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

Part 3/Chapter 25

"The rest of this week and next week here," said Don, "And then America wants another visit."

"We've got a baby, now," said Bellamy. "The patients might just have to come here."

Don frowned, "You really can't do without your wife for a few weeks?"

"I really can't."

So Don started thinking, and the result would be the offer of the small house within the grounds of Zefron school, for three weeks. Pat and Susan would be comfortable, and Bellamy would be happy. Many patients would still have to travel, but at least it would only be from one side of the country to the other.

Both Pat and Bellamy had enjoyed Keifer's visit, but now he was established in a small apartment in Oxford where he'd be for at least the next semester. Bellamy and Pat had their home to themselves again.

That Saturday, Margaret's Pony Club career came to an abrupt end after a screaming match with the chief instructor. Ursula gave her a lecture on manners, but it was Pat's censorious look that abashed her. "It's a matter of safety," Pat pointed out. "And telling someone that you're a witch and threatening to turn them into a frog is not discreet!" For almost the first time in her life, Margaret looked at her feet, and said Sorry.

That night, relaxed in the spa, Pat asked that her husband continue the story. "You said that you went back to Mario, and there was no more rape."

"I'm not sure that they would have thought it rape," Bellamy said. "They never hurt me, and I never fought them. Was that rape?"

"You never agreed to it, did you?"

Bellamy frowned. "If one had said, 'Can I have sex with you?' I might easily have agreed, just to please him, especially Mario. But I didn't know how I'd hate it."

"You dived overboard a second time, you said so. So what upset you then?"

"I wasn't upset then, I just needed to get away. But I was guarded carefully after that first swim, even by those who didn't know me. If I went to the rails just to look over, I'd always find someone holding my arm. If my friends went out for the day without me, they'd either leave me under someone's eye, usually Chivas, or I was locked in."

"You were locked in?" said Pat, shocked.

"They thought I couldn't be trusted. That I couldn't look after myself if I wandered off the ship, or swam to shore. They were looking after me."

"How did you like that?"

"Being left on my own and locked up?"

Bellamy was quiet for a little. "They couldn't have known how distressed I became, or they wouldn't have done it. I always hated being locked up."

He showed her an image, quite clear, a fat man very close, speaking crossly. "I was working in the kitchens for a while."

Pat interrupted with a laugh. This husband of hers had no idea about what went on in a kitchen!

Bellamy protested, smiling, "I washed dishes and tidied up, loaded the dishwasher, arranged meals for the passengers, tidied up..."

Pat was laughing helplessly. The great wizard arranged meals and washed dishes! But then she gasped, and said, "So anyway, why was the fat man cross?"

Bellamy was grinning too. "I started to leave the area, and he grabbed my arm, and said, 'Oh no you don't, boy!' But I only wanted to go to the toilet. He assigned me two escorts!"

"You were happy again, and the sex had stopped. Why did you still want to leave the ship?"

It was getting late, but Bellamy wanted to tell her now, to finish the story. Quietly again, he related how his mind was slowly becoming more clear. "They still looked after me. They never took me to the spa-room again, but I was still hugged and caressed. Nino played with my hair." He smiled. "I lapped it up. I couldn't have enough loving. There was a pain in me, and it pushed it back. And every night, Mario held me close, and loved me."

He was silent a while, and Pat waited. He was looking into the distance, and at last, he continued. "Mario loved me, but I couldn't have sex with him, and it was the wrong way for me. At last, I realised that I had to leave him."

"So you dived overboard again?"

"No, I told Chivas I needed to go to the pay officer to organise my discharge from the ship at the next port. You see, I was still not allowed off the Crew Deck by myself. But Chivas took me to Guido instead. I think I already told you, he said I couldn't look after myself, and he wouldn't let me go. They'd stopped guarding me nearly as much by then, but afterwards, I was never left alone, except occasionally locked in the cabin. It was on one of those times, I was pacing the floor, and every now and then I'd try the door in case it wasn't locked any more. And one time, it wasn't locked any more. I nearly wandered off the ship, then, and that's when I was caught, and Lopez and Ramirez discovered that I couldn't read only because I needed glasses."

Pat frowned. "Someone must have quite deliberately unlocked the door."

"I suppose, but just because I was getting better doesn't mean I was normal. I never thought about that, and still became totally confused quite easily. And there was something else that night. I made them cross, because I started to wander off out the door."

"Deliberately?" Pat interrupted.

"I guess..." Bellamy was uncertain. "Anyway, they were speaking Spanish, and one said to the other, not realising, of course, that I knew the language, that I was to be committed once we got to Southampton, in my own country. We were to get to Southampton in six weeks."

Pat asked softly, "Would it have been so terrible being looked after in an institution?"

"There was one in Australia once. I don't know how I came to be there, but it was all right. They fed me, and there were ways in and out without using magic, so I didn't feel locked up."

"That was when the aurors found you and brought you home," said Pat. "Katrina told me."

Bellamy nodded.

Pat wanted him to continue. "Soon after Lopez and Ramirez, you were given glasses, and you said you were on the ship for some weeks after that."

"I was actually quite happy then, but I didn't want to be committed, and I didn't want to go to England, and there was the problem of Mario's love, too. One day, he would ask, and I would say yes, and I didn't want to. But weeks went by and I was never left alone. They all knew who I was, and they all knew I was not allowed ashore."

"Is that when you found that book in the library?"

Bellamy grinned. "And yet not a single person yelled at me not to be such a bloody bore!"

Pat observed with a smile, "They were certainly tolerant!"

