CHAPTER 23: FAREWELL TO ENGLAND

O'Bannon noticed everyone ate their breakfasts slowly, as if wanting to delay the inevitable parting of the ways. He couldn't blame them. They'd all grown closer over these past two weeks. He'd heard from Jared's and Rosa's parents that war tended to do that. There was nothing like watching one another's backs or saving one another's lives that forged bonds between wizards and witches as strong, or even stronger, than those between brothers and sisters.

And no one had become closer than George and Rosa.

He stole a glance at the couple. They talked rather animatedly, though O'Bannon could see in Rosa's eyes that it pained her to have to leave him. That and the fact she looked kind of tired. Considering George hadn't been in his bed when he woke up, he had a fairly good idea what those two had been doing most of the night.

Eventually, everyone had eaten their fill. The four Americans trudged up the twisting staircase to collect their bags, Rosa moving the slowest of all. When they came back down to the living room, Mrs. Weasley waited for them with what looked like folded sweaters in her arms.

"I couldn't let you leave without some sort of good-bye present. It isn't much, but I hope you like it."

She handed them each a thick sweater, red with gold trim. The colors of Gryffindor House. He glanced over at his three friends. Jared, Rosa and Artimus had never been sorted at Hogwarts, but after Ovenderburg, The Longathian Tunnel Affair and the Chupacabra Attacks, they certainly possessed the spirit of a true Gryffindor.

"Thanks, Mrs. Weasley." Rosa smiled. "This is really nice."

"Yeah. Thanks." O'Bannon held the sweater in front of him. He remembered seeing Fred, George, Ron, Ginny and Harry wear these same sort of hand-knitted sweaters during their time together at Hogwarts. For Mrs. Weasley to make them for the four of them, well, they must have made a serious impression on her.

"It's the least I could do." Mrs. Weasley's eyes glistened. "You've done so much for our family, and I want you all to know that you will always be welcome in this house. Always."

She hugged the four of them and kissed them on the cheek. Looking to one another, the quartet nodded and donned the sweaters.

Mrs. Weasley smiled as tears rolled down her cheeks.

Everyone went outside, slowly walking to the Apparation point. Just before they reached it, a flurry of hugs and handshakes and back slaps and tears took place.

"You guys take care of yourselves," Harry said to O'Bannon and Jared.

"Us?" O'Bannon shook Harry's hand. "You're the one with the insane, evil wizard gunning for you. Take care of yourself."

"Ah, don't worry about our man Harry." Jared slapped the younger wizard's shoulder. "He sent that slimeball packin' once before. He can do it again."

Harry responded with an uncomfortable smile.

"Oh yeah." Jared leaned closer to him. "And if I'm ever back in England, see if you can set me up with one of those Patil twins."

"Aw jeez." O'Bannon rolled his eyes.

Jared ignored him. "Hey. Maybe you and me can double-date with them."

Harry shook his head. "Ron and I did that with them at the Yule Ball. It didn't work out too well."

"Fine then. I'll take 'em both."

O'Bannon groaned and readied a smart-ass comment for his friend when he heard Tonks call his name. He smiled as she strode up to him and hugged him.

"You know," she began. "I don't care how bad you botched the Potions part of your NEWKs, you still would have made a great auror. Hell, you're better than some of the lunkheads I have to work with at the Aurors Office."

O'Bannon chuckled softly. "Thanks, Tonks." He then thought about how bummed out she'd been when he first got here. "You gonna be okay?"

"Yeah. I'll be fine." She gave him a peck on the cheek and backed away. "You take care of that sexy arse of yours, hear?" She winked at him.

"You take care of your sexy ass." A pang of guilt went through him as he thought of Talia. He couldn't wait to see her again.

"See you around, Jimmy O'Bannon." She shot him her patented wry grin before turning around and hugging Artimus good-bye. Next to them, Rosa and Ginny embraced one another.

"I'm gonna miss you, Ginny. Don't take any crap from that silver-haired harpy, or any of your brothers."

"You know I won't. Merlin, I wish you could come to Hogwarts with me. You, me and Hermione would have a blast there."

"Jimmy?" A dreamy voice floated over him.

He swung around. His eyes widened when he saw Luna Lovegood sauntering up to them.

"Luna!" Harry blurted. "What are you doing here?"

"I just . . . oh. Are you having a going away party for Jimmy and his friends? Oh dear. Perhaps I should go. I wasn't invited, after all."

