Chapter 28: Stormy Weather
A/N: Most of the rock opera segment was created by Very Small Prophet. We hope you enjoy it. And our apologies to The Who.
"What are you two doing out here?" the captain shouted as Harry and Ron sloshed toward the Ghoul Busters. The water level in the swamp had risen several feet and the Impervious charm couldn't stop the driving rain. Everyone was being soaked and battered by the wind.
"We're looking for the Southern Academy of Magic," Harry called back.
"In the middle of a hurricane?" The captain was astounded.
"Is that what this is?" Harry asked.
Blockhead! the captain thought. "Come with us! We've gotta get out of here." He motioned to his men. "Back to the school! This storm is going to get worse before it gets better!"
"I'll help you take these guys side-along," said the sergeant, taking Ron by the arm.
"Tourists! I hate tourists!" the captain muttered as he took hold of Harry.
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Even a phoenix has his limits, Fawkes thought as he struggled to stay on course. He knew he was fighting a hurricane. He'd seen these huge storms before and he recognized the situation. Rain was coming at him horizontally, driven by a wind that was getting stronger by the moment. Below him trees were being uprooted and tossed into the rising water, and the ones that still stood were thrashing wildly as the storm stripped them of their leaves and branches.
The shadowy dementors had melted away, and Fawkes was following his instincts, trying to home in on the source of the evil. I'm on the right track, he thought as he saw a rundown wooden shack ahead, surrounded by floodwater. This must be it. I can feel it.
He blinked the rain out of his eyes. Stupid wizards! he muttered. I don't know why I put up with them! This is insane!
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A tentacle emerged from the darkness at the far end of the shack. Its tip was split into three oppositely arranged 'fingers' surrounding a single red eye. Severus's blood ran cold.
"Saunders!" he yelled as the thing started groping about in the far end of the shack. "End this spell! End it now!"
"Well, that's sort of a problem, sir," the young wizard said.
Sweet Merlin! Severus thought. "What do you mean? Whatever is there in the darkness is even worse than the dementors. Far worse. You've got to close that gateway now!"
"That's why I needed you to come along," Saunders said quietly. "It … well, I'm not sure exactly how to put this …"
"Just spit it out! We haven't got all night!"
The tentacle was exploring the roof rafters.
"Well, if things get out of control, like they obviously have, in order to close and seal the gateway, I'm afraid that a human sacrifice is required."
There was a moment of silence as Severus simply stared at the young wizard. "You're planning to sacrifice me?" he finally asked.
"Oh, no sir!" Saunders said quickly. "Of course not! I could never do something like that! I need you to sacrifice me."
Severus was horrified. "What … what kind of monster do you people think I am?" he stammered. Then he began to shout. "Nobody wants to get their hands dirty! No, you're all too good for that sort of thing! 'We'll just make Snape do it,' they say. 'There's no hope for him anyway; there never has been. A bit more blood on his hands won't matter. A few more rips in his soul? Who cares, as long as we stay squeaky clean?'"
Saunders cringed. He had no idea what Severus was raving about.
"I won't do it! Not this time! Not again!" Severus shouted as a vision of Albus clinging to the Astronomy Tower flashed into his mind. "Severus, please," the old wizard begged.
Red-hot fury surged through Severus and he put it to good use. He whirled around and, pouring all of his rage into the spell, he pointed his wand at the far end of the shack and screamed "Demonorum ignis!" A torrent of Fiendfyre shot into the darkness like napalm from a muggle flamethrower. The tentacle jerked back and unseen things began to scream. Then the shack exploded.
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"Hurry! Hurry!" the elf called when she saw Kat, Angie and Armstrong fighting their way toward the gate. She created a small opening in the school's protective spell and they dashed through it quickly.
It was dry and quiet in the schoolyard except for the water that had sprayed through while the spell was open, but they could see the storm raging outside. The spell enclosed the area like a transparent dome, holding back the floodwater and deflecting the rain and flying debris.
"Are Slade and Saunders back yet?" Kat asked as he wiped the water from his face.
"Or the Ghoul Busters?" Angie added.
"See there," the elf squeaked, pointing out into the storm. "Busters are coming now. You go inside. Elves will stay and wait for others!"
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Birdcrap! Fawkes thought as the flaming debris flew past him. It exploded!
He could see the smoking wreckage of the shack a short distance ahead of him. The roof was gone and there wasn't much left of the walls, either.
Swooping lower, he saw Severus sprawled facedown on the charred floorboards. Saunders knelt by his side while the storm howled around them, tearing at the remains of the shack.
Fawkes landed beside them. Is my wizard dead? the bird wondered. Oh no! No! But when he looked closely, Fawkes could see that Severus was still breathing. He was unconscious, though, and Fawkes couldn't tell how badly injured he was.
