Here's a confrontation I don't think anyone was waiting for... Luna, if you're still reading, the confrontation you're waiting for is coming.

Caterwauling Charm

May 1st, 1998
Post-Hogwarts
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An inhuman scream spilt the air outside the Hog's Head. Aberforth hurried down the stairs, grabbing Leili's cat, Morgan, on the way to the door. He opened the door and deposited the feline on the porch moments before the door to the Three Broomsticks burst open and Death Eaters poured out.

Harry Ron and Hermione were safe beneath the cloak, for now. The Death Eaters tried everything before summoning the Dementors. A wave of cold washed over the street, sending Morgan into a spitting and hissing fit.

Bursting from a shadowy corner, Harry's stag patronus galloped down the street, flinging Dementors every which way.

"Potter!" Aberforth called from Harry's left, "In here, quick!" The three of them hurried through the doorway. "Get upstairs, quick, and keep that cloak on!" Aberforth instructed before he went out into the street and confronted the Death Eaters.

"If I want to put my cat out I will, and be damned to your curfew!" he spat, gesturing to the hissing feline.

"You set off the caterwauling charm?"

"What if I did? Going to cart me off to Azkaban? Kill me for sticking my nose out my front door? Do it, then, if you want to! But I hope for your sakes you haven't pressed your little Dark Marks and summoned him. He's not going to like being called here for me and my old cat, is he, now?" Aberforth taunted, scooping Morgan up and slamming the door, not waiting to hear them argue further. He set Morgan down on the table and patted her head, "Good cat."

Behind Ariana's secret tunnel Leili and Jo were checking on the students hiding in the room of requirement.

"How's everyone doing?" Jo asked as she and Leili began to set down the dinner dishes. When the girls turned to leave, the door opened and out stepped Neville along with Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"Look who it is! Didn't I tell you?" Neville called.

"Well, at least it's nice to know we won't have to go gallivanting all over the countryside looking for them. Again." Leili grinned at Jo who nodded her agreement. The girls climbed back through the door and started off down the passage.

When they returned to the Hog's head Aberforth grunted, "About time you got back, we're going to have visitors," he said it in the way of old men tired of these young things going off for hours at a time, when they'd really only been gone maybe ten minutes, twenty, tops.

"Visitors?" Jo asked incredulously, "Are they trying to get themselves killed?"

"What did you do to my cat?!" Leili shrieked accusatorily when a shivering Morgan jumped into her arms, her fur still spiked with anxiety.

Aberforth declined to answer, saying instead, "They're Apparating directly into the pub," he said before disappearing behind the bar and pouring himself a drink before heading back upstairs. He was an old man; he'd leave the young ones to the gathering of fighters.

"There's no way we can predict where they're going to land is there?" Leilani asked, eyeing the tables and trying to soothe Morgan.

"Nope," Jo said, "if they land on the tables we're going to have a mess to clean up. We may as well move them as best we can, try to prevent it."

Leili sighed, "Let's get that out of the way then. Go on up to bed, Mor, I don't want you to get squished." She stroked the still-slightly bristled fur and gave her a kiss between the ears before shooing her up the stairs.

The girls didn't know the spell the Three Broomsticks used to stack the chairs so they did it by hand, it was tedious and time consuming, but they didn't know how long they had to wait until reinforcements started arriving so at least it gave them something to do. They stacked the chairs and pushed the tables out as far from the center as they could.

When the first pop! arrived Leili sat up so abruptly from where she'd been draped over the bar that she fell off in a tangle of flailing limbs; as she lay there on the floor blinking, she heard Jo start to clap and laugh.

"That was graceful! Are you ok?"

"I'm good!" She called, holding two thumbs up as she pulled herself into a seated position on the floor. "That's gonna bruise…" She muttered as she climbed back up to her feet before looking around the room for their new arrivals. To her glee and surprise she saw Fred and George, "Fred! George!" she laughed, moving to hug her husband and his brother, now her brother-in-law—a concept she had yet to get used to.

"Hello, Rodent." Jo greeted with a teasing grin.

"Sorry about running out earlier, you got my message? The kids are ok, they're at the school right now." The twins nodded and Fred held out Leili's clothes, nicely, neatly folded. "Aww, you brought me my things!" she gushed, pecking a quick kiss to his lips. She clasped her bracelet around her wrist and tucked her phone into a pocket before sending her clothes upstairs.

Jo jumped in to keep traffic moving, "Alright, Ariana's tunnel." She ushered the twins to Ariana's portrait, "Go through here and you'll end up in the Room of Requirement."

"You coming, Lei?" Fred asked after he stepped through and she didn't.

"In a while; others are arriving soon. I'm gonna stay with Jo, keep her company. I'll be along later."