"What?" O'Bannon's face scrunched. "Heck no, you don't have to go. Besides, we wanna know how your father's doing."

"Oh, Daddy's doing well. The healers say he'll need to stay at St. Mungo's for another day or two. He'll have permanent scars on his back, seeing as he was attacked by a dark creature. But he'll be up and about soon."

"Oh, that's wonderful, dear." Mrs. Weasley hugged Luna, who seemed taken aback by the gesture.

"I'm glad to hear that." O'Bannon nodded.

"Yes." She stepped away from Mrs. Weasley. "I just want to thank you for helping us, and for saving Daddy. That was so nice and brave of you. Oh, and Artimus. I heard you got hurt by a Chupacabra. Are you all right now?"

"Um, yeah. My shoulder's still sore, and it's going to be scarred. But other than that I'm fine."

"That's good to hear. Well, have a nice trip back to America. I hope to see you again, Jimmy. And your friends. You're all very kind people."

"Um, yeah. Thanks. See you around, Luna."

She beamed at them, turned and skipped off.

Jared appeared next to him, cocking his head as he watched Luna depart. "You know, I just realized something."

"What?"

"That Luna chick. When you really think about it, she ain't bad looking."

O'Bannon groaned and walked away from him.

"What!" Jared exclaimed.

He just shook his head, remembering how Jared eye-humped nearly every female in the D.A. their last time over here.

What is it about England that makes him hornier than usual?

They finished up their good-byes and headed to the Apparation point. Rosa, however, wasn't ready to go yet. She and George held one another in a crushing embrace.

"Don't you ever forget me, George Weasley." Rosa's voice cracked.

"No chance of that happening, luv. Not even if someone obliviated me."

They shared a last kiss, one that lasted so long it made O'Bannon marvel at their lung capacity.

When their lips parted, they held hands, staring longingly into each other's eyes. Somehow, Rosa managed to let go and walked over to them.

His heart went out to her. He'd seen Rosa go out with some real jerks during their time at Salem. George, however, was the polar opposite of a "real jerk." More than anything, he wished things could have worked out for them.

He studied Rosa, noticing how tight her face muscles were.

She must be putting up a hell of a fight not to cry.

O'Bannon sighed and stared at the ground. For the first time, he truly understood Mireet's reasoning for them not getting together. Their parting at Hogwarts had been rather emotional. He could only imagine how much more emotional it would have been if they were boyfriend and girlfriend.

Jared frowned as Rosa joined them. He put an arm around his cousin and rubbed her shoulder.

"Thanks, Jared," she said in a whisper.

They turned back to the Brits and waved. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Fred and George, Harry, Ron, Ginny, Tonks, Lupin, Bill and Fleur all waved back.

O'Bannon fought back his own tears and forced down the lump in his throat. "C'mon, gang. Time to go."

Four sharp cracks split the air. Darkness fell over him. Seconds later his vision returned. Salt air wafted past his nostrils. He looked out over the Cliffs of Dover to the English Channel below. On the horizon he could just make out the coastline of France.

They mounted their brooms and flew over the water until they reached Calais. The quartet then trekked a few yards over to the bush where they hid the port key and extracted it with their wands.

O'Bannon scowled as he stared at the rusted metal bucket. "Man, I hate traveling by port key."

Rosa snorted. "Beats flying on one of those Muggle airplanes any day."

He briefly grinned at that, remembering how Rosa freaked out when they took an airliner during their last mission to England.

They put their hands on the bucket. O'Bannon clenched his teeth as hurricane-like winds battered him. He shot forward at incredible speed, fighting the urge to scream.

It all came to a sudden halt. He opened his eyes and looked around. The sun had just come up. They stood on the same hill, surrounded by the same expanse of leafless trees that they'd port keyed from two weeks ago.

A smile spread across his face.

They were finally home.

"Home sweet home." Jared clapped his hands together. "What now?"

"We should probably check in with your folks," O'Bannon said. "Give 'em the skinny on everything that happened in England."

He noticed Rosa cast her eyes to the ground. She and Mrs. Diaz had a big fight before they left for England. He prayed that those two would be able to patch things up.

They Apparated to Artimus' apartment in Haypippil Square, which he shared with his brother Hector. From there they Flooed to the Diaz home in New England, where they were met by Jared's parents. Hugs and handshakes were exchanged. O'Bannon noted the reunion between Rosa and Mrs. Diaz was a bit chilly.

