Merit and Inheritance
Chapter Fifty-one
Clear the Air
Harry had to tell Pansy about the petrification and shrinkage of Dieter Berg, something he had never confessed before, in order to make sense of his return trip to the cave.
"Merlin! Harry, what goes on inside that head of yours?" Pansy demanded. "Was retrieving Dieter necessary? That cave is nightmare material. It's a curse on our lovely planet."
"Very handy, though, from time to time," said Harry. "Just remember your siphon hose if you need to get something out of the basin."
Pansy went back to watching the cottage.
"How does Dieter figure in this?" she asked. "I thought if you could show Ricardo and Romilda together, that would be enough. They'd be co-conspirators. Lock 'em up. Done."
"Sure, if it worked out just that way," said Harry. "What if it doesn't? What about X? If X is inserted then all calculations are off."
They both heard the popping sound of a witch or wizard materializing nearby. They went silent as they scanned the area, trying to find the newcomer. The moon hadn't appeared yet but there was no artificial light anywhere near. Night vision was sufficient to identify Ricardo Mendini a few feet from the stile before Livia's cottage.
Romilda must have heard the sound of Ricardo's apparition because the door opened a few inches and a silhouette of Romilda's backlit head appeared.
"Quiet!" said Romilda in a kind of stage whisper. "Inside, quick."
Ricardo tried to comply and stumbled coming down the far side of the stile, nearly sprawling headlong on the path to the front door before catching himself and straightening up.
"Welcome home, Grace," said Romilda.
She stepped back from the door to let Ricardo enter, but he didn't wait to get inside to plant a long kiss on Romilda's lips.
"Mmmm…" they heard Romilda say, then, "Inside, now!"
"There's no one…" Ricardo began before the sound was cut off by the closing door.
Harry drew the Elder Wand and held it out between their position and the cottage.
"Let's take our time, Romilda may have wards or alarm charms or who knows what?"
Pansy drew a wand and handed it to Harry.
"Take this back," she ordered. "I want my baby if we have to get physical with someone."
"Your baby?" Harry whispered, his glee showing. Pansy Parkinson, perhaps the toughest witch he'd ever known, called her wand her baby?
"Shut up Harry Potter," said Pansy as she wanded another quadrant.
"Okay?" Harry asked, meaning was Pansy satisfied they could work in a little closer.
Pansy nodded and was preparing to slip over the stone wall when they heard another inbound magical materialize. This one was a bit more distant, although still relatively close. Pansy and Harry froze, trying to blend into the shadow of the wall. The person walked up the lane to the stile. They seemed to know where they were going while at the same time giving the appearance of unfamiliarity. Perhaps they had come once before, in daylight.
They climbed the stile and walked straight to the front door. Harry heard the sound of another apparation. He turned to look at Pansy, whose eyebrows went up and came right back down. The rest of her face was unreadable in the starlight. They continued to huddle against the wall.
"Amalia?" said the latest arrival.
"Ssst!" said the person in the dooryard.
'So, Amalia, and now someone besides Amalia,' Harry thought.
"There you are," said the nameless person. Details were scarce but it sounded like she was a witch.
The stile squeaked as the door to the cottage opened. Harry and Pansy could see Ricardo Mendini clearly in the light from inside. He had his wand drawn and pointed at Amalia.
"I should kill you right here, Amalia," Ricardo said. "Only…"
A voice sounded from the stile. It didn't speak anything Harry could understand, or identify, so he had to assume it was more Romansh. Ricardo pivoted and faced the stile. Harry and Pansy looked and saw a person, the light from the cottage just sufficient to show it was a witch, with wand drawn on Ricardo. It looked like a standoff in the making before Ricardo dropped his wand and sighed.
He spoke a few words that Harry interpreted as something along the lines of, "You'd both better come in."
Harry waited until the door closed before he turned to Pansy.
"I think this might work," he said as he reached into his pocket.
Pansy rolled her eyes again. A thought occurred to her, that she was going to have very tired eyes if Harry didn't keep making her roll them every ten minutes.
Re-enervating Dieter Berg required first the reversal of Harry's shrinking spell. Luckily for Dieter the reversal was fairly common and Harry had no trouble remembering it. As soon as Dieter regained his full size Harry relieved his petrified self of his wand, handing it on to Pansy.
Harry wasn't sure re-enervation was a routine procedure for a wizard who'd been petrified for so many months, but Dieter became responsive almost immediately. He took a long time blinking his eyes, patting the ground around him and studying Harry and Pansy before he spoke something in Romansh.
