Disclaimer: Nada
Chapter 17
Interlude
"Africa? Are you completely bonkers?" Draco roared, staring in disbelief at his son. Scorpius looked at his fuming father, his face eerily calm. He was forcing himself not to laugh at his father's choice to use the word bonkers.
"I'll only be there for three days at the least, Dad. What's the big?"
Draco's eye twitched and he ran his hand through his white-blonde hair in frustration. "What's the big? What? Are kids these days so lazy they can't form a complete sentence?"
"OK, sorry. What's the big deal?"
"I don't want my son frolicking through African with the man who threw his mother in Azkaban! The same man who happens to be the one who murdered your grandmother!"
"I thought we had settled this, Dad. Octavius didn't frame Mum or kill Narcissa. That was Scipio What's-his-face. And we will not be frolicking; we'll be recruiting wizards—"
"Bup, bup, bup! I don't even want to hear it! Your mother is missing, your grandfather has completely lost his marbles, and now you want to go off to Africa to recruit wizards to defeat the evil reincarnation of some crackhead. Oh, God. I need a vacation!" Draco sank onto the couch in the living room, staring blankly at the flickering flames of the fire. "I would've thought you'd be more distraught about Rose, Scorpius."
Worry flickered across his son's face. "I am, Dad. I'm constantly thinking about her. But she's with Mum. They'll be all right."
"How are you so sure?" Draco asked, sounding more like the son while Scorpius sounded more like the father.
"It's just a feeling, in my heart. I'd know if something happened to Rose."
"This isn't going to work," Rose whispered to Astoria, who had her bright blue eyes fixed on the spot where she usually found their meals.
"Sure it will, Rose, dear," she said, her eyes not straying once from the empty spot on the floor. "Someone has to be leaving our meals."
"But we haven't seen them before, what makes you think we'll see them today?"
"Because we're looking," said Astoria, a twisted half smile on her face. For the first time, Rose wondered if Mrs. Malfoy was all there.
Rose tried to sit as still as the woman next to her, but she kept fidgeting with the frayed cuff of her worn out jeans, thinking about her family and Scorpius.
She felt Astoria tense up beside her and Rose hurriedly looked up just in time to see a trapdoor in the floor being pushed up and open.
Astoria and Rose held their breath and watched as an ancient house elf climbed nimbly out of the door, carrying a tray of food.
Astoria cautiously took a step forward, silent as the grave—and then her foot knocked against a metal bar, the metallic ring screaming in the silence.
The house elf whirled around and Astoria cursed under her breath.
The small creature lunged for the trapdoor and Rose screamed, "WAIT!" but to no avail. The house elf wasn't hers, so she held no power over him.
Astoria snarled a very unlady like word as she tried to pry open the trapdoor. "Locked from the inside," she announced.
"At least we know he's there," said Rose.
"Perhaps we could leave him a message," Astoria suggested. "If he brings the food, surely he comes to take it away as well."
Rose nodded. "But we haven't got any parchment."
Astoria frowned, tapping a finger to her chin and adopting a thoughtful expression. She looked from Rose, the trapdoor, the tray of food, and back again.
"You wouldn't happen to have a spare page of parchment on you, would you?" Astoria asked teasingly.
"No, sorry," said Rose, a sad smile on her face. She caught sight of the many crates dotting the large enclosed space they were in. "You don't suppose we'd find some in one of these crates, do you?"
Astoria followed her gaze to the decrepit looking crates. She shrugged. "It wouldn't hurt to look. I'll check these over here on the left; you take the ones on the right."
Rose did as she was told and moved over to the crates on the right. The factory must've been older than they had both previously thought, because the crates were practically eaten through and brittle. She easily ripped open the crate, but was disappointed to find it full of a bunch of odd contraptions that looked like oddly shaped and bulky wands. She lifted one out and weighed it in her hands. As soon as she touched it, she felt an unpleasant feeling spread through her chest.
"Astoria," she called, turning to face her companion, who was struggling with the top of a better well-preserved crate, "what's this?"