Mr. Diaz Floo called Rosa's parents and Hector, who arrived minutes later. They all gathered in the basement. The quartet recapped everything that went down involving the Chupacabra. The Guild members reacted with open jaws and wide eyes.

"I don't believe it," uttered a stunned Mrs. Infante. "The magic it would take to alter Chupacabra like that is inconceivable."

"This is You-Know-Who we're talking about, sweetheart." Mr. Infante turned to his wife. "He tends to specialize in magic everyone thinks is impossible."

Mrs. Diaz took a seat and shook her head. "I never imagined . . . how could we have been so stupid?"

"Liana," Mr. Diaz spoke. "This isn't your fault. None of us knew You-Know-Who would be using Chupacabra for this."

"Well we should have known. Why else would that monster want those pests? We should have suspected he'd have something more sinister in mind for them than just setting them on livestock. Dammit, we're not amateurs at this. And our children almost paid for it with their lives."

Mrs. Diaz scowled and shook her head. "We need to do a better job with our intelligence gathering. I'm going to bring that up the next time we meet with the Guild's regional leaders."

"Hopefully our new lines of communication to Europe will help with that," said Mrs. Infante.

O'Bannon's brow crinkled. "What new lines of communication?"

Mrs. Infante looked to him. "We just set it up today. We've linked up with the wizarding offices in the British, French, German, Swedish and Bulgarian embassies in Washington to feed us intelligence from Europe and maintain communications between our two continents."

"How?" asked Jared.

His mother answered. "It took some doing, but some of the Muggle-borns in the Guild and our sister societies came up with spells to use phones, e-mills and facts-is to send messages between the U.S. and Europe. They'll be received on the Muggle side of the embassies, but they'll have a charm on them so our wizarding contacts in those embassies can detect them. They'll also be charmed in such a way that to Muggles, and hopefully to our enemies should they find some way to intercept them, they appear as routine correspondence. Things like ordering new office supplies and such."

"Cool," said O'Bannon. Jared nodded.

Mrs. Diaz stood up, holding her breath as she looked over the quartet. "I'm so sorry I put you in this position. Had I known just how dangerous this was . . ." She bit her lip for a few moments before continuing. "That being said, you did a magnificent job in England, and helped prevent what could have been a serious blow to our side. You should all be proud of yourselves, because we're all proud of you."

The four thanked her. O'Bannon felt a swelling of pride in his chest. Two years ago he could never imagine himself fighting a war. Now after three successful missions, after being complimented by aurors like Tonks and Mrs. Diaz . . .

Maybe I do have what it takes to be a good soldier.

"So . . ." Mrs. Infante stood and clasped her hands. "Would anyone like breakfast before you leave?"

"Um, actually, Aunt Adelaide . . ." Jared raised a finger. "We ate before we left England. You know, it's like a five-hour time difference between here and there. I don't know about you guys, but I'm still stuffed."

"Me too," Rosa piped up. "Mrs. Weasley's a great cook. Actually, I'm gonna have to do a lot more running to burn off everything I ate over there."

"Yeah, like about three more years of running," Jared sniggered.

Rosa swatted him on the arm. He still kept laughing.

The meeting over, everyone started for the stairs. Mrs. Infante and Hector fussed over Artimus' shoulder.

"Really, I'll be fine," he told them.

"Yeah, quit your worrying." Jared leaned over to Artimus and tapped his arm. "Besides, you know what they say. Chicks dig scars."

"You think so?"

"You'll find out when I take you to the Warlock's Watering Hole." Jared waggled his eyebrows. He then looked past Artimus to his cousin. "Yo, Rosa! You comin'?"

"In a minute." She turned to Mrs. Diaz. "Um, Aunt Liana? Can I . . . can I talk to you? Privately?"

O'Bannon locked his gaze on Rosa, mentally wishing her good luck. He followed the others up the stairs.

XXXXX

Rosa waited until she heard the door close. She looked back at Aunt Liana. She had been rehearsing this in her mind for a good chunk of yesterday, trying to find the right words, fretting that no words would be appropriate after what she had said to her aunt.

She drew a couple deep breaths and opened her mouth. Her vocal cords froze. She just stared at Aunt Liana. A wave of memories hit her. The two of them pretending to duel with fake wands when she was little and Aunt Liana babysat her. The exciting, action-packed bedtime stories she told her and Jared the many times she stayed the night here. All the Christmases and Thanksgivings spent together. All the advice she had given her on how to be a good auror, and more importantly, what it meant to give of yourself to serve the Wizarding World.