"Sorry," Harry said, shaking his head. "Try English."
"Where am I?" Dieter asked, just a bit emphatically. Harry hissed and leaned over Dieter as the cottage door opened.
"Silence," he said as softly as he could.
Ricardo stood on the big stepping stone outside the door, wand raised to the sky. He shot off a series of lights that arced across the sky. Harry was reminded of the muggle army's magnesium flares.
Ricardo seemed unbothered by the fact that his position gave him no sightline to the immediate far side of the stone wall. He didn't leave the stone, taking the time only to scan the dooryard and the field across the road before going back inside.
"Signur Berg, my name is Harry Potter," Harry whispered. "Do you remember me?"
"I do," said Berg. "But why?"
"Another time, or maybe it will all come back," said Harry. "Anyway, it is some months now that you have been in a state of suspension. The immediate danger has now passed and it is safe to bring you back. You will accompany us to a meeting and this will all be put right. Please take your time until you understand what is going on. This will all unfold for you but you must be patient. Can you do that?"
"What choice?" asked Berg.
He put a hand on the ground and pushed himself up to a sitting position.
Harry was anxious to get to the cottage and set about getting all the participants' stories because he was sure they'd be giving them up to him before very long. Still, he knew Dieter Berg would figure in the resolution so he made up his mind to let Berg's recovery determine when they would all go knock on the door.
Door.
"Pansy?"
"What, Harry?" Pansy answered.
"Someone ought to cover the back door."
Pansy sighed.
"Could…"
"Sure. Should have thought of it myself," Pansy said.
She slipped over the stone wall, rolling over like a high-jumper to minimize her profile. Pansy moved toward the house making little more noise than a rustling in the grass.
"Ready?" asked Harry.
Dieter nodded.
"Good," said Harry. "There's a stile just over here. Take your time. You'll probably be a little unsteady for a bit."
Harry had returned the Elder Wand to his mokeskin pouch when Pansy insisted on returning his holly wand. He still held the holly wand when they got to the great stone before the door. Harry knocked twice and all conversation inside the cottage stopped. Harry held the holly wand between his fingers, casting as gently as he could. The door swung open, slowly.
"Dieter!"
"Amalia!"
"Dieter!"
"Berthe!"
The greetings sounded like they were rebounding from one another. Harry kept his eyes on Ricardo Mendini, whom he had tricked into coming from Our Place to consult with his co-conspirator, Romilda Vane Berg. Harry assumed they were lovers, as well, but he didn't know that for sure. Romilda saw where Harry was looking and began to take tiny steps toward the back door, young James Parkinson in her arms. Harry let her go.
"All," Harry said in greeting. He kept his holly wand visible, just so there wouldn't be any uninformed persons in the room. "You must be the great-aunt I haven't met."
"Berthe Berg," said the older woman. She pronounced her given name 'Bear-ta.'
"Harry Potter," said Harry. "You'll forgive me if we skip the other formalities, considering our circumstances."
Berthe got a smile at that.
"Dieter," Harry said, pulling out one of the substantial wooden chairs at the table. He let the recently-reconstituted Dieter get comfortable before he spoke.
"I've filled in some of the blank passages in an intriguing story but some have bedeviled me, I confess," said Harry. "It appears we have all the witnesses to this or that occurrence present and now you will tell me what in Merlin's name you all have been doing to make my life so difficult?"
Romilda had gotten to the back door and was opening it, slowly. She didn't think anyone was watching so she slipped out, only to step down and feel a hand take hold of the collar of the heavy shirt she wore, along with a wand tip to the base of her skull.
"Please," Romilda said, tears already apparent in her tone of voice. "My baby…"
"You leave the baby out of this you faithless wretch or by Morgana's soul I swear I will relieve you of every brain in your head," Pansy threatened.
"You don't have to blaspheme, Parkinson," said Romilda, fully recovered. "I'll go back inside."
"Yes, you will," said Pansy, tightening her grip on Romilda's shirt.
"So?" said Pansy when they got back into the kitchen. She made it a question.
"Just getting started," said Harry. "James okay?"
"As far as I can tell," said Pansy as she tried to look over Romilda's shoulder.
"Perhaps in his cradle, while the adults talk?" Harry suggested.
Pansy indicated Romilda should sit in another of the heavy chairs. When she had, Pansy took James from her and put him down in his cradle. He took up nearly all the space.
"Such a big boy!" Pansy enthused, getting a beautiful smile from James in return.
"Let's begin," Harry said. "A few weeks ago, my wife was abducted by a disappointed suitor and taken to Our Place. I understand some of you may have thought you had a legitimate conflict with me…"
Harry nodded at Dieter.
