Disclaimer: Harry Potter and his world belong to J. K. Rowling

Part 3/Chapter 6

Two weeks before Bellamy's birthday, he was in Sydney, wishing for escape. He'd always hated speeches, and had only agreed to a Book Launch when it was put to him as a means of helping a young author who couldn't afford one. So this was a shared book launch. He was even expected to make a speech himself. It was all of three sentences, although his fellow author spoke for more like half an hour.

Bellamy set his face in an interested expression as best he could, and thought about the book of Keifer Howard, whom he'd been allowed to read prior to the launch. He liked the book, but suspected that it would not be a commercial success. Keifer wrote for intellectuals, like himself. Quietly, he'd organised for two boxes of forty each, to be bought on his behalf. He planned a little more exercise in organising sales, later, even if he wound up with a ridiculous number of his books. He thought Keifer deserved success, and was planning to ensure a good profit for him.

Afterwards, he congratulated the young man on his early sales, and gratefully accepted a signed copy. Keifer had a brilliant intellect, and was tall, gangling, and walked with a slouch. He wore his hair long in a perfectly conscious affectation that was supposed to make him look 'arty.' But Bellamy, too, now had long hair again. He didn't care about looking arty, and was wondering how soon he could make his escape. It was not looking promising, as the curvy and vivacious young woman called Mandy, who was the current girlfriend, was having a lovely time among all these people whom she thought so important.

Keifer had been given copies of Bellamy's books prior to the launch. They were now doing the rounds of the university where Keifer's sister, Pat, lectured. The professor who'd not long finished three years of research on dolphins, was loud in his condemnation of rank amateurs presuming to know about animal behaviour.

Pat was amused. "They're only presented as children's books," she said. And once that was established, Professor Gievrot suddenly smiled, and said that they were extremely good, and had given him a little more insight himself, into behaviours that had been a mystery.

So Professor Gievrot was at the Book Launch, several other professors from Sydney University, including, of course, Professor Patricia Howard, Keifer's sister. Pat was almost as tall and gangling as her brother, wore glasses, had untidy hair, had very prominent collar bones, and a depressed breastbone, that made it appear as if she was as flat-chested as a boy. She was thirty-four, absolutely brilliant, and had a strong sense of humour. She had never had a relationship with a man, and didn't think she wanted one. She had developed some contempt for the mating game, having never quite made the race.

The publisher had been keeping a worried eye on Bellamy. He was not supposed to leave until the end, and was not sufficiently hiding his boredom, even when people were congratulating him on his books and piling on the flattery. He'd refused to do any signing, either, saying that he'd injured his hand. When pressed, he showed a bandage around his right hand, with a sinister brown stain that might have been blood. But Scott hadn't missed the utter surprise with which his escort had looked at the bandage.

It was not until Keifer, Pat, and a couple of the other professors became involved in a deep discussion about the oddities of monotremes that Bellamy became interested. The discussion thrived and started ranging wider.

Bellamy started to say something before pulling himself up short and blushing red. Dragons were not supposed to exist, and so were not a suitable example to use in this company. He used a different example, instead, insisting that all animals were infinitely more knowing than people were willing to allow. Professor Gievrot accused Bellamy of anthropomorphism, and Bellamy accused Professor Gievrot of the conceit of thinking that humans were markedly different from any other animal. More wine flowed, and when Scott whispered to Bellamy, he said, By all means, but this time he should get beer as well.

Guests were trickling away. Mandy was yawning, but Scott watched with considerable interest the lively talk that had developed between the strange man, Bellamy, and some of the intellectuals. It was perfectly obvious that Bellamy was a lot more than an author of fictional children's books. He missed the signs that Bellamy had become increasingly interested in Pat Howard. Mandy did, too, discounting possible competition because of the brilliant woman's lack of conventional physical attractiveness.

When Mandy finally told Bellamy that it was definitely time to go home, Keifer made sure that he wasn't allowed to leave before accepting an invitation to dinner for the following week. Pat would be there, too, and he'd try to arrange an escort for himself. Keifer hadn't missed the signs of a strong intellectual accord between his sister, and the man who'd begun to be a friend.