Astoria turned to look at the bulky metal contraption Rose held in her hands. Her eyes widened and she hurried over to Rose, taking the thing gently into her hands.
"This is an F63 Kingfisher," Astoria said in a breathless voice.
"Come again?" Rose said, looking at Astoria as if she were crazy. "Did you just say Kingfisher?"
"It's a type of gun. A muggle weapon."
"I know what a gun is," Rose muttered under her breath. "But Kingfisher?"
"It's a type of gun," Astoria explained. "Best in the making in 2017. It's got a huge kick to it, a shooting range of nearly—" Astoria caught sight of Rose's flabbergasted expression. "What?"
"How do you know so much about muggle weaponry?"
Astoria smiled. "Before I married Draco I was living among muggles and had a job in … we'll call it law enforcement."
"Why'd you live amongst muggles?" Rose asked curiously.
Astoria shrugged and merely said, "To get away from the War. Why else?"
"We're traveling the muggle way because?" Scorpius looked expectantly at Octavius, who was sitting comfortably between himself and Sami, who was jamming out on some muggle device she called an 'iPod.'
Octavius casually glanced at the muggle taxi driver who was paying them no attention, his mind most likely fixed on his next paycheck. "For the experience," he said with a wink.
"Why couldn't Teddy come?"
"He had avenger-y things to do," Octavius shrugged.
"Avenger-y?"
Octavius shrugged again and looked past Sami and out the window, causing Scorpius to frown.
Seeing as Octavius was busy gazing at the countryside they were driving by and Sami was listening to her music, there was no one there to distract Scorpius from thinking about Rose. He got that now familiar sensation of something squeezing his heart painfully, wondering if she was okay . . . If his mother was okay.
"Do you love her?"
Scorpius looked at Octavius, who had an odd gleam in his eye. Scorpius looked at him strangely.
"What?"
"Rose. Do you love her?"
Scorpius frowned, closing his mind and listening to his heart (and sounding completely cliché). He didn't know if he loved Rose. He liked her, of course. Way too much for it to be healthy. But did he love her? He didn't know what love was. Not yet. But maybe what he felt for Rose was love. Maybe the tightening of his throat, the warm feeling that spread through his body, the unquenchable desire to hold her was love—or it could just be an unhealthy obsession.
Octavius was still expecting an answer so Scorpius said quietly, "I don't know yet." Octavius nodded once and went back to looking out Sami's window.
Scorpius looked back out his own window with nothing better to do, wondering why Octavius had asked. He glanced back at the older man several times, but Octavius kept his gaze riveted on the window. If Sami was at all aware of this, she didn't care, too busy fiddling with the muggle iPod.
"Where is it yer wantin' me to take you in London?" the muggle taxi driver asked us, finally acknowledging our presence in the back of his taxi. His Scottish accent brought Octavius out of his thoughts.
"Heathrow Airport," Octavius said absently before turning back to window. Scorpius nudged him. "What's with you?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. Octavius scowled.
"None of your business, kid."
Scorpius smirked, though inside he was genuinely concerned. What had Octavius, of all people, so withdrawn from the rest of the world?
Rose and Astoria found that most of the crates were filled with all sorts of muggle weapons, so they gave up hope of finding any type of material to write on.
"We still don't have anything to write with anyway," Rose pointed out sadly. Astoria agreed and Rose could already see her mind forming a new plan on how to get the house elf to help them—or at least talk to them.
"I wondered what his name is," Rose said, sitting down with her back resting against a crate, bringing her knees to her chest. Her mind immediately flashed back to a memory of herself and Scorpius, back at Hogwarts. That first time she had really talked to him. She put a hand to her thudding heart, it feeling empty without him here with her. Astoria looked at her and frowned.
"Scorpius?"
"How'd you know?"
Astoria sat down beside her and patted her on the knee. "I know these things. I was once a teenage girl too, as hard as that is to believe. I know what it's like to be in love for the first time."
Rose laughed softly, shaking her head. "I don't know if I love him."