Fred nodded, closing the door behind him.

After Fred and George came Lee and Ginny, after Ginny came Cho, then Remus and Tonks, both of whom the girls were very glad to see, congratulations were given and news, and pictures of the baby was received. Person after person was pointed towards Ariana's secret tunnel and just when they thought they were done, one more pop was heard.

"Evening, Oliver," Jo drawled dramatically.

Oliver's head snapped in the direction of Jo's voice. He took an involuntary step back as he scanned the room for Leili. He found her and she met his eyes without hesitation. She gave him a long, measuring look. He could feel the weight of a thousand judgments being passed on his soul and could practically hear the universe telling him he did not measure up. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to measure up to but it didn't seem to matter in that moment.

"C'mon Oliver, I'll show you the way. Jo, why don't you stay here and see if any one else shows up. I'll meet you on the other side, 'kay?" Leili crossed the room to Ariana's portrait again.

Jo quirked an eyebrow, "You sure?"

Leili waved off the concern, she wasn't really sure why she didn't just point him in the direction of the tunnel and stick around to wait with Jo but she'd already said she'd go, so here she went.

Oliver tentatively followed his ex-girlfriend, passing Jo who whispered, "Say one word about that day, and I'll kill you myself."

She, of course, meant the day she'd set a pack of wild dogs on him. Jo wasn't worried about Leili finding out that she'd set the dogs on him, she already knew. She just didn't want her best friend upset over an old wound that Fred had done a magnificent job at soothing away.

"Hurry up, Oliver," Leili called. Wood tentatively crossed the room to meet her. A minute into the tunnel Leili stopped and groaned, "Oh, just say something would you? The quiet is getting to me."

Wood chuckled, "Still hate silence, huh?"

"Always and forever." Silence descended over them again, "Am I going to have to do all the talking?" she demanded.

"I like yer tattoo," he offered, her Occamy was watching him warily from around her shoulders.

"Thanks," Leili said, touching the body with her fingertips.

"…I don' know what to say to ye that won' land me wi' one foo' in an oopen grave," he admitted.

"Oh, is that what you're afraid of?" she laughed quietly at the irony. When they were dating he always thought he knew what to say to her, even if he really didn't. "I see your predicament. Well. Don't worry, I'll protect you."

Wood snorted in disbelief. "How can a wee thing like you protect me?"

Leili heard the condescension in his voice and her temper prickled. "On second thought, Wood, don't talk."

He obligingly shut up and Leili sang snippets of a pseudo-love song under her breath to herself to prevent the quiet from eating away at her sanity. She hated the too-quiet, when all she could hear was her own pulse and a slight tinnitus in her ears, it made her completely bonkers.

"I'm your music. I'm your song. Play me time and time again and make me strong. Make me sing, make me sound. Andante, Andante. Tread lightly on my ground. Andante, Andante. Oh, please don't let me down…"

"I dinna know ye sang," he said carefully.

"You know, I've had this song stuck in my head all day today. It just won't go away," she chuckled. Then, more seriously, "…There are a lot of things you don't know about me, Oliver."

He took her use of his first name to mean that her temper had faded and they were on friendly terms again, though she sounded almost sad. "Like, why ye doon't like the quiet?"

"Yes, like that. There are other things too, though. For all the time we spent together, we didn't actually learn all that much about each other."

"How are you?" he asked, it was small talk, something to say when he had nothing else to offer.

"I'm good, Oliver. I'm really good. You?"

"Oh, aye, guid. ...Seeing anyone?"

Leilani whirled around to give him a look. She answered skeptically, "Yes. Actually. I am."

"Oh? Who? When did you start datin' him?"

"None of your beeswax," she snorted.

"Why won't you tell me?" he pushed.

"As I said, 'none of your Beeswax', Oliver," she enunciated.

"Is 'e better lookin' than me?"

Her laugh was edged with incredulity, "What's gotten into you?"

"Is 'e better in bed?"

Leilani turned bright red.

"We never—You and I never—!" she spluttered.

"But you and he did?"

"What. The. Fruck," she blinked mentally at the new word, a combination of frick and its less pg alternative, "makes you think I'm going to answer that?" Then it hit her like a ton of bricks falling on her head. "Oh my god, you—! You're jealous! Oliver, we dated for like six months four years agoo," her accent slipped briefly, probably a side effect of talking to him again after so long.

What had started out as an imitation of his accent but had evolved into something entirely her own. Heard by a Scotsman, her accent would seemingly betray her to be Scots, but would boggle the mind of anyone who tried to guess where in Scotland she was from.

"What makes you think you have the right to be jealous?"

