Notes: HAPPY NEW YEAR'S IN ADVANCE~ Thar be Asakiku at the bottom - just a heads up.
Part XII
Kiku was scared.
"You are bloody insane!" Madeline was screaming at him, causing him to shrink away from her. "You could have been killed, hurt, captured, God-knows-what… what the hell were you thinking?"
"Madeline-chan," Kiku began to say, but she shook her head.
"Non! There's no excuse for your reckless behaviour! I'd have expected it of Alfred but you of all people should know better!"
"Madeline, chérie, sois tranquille," Francis murmured, leaning forward with his hand on her arm, ready to restrain her if she lost control.
Madeline glared at Kiku but finally deflated, leaning back against Francis with a huff.
"At least he's still alive," Francis pointed out as he massaged Madeline's shoulders. "It's all that matters."
"Dobby, you can Disapparate out of this cellar, right?" Harry asked quickly. Dobby nodded.
"You can take humans with you, right?" Arthur pitched in eagerly, green eyes lighting up. Dobby nodded.
"Right. Dobby," instructed Harry, "I want you to grab Luna, Dean, Mr. Ollivander, and Arthur, and take them to... take them to..."
"Bill and Fleur's," Ron said immediately. "Shell Cottage on the outskirts of Tinworth." Dobby nodded.
Hermione's screams were getting worse and worse. Ron was looking up at the ceiling desperately, as if his gaze could cut through stone and help her somehow. Yet Arthur couldn't help but feel as if some balloon was expanding in his chest – a balloon of happiness. He was finally being rescued.
"What about you?" he asked Harry, who shook his head, smiling.
"We'll be fine. Dobby, after you've taken them there, can you come back?"
The elf nodded one more time. "Of course, Harry Potter." He walked over and took one of Ollivander's hands. Arthur grabbed onto his wrist and looked at Luna and Dean questioningly.
"Harry, we want to help you!" Luna beseeched. Dean nodded.
"Yeah, Harry, we can't leave you here."
"Go, both of you!" Harry hissed. "We'll see you at Bill and Fleur's." He clutched his scar. Arthur bit his lip.
"Harry, something wrong?"
"Yeah, he's coming back," the boy ground out, as Hermione screamed once more. "Go!"
Luna and Dean grabbed Dobby's fingers. Arthur squeezed his eyes shut as a loud crack resounded and they spun forward into blackness.
"Kill me, then, Voldemort, I welcome death!" Grindelwald cackled, as Voldemort seethed in fury. "But my death will not bring you what you seek. There is so much you do not understand..."
Voldemort's features contorted into a mask of rage as Grindelwald laughed. "Do not underestimate me, Grindelwald," he snarled. "I will always know what you hide... in the end..."
"Mere bluffing!" crowed Grindelwald. "Silly boy, I was trying to take over Europe while you were still a pathetic little orphan at your Muggle orphanage! I have seen all that you have not seen, I have felt passions that you will never feel, and I have learnt everything that you refuse to understand!"
"Give me the location of the Elder Wand!" Voldemort snapped, pointing his wand at Grindelwald.
But Grindelwald merely chuckled a wheezing old chuckle. "Kill me, then!" he demanded. "You will not win, you cannot win! That wand will never, ever be yours –"
He never finished his sentence, because green light filled the tower room and Grindelwald was no more.
Ludwig awoke from his dream, feeling pains in his chest. He stared up at the ceiling and then at Feliciano, curled up next to him and probably dreaming of pasta.
Shell Cottage was a cosy little house on a cliff overlooking the sea. After seeing so much of the Malfoy Mansion cellar, Arthur took one look at the cottage and decided that it was the most beautiful building in the world.
"Arthur, is that you?" a voice asked. Fleur stood before him like an angel, concern etched all over her beautiful face.
Bill Weasley, tall and red-haired, bent down and helped up Mr. Ollivander. Fleur extended her hand towards Arthur, leading him up to the house.
They had Apparated in a straw-coloured meadow not too far away from the house. The grass was long and wild looking, pale against the stones of the cliff over a small pebble beach and the roaring sea. On the way up to the house, Arthur noted a garden where flowers and mosses grew in beds ringed by smooth stones.
Inside the house, Fleur led Arthur upstairs, rummaged around in a closet, and finally handed him a thick fluffy towel. "Go bathe," she said with a smile as she pointed towards the bathroom. "You look like you need it."
"Merci, Fleur," Arthur said, taking the towel.
When he appeared downstairs in the spare clothes that Fleur had laid out for him outside the bathroom door, he saw Bill tending to Dean and Luna's injuries while Fleur gently coaxed Ollivander upstairs as well.
"Anything we need to tend to, Arthur?" Bill asked with a smile as he finished healing Luna's cuts.
"Some scars on my back, I think," Arthur said, taking Ollivander's spot on the sofa with a slight groan. "But I'll manage for now."
Fleur came downstairs. "More people, Bill," she said tersely, tilting her head towards the back door leading to the garden.
The five of them headed towards the garden, where Harry, Ron, and Hermione were. Harry was bent over a little body. Griphook the goblin lay next to Hermione, unconscious.
