No Expense Spared

Dumbledore and his gathering had taken the underground garage entrance into the Visitor's Center. One thing this meant was that it would take them up a different flight of stairs than were connected to the back exit.

But if flying all those hours hadn't wound them down, they wouldn't have been once they climbed to their first landing.

Here, Dumbledore discovered the next flight of stairs would turn a corner near a white sign with a red arrow, reading Kitchen/ Restaurant 'Les Gigantes' in black.

"Tired are we, my friends?" Dumbledore mused.

The others grumbled at him, Tonks most of all, although she expected her superiors would deem such a thing unprofessional. Remus simply exhaled, as he had too good of a nature to say anything rash.

"It seems we've run into some extra luck, Albus," he replied, looking up.

"We may benefit from a change of scenery, no doubt Remus?" Dumbledore agreed.

As he gestured to the sign, a fresh resurgence of spirit or indulgence swept over Tonks as she pulled herself up to the front of the line, before racing in the direction the sign pointed.

"Come on!" She hissed from atop the next flight.

A startled Lupin himself jogged after her, though Dumbledore continued at his own pace.

"I'll go after her," he offered.

"Alas, there is no need to explain," Dumbledore insisted.

The others followed Tonks to the next landing, where another metal door awaited, a round window at the center would have indicated where it took them.

All Tonks needed was a peep through before getting grabbed back by the shoulder. Turning around, she spotted Lupin gesturing to a white label below the window, reading in the same black, Kitchen Staff Only.

"What it says," he pointed out.

"Oh well," she dismissed. "First come, first serve."

Tonks dashed through the door, laughing madly, while Remus grabbed it before it closed. The others followed her into the back left corner of a graywall kitchen with high windows and fans near the paneled ceiling. The steel adornments surrounding the walls perhaps made it the most sterile room they'd ever been in;

Underneath the trolleys and counters opposite the stove were stacks of unused buckets, as opposed to the dirty pots and pans piling the tops and sinks.

"Crikey!" Tonks sighed. "Not a bit of food to be scrounged in here, is there?"

Remus brushed last her towards the sink, where he picked up an empty frying pan whose edges were still slightly wet. With his index finger, he wiped some squishy, light yellow residue from the rim, sticking it out offeringly.

"Charming, Lupin," Tonks mumbled, wrinkling her nose.

But her childlike energy came back to seize her as she got on her knees, searching through the trolleys for food. Finally, she came upon a chrome door at the other end of the room, whose weight made her struggle to open it.

She was thankful no one had noticed her crawling, as once she stopped staggering, she shivered from the cold mist that blew in from behind the door.

"In here!" Tonks cried.

She jiggled her wand, which emitted in ripples, what sounded like a Muggle heater. She stuck it down the back of her t-shirt before entering the strange room, which was filled with shelves of the same steel, all piled with large sacks in dull blues and whites.

The others followed Tonk's voice to this seemingly frozen chamber, where they caught her hand reached for an air tight package whose contents were a more vibrant red.

"We've been in a kitchen before, Tonks?" Lupin interjected.

"There's an oven in here," she panted. "If one of you can fire it up..."

But Tonks drew her hand back, whimpering as she felt frost gathering on its surface. Her foot also slipped forward, at which she noticed the same frost being crushed under her boots coupled with the laughter outside.

"What?!" she demanded.

"I bet your parents don't often ask you home for dinner," Remus chuckled.

"They do," Tonks insisted. "Although Mum says I need to learn my way around a kitchen."

She placed another foot forward, but stumbled on ice again until Lupin stretched out his hand, swiftly taking hers, missing Dumbledore standing by, chuckling to himself.

"I pity the cook who catches one making a complete mess of herself," Lupin teased.

Dumbledore located another window door ahead of them. He pressed his nose against the glass before tapping it and clearing his throat.

"I believe that won't be necessary, my boy," he replied. "There yet may be a selection for us elsewhere?"

He pointed at the window, ignoring Tonks pushing him aside to find a long table draped in blue-green and white tablecloth, topped with wicker baskets and glass bowls. Standing at either end were thick flaming candles and strange volcanic-looking amber sculptures. But the clincher had to be the round side table carrying assorted cakes on platters. If not that, it was the chrome dome trays in the back he weren't certain on the purpose of.

"Though in such experiences as this, there usually appears to be a sort of all seeing eye, does there not?" Dumbledore suggested.

He gestured to a security camera mounted into the corner above them, whose lens could function as an eye for the technologically illiterate.