He looked at her and couldn't swallow his desire. He pushed her into a shadowy corner and captured her pissed off mouth with his. He had always loved it when she was fired up, even if it was in anger. He wedged a knee between her thighs, pinning her against the wall and kissing her soundly.

She managed to stomp on his in-step and push back on his chest, seething.

"Ah!" he yelled as her heel hit its mark. Gripping his foot, he whispered, "What's 'e got that I doon't?"

She practically growled at him as she shoved him away. "I should fucking leave you here for that. Let you find your own way out!"

She turned around and continued through the dimly lit corridor, talking mostly to herself, letting him scramble to catch up.

"It's been four years. Four years and you still manage to do this to me. What is wrong with you? UGH!" She pushed her hands through her hair and spun around, jabbing a finger at him, "I was doing fine, Oliver! I was doing fine and then you waltz back into my life like it's nothing, like you didn't break my heart! You know what? You know why he's different from you? What he has that you don't? I'll give you a clue, Oliver: He's. Not. You. He doesn't string me along. He doesn't goad me. He's sweet to me. We make each other happy. Can you honestly say the two of us did that for each other? 'Cause I can't! He doesn't fucking assault me. He loves me, you don't. You never did," she wiped the traces of him from her mouth.

Taken aback he looked at her anew, she had never sworn around him before. She'd made up words, used child-like alternatives, but always stopped short of actually swearing and now she'd done it twice in ten seconds. And when they'd been dating she'd never stood up to him like this, she'd declined his advances, pushed him off, shoved him away but he couldn't remember her ever standing her ground like this. She'd obviously grown up since he met her last—in more ways than one.

She muttered angrily to herself, stomping away before she rounding on him again, "…I'm going to ask you something, and it's horribly trite and cheesy and probably every girl everywhere swears she won't ask it because, as I said it's cheesy and trite and overused in movies, but I'm going to ask it anyway. When you asked me out and while we were dating, was any of it real? I don't mean did you love me because you and I both know you didn't, but did you ask me out because you liked me or was I just a pawn? Useful until I wouldn't blindly cave to your whims?" She turned away, heading down the tunnel, she didn't think she wanted to see his face when he gave his answer.

"What're you hooping Ah'll say?"

"Idon't know. Why do you think I asked? If you say none of it was real, then you're an ass but if you say some of it was real and it ended up the way it did anyway then… you're still an ass, actually. But I think… I think if you were just manipulating me the whole time and none of it was real, I think that would be worse because I genuinely liked you and you were just stringing me along. But if some of it was real and you still tried to manipulate me and then you hit me… and now you're kissing me even though you know I'm seeing someone…" her head was starting to spin with her own logic.

Wood swallowed and would have attempted to answer her but she swung the door to the Room of Requirement open and stepped out before he could. Part of him suspected that even though she'd asked the question, she didn't entirely want to know the answer.

One thing was for sure though, before the night was over, he had to apologize for the special kind of hell he had put her through. He had no excuse for it and he hoped that he was a better person now. He also hoped, sincerely, that she had found someone who treated her better than he had.

About a minute behind Leilani and Wood, Jo exited the tunnel in time to hear Fred call, "Welcome back to Hogwarts, Wood," as he made his way to them with a platter of candied concoctions. "Sweet?"

Oliver reached for an odd rainbow colored toffee when Leili stopped him, "I wouldn't go for that one. I'd go more for this one." She pointed to an egg shaped custard cream, "Don't be fooled by its plain appearance, it's really quite tasty. Much better then the rainbow toffee."

He should have been wary of her tone, of how she'd just chewed him out and now was being oddly nice. He should have been, but he wasn't. Oliver popped the egg treat in his mouth and was mid-way through chewing and agreeing that this treat really was quite enjoyable when his arms began sprouting yellow feathers.

Leilani was able to contain her laughter until his face morphed into a beak and little yellow feathers grew around it, after that she dissolved into giggles and was counting on Fred to keep her upright, tucked as she was under his arm. Oliver was flapping his wings and squawking at them when Jo joined the crowd.

"Canary crème!" Leili and Jo managed to say together, causing more side-splitting guffaws.

"Oh these are one of your best gags, boys!" Jo cackled.

Oliver was about three seconds from pecking someone's eyes out when George stepped in and de-feathered their former Quidditch captain.

When the laughter had died down Jo looked at the twins and asked, "Did you plan that? 'Cause if you did…"

"How were we to know our old Quidditch Captain would show up?" George said with an innocent look.

"Yeah, how were we to know?" Fred said with a grin, he now had his revenge on Oliver for robbing him of the opportunity to know Leilani earlier.

"Confuse, don't abuse," had been Leilani's motto when she and Fred had properly met. For the most part the Wheezes were in line with that, but some of them had just a dash of abuse thrown in, like the ton-tongue toffee or the punching telescope.