Then she remembered the argument. Those hurtful words. "You're only my aunt!" Only my aunt. Like Jared's mom was one of those aunts she saw at the occasional family reunion, spoke with for a couple minutes, then didn't see again for years.

Liana Diaz was much, much more than just an aunt to her.

Again, Rosa tried to speak.

Instead she hurried over to Aunt Liana and wrapped her arms around her. She gritted her teeth, trying not to cry. She'd cried way too many times over the past two weeks.

But she could not contain her sobs.

"I'm sorry, Aunt Liana. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean all those awful things I said. Please, forgive me."

Aunt Liana didn't answer right away. Fear gripped Rosa's inside. Would her Aunt ever forgive her?

"I do forgive you, honey." Her voice sounded a bit shaky. Rosa cried harder when she felt her aunt lay a gentle kiss on her temple.

She sucked down a ragged breath. "There . . . there were times over in England when . . . when I thought I might die, and I was so afraid that I was going to die with you still hating me."

"Oh, Rosa. Sweety, I could never hate you. I love you. Even when we argue, I still love you more than you can imagine. You have no idea how worried I was for you when you were in England. You and Jared and Jimmy and Artimus. There were times when I feared something . . . something might happen to you, and the last words between us would be words of anger. We can't . . . we can't have that happen. Not in these times."

Rosa hugged Aunt Liana tighter. Both of them sobbed unabashedly.

She pulled away some from her aunt and looked her in the eye. "I swear, I'll never do anything like that to you again."

Aunt Liana gave her a half-smile. "Rosa. I suspect we'll have another argument somewhere down the line. And another, and another. Let's face it, you're strong-willed, passionate, and sometimes you don't know when to keep your mouth shut. But I think your instructors will be able to . . . mollify those traits with a few swift kicks to your ass."

Rosa couldn't help but chuckle.

Her aunt continued. "All families argue. You just have to be conscious of some of the words you chose, because sometimes people say things that are difficult to take back, or that can't be rectified with a simple, 'I'm sorry.' But even when those things happen, it doesn't mean all hope is lost. It just means you have to work longer and harder to repair the damage that's been done."

Rosa nodded.

Aunt Liana smiled at her and gently grasped her shoulders. "And to be honest, I think some of the things I said to you before you left for England . . . well, I could have phrased them better. You and your friends handled yourselves in Ovenderburg and at Hogwarts better than anyone your age could be expected to. I meant what I said about you being inexperienced. You are. All eighteen-year-olds are. The only way you get a lot of experience is by living. But you are already an incredibly talented witch. And I have no doubt that one day you'll be as good an auror as anyone in this family. Maybe even better. And I am looking forward so much to three years from now when I get to watch you graduate from auror training."

"I hope when I do graduate, I get assigned to your office. I think you'd be a cool boss."

Aunt Liana chuckled. "Well, as Chief Auror of Magical Investigation for the New England Region, I think I may have some pull to get you assigned to me. How else am I going to keep an eye on you?"

Rosa's sobs turned into laughs.

They hugged again.

XXXXX

After Flooing back to Artimus' apartment, O'Bannon Apparated outside his apartment building. He checked over the narrow red brick structure and sighed. Much as he missed his friends in England, he had to admit it felt good to be home.

He mentally checked off all the things he had to do. First off, get in touch with Talia and begin smoothing things over with her. Oh man. I hope she took care of Espo. He shook off his concern. No matter how pissed Talia got at him, she'd never let his owl starve to death.

He walked toward the front door of the apartment building. What else did he have to do? Oh yeah. Call his parents. Would they be worried not hearing from him for two weeks? They knew about this renewed Wizarding War. The parents of all Muggle-borns did. But they had no clue about his involvement with the Guild of the Light. And since he didn't want them to completely freak out, he planned to keep it that way.

What else? He looked to the darkening sky as he reached the small porch. What else?

The front door flew open. A figure rushed out. Female.

Talia.

He jumped back, surprise bursting within him as he set eyes upon his girlfriend. She must have come by to feed Espo. Great stroke of luck.

"Talia! God, I missed you so much. I'm really, really sorry I couldn't -"

She slapped him across the face.

His jaw fell open. He ignored the electric stings on his cheek, completely overwhelmed with shock.

