IV

Out to Dinner

A week passed. I got no replies to the letters I had sent. I had expected this. I knew that James was on vacation, and Sirius was stressed out about applying for a job at Gringotts, and Peter almost never replied to letters. Nonetheless, I was lonely. There were only three days left. Then, I could move to London. Sirius promised to give me a tour when I got there, so I had something to look forward to.

It was August eighth. It was a very hot, humid day. The chirping of the crickets (I had not known it to stop, ever) was barely distinguishable from the buzzing of the general insect populace. The incessant buzz, the wavering heat, and the blinding sun gave me a headache. The house was silent, and empty except for me and Lizzie. The clock ticked halfheartedly to four-thirty, but nothing changed. The light swam through the haze that whitened the sky and the haze that floated above the ground and through my window. I had a cooling spell on my room, but I was still sweating through my pants—I had long since taken my shirt off. I was lying on the floor staring at the ceiling, half-asleep, when someone knocked on the door.

I broke through my stupor. "What?"

"I want to…could I come in?" Lizzie asked.

"Just a sec." I yanked my shirt back on. "OK."

Lizzie came in. She was dressed in a floaty, peach-colored dress and wore a pearl necklace. She had done something with her face, and with her hair. The words "makeup" and "hairspray" didn't come to mind. I only thought that for once, she looked really, really, pretty. The faint sheen of sweat somehow accentuated this overall impression. So did the coy blush.

"Well…" I said. I felt a bit embarrassed that I hadn't been wearing a shirt only seconds before. "Why?"

"I want to take you out to dinner, Remus," she said hastily with a timid smile. I blinked. "I'll pay…."

"But…you're—supposed to stay here, the Death Eaters—"

"It's been six months, Remus. They'll have moved on by now. And if they haven't—well, it's a risk I'm willing to take for my sanity." She looked into my eyes pleadingly. "Please?"

"Why do you want to take me? Me, Lizzie."

"I like you….And I'd go anyway. I might as well take you."

I paused of a fraction of a second. "All right. But I'll need to get some real clothes on first."

"I was going to tell you that your shirt's on backwards." She left and shut the door. I pulled the collar of my shirt away from my neck, and found a tag looking me in the face. I sighed and pulled it off again, then began sorting through my trunk. Clothes that could be worn in public were one thing, but didn't I have any complete pairs of socks?

I met her in the entryway. She was smiling nervously, like a little girl about to do something her parents had specifically forbidden. We went out the door and walked the half-mile to "downtown." She insisted that we walk, and I was too hot to argue about it. I had a nagging feeling in the back of my head that I was forgetting about something important. The haze on the western horizon was stained blood red, purple, gold, and the same peachy shade as Lizzie's dress. I was too hot to be impressed by it.

The streets were deserted except for a cat or two, and a girl practicing violin in a lawn chair on the sidewalk. When we reached the bit of town that passed as downtown for lack of anything busier, we came across perhaps five shoppers sweating in the streets, seeking the shelter of air-conditioned shops where they felt they wouldn't mind being advertised to.

The church—the only one in town—tolled five. The dongs swam slowly through the haze and beat against our eardrums. Lizzie took my hand and led me into a restaurant. I didn't look up to see what it was called, but it was Italian. It was also mostly empty. Four waiters were sitting around a table in the back, chatting and smoking cigarettes. When we entered, three of them looked at the youngest at the table. He stood up, extinguished his cigarette and came over to us with a slightly distant smile.

"Good afternoon," he said. "Two?"

I had been opening my mouth when Lizzie answered. She said yes with impressive alacrity—though it was air-conditioned in here, I had not quite recovered from my term in the oven. We got a table, ordered, did all the things one does in a restaurant. We said almost nothing to eachother. The nagging feeling that I had forgotten something had not left me, and Lizzie was too busy smiling to talk.

We were halfway through our meals when I heard the door to the restaurant open. Lizzie went white and tapped me on the head with her wand. I had been Disillusioned.

"Don't say anything," she whispered. She vanished my meal, then acted as though she had seen nothing, done nothing. I felt cheated, somehow. I looked to the door. A tall, pale man with greasy, silvery-blond hair had entered. He had a large nose, and he was using it. He turned slowly to look around the restaurant and saw Lizzie. He ignored the waiter's pleasantries and strode silently to her, avoiding places that she could look up and see easily. He stood behind her and trailed his fingers up her back. I stiffened, and she shuddered.

"Lucius," she breathed.

"Long time, no see, Eliza." He bent his head down next to her ear. The waiters were whispering. "I am not going to dilly-dally, this time, Miss Buchanan," he muttered. "Would you insist on your fighting chance, or will you save both of us the bother?"

"I'll take my last bargain, Lucius." She stood up, glaring at me as if to tell me to stay where I was. "In the street?"

"Yes, Eliza." They walked out of the restaurant, side by side, hands almost touching through a barrier of ice. Suddenly, everything seemed very cold. I jumped from my seat and sprinted to the door, slipping through just before it shut.

"This is serious, Eliza," the mysterious Lucius said with a vampire-like smile. "No seconds. Ten paces?"

"Ten." They turned back to back, walked ten paces, then turned and bowed. Lucius donned a black mask and hood. I was shivering all over, though I knew it was hot out here and I was sweating. My wand was slippery, and my mind was blank.