"Right," Remus muttered, scratching his head.

Tonks was ready to jiggle the door latch, but she felt something tight grasp her hand. She noticed Lupin's head over her shoulder, peering eerily close to the viewing window.

"Wait a minute!" he interjected.

Tonks would have presented him with an expression that combined being lovestruck and gobsmacked had she not noticed his index finger poking at window right. She leaned into the window and spotted a short, bearded man with a bald spot, dressed in white, seated at the head of a long table.

It was Mr. Hammond, surrounded by white plastic buckets with sugary colors glowing from the insides. On closer inspection, he was eating ice cream scooped from several of those buckets.

"It's another one of them," he reminded her.

"Is there also something personal you surely can't resist, Lupin?" Tonks suggested.

She tapped center window at the cake table, where there appeared to be a rich, brown frosted one topped with white flowers.

"After all, a man needs to eat," Tonks concluded.

Lupin pulled her from the door, though she cocked her head up to wipe a tiny drop falling from his slightly opened mouth. Glancing back forward, she noticed Dumbledore had stepped and pushed them away.

"Ms. Tonks speaks some truth, Remus," Dumbledore reminded him. "I seem to recall quite the ravenous appetite from you and that schoolboy group of yours."

Remus chuckled nervously, but Dumbledore patted his shoulder, working up a trademark smile.

"May I remind you, I do not need a cloak to become invisible," he pointed out. "Allow me to slip in and arrange a meal for the three of us. I may have afforded you both the chance for a wandlit dinner, if I may suggest anything."

"And you hadn't considered this before because?" Lupin requested after a beat.

"It seems whoever invented that spell, hadn't planned for three," Dumbledore chuckled. "Oh to be young, and to feel love's keen sting."

With a loud SNAP, Dumbledore had vanished, as the cold kitchen air was almost dead. Lupin and Tonks were stiff, either from the freezer or the moment, as all they thought they could hear was a soft voice, almost like a whisper.

The door latch slowly opened, without even a hint of a squeak, as an invisible Dumbledore exited the kitchen. Yet when he walked, there wasn't even the sound of a single footstep.

As he entered the dining area, he found it to be much larger and rounder with a light green jungle mural at the far end. It was painted with a single velociraptor in the foreground and some unfamiliar dinosaurs behind it; the longer necked, bipedal Gallimimus, and the nasal horned, thickly bipedal Parasaurolophus.

The floor was filled with more tables, both long and round, with all the same coverings, surrounded by rattan chairs, which were sculpted to look as though their pieces were tied together.

To Dumbledore's left was a large set of windows and glass doors to an outdoor deck, where more of these settings were placed, surrounded by jungle foliage.

Across the room was a small shop whose shelves were filled with stuffed Tyrannosaurs, Triceratops, and Brachiosaurs in red, green, and violet. Hanging from racks were others items splashed with the Jurassic Park logo, from t-shirts to lunchboxes with thermoses.

The whole place was still, apart from some light metallic clinking. Dumbledore reasoned he could place a silencing charm on the food tables and the surrounding area, until he spotted three silhouettes exiting the shop. It was Dr. Sattler leading the Grangers, into the restaurant.

Both Sattler and Jane placed a hand on Hermione's shoulder, while Paul was patting her back, but Hermione's head was bowed in defeat.

Dumbledore recognized her bushy mop, but had all doubt it was her until she drew her head back up. Like McGonagall, his shock registered, but he knew she would have been bursting with as many questions, if not more than him, regarding the Grangers' business with this place.

He also realized that Hermione couldn't imagine a bearded man such as him would have a taste in such a Hawaiian shirt as the one he wore. But if she or anyone else in the room could see him, they'd spot even the tiniest shred of grandfatherly essence in his irises.

Speaking of which, Hermione was interrupted by another throat clearing, this time from one of the tables off to the side.

It was the nearest long one, where Mr. Hammond was eating ice cream scooped from the white buckets.

Actually, he had just downed a spoonful and his head was turned towards the gathering, who didn't pay any mind to the fact that the hairs left on his head were in total disarray.

"Mr. Hammond?" Hermione gasped.

Ellie must have developed some sort of craving herself, since she pulled Hermione and her parents to the table where Hammond was seated.

"Quite a hefty meal you've laid out there, isn't it?" Paul muttered. "No need to be nonchalant on the whole thing?

"They were all melting," Hammond clarified.