Bellamy continued to enjoy Mandy's charms while in Sydney, although increasingly socialising with Keifer and his associates, including, of course, his sister. But Mandy was getting a bit fed up with him. Certainly he was good in bed, and goodlooking enough to make an escort that would reflect credit on her, but he was not always willing to be shown off, and when she dragged him to a formal occasion, he'd somehow slipped out and not returned until the speeches were over. And he wasn't sharing his life with her. He was not a long term prospect. And then there was Bradley, whom her parents recommended as a potential husband. Bellamy found himself dumped.

Bellamy had always been extremely good at luring women into bed with him, and hardly ever did they regret the experience. With just a change of expression, and a change of tone in his voice, a woman would know that she was very much desired, and would feel, too, that he was desirable. It was not magic, and he'd never known himself just what it was. Part of it was selection. Well before he knew he had any telepathic talent, he had always somehow known when a woman enjoyed sex, and was likely to react happily to an invitation. More often that not, he hadn't even needed to make the invitation, as the woman would do it for him.

It wasn't working with Pat. She said, perfectly coolly, No thanks.

Bellamy had had such success all his life with women, that he was, at first, dumbfounded. He shook himself, and told himself what a conceited oaf he must be to have had such an easy expectation. He swallowed his disappointment and continued enjoying her company, along with Keifer, and, quite often, other assorted intellectuals whom they knew.

Bellamy thought it must be time to return to his own world, but was reluctant. He was swimming and surfing every day, and had made other friends. He had not been in touch with any witches or wizards, who had mostly made Melbourne their home. But he would go and see his daughter in the Pacific Islands.

Beth hadn't seen her father for over twenty years, and wasn't expecting him. But when she felt his closeness and looked up, there he was, walking toward her, arms open. She hurried to him and pulled him very tight. He was well again, and she didn't think he would be ill in the same way ever again.

There were changes on the tiny island of Noonga Tuku. A small tourist hotel was gone, and now a Catholic mission overlooked the village.

"The hospital's worthwhile," said Beth. "I don't think the villagers have benefited from their conversion to Christianity though. And she pointed to a woman who walked close. "There's a lot more dignity in native dress or even nudity than in those ghastly flowered dresses the nuns hand out!"

Bellamy looked, and agreed. And if the native women were newly converted Christians, and there were no tourists, it looked like he might have to apparate to Tahiti or somewhere, when he wanted a temporary girlfriend. He supposed that wasn't so hard.

Beth was still well, looking far less than her age. She was now in her hundredth year, but looked to be in her seventies. She admitted to him that she'd lost her magic, putting it down only to age. She hoped not to tell him that there had been an accident when spell-breaking.

Bellamy knew there was something she was not telling him, but refrained from probing. Beth was a natural Telepath - her telepathy was in a different order of magnitude than his own. Sometimes it was very hard for Beth not to hear things that were strong in someone's mind, even when they didn't know it themselves. And she was not above some probing, although she did it very subtly, as she knew her father would very much resent it if he felt it.

She'd always known him better than he knew himself. After a couple of days, as they reclined on the tropical beach close to her home, she was smiling to herself. It was not just that he seemed to be completely recovered, it was the fact that she was quite sure that he was in love, and hadn't realised it yet. Hermione had told her the story of his second marriage once - how she'd been throwing him and Luna together, seeing how they were so obviously made for each other, and yet, at meeting after meeting, Bellamy had been too stupid to make that change from companionable friendship to a sexual relationship. She'd been pulling her hair out in utter frustration at his stupidity, Hermione said. Luna finally raised the subject herself, and then, of course, he'd been overjoyed. It had been a very happy marriage until her death. Luna was Beth's mother.

After a week of swimming and surfing in the tropical sunshine of Beth's home, and long talks with his beloved daughter in her gardens, Bellamy was feeling out of sorts. He must have had too much sun. Beth was amused. It was just as Hermione had said. He really was very stupid in some respects. It was patently obvious to her that he was very much missing Patricia Howard.

Bellamy had never had to work at winning a woman. Beth thought that it might do him a lot of good, although there might have been some jealousy tinging her feelings. Poor Beth had never been able to seduce anyone, and considered herself very lucky to have found Jeremiah, who had been a Telepath also, and then her current husband, who, unfortunately, had lost interest in a physical union with his wife.

But at the end of a fortnight, when Bellamy sighed and supposed he should do some spell-breaking again, she told him that he should not go back yet. Even that he should not see any of his family yet. That his cure was not complete and that he needed another six months in order to avoid suffering a relapse the moment he returned. And then she suggested he go back to Sydney, seeing he was enjoying the company of Keifer so much.