The two wands, one black and one red-brown, were raised. There was a mental count of three, then Lizzie's wand sent something bright at Lucius. It was deflected, and a red light hit Lizzie in the chest. She crumpled in a heap on the asphalt, screaming. It was…oh, I knew what it was, and it was bad, where had all my spells gone? Another red light hit Lizzie, and I raised my wand. I opened my mouth, and realized I had nothing to say, my brain was shut off. Another beam of light. White-faced waiters had rushed to the windows of the restaurant. Another. One of the waiters had the presence of mind to call someone. Another. A man rushed out of a hobby shop with a bow and arrow and shot at Lucius. The arrow spun away and landed in the shingles of the restaurant. Another. Lizzie bent in such a way that her dress ripped. Another. "For Christ's sake, stop it!" a waiter shouted. Another. A man in blue robes arrived. Lucius started and sent a new, green light at Lizzie. She collapsed. Was she dead? I did not notice when Lucius disappeared.

I was still staring at the peach-colored heap on the street when Leenie shook my shoulder. "Remus!" she said loudly. "We need to get you home. Now."

I jumped and looked at her. "What?"

"Home, Remus. You, now. Apparate, this is an emergency." Apparate…oh. I apparated with Leenie. We appeared in the orchard.

"What's…."

"It's the full moon, Remus."

"Oh." I swore. I glanced at the sky and ran thoughtlessly to the barn. It had been werewolf-proofed.

I woke up in the late morning. Sun was streaming through the windows of the barn, and the air looked to be full of glitter. I lay on the dirt floor of the barn, staring at the dust motes. How I hurt. I thought that I had been banging myself against the walls, and I felt it now. Even just lying there, I felt the lactic acid crystallizing my muscles into tight, useless lumps. Hands…opposable thumbs, good. I reached up and checked my face. There was a bump on it, near my temple. Nose, check…I tried to open my mouth, but blood from my nose had gummed it shut. Why had I wanted to open my mouth, again? My eyes itched from the dust in the barn, but at least they saw in color.

There had been something going on before the barn, hadn't there? A restaurant, and a sunset, and a duel, and peaches….Solitary images superimposed the barn I was staring at until I remembered it all. Lizzie was dead, like my parents. Like Lia. She had been tortured. That was illegal….And then…who was he, again?...Lucius. He had killed her. Yes, that was how it had gone. We had gone to the restaurant, and he had found us—her. And I hadn't been able to do anything. Nothing at all. I hadn't even had the presence of mind to call someone like the waiter had, or shoot him with an arrow like that Muggle. I had just lifted my wand and gulped like a fish. I had…I had betrayed Lizzie, almost. I had deserted her when she had needed me. What was I worth then? For hours, I lay there thinking about that.

"Remus?" Leenie's voice called from outside. I said nothing. "Remus, you're back, right?" I still didn't answer. She looked through the window, then came in. I had tossed my clothes outside the door before transforming (no good in wasting an outfit when you suddenly become the wrong shape for it). She pulled me up into a sit, then tugged the shirt over my head. She did it without a twinge of embarrassment.

"Remus, welcome back to the world. Get dressed. I'll wait for you outside." She stood up.

"W-water," I said hoarsely. Good, the vocal cords were working. "Could I have some water?" She conjured a glass and handed it to me. She left. I put my clothes on, then pulled my aching self up against a broken plow. I staggered a few steps as the muscles in my legs became aware that they were no longer wolfish. I picked up the water and drank it all in one go. I forced my uncooperative legs to take me to the door. I leaned on Emmy as we went beck to the house.

"I take it you are feeling awful?" she asked me as we crossed the endless orchard.

"Awful," I said. "Is she really...?"

"Yes. I'm sorry."

"It's all my fault, I'm such an idiot, I—"

"It's not your fault, Remus."

"It is!" I half-shouted. "I shouldn't've let her go, I could've stopped her, and I couldn't think of anything to do when he came—"

"Who was he?" Leenie interrupted.

"Lucius."

"Again? That's unusual. He must be worth something. Usually Voldemort gets annoyed if his agents fail him once, he doesn't give second chances….Move it, girls." The chickens squawked off.

"I can't do that again," I said. "I can't just let them do that."

"Who, the Death Eaters? We were going to give you lessons in dueling. We hadn't planned on them being so necessary…." We had reached the kitchen door, and I sat at the table. Doc was cooking. This was a sign of disaster—Doc couldn't cook to save his life. Leenie sighed. "I told you to let Emmy do it, Doc."

"She's crying in the dining room. She fell to pieces last night while you were checking the barn. We got her to bed, though." Doc looked despairingly at Leenie, his spatula held at shoulder level. Leenie took the last step that separated them away and they kissed. I looked away.

"It's awful," Leenie sighed, her head on Doc's shoulder. I was put in mind of the rare occasions when my parents had done such things, and I had looked away, blushing.

Dumbledore opened the door, glanced at Doc and Leenie with a sad little smile, then sat next to me. He put a spell on me, and my muscles fixed themselves and the blood vanished from my face.

"I'm sorry, Professor," I said hollowly.

"Nobody blames you, Remus."

"You didn't catch him, did you?"

"No. I doubt we will. He is a political man, and we have no hard evidence."

I ran a hand through my hair. "When will this stop, Professor?"

He shook his head. "I have no love for divination. It stops when it stops." There was a silence. "There is going to be a conference tonight. New safety measures, I think." He touched my shoulder and stood up.

I pressed my eyeballs into their sockets. Was I the only one who didn't think so…objectively?