"Most people have a great deal of kindness in them. In all the years of wandering, I was hardly ever mistreated - except that sometimes I wasn't paid, or somebody would tell me to hand over my paypacket, and of course, a crazy man has to do what he's told, so I would."

"You'd hand over your pay, just for the asking?"

"Just for the asking, but hardly anyone asked."

"Then what?"

"I was running out of time, but it wasn't like the time before, which was the impulse of the moment. I left the ship at night, and no-one saw me go. I had my moneybelt, my wallet, passport, glasses, and I made a spell of sleep so that Mario wouldn't tell me to get back into bed and not be so stupid." He grinned sheepishly. "Even then, I always did what I was told. And then I dived over and swam to Portugal."

"You dived over and swam to Portugal," said Pat, "Just like that."

Bellamy nodded, "Just like that, yes."

"Were you all right then? There was something about a lover finding the lost boy."

"I was all right only for a little while. Enough to conjure a backpack and some clothes. But maybe my own heart was a bit broken, because everything went blurry again for a while."

"They were right, you couldn't look after yourself," observed Pat, in a dispassionate voice.

Bellamy looked at the watch on his wrist. But neither of them made any moves to leave the bubbling water. The story wasn't quite finished. Susan slept quietly in her temporary cot in the spa-room. Pat waited.

HeHeHe continued, "When he found me, I told him, he wasn't Mario, that Mario was years ago, and would be dead by now. But he made me eat, and we slept in rooms, rather than under a convenient tree, and he held me close at night, and after a while, I thought it must be Mario after all. I started getting better again, then."

He showed her some images, the big man looking a bit thinner, and suddenly, the images were clear.

"I guess you started wearing your glasses again."

"I guess."

The images faded away. Bellamy stared into the distance. Pat watched his face, looking a touch sad. "I started knowing that I had a different life somewhere. Things hadn't changed. I knew I had to leave him, and it didn't make any difference that he loved me, or if I loved him."

Pat reached over and touched him, and he smiled at her. She wouldn't think the worse of him. "One day, like I knew, he asked me, and I said yes. But afterwards, I knew who I was, and I quietly packed, and apparated to Sweden and started to write a book."

Pat was very quiet. "I did blame them for taking advantage of the way you were, including, even especially, Mario, but he came and found you, when you were in trouble again."

"Yes."

"What if he hadn't found you?"

"I don't know. Maybe I would have wandered again for more years. Or maybe I would have starved to death that winter."

Pat rose from the water. "Bed?"

"Bed."

She held him very close that night.

**x**

Two weeks later, Bellamy attended the funeral of Bridon Pickering. Bridon had come to work with Bellamy as a young man, and had married his relative, Cissy Diefenberger. After she died, he'd married the youngest daughter of Jason and Melissa Wiley, who'd also worked with him for a very long time. For so long, Bridon Pickering had been a friend and a neighbour. But everyone dies, and in the midst of death, we are in life.

Bellamy comforted Dianne, and spoke to dozens of younger Pickerings. Bridon had come from a large family, and had many relatives, which was why the funeral was at the wizard cemetery in London. Two aurors stood, alert behind him. Whether or not the reward was gone, the great wizard would always have enemies.

Drew Pentridge had been trying to kill him for years, and had become fanatical. But Bellamy felt his intention, turned on him, and then went to face him, repeating in a calm and authoritative voice that he was not allowed to attack him, and that he was not allowed to try and attack anyone else, and that he was not allowed to help anyone else make any attacks on any human or animal. The half insane wizard was now harmless. He was losing his magic in any case, as nearly always happened when a witch or wizard became irrational.

Bellamy was safer than he'd been in years, once the reward was gone. And he was surrounded by people who worked to protect him.

There was Margaret Barnes, whose skills at defence were far in advance of her age. Her brother Peter, responsible and brave. Ursula and Archie, their parents. Archie had been a security guard before returning to service with the great wizard. Living in the house was Sidney Bourne, who might have the potential to work magic without a wand in an emergency. Kitty, his wife, the cook and housekeeper, who was becoming quick and skilled at defence as well. She challenged her brother Homer, who was an auror, to a practice duel one day, but she wasn't that fast. She surprised Homer, though. There was even a network of house-elves. House-elves were dedicated servants, who liked their contribution to be invisible. But Ricos and Becyx, Bellamy's servants, knew others. The house-elves idolised the great wizard, and Vesner's interference with a poison was not the first or the last time they'd taken such action.

And there were the aurors. And even if things did change, there were few of those who would follow an order to take him prisoner. He never remembered showing an assortment of half drunk aurors his most private fears, but maybe a deep instinct was operating. That action, too, helped bind their loyalty.

Almost a year on, Bellamy donned his dress robes, and accompanied Pat to the Pluravista. Peter, Hugo and Kupec were among the graduates that year. And Kupec was able to say that he'd shortly be going into auror training, that the Ministry had changed its mind, but only if an applicant could show exceptional academic results, and exceptional aptitude. The great wizard shook his hand in pleasure. Hugo's results were quite unexceptional, and Hugo was talking about the Joke shop business. And Bellamy shook his hand, too. "The best career," he said. "We need laughter in the world."

Pat was the honoured guest. She was very greatly respected. The organisers hadn't known to expect her husband, but were thrilled at his presence. The aurors had known, and guarded his back, as always. But there had been no serious attempt at killing him for several months.

Afterward, he went home with his wife. "I think I might learn to fly an aeroplane," Pat said. "It will be easier to get around when we have more than one child."

Bellamy turned to her delighted. "Are you...?"

"Not yet, but we could work on it..."

The End