Saunders was woozy from the explosion, but he was trying his best to help Severus. "I've got to get him back to the school," Saunders groaned as he struggled to lift him. "I've got to apparate!"
He'll never make it, Fawkes knew. He's in no condition to do it. He'll splinch them both!
Fawkes sprang up and grabbed the two wizards with his claws – there was no time to gentle about it. He hauled them into the air and started flapping toward the school with all his might. At least I have a tailwind going this direction, he thought as he flew off through the storm.
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Harry and Ron used drying spells on themselves and then accompanied the Ghoul Busters to the dining hall, where the elves had mugs of hot chocolate waiting for everyone.
"So why are you here in the middle of a hurricane?" the captain asked. He had a good mind to give them a lecture about how dangerous hurricanes are, but decided that it wasn't worth the effort. It had been a very long night, and he was tired.
"We're looking for someone," Harry told him. "One of our former teachers. We have a picture." He pulled a soggy, rolled-up photo from an outside pocket of his backpack and dried it with a spell. "Here. Have you seen this guy?"
The picture had been cut out of the Daily Prophet. It showed Severus as Headmaster, standing at the lectern in the Great Hall, apparently addressing the students. He looked tired, bedraggled, and very annoyed.
The captain took the photo, looked at it, and handed it back. "Nope," he said. He'd been introduced to Angie's group, including Severus, at the picnic, but he'd been way too concerned about the Dementors to really notice any of them. "Try asking the principal," he said, pointing to Mr Cohen.
"Yeah, I'll do that," Harry said, and he wandered over to Cohen, but the principal was busy talking to Armstrong.
"I'm going to install a second high-capacity floo," Cohen was saying, "and from now on we're going to hold an evacuation drill at the start of every school year. I'm not going to let us get caught like this again!"
"Get another small floo, too, to handle anyone coming back against the flow," Armstrong suggested.
"Harry! Breakfast is here!" Ron called. "The elves are bringing it out now!"
Harry suddenly realized that he was starved. The long flight, the swamp, and the storm had used up all of his reserves, not to mention the experience with the Dementor. He dumped his soggy backpack beside a potted palm and hurried to join Ron at the table.
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"Breakfast is served!" Mayor Finley announced to the sleepy students in the Bayou Quidditch Dome. Few of them had slept well. The conjured cots were not very comfortable, and other refugees from the storm kept arriving from time to time during the night, waking everyone up with their chatter.
"We've got breakfast burritos for y'all," he told them happily. The elves were too busy with storm protection to prepare breakfast, but someone had obtained a shipment of now-thawed frozen burritos that had been on their way to a muggle convenience store before the storm had intervened.
Jules Bulstrode had never experienced a burrito before, and he wasn't sure he was ready for one now. He eyed them warily and decided he wasn't hungry.
"He's a Potions Genius, / There has to be a twist, / A potions genius, / Yes, he's the Half-Blood Prince."
Bulstrode's head whipped round when he heard the badly-recorded music. Half-Blood Prince? That was Professor's Snape's pen-name from when he was a student; all Slytherin students knew about it, but no one else did. What was going on? He glanced over at Marigold Montague and cocked his head in the direction of the music; immediately the pair went in search of whoever had the recording. There was no need to say anything.
Four girls were gathered round a tape player, bouncing and swaying to the music. Jules recognized the two with the garish clothes and silly nicknames: One called herself Lady Darkness, of all crazy things, and the other one was Misty-something-or-other. He didn't know the other two.
Darkness spotted the two Slytherins and waved them over. "You have to hear this. It's brand new from England – a rock opera by this new group 'Parselmouth'."
"It's totally brand new," the girl holding the tape recorder said proudly. "We recorded it live at a pub."
"How do you think he does it? / I don't know! / What makes him so goo-ood?" blared from the machine.
"At a pub? What pub?" Jules managed to sound dubious despite having to yell over the music. Americans had places they called pubs, but they weren't really pubs, any more than American Quidditch was really Quidditch, no matter what name they gave this sports dome they were gathered in.
"Oh, you're English!" the girl said delightedly, hearing Jules's accent. "Our family was over there on vacation. It was, like, the best trip ever! They were just done with a war or something, and everything was completely insane!"
"Right, it was," Marigold said grimly. Her brother was brain-damaged because of two of the "heroes" of that war. She was glad that at least one of those vicious, bullying Weasley twins was dead; she could wait to get the other one – years if necessary. "And you are…"
"Oh, yeah," said Mysteria, remembering that she needed to do introductions. "This is Madison Park and her sister Holly." Then she said to the American girls, "And this is Marilyn… uh…"
"Marigold Montague."