Jo looked between the two gleeful faces and made a decision. "You know what? I don't want to know."

No longer a giant canary, Oliver looked between Fred and George. He'd been the butt of their practical jokes for years, but he'd forgotten what it had been like after a few years away from them. He was about to say something when he caught the sparkle of a diamond on Leilani's hand as she wiped tears of laughter off her cheeks.

Then he noticed the way Fred's arm rested in the curve of her waist, the tips of his fingers buried in her jeans pocket. The hold was… relaxed, comfortable in a way that the two of them had never been. He stared at them as he tried to riddle out what he was missing. And then, almost as though someone had called 'Knock on Wood' and walloped him, it hit him; the embrace was intimate.

They were dating.

Fred was the new guy. Of course! He should've seen that one coming. He'd known about Fred's crush on her when he himself had asked her out.

His eyes darted from Fred's hand to Leilani's and back again. Another sack of bricks fell on his head. He blurted, "Yer married?!"

"Shhhh!" Leili shushed.

"We are," Fred responded smugly.

"But people don't know yet, so ixnay on the arriedmay!"

Wood blinked blankly at her. "What on the what?" He didn't speak pig latin; he didn't even know what pig latin was. "Why did ye no' teill me ye were married?"

"You didn't ask! You asked if I was seeing someone and I said yes. Besides, it's not as though it's really any of your business. And somehow I doubt my marital status would have stopped you from taking advantage."

"He did what?"

Leili replied in a low voice, "He kissed me, in the passageway. Knew I was seeing someone—didn't tell him it was you."

Fred lurched, intent on beating Oliver bloody.

Leili caught him, swinging around to stand in front of him, "No, no, no; don't kill him. No mauling. Not today."

"He kissed my wife!" Fred hissed.

Oliver flinched; he'd never seen Fred like this before.

"I'm aware, I stomped on his foot for it. And trust me, I'd like little more than to let you maim him, but we have bigger fish to fry today, Love."

Fred looked down at Leili, one hand on his chest, the other around his forearm. He rotated his hand in her grip, long fingers wrapping around to hold her arm.

"Could I talk to you two, fer a minute?" he asked, bursting their tender little bubble.

Fred looked to Leili for her feelings on it, she shrugged; so the three of them moved away from the crowd a little ways.

"In case I doon't get to say this later, I-uh-Ahm soorry. Ahm soorry for how I treated ye, Leilani, and Ahm soorry I got in yer way, Fred. If it hadn't been for me, you two would've gotten together a long time agoo. I was a carnaptious bampot and Ahm soorry. I'm sorry I took advantage of ye. I canna answer yer question, Leilani, but I can say that I was an ass, just as ye said. Congratulations on yoor weidding, by the wee."

Leilani blinked at him, mentally chanting: Be the bigger witch. Be the bigger witch. Be the bigger witch. He's trying to meet you halfway, so suck it up, Buttercup andBE THE BIGGER WITCH.

So she opened her mouth and didn't fight it when her accent came out Scots.

"I canna say yoo're forgiven, as I doon' knoo how Freid feels, but as for me, ye didn't do any lastin' damage. There's noo shame in admittin' that we weren't right for each other, b'cause we weren't. Instead of enhancing oour lives, we made each other worse. I wish you the beist of luck in your Quidditch career and hoope you find a nice girl who can beat the ever livin' shite out of you if you ever screw her over."

The closure she offered wasn't false, but it wasn't wholly honest, either.

She'd meant most of it: they really hadn't been right for each other, the wounds he'd inflicted had healed and she really did hope some girl beat the crap out of him if he tried it again, but her reason for not offering forgiveness wasn't because of Fred's feelings. He had his own forgiveness to offer, if he wanted, but it was separate from hers. She didn't give it because she couldn't offer something she didn't feel.

She wasn't sure she'd ever forgive him, not fully. There was a movie quote, "Some people say forgive and forget. ...I say forget about forgive and just accept. …And get the hell out of town." But she rather felt it would detract from this new olive branch if she were to admit any of that.

"When did she—how did she—?" Oliver spluttered to Fred, trying to figure out when Leilani had learned his accent.

Fred stopped him mid-boggle, "Never mess with a Hufflepuff. See you around, Wood," he gave him a thump on the back before he and Leilani walked away. Wood suddenly had the desire to find a mirror and make sure Fred hadn't stuck a 'Hex Me' sign on his back.

His search for a mirror was stopped when Leilani climbed up to stand on a table, "Everyone! Hey! We're passing around vials of lucky potion; please drink it! I don't have enough to ensure victory but if everyone drinks this, our odds for survival will improve. I know it's not much, but it's the best I can do." Leili hopped down and helped pass out the vials of shimmering potion.