after tumbling on top of Hermione.
Just then the bus lurched to a stop, causing the whole group to fall into a giant pile at the front of the bus. Ron got off of Hermione, both of their faces very deep shades of red. Ethan and Rochelle wore similar expressions, but Rochelle's face was quickly hidden by a look of anger. Isabel applauded the girl's ability to act; but, then again, Rochelle would know how to hide her thoughts and emotions, being a Truthseer.
"Bye, Daddy!" Isabel called when Arkarian took off after leaving the group to kiss the ground in joy outside of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.
"Hi, Daddy!" Isabel looked up to see Rochelle waving frantically to Jimmy, who was waving back from inside the window of a large, brightly-colored shop.
"Welcome!" Jimmy greeted them all in a salesman's voice. "Can I offer you some free samples of U-No-Poo?" Jimmy held out a hand that was covered with little candies wrapped in neon orange wrappers.
Although the boys each took some—Ethan taking extra, "for memory's sake," he said—none of the girls took any. Instead, Isabel, Hermione, Rochelle, and Ginny traded exasperated looks as they watched the boys help Ethan fill his pockets. Ron even offered to have Harry buy Ethan a huge pile of gags, saying that no person should live without these jokes.
While Jimmy and Rochelle "caught up" (which included Jimmy asking Rochelle how her grades were, and Rochelle yelling angrily at him that he had no right to butt into her life), the rest of the group looked through all of the joke items that Fred and George had invented. From the way Harry and Ron reacted to a lot of them, Fred and George had been busy concocting new toys. Isabel began to long for JK Rowling to start writing the seventh and final book…
Harry stopped short, holding his stomach. Isabel and Hermione stopped, looking at him. Sweat broke out on Harry's forehead, and a pained expression overcame the jubilant one that had lit his face only a moment before.
"Oh, no," Ron said, noticing his lagging friend and trying to make a joke of the situation. "You didn't try those free samples now, did you?"
Harry passed out with a thud. Two more thuds told Isabel that other people had passed out, too. Looking over her shoulder, she could see that the other two people were Matt and Ethan.
"Oh crap," Rochelle muttered. Then she looked at Isabel, a calm look on her face. "Heal them!" she said, gesturing for Isabel to heal the three limp boys on the ground.
"In front of everyone?" Isabel asked, looking to see that everyone in the entire school was watching, noticing that Harry Potter had passed out for no apparent reason.
Isabel's question was answered when all three boys suddenly woke up, screaming and clutching their heads in pain.
Rochelle bent down to touch a hand to Ethan's lips. "Poison," she murmured. "Abbas occisor, very deadly. It takes a while to start working, but once the symptoms start it only takes a few moments before the brain hemorrhages and—." Rochelle suddenly looked pointedly up at Isabel. "Well? Start healing them!" she urged, taking her hands off of Ethan's lips.
Isabel looked from boy, to boy, to boy. Who should she heal first? Matt was her brother—she had a crush on Ethan—Harry was supposed to be her boyfriend, and he was Harry Potter. Brother—crush—boyfriend—brother—crush—boyfriend—brother—crush—boyfriend—WHO SHOULD SHE HEAL?
"Isabel!" Isabel looked down to see Matt screaming her name. "Make it stop!"
"NO!" Ethan suddenly screamed out through gritted teeth. "Heal Harry! Heal Harry first!"
Brother—crush—boyfriend—!
Rochelle looked furiously at the frustrated healer. "ISABEL!" she cried out. "IF YOU DON'T HEAL THEM RIGHT NOW THEY ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!"