"If you don't mind, Mr. Hammond, hair has been standing on the rest of us as well for the last few days," Jane assured him. "Right now, I believe we could all do with some refreshment."

"You can take here or from the bar," Hammond offered, gesturing to the ice cream.

He then gestured to the king table at the back, where the wicker baskets were filled with buns. Interspersed between them were ceramic bowls containing assorted fruit and mixed vegetables, along with platters at the end, bearing different cakes.

"Pay no heed if I do," Dumbledore silently chuckled to himself.

He decided while eating, he'd plan with Lupin and Tonks, if and when they'd reveal themselves.

He stepped aside cautiously, as to not get in the way of Paul or Jane. Yet they would have given each other curious glances, as there came another soft hush in the air. Dumbledore was quite pleased with himself as Paul raised an eyebrow to his wife, finding no ceramic clanking when he took a plate of his own.

While Paul and Jane's backs were turned, Dumbledore levitated two plates from the restaurant's left end to the center of an all-you-can-eat table, just opposite the cakes. He loaded some sliced vegetables, Swiss cheese, and what looked like some sort of roast covered in an orange sauce onto one plate.

Dumbledore waited until the Granger parents moved away from the other end so he could levitate an uncut baguette and some small piles of a salad with olives to the other.

He levitated the plates, one over the other, close to the floor as to not be seen, before summoned three more plates over to the cake table.

Onto the first plate, Dumbledore levitated a hunk of the chocolate cake, followed by a slice of strawberry shortcake, frosted with pink jelly, onto the second. He finally filled the third plate with a slice of jiggling, light yellow flan topped with whipped cream and a slice of a yellow jelly frosted cake, topped with strawberries.

He hovered those plates over the others, eyeing the rest of the group to ensure their backs were turned as he returned to the kitchen with his meal.

Sattler was seated at the back of the table, opposite Hammond, but Hermione firmly stood her ground. She eyed Sattler as if she expected a look of pride, but the paleobotanist eyed her back with the same concern her parents shared.

Paul and Jane, themselves, had just returned from the all-you-can-eat table, offering their daughter a portion of the salad and some pasta from a nearby chafer.

"Darling, why not have maybe a slight portion from the salad bar..." Jane began.

"I suppose it's not possible to starve contentedly, is it?" Hermione shot back.

"Eat," Paul commanded.

He laid the plate on the table before pulling out a chair for his daughter at Sattler's right.

Jane pressed her hand on her daughter's shoulder, firmly planting her into the chair. Hermione tried to get up and run, but Paul pushed the chair tightly into the table, while Jane pulled out the chair at Hermione's left for herself. Ultimately, her daughter sank back into the chair once she found it was useless to resist.

Although her headmaster wasn't standing too far from her, only about a few metres away, Hammond seemed quite eager for conversing.

After making another muted whisper, Dumbledore quickly summoned one of the larger ice cream tubs, keeping it low to the ground as well before summoning a couple of bowls from the other end of the room. A brown ring stuck to the rim, which could only indicate the bucket contained chocolate ice cream.

Dumbledore scooped some of the ice cream out of the tub, into the bowls, filling the bowls to the rims. But looking over the edge of the tub, he realized he hadn't even taken out an inch of it.

"Perhaps taking merely a quarter size isn't enough to satisfy one's cravings," he thought.

Dumbledore scooped out some more, until the ice cream piled over about five inches high, before waving his hands over the two bowls, letting out a low whistle.

His hands began to emit some gales of sparkling, silver frost, covering the scoops of ice cream, but completely frosting the bowls over.

After canceling the spell from his hands, Dumbledore levitated the bowls between the cake plates as to not make the stack too high.

Double checking the table, he found that Hermione and the muggles were still occupied. Hermione was chewing her food slower than he'd seen her in the Great Hall. In fact, there wasn't a gram of food in her mouth, as she was merely picking at the rest with her fork.

Sattler's expression was indifferent but off to her left, neither Paul, Jane, nor Hermione allowed their mouths to open, as they seemed to not be in the mood for food after all.

Yet seated across from her, Hammond's eyes were wide, like a child waiting for a stressed parent to break the silence.

"Malcolm's okay for now," she sighed, lowering her shoulders. "I gave him a shot of morphine."

"Arnold and Muldoon are still trying to get the old system back up and running," Paul added, putting his fork down.

"They'll all be fine," Hammond grinned, reassuringly. "Who better to get the children through Jurassic Park than a dinosaur expert?