"But my wife? She's a healer. She doesn't get involved in feuds or tit-for-tat with other families. She had a few words with Laurent Selwyn while she was in captivity in the cell there at Our Place and he indicated your plan was to kill me so he could court my wife, which he intended to make his wife. I don't know what kind of code you all are living by, if any, but that right there is enough to bring on some serious reprisals from me and my clan. Wouldn't you say?"
None of the Berg-Mendini's seemed to want to say anything. The silence stretched on, save for the little squeaks made by James' cradle as it rocked.
"Mr. Potter, we didn't mean any harm," said Dieter. "Madame Romilda…"
"Stop," ordered Harry. "Let's go over that. Romilda, you showed up at Fortescue's, engaged Pansy in a little conversation, and the two of us expend weeks keeping you out of harm's way while we looked for a safe haven."
"Thank-you, Harry, thank-you, Pansy, you saved…"
"Shut up, Romilda, you lying piece…" Pansy said.
Harry knew where she was going and he knew Pansy was justified. Still, he held up his hand and Pansy stopped speaking.
"There will be a time for that, I'm sure," Harry said. "Romilda, you're up to your earlobes in this mess, and I think I know why. Something was wrong from the start. Pansy and I could feel it but we couldn't sort it out. You never gave us the whole story. When a loose end started to unravel the rest of it you'd give us just enough to let us think we knew what was going on and leave the rest. Then Ricardo came to see me, to reach out and let you know things were going to change and you'd be welcome back."
Amalia Berg started shouting. Her words sounded like one of those strings of expletives that some people are subject to when their rage boils over. Harry couldn't tell for sure because Amalia had reverted to Romansh. Dieter spoke up, from his chair, in English.
"Amalia, dear, we must use our English or we'll be here all night, hmm? Now, Mr. Potter is right, he got pulled into something, as did Miss…?"
"Parkinson," said Pansy. "Pansy Parkinson."
Pansy gestured at herself, with her wand, as she said it.
"I've figured out there are two parties at Our Place, the one thinks change is inevitable and must be embraced to preserve the family and the special way of life you all have, and the other thinks clinging to the old ways in the strictest fashion is the key to preserving the special way of life you all have. Why are you here, Ricardo? Scotland? Recently overcome with a craving for heather?"
"No, I got a message, by owl, from Romilda," said Ricardo. "I had to come. It read like she had an emergency."
Romilda's jaw dropped.
"YOU sent the owl," she said, pointing at Harry. Pansy let the point of her wand drift. Romilda got her meaning.
"That was pretty good, Harry, really. You too, Pansy, if you had anything to do with it," said Romilda. "Yes, Ricardo and I noticed one another at Our Place. We talked. He was already working with the managers, down in Salzburg. He saw the books. Lorenzo knew the family was paying an awful lot to have those people run everything. He never could get the traditionalists to see that those were jobs for Bergs and Mendini's. All they wanted to do was sit up there at Our Place and feel superior. Quit looking at me like that, Amalia. It's the truth and you know it."
"Fine," said Harry. "Irreconcilable differences. Why don't the modernizers go off like Ricardo? Oh, and whose baby is it?"
"Lorenzo's," said Romilda.
"LIAR!" shouted Amalia. "You took Ricardo for a lover while you were married to our Baron!"
"No, I did not," said Romilda, looking at Ricardo.
"Amalia, that is not true," Ricardo said.
"You had Derek, was it his then?" demanded Amalia.
"I didn't exactly have Derek," said Romilda, face flushed and eyes flashing. Harry thought it looked like she wanted a go at Amalia. He really wanted to keep them both healthy enough to get to the bottom of the story. Then they could take it outside, for all he cared. Harry was about to intervene when Dieter spoke up again.
"Amalia, Derek cannot be the father," said Dieter. "Marcella had a series of miscarriages, forty years ago. They tried as many times as they could but a healer convinced them both they had to stop. Marcella was going to kill herself if they kept conceiving and losing babies. Derek saw a healer in Zurich and took himself, what, out of the equation, you could say. They had many more happy years together. Then Romilda made our father so happy and he didn't keep it to himself and Derek got ideas. Yes, he raped our father's wife. Our family will bear that shame forever, won't it? But, if Romilda did not stray, beyond Baron Lorenzo and Derek, then that baby over there is the Baron's son. And my brother."
The tension in the room was becoming too much. Everyone's face had a sheen, or so it appeared to Pansy. She reached over and opened the back door to let some fresh air inside.