Bellamy looked at her with narrowed eyes, and then smiled broadly at her as he realised how happy he was to hear her advice. He hugged her tight, packed, and was gone.

Beth loved her father very much. But for a moment her eyes were wet with some unaccustomed self-pity. Her unusual gifts had made her unpopular, often even hated, all her life. She thought her father was probably going to wind up married again, and probably loving his wife with all his being, as he'd loved each of his preceding three wives. He just didn't know it yet.

Bellamy didn't know it yet, and when he organised a yacht trip on the harbour for Keifer, Shelley, Keifer's partner, and suggested he bring Pat, he was still only thinking that he wanted a girlfriend for a while. He didn't even wonder why he wasn't tempted by Sandy, whom he met at the bar, or Emma, who was at the beach.

It was a lovely day in the sun, and the four were reluctant to see it end, sitting in a club for a long time as the evening wore on. Keifer very much wanted to see his sister happy, and didn't understand how she might fear that the little nagging ache of a plain woman, rejected, might turn into an agony too hard to bear, if she had it, just once, for a little while. Bellamy was such a strange man, who never revealed much of himself, even if he was fun to be with, and even if they could talk on an intellectual plane that few could share. The limitations of what he was offering were obvious to her.

But Keifer coaxed Shelley to join him at the other end of the room, leaving Pat alone with Bellamy. Bellamy was desperately wanting. He touched her arm, and said, "Pat?" and she knew he wanted her. But she tore her eyes away from him, and again, she said no.

Bellamy was looking at her still, wanting. And she was as lonely as he was himself, and she wanted, too. But she said calmly, "I don't want sex, but I'm pleased to have you as just a friend."

She made Bellamy ashamed of himself. She didn't want it, so why did he persist?

For three days, he tried hard to think of her as just a friend. He didn't succeed, but he didn't leave, either, though he did go to bed with Tina, who lived down the road.

The courtship that was not yet a courtship was interrupted.

In a large house in London, hidden from wizardry by spells and enchantments, the Tulloch family added another auror to their collection. The family hobby had its start a hundred and thirty-seven years ago, when the Minister of Magic of the day, Cornelius Fudge, had given them the assignment of preparing a very secure prison for a wizard who had the potential to be too powerful. Bellamy, then known as Harry Potter, was supposed to live out his lifetime there. The plan was hatched when he was just turned twenty-three. The attempt was made, as soon as there appeared to be an opportunity, a year and a half later. The attempt failed, and Fudge lost his position as Minister for Magic. Gwyneth and Rene Tulloch were so disappointed that they took Fudge prisoner instead, and it was Fudge who lived fifteen years in a large cage, and then died there. His corpse was left where it lay, a skeleton now for over a century.

The Tullochs of the time missed having their caged pet, and did some modifications to the cell. The one large cell was divided into four much smaller ones. Two aurors were taken prisoner, by the simple expedient of ambush and capture. From then on, generation after generation of Tullochs enjoyed their little hobby, always going for aurors, always having at least two, and sometimes three live ones, living next to the skeleton of Fudge in the end cell.

There was still the skeleton, there was another auror close to death, there was one taken several months before, still relatively healthy, and the new one, taken ten days before. Penelope Tulloch always enjoyed telling her new pets that the cell was originally intended for the young man who would mature to be the great wizard, and pointing out the fate of the one who'd organised it. 'Serve him right,' she'd say. 'Poetic justice.'

Pleas that the aurors didn't deserve such a fate were ignored. 'You're my pets,' she'd say. And they had pet names - Ginger was the man close to death, Scarface was the second man, and Bruce had not long been christened Muggins, his furious irritation at that name temporarily blunting the knowledge that he would probably spend the rest of his life in a small cage. Penelope and Kerrie, the Tulloch girls, had started training Muggins, punishing him with fairly mild burn spells whenever he irritated them, not so much by talking too much, but by using words they didn't understand. Stan, otherwise known as Scarface, pointed out to Bruce that it didn't only annoy the Tullochs, it had always annoyed him, too.