As Hammond chuckled, digging back into his ice cream, Dumbledore spotted a number of concrete support beam holding up the room, each with a dinosaur skeleton sculpted into it.

He quickly levitated his miniature smorgasbord past some more tables, following it until they were behind the closest one.

Reaching out his arm and retracting it back, Dumbledore managed to open the door to the kitchen without even so much as a creak. As he levitated the meal into the kitchen, he took one last peek at the crowd.

Those who surrounded Hammond shared a look of hope that he wouldn't let the silence last much longer. Dumbledore hadn't seen Hammond for more than the last few minutes, so he hadn't expected Hammond to have a peculiar choice for an icebreaker.

"You know the first attraction I ever built when I came down from Scotland?" Hammond began. "It was a Flea Circus, Petticoat Lane... Really quite wonderful... We had a wee trapeze, a merry-go... carousel, and a seesaw... They all moved, motorized of course, but people would swear they could see the fleas. 'Oh I can see the fleas, mummy! Can't you see the fleas?' Clown fleas, high wire fleas, fleas on parade..."

Listening to Hammond trail on that way, Dumbledore couldn't help but grin. No doubt he'd seen this kind of passion in any number of pupils of his, namely some of the Weasleys.

He re-entered the kitchen, finding Lupin and Tonks seated at one of the steel counters like Hogwarts students. As if they hadn't even thought of anything funny to get up to while Dumbledore was gone.

After gently setting the plates down, he waited until the door behind him swung closed, making not even a slam.

There came another loud SNAP, as Dumbledore reappeared before their eyes, but it was louder than the sound of some light material being knocked over. Looking down over the edge of the counter, Dumbledore found a tall bamboo stool with a wicker seat lying on the floor.

"I summoned them," Tonks proudly explained.

Dumbledore set the stool back up, seating himself as he removed some knives, forks, and spoons from his shirt pocket.

The plates with sandwich supplies rested in front of the couple, but spotting what was in the middle of the counter, Tonks swatted them aside and pulled the chocolate cake and ice cream close enough to stain their clothes.

Picking up her spoon, Tonks filled it with a scrap of the cake, topping it with defrosting ice cream, shoving it into her mouth while sliding Lupin a spoon.

While other Hogwarts professors might have only shaken their head at such behavior, Dumbledore grew quite an amused smile.

"Trying to feed your date Tonks, or do you have your afters before your supper?" Dumbledore teased.

"If it's supposed to melt soon, wouldn't you want to? Tonks countered.

"He who stops to recall what he keeps on his desk may as well join them, might he? Remus sighed. "To who knows, it may be still delectable."

Before pulling up his cake and flan, Dumbledore pulled his wand from his pocket, waving it as the tip gave off a white light. As his hand released the wand, it hovered in a frozen position over the counter, like a floating candle.

"There," he finalized. "That, I believe does it."

He took a first spoonful of cake, apparently smiling like he'd placed a sherbet lemon upon his tongue. But after chewing it, he found he could no longer savor the taste. After swallowing it, Dumbledore felt himself in need of an icebreaker.

Unfortunately, after the first one popped into his head, he'd paused, as if something came to him which he didn't like to talk about. So he shifted his attention to watching Tonks and Lupin digging into the chocolate ice cream. He took another spoonful of cake, but this time, the taste was more sour than sweet.

After swallowing this bit, he could still taste the sourness, so he thought he'd open his mouth to let some air in.

Now, Lupin and Tonks were staring at him, waiting for him to say something, to which Dumbledore realized there was no getting away from it.

"You know…" he began, softly. "This search has left me in a place I have not been in a long time… almost a hundred years, really… But I don't often speak of it, for I have no need greater need to than anyone else… I have been through two Wizarding wars, where plenty of others have suffered more fatal losses than I…"

Dumbledore paused, as he felt the need to consider how he'd deliver the rest of his story. He was thankful to Tonks for looking patient, but Lupin was looking a touch more weary.

"I had lost someone very dear to me…" he continued. "A friend and a lover… but that had all come from losing one I'd not held so dear… my sister, Ariana. My brother, Aberforth, thought he'd loved her more… He, I, and this so-called 'friend', had gotten into a three-way duel to decide her future… it cost her any chance of having one… what's done is done…"

Tonks and Lupin noticed Dumbledore's voice had slightly broken as he tried taking a spoonful of flan. Even when he turned his attention back to them, the twinkle in his eye had become incredibly faint.