The black-haired wizard was mumbling something. As Arthur approached, he realised that Harry was saying a name repeatedly. He gasped in horror at what lay in the boy's arms.
"Dobby?" he asked, kneeling down to examine the body of the house-elf. A silver knife protruded from his chest. "Who did it?"
"Bellatrix," Ron growled, hatred evident in his voice. Hermione shuddered; Ron put a comforting arm around her.
"Ron, take 'Ermione inside," Fleur whispered. Ron complied. Dean knelt down and picked up Griphook, taking him inside as well.
"How are we going to bury Dobby?" Arthur wondered as Fleur hurried after Dean. Harry took the knife out of the elf and wrapped him in his jacket. He stood up, adjusting his glasses before looking back down at the body.
"I want to do it properly," he said after a while. "Not by magic. Have you got a spade?"
Bill nodded, going off to fetch him one. When he returned, he pointed to the far end of the garden. "You can bury him there."
Harry nodded and set to work. Night set in properly around him; Bill hurried Arthur into the house to mend the scars on his back. As soon as he was through, Arthur grabbed a spade and went out to help Harry.
"You don't have to do this, you know," Harry said as Arthur climbed into the hole and started digging.
"If I could help dig the graves of every single one of my brave, noble citizens, I would," Arthur replied. "It's the least I can do to repay Dobby for saving me."
Harry said nothing, but Arthur could tell that he was thinking similar thoughts. They dug on and on; by the time the grave was finished Arthur's hands were stinging with blisters. He didn't care.
"How's Hermione?" Harry asked Ron, who had come out with Dean sometime during the digging to help. Ron smiled.
"She's better," the Weasley said. "Fleur's looking after her." Perching on the side of the grave, Ron took off his shoes and socks and placed them on Dobby's feet. Harry wrapped Dobby tighter in his jacket. Arthur frowned, wishing that he could provide something as Dean placed a woollen hat on Dobby's head.
"A scarf," Luna's voice said quietly. She handed Arthur a little blue scarf; he wrapped it around Dobby's neck.
"We should close his eyes," he said after a moment, and Luna knelt down to close his eyes. Ron wrapped his arm around Hermione, who was in a dressing gown and looking rather unsteady. Fleur and Bill stood nearby, Bill in a travelling cloak and Fleur in a large white apron.
Harry placed Dobby into the grave, arranging his limbs. "I think we ought to say something," Luna murmured as he clambered out. "I'll go first, shall I?" She looked down at Dobby, addressing him. "Thank you so much, Dobby, for rescuing me from that cellar. It's so unfair that you had to die, when you were so good and brave. I'll always remember what you did for us. I hope you're happy now."
Arthur sighed, wanting to say something as well. "Yeah... um.. Thank you, Dobby," he said hesitantly. "It's been an honour to be... to be your Nation. I... I am indebted to you, forever and always."
The others looked at him oddly, but Arthur couldn't care less. Ron stepped forward, muttering his thanks. Dean followed suit.
"Goodbye, Dobby," Harry said hoarsely after Dean. Bill raised his wand, filling the grave.
Harry stayed by Dobby's graveside even after they headed back to the house.
"I got a letter from Fleur," Francis announced at breakfast one morning in April. Kiku looked over, but it was written in French and he couldn't read a word.
"What does it say?" Alfred asked through a mouthful of raspberry tart.
"Hello Francis, how are you... that sort of thing," the Frenchman replied, and Kiku turned his attention back to his cereal. "Attends, she says something about Arthur."
"What?" the Japanese demanded, his spoon dropping into the bowl and splashing him with milk.
"He's at her house," Francis said with a grin.
Kiku beamed, his smile muscles aching slightly from prolonged disuse. "Really?" he asked.
Francis nodded. "I'll go and pick him up tonight, if that's what you want." He winked at Kiku; Kiku turned bright red.
"Pervert," he grumbled. "But do bring him here."
"I've been in contact avec Francis," Fleur told Arthur at dinner. The Brit had been very surprised when she told him that it had almost been a year since his capture. Time had been a snail during his captivity.
He smiled a little at the mention of a friend. "And what have you two talked about, might I ask?" he asked as she chopped up steaks for Bill and Griphook with a wave of her wand.
"You," she replied. "Francis will come and pick you up tonight. 'E ees going to take you to 'is 'ouse."
"Oh, that's good," Arthur said with a smile. He paused. "Not that your house isn't nice or anything but I always feel like I'm impinging on your hospitality."
"Arthur, eet ees not a problem," Fleur replied firmly. "You are always welcome 'ere, you 'ear zat?"
Arthur nodded.
Before dinner, Bill took Ollivander to Muriel Weasley's place. The whole Weasley family had gone into hiding there, according to Bill. Mr. Weasley was the Secret-Keeper for Muriel's house; Bill was Secret-Keeper for Shell Cottage.
"Francis put 'is 'ouse under ze Fidelius Charm as well," Fleur noted over dinner. She was barely touching her food, her eyes always darting over to the window as a storm brewed outside. "Zat ees ze reason why 'e ees taking you to 'is 'ouse, Arthur. Zat and ze fact zat 'e misses you."