Astoria looked shocked. "Of course you love him, Rose! That's the whole reason your heart is hurting! If you didn't love him, you wouldn't give a flippin do dah about where he is or what he's doing!"
Rose raised an eyebrow. "Flippin do dah?"
Astoria smiled. "Isn't that what kids are saying these day?"
"Noooooo. . ."
Astoria laughed, giving Rose a motherly hug. "We'll get out of here, Rose. I promise."
The hours dragged by, Rose and Astoria walking aimlessly around their prison, minds deep in thought about completely different things. When Astoria thought it was nearly time for the house elf to show up with the evening meal, she and Rose were crouched down behind crates, behind the opening of the trapdoor, so the elf would have his back turned towards them. Astoria explained her plan to Rose in a low voice, and the young woman nodded her understanding in all the right places.
"Any minute now, Rose," Astoria said quietly, eyes fixed on the trapdoor.
"What if he doesn't come?" Rose asked nervously.
"He will if he's bound by Scipio's commands."
Rose stole a glance at Astoria's determined expression. She wished she were as confident.
Right on cue, the trap door opened as silently as before and Astoria crept along behind the crates, gesturing for Rose to proceed on the house elf. As the house elf picked up the old plate and set down the new one, Rose crept forward, readying herself to slam the trapdoor down before the house elf could escape.
Rose watched as Astoria nodded from behind one of the crates and she jumped forward, slamming the door shut, the sound echoing loudly around the warehouse.
The house elf swung around, his round green eyes staring hard at her. Rose planted her feet firmly on top of the trapdoor as Astoria snuck up on the house elf and picked him up easily by the scruff of the neck.
"Unhand Algernon you will, witch!" he yelled in a craggily voice.
"Not until you answer some questions for us!" Astoria snapped.
"Unhand Algernon and answer your questions Algernon will!" the house elf said angrily.
Astoria motioned for Rose to sit down on the door before she let go of the old house elf, who rubbed the back of his neck tenderly.
"The thanks Algernon gets for the prisoners' food Algernon cooks!" he snarled.
"What?" Rose asked, confused at how the creature was speaking.
"He sounds like Yoda," Astoria remarked, crouching down to stare at the house elf, who glared at her. "Looks sorta like him too."
"You know who Yoda is?" Rose asked in amazement.
"I lived with muggles for a while, remember? How do you know Yoda?"
"Mum's a muggleborn, remember? And Granddad's obsessed with everything muggle, so we all watched it together—"
"Algernon knows not who Yoda is," the house elf said, drawing attention back to him, "and Algernon cares not. Questions, you will ask, so Algernon may leave before hurt he becomes due to the wrath the master will have upon hearing of Algernon's capture."
Astoria and Rose exchanged amused glances before each of them looked at the elf.
"Algernon," said Rose, looking thoughtful. "Is that your name?"
"Algernon, my name is," he said.
Rose smiled, taking in the elf's long white beard it. "Ironic, seeing as it means 'the Bearded One'."
"Does it?" Astoria asked, looking amused.
"I think so. Either that, or 'the One with a Moustache'."
Algernon cleared his craggy voice loudly to regain their attention.
"Who's your master?" Astoria asked.
"Say, Algernon cannot."
"Do you believe in what he's doing?"
Algernon snorted, a very odd thing to see a house elf do. "Master's doings Algernon believes in not. Despises his master, Algernon does."
Rose was quickly getting a headache from the way Algernon spoke.
"Do you. . ." Astoria lowered her voice and leaned closer to the elf, "know a way to escape from here so we can stop your master?"
Algernon looked as if he wanted to say something more, but he looked unable to, and incredibly miffed at being restrained from speaking. He held up his crooked finger and, looking around suspiciously beforehand, slowly and deliberating dragged his finger through the air. Rose watched in amazement as she watched what seemed to be the air ripping apart to form three letters: YES.
Astoria grinned widely.
"When? How?"
"Say, Algernon cannot."
Astoria cursed. "Well then this has been a huge waste of time—"
"But show you, Algernon can."