"Ta-Talia? What the hell?"

That's when he noticed the tear streaks on her dark face.

"How could you? How could you, you bastard!"

O'Bannon blinked, rubbing his cheek. "What? What are you talking about? Why did you slap -"

"Was it all lies!"

A look of bewilderment came over his face. "Huh?"

"Her!" She pointed back to the apartment. "She came here looking for you! All those times you said you had to work late, all those meetings with school friends, all that stuff you said you had to do for the Office of Wizarding-Muggle Relations. It was all lies! Excuses to see her. Am I right?"

"Talia. What are talking about?"

"You've been cheating on me!"

Paralysis gripped him. His mind refused to process those words.

"All those times you said you loved me, that I was beautiful. All those nights we made love. It was all a lie! All this time you were seeing someone else!"

"Wha-What? Talia, I never cheated on you."

"Then why is she standing outside your door? Why does she want to see you?"

"Who are you talking about?"

She shook her head. More tears streamed down her face. "You're pathetic." She pushed past him and stormed off. "I never want to see you again, you son-of-a-bitch!"

O'Bannon gaped as Talia stomped away from him. He was barely aware of the stares he received from witches and wizards walking along the cobblestone streets.

"Ta-Talia. Talia, wait!"

She Apparated.

He just stared at the spot on the sidewalk where she'd been moments before. She ... she broke up with me.

He couldn't move. His mind struggled to accept what just happened. She'd slapped him, called him a bastard and a son-of-a-bitch. Accused him of cheating on her. What? Where had that come from? And who the hell was this woman she said was waiting for him outside his apartment?

Something clicked inside his brain. The warrior part of him. The part that had guided him through his battles with Death Eaters and aurors and Chupacabra. The part filled with lessons on security from the Diazes and the Infantes.

Was someone here to ambush him?

Wand out, he went up the steps and entered the apartment building.

His heart raced. Sweat formed on his brow. He gazed up the steps, eyes locked on the landing. Tension crushed his muscles as he expected a Death Eater to jump out any moment.

He slowly took the stairs, holding his breath, keeping his footfalls as gentle as possible.

Halfway up the steps, he saw a shadow against the wall. He froze. Someone was up there.

O'Bannon moved again, the muscles in his neck clenching at the slightest creak under his feet.

Three more steps to go. Two more. One more.

Squaring his shoulders, he drew a breath and swung his head and arm around the wall.

"Don't move!"

A tall woman stood by the door, pointing a wand at him.

Another fist of shock belted him. He couldn't blink as he took in the woman's long blond hair, her athletic frame, the soft features of her face, a face he knew so well.

"Mireet?"

She blinked. "Jimmy?"

The warrior part of his mind screamed through the surprise that gripped his brain. He kept his wand trained on her. "At Hogwarts, why did you enjoy jogging by the lake every morning?"

"I did not jog by the lake. I swam in it because I found it invigorating. Now why do you like the Weird Sisters?"

"I don't. The only Wizard Rock bands I really like are Deadly Curses and Frozen Aurora."

Mireet Miradeaux lowered her wand. "Jimmy. It is so good to see you again."

He lowered his wand as Mireet bounded over to him. She hugged him and kissed him on both cheeks.

"I . . . I don't believe it," he stammered.

"I know. There were times I thought I'd never see you again. I feel so fortunate to be assigned here." She broke the hug, a look of distress falling over her beautiful face. "Oh. That girl who was here before. She said she was your . . . girlfriend. And I heard shouting downstairs. I hope I did not cause any problems between the two of you."

"No. No, I can . . . handle it." Somehow he doubted that. "But . . . what are you doing here?"

"I work at the French Embassy in Washington. I just arrived last week. Officially I'm a cultural expert aide to our wizarding ambassador, but really I'm working for Force d'Vigilant." She referred to France's version of the Guild of the Light. "My assignment is to decipher the messages we receive from Europe and pass them on to your Guild of the Light. Also, I'm to keep you and your friends updated on anything that happens at Hogwarts in regards to the war. I can even pass messages along to Fred and George and our friends there if you want."

She smiled that warm, gorgeous smile of hers and hugged him again. "This is so wonderful, no? We will actually be working together."

"Yeah. Yeah, it's great."

Had he not been so overwhelmed by the shock of Talia breaking up with him and Mireet suddenly appearing on his doorstep, he might have been able to smile.

NEXT: THE ONCOMING STORM