"That's a bit rich coming from him," Arthur remarked, but there was a smile on his face.
After dinner, Fleur had just taken the dishes into the kitchen when there was a bang on the door. Everyone who had a wand drew them; Griphook slinked under the table.
"Who is it?" Bill called.
Two voices resounded. There was a pause, and then one started speaking again: "It is I, Remus John Lupin! I am a werewolf, married to Nymphadora Tonks, and you, the Secret-Keeper of Shell Cottage, told me the address and bade me come in an emergency!"
A second voice chimed in. "C'est moi, Francis Bonnefois! I am the personification of France and I have come here to pick up Arthur Kirkland, personification of England!"
"You didn't need to tell that to the whole world, you sodding git!" Arthur yelled, feeling wild happiness course through him at the sound of a familiar voice. Once again, the others shot him odd looks as Bill went to open the door.
Lupin and Francis were on the doorstep; Lupin nearly fell over the threshold. He looked around at them before announcing the news:
"It's a boy! We've named him Ted, after Dora's father!"
Arthur blinked; Hermione shrieked. "What? Tonks – Tonks had the baby?"
Arthur gaped as celebration broke out in the room. He sidled over to where Francis stood. "Something I missed, grenouille?" he asked Francis, jabbing his thumb at the others.
"Ouais, Sourcils. Lupin married an Auror, Tonks, and well, they got busy." Francis smirked. "Ready to go?"
"Yeah, I've got nothing to take, really," Arthur said with a sigh. Fleur detached herself from the jubilant crowd and came over; Arthur looked over her shoulder to see Lupin hug Harry.
"Stay a leetle longer, oui?" she coaxed with a smile. "Just a leetle wine in celebration!"
"One glass," Arthur affirmed, as Bill passed them goblets full of wine.
"To Teddy Remus Lupin," Lupin exclaimed as everyone held their goblets aloft in a toast, "a great wizard in the making!"
They drank, and Arthur set his empty goblet on the table, wrenching Francis' glass out of his hand as soon as it was empty. "We must go," he said with a smile. Fleur kissed him and Francis on both cheeks; Hermione hugged them. Francis turned bright pink as Ron coughed pointedly.
"Bonne chance, Harry," Francis added, as he opened the door. They left the house, wind whipping their hair as they walked away from the warmth and towards the boundaries of the Fidelius Charm.
"Kiku and Alfred are with you, yeah?" Arthur asked as they left the garden and the protection of the Charm.
Francis nodded. "Kiku might be staying up tonight. Now... think of Bonnefois Villa, on the outskirts of Nice. Do you have a wand?"
Arthur shook his head, so Francis extended an arm. Taking it, Arthur squeezed his eyes shut as they Disapparated.
Kiku looked out the window in the upstairs library, waiting for the moment when Francis and Arthur would appear. Several times, he had nearly fallen asleep but he desperately fought to stay awake. His face was pressed against the window; his breath fogged the glass.
Alfred and Madeline had long since gone to sleep and the house was eerily quiet. Kiku shivered slightly with anticipation, looking out at the stars.
His patience was rewarded as two people suddenly materialised out of nowhere just inside the gates of Bonnefois Villa. Smiling, Kiku left his post at the window.
Bonnefois Villa was unlit and peaceful in the moonlight as Francis unlocked the door and let them in. "Past midnight here, so everyone's sleeping," he explained apologetically as he closed the door. "Well, I suppose Kiku would be up; he took vigil in the library right after dinner." Francis yawned a little. "I'm off to bed, myself."
"Yeah..." Arthur said with a sigh. "Thanks, Francis."
"Hm? What for?" the Frenchman asked with another yawn.
"For taking me here. And I'm... I'm sorry for losing my temper with you almost a year ago. We'll be... well, we're not going to be enemies, are we?" He felt his face heat up as he said that and was thankful that the house was so dark.
"I should hope not," Francis replied with a shadow of his usual smirk. "Anyways, bonne nuit, Arthur." He trudged up the stairs; Arthur watched him leave.
"Arthur-san?" another voice asked as Francis's footsteps faded. Arthur's gaze darted to the other side of the staircase, where Kiku stood with his face pale but a smile on his face.
"Kiku!" he exclaimed, rushing up the stairs as the Japanese ran down. They met at the middle, Arthur stopping on a step below Kiku, one hand reaching out to touch his face.
Kiku's smile grew. "You're alive," he breathed. "And everyone else thought that you were dead..."
"But I'm not," Arthur pointed out with a smile. "I'm here. You're here. And that's all that matters."
And suddenly – Arthur had no idea who initiated it – they were kissing. Kiku wrapped his arms around him tightly, as if Arthur would disappear if he let go. The Brit responded by pressing his own lips against Kiku's more firmly, savouring the happiness that exploded all over his insides.
"I've missed you," he said as they broke apart, their foreheads meeting. Kiku smiled.
"And I, you," he whispered, resting one hand on Arthur's chest.
Smiling, Arthur took Kiku's hand and led him up the staircase. "Your room?" he whispered; Kiku giggled and pointed to a door.
Some unfinished business needed to be finished.