Scorpius looked around the crowded muggle airport. Never in his life had he seen so many of them at once! They were all moving quickly through the crowds, hurrying to get on their correct "airplanes." He readjusted the strap on his bag and walked over to Sami and Octavius, who paid the taxi driver and thanked him for the ride.
"Ready to go?" he asked, hoisting his own traveling bag onto his back.
"I still don't see why we have to travel this way," said Scorpius. "Floo powder—"
"Shhhh! In case you haven't noticed, we're surrounded by muggles!" Octavius snarled, smiling amiably at a woman who was watching them suspiciously.
"I think this is all fascinating!" Sami said excitedly, looking left and right and taking as much as possible in. "I've never flown in a muggle arrow-plane!"
"Be quiet!" Octavius hissed, looking around, a worried expression crossing his face. "Hey, how's it going?" he called to several muggles who had stopped to stare at Sami, who was oblivious to the breach of Ministry conduct she may have committed. He rounded on her after they had looked away, "And it's called an airplane!"
As Octavius was looking at some muggle do-hickey hanging above them that showed the certain airplane flights and what times they left, Scorpius sent a high-five to Sami, who grinned and winked.
"So. . .why Africa?" Sami asked as they followed Octavius through the large airport and to their correct gate.
"There's someone there I'm interested in recruiting."
"No, der, Sherlock Holmes," Sami said sarcastically.
"Who's Sherlock Holmes?" Scorpius asked.
"He's a muggle book character—"
"For the love of Merlin would you stop using Wizard Slang?" Octavius scolded.
"You just used Wizard Slang," Sami pointed out. Octavius rolled his eyes.
"Tell us about this new contact," said Scorpius.
Octavius sighed. "Can't it wait till we get on the plane?"
"No. You'll probably forget by then."
"No I won't."
"Sure you will!" said Sami with a teasing smile.
Octavius rolled his eyes again. "I swear, the two of you will be the death of me."
"Thanks, Octavius. That means a lot," Sami smirked. "You know, Scorp. We need to come up with a nickname for Octavius. It's so hard saying Octavius all the time. It's too. . .I don't know. . ."
"Intimidating? Old timey?"
"Yeah, that's it! Old timey."
"What's wrong with my name? I like my name, thank you very much!" Octavius butted in, looking at every gate number they passed. "32, 33, 34, 35. . . ."
"Yeah, it's an okay name for when you're trying to scare the shizz out of everyone, but it's harder for your friends, you know?" said Sami.
"Shizz? What the heck is shizz?"
"It's muggle slang."
"And how would you know that?"
"Hello? I'm muggleborn?"
"Good point."
Sami laughed, shaking her head at him.
"Wow, congratulations, Octavius," said Scorpius, "you managed to change the subject without Sami realizing it."
"He did!" Sami said, just realizing. She slapped him playfully on the arm. "Now tell us about the new contact!"
"I will when we're on the plane!" he snapped. "We're running out of time now."
"When does the plane leave?" Sami asked.
Octavius glanced at his watch. "Right now," he snarled, picking up the pace.
"What gate are we supposed to be?"
"39."
"Then get your knickers out of a twist, big boy, it's right over there!" said Sami, pointing. There was a line of muggles leading up to the desk where you got your ticket, and Octavius, Sami, and Scorpius joined the end.
"I still don't get why we have to travel the stupid muggle way," Scorpius muttered. Octavius whacked him on the back of the head. "Ow! It's not like they heard me!"
"Muggles aren't stupid," Sami hissed.
"I didn't say they were!"
"You said, 'the stupid muggle way,' implying that you thought they were stupid!"
"Are you actually picking a fight with me?"
"No, I'm just saying that was very rude of you."
"Stop fighting," Octavius said, putting his large form between them. "You sound like little girls."
Sami smirked at Scorpius and he rolled his eyes with a grin. He looked around the airport and caught sight of a couple walking hand in hand down the corridor—he immediately thought of Rose.
End Note: Pffft. Algernon. Yoda wannabe, if you ask me.