But now Stan was being very quiet as Bruce concentrated. Unlike those before him, Bruce knew the great wizard. It had only been for a few weeks, years before, and most of that time, Bellamy had been living in a daze. But what else was there to do? No entertainment was provided, and the aurors all knew that once upon a time, they could call the great wizard, and if he knew them well enough, he might hear, and he would come to their help. They had only to look to the end cell to know their eventual fate if help didn't come.

Stan had not the slightest optimism that the great wizard might come to their rescue, and Bruce himself didn't believe his own boast that he had superlative brainpower, and could undoubtedly make himself heard even if he was on the far side of the world. But Stan happened to be looking in the exact spot where Bellamy silently appeared, and jumped to his feet with a yell.

Bellamy flicked his eyes around the room, lingering on the huddled figure of the one nearly dead, and noting the skeleton. "Hello Bruce," he said, and nodded to the other.

There were doors suddenly wide open in four cells, and Bellamy went to the man who lay still. Stan was shaking his head. "I must be hallucinating. And anyhow, there's an anti-apparation spell on this house, and it's hidden."

Bellamy said casually, "I've seldom taken too much notice of anti-apparation spells, and I've removed it now anyway. Likewise the enchantments that hide the place."

Bruce still sat on the floor, staring at the one who'd come to their rescue. Aurors were supposed to be tough, but it had been very hard to be 'Muggins.' There was an hysteria trying to come out. Bellamy's matter-of-fact voice prevented it. "Look's like your gaolers might have helped you lose weight. You might just scrape through your fitness tests one more time."

Bruce gave a shaky smile, and finally scrambled to his feet.

Bellamy felt his emotion. It had been a bitter blow to the pride of an auror to be taken prisoner, and kept helpless. "Do you want to arrest your gaolers yourself, or will I bring reinforcements."

Stan glanced at Bruce, and his grin was fierce. "Ourselves, eh, Muggins? But we'll need wands."

"What about this man," asked Bellamy. The emaciated man was very weak, but had roused at Bellamy's touch, and looked at his rescuer with a dawning hope.

Bruce was suddenly decisive. "Lock the door for us so we're not surprised unarmed, take Evan to the Ministry, grab an experienced auror, ask for two spare wands, and come back to us here. Can you do all that?"

Bellamy nodded, and glanced at the door. "Locked for a half hour, or until I unlock it." He smiled. Bruce would be all right, he'd already taken charge.

Gently, Bellamy gathered Evan up in his arms. He caused a considerable stir, when he apparated into the atrium of the Ministry, and lowered Evan to the ground. A clerk stared. Bellamy looked up. "We need a healer for Evan, an experienced auror, and two spare wands, straightaway please."

It didn't take long. Bellamy smiled at Dieter. "Hello, Franz."

Dieter nodded cautiously. Bellamy said, "You'll have to come as a passenger, I'm afraid, as I can't tell you where it is."

Dieter took a breath, and nodded, holding spare wands in his hand. This was the man whom he'd never known except confused, and now he had to trust him implicitly.

But a little later, Dieter acted as a backup while Bruce and Stan efficiently arrested the two young women who'd called them their 'pets,' and then their middle-aged parents. Bellamy, meantime, in his casual medj clothing, leaned his back to the wall, and watched. And then, casually, he stood, stretched, and yawned. "Well, I might be off now, Franz. I'll catch up with you in a few months."

Dieter said in a pleading tone, "Please call me Dieter."

Bellamy's smile was a touch mocking. "Sorry. Dieter." In his customary silence, he was gone, although Dieter, Stan and Bruce, with their prisoners, made the usual loud crack in the air when they disapparated.

One of the first things that Dieter did once the prisoners were secured, was to hurry to Graham. Word had already spread that the great wizard had been seen, rescued three aurors, and vanished again. So Graham knew what Dieter was talking about when, the moment he came close enough, he said, "He's still wearing the sensor."

Graham opened a monitor, and said calmly, "No reading, he's probably gone out of range again."

Dieter shrugged, "Keep a watch, anyway, will you? He might be in one of his hidden places."

Graham nodded, and put the monitor on his desk, to the intense curiosity of Stan, waiting to be checked. Stan was hoping for a few weeks leave. It takes a little while to recover from a captivity, even though they had not otherwise been seriously mistreated.

Graham was planning on giving Bruce, too, a few weeks leave, although he appeared in perfect command of himself. It was a good idea allowing Bruce and Stan to do the arrests. Evan, or 'Ginger,' was in St. Mungo's.

***chapter end***