"But nearly twelve years ago, I wanted to prevent what I had done from happening again…" Dumbledore added. "To protect someone… who had lost two of his own flesh and blood… and we would finish together what I started... A pain-ending plan for both wizards."

It may have been a mistake for Dumbledore to place silencing spells everywhere, since he hadn't heard what they were talking about outside the kitchen.

Back at the restaurant table, the look on Hammond's face as he spoke was much more passionate than what Dumbledore had heard.

"But with this place, I wanted to show them something that wasn't an illusion..." he continued. "Something that was real... Something they could... see and touch... An aim not devoid of merit."

"But you can't think through this one, John," Ellie whispered. "You have to feel it."

Back in the kitchen, Lupin had pushed the bowl of ice cream aside, drawing some funny looks from Tonks.

"I'm afraid that takes a little more than just covering things up, Albus," he reminded him. "It needs letting out as well."

By now, Dumbledore placed his spoon down, not even touching his dessert. Possibly he recalled the disdain McGonagall would have expressed at his fondness for sweets at the wrong time.

"Indeed," he replied. "Indeed it most certainly does. Which is why I've provided Harry with just enough necessary explanation for what he's faced already. Come the next several years, I shall explain more..."

"Albus…" Remus interrupted.

On the other hand, Hammond finally noticed his colleagues staring at him, possibly put off by his so-called 'optimistic' grin.

"You're right," he chuckled. "You're absolutely right! Hiring Nedry was a mistake, that's obvious. We're over-dependent on automation, I can see that now. Now the next time, everything's correctable..."

"John..." Ellie whispered pleadingly.

"Creation is an act of sheer will..." Hammond continued. "Next time, it'll be flawless."

"It's still the Flea Circus," Sattler insisted. "It's all an illusion."

But even Remus Lupin was that adamant, as Dumbledore was just as inclined to disagree.

"I've done the same thing in a letter to the Dursleys when I delivered him," Dumbledore added.

"It's just your sister, again," Lupin reminded him. "It's all a fallacy."

But now, Lupin and Sattler, as well as Dumbledore and Hammond, should have listened to themselves simultaneously.

"When we have control again..." Hammond interjected.

"You never had control!" Ellie cried. "That's the illusion!

"Once I have a close watch on him again…" Dumbledore tried to reassure him.

"You never had a close watch on him!" Remus howled. "That's the fallacy!"

"I was overwhelmed by the power of this place!" Sattler continued.

"I trusted you when you told me he'd be safe!" Lupin added.

"But I made a mistake too!" Sattler finalized. "I didn't have enough respect for that power, and it's out now! And some of us at this table didn't even realize that power until it was too late!"

"But I trusted a little too much!" Lupin concluded. "I hadn't trusted that anything outside that house of his could have gotten in the way of his protection, and it already has!"

In the restaurant, Hammond's face of hope had was hit hard with unhappy irony, and in the kitchen, Dumbledore, looked as though he was given a taste of his own medicine.

"You've said it yourself, what's done is done," Remus reminded him. "So the only thing concern we should have is that the only dear friend I have left gets his godson back. Albus, they run the risk of not surviving just as much as anyone else!"

Had the Grangers been sitting in the kitchen with them, their looks towards Lupin would have been just as resolute as they were towards Hammond.

Hermione's head was finally up, while Paul and Jane were back over at the all-you-can-eat table, filling some smaller plates, shooting some looks that only Sattler noticed.

"I think we all get the point here," Sattler sighed. "But the only thing that matters now are the people we love; Alan, Lex, Tim, and especially Harry. John, they're out there where people are dying!"

Ellie paused before letting her hands down again, before grabbing a spoon for her own sample of ice cream.

"It's good," she exhaled.

"We spared no expense," Hammond replied with hesitation.

He continued tucking his ice cream, although Hermione's hands remained behind the table. Her parents returned had to her a small plate slightly loaded with lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, and cherry tomatoes. She cautiously drew her salad fork, though her neck remained in the same position as before.

Back in the kitchen, Dumbledore stared back at Lupin, who was panting quite heavily, with a mix of shock and awe. On the one hand, he suspected this was normal behavior from a werewolf. On the other, he'd never recalled Remus Lupin standing up to him in such a way.

While Tonks was staring at him with a girlish sort of awe, Dumbledore levitated the sandwich plates back towards him.

"No, thank you," Remus exhaled. "I'm in need of something sweet."

Tonks took another spoonful of cake and ice cream, sticking between a red-faced Lupin's jaws.

"For your inner wild-man," she teased.