"Jules Bulstrode. You recorded this at a pub?" Jules indicated the still-blaring music, in which the phrase 'Half-Blood Prince' was regularly repeated. "Not the Leaky Cauldron?"
"No way!" said Madison. She turned down the music so they could hear each other. "That place was boring! They never had music there. It was at the Seven Stars in Hob Lane. York is, like, totally cool."
Hob Lane, the wizarding business district in York, was every bit as ancient as Diagon Alley, but was much smaller. Including the bookstore (Odyssey Books, New and Used) that served as its entrance through a hidden backroom offering wizarding books, there were only half a dozen businesses. Rumor in Slytherin House held that eleven-year-old Severus Snape had found his ebony-and-manticore-spine wand while pawing through a jar of miscellaneous wands at Thursby's Discount Merchandise in Hob Lane.
Holly said, "We talked with their keyboard player, Tracey-something — "
"Davis," Jules said. Tracey Davis was in his sister's year, and used to jam with some of the older Slytherins, along with a Ravenclaw boy. They had called themselves 'Safari' – as in 'lion hunters' – but that was a Slytherin in-joke. 'Parselmouth' must be their public name; they would all be out of Hogwarts now.
"— and she said they were cutting a single — "
Madison interrupted her sister, "I can't belieeeeve British wizards still record on vinyl! I mean, I know we can't use CDs and things because of magical interference, but —"
"You said it's from a rock opera?" Jules broke in, trying to get them back on track. They were complete dunderheads. Professor Snape would have eaten them alive.
"Yeah, it's called 'The Half-Blood Prince'." Jules and Marigold tried to avoid visibly cringing, while Madison kept right on talking. "They said it was a work in progress, but they wanted to release the title song for, you know, copyright? It's about this kid in school — you know that big school they have, Hogpits?"
"They know!" said Mysteria, rolling her eyes. "They went there!"
"You did? That's awesome! Is it true your potions teacher used to poison you?"
"Yes, he poisoned at least one of us each year to make sure we were paying attention to antidotes," Marigold said. "Usually a Gryffindork," she muttered under her breath. The thought gave her a warm, happy feeling.
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"I hope they're okay," Angie said as she and Kat stood in the schoolyard waiting for 'Slade' and Saunders to return. They'd refused to go inside despite the urging of the elves.
"Yeah, I … Hey, wait a minute, I think I see something out there!" Kat said. He was hoping it was Severus, but it turned out to be Doctor Proctor on his flying carpet. The old man and a companion were riding through the hurricane as smoothly as if it were a sunny day.
The elves opened the protective spell for him and the carpet landed gracefully in the schoolyard.
"I'm sure you remember my good wife, Arusha," Proctor said, as he stood up on the carpet and offered a helping hand to the tall, white-haired black lady by his side. She appeared to be almost as old as he was.
"We sure do!" said Angie, rushing to hug the woman.
"The policemen wanted us to evacuate, so we decided to come here for a visit," Arusha said. "We didn't want them to worry," she added. "They're such nice boys."
"I've learned how to handle hurricanes pretty well," Doc said. "I haven't figured out how to stop 'em or deflect 'em, but my protection spells are the best there is. We put everything important under a protective spell, including that Buick."
Arusha added, "We're gonna let our old house wash away, and we'll build a new one afterward. People would get suspicious if our place survived the storm, and we wouldn't want that."
"It's great to see you both," Kat said, noting that the two of them had passed through the storm without so much as getting wet. "Hey, Doc, maybe you could help us. Some of our friends are lost out there somewhere, and you seem to be able to fly through the storm. Maybe you could help us find them."
"Which way did your friends go?"
"I'm afraid we're not really sure," Angie said.
"Well, that does make it a bit difficult," the old wizard said thoughtfully. "I know a spell that might help, but –
"They is here!" called the elf. She opened the spell and Fawkes glided in with the two wizards held tightly in his claws. He deposited them on the ground as gently as he could.
I'm wetter than a cormorant, Fawkes thought as he shook the water off his wings.
"Why, thank you, Mr Phoenix!" Proctor said as he stooped to examine Severus and Saunders. Neither man was conscious and both were soaking wet. "I think these fellers are gonna be all right, but we'd better get 'em up to the infirmary straight away."
"But the nurse isn't here," Angie said. "She went with the students."
"Don't you worry," Arusha said. "I always carry my medical kit." She patted her colorful shoulder-bag. "We'll take care of 'em."
Kat opened the front door for Fawkes, who flew in and soared up the stairs. The others followed after him, levitating their two patients on conjured stretchers.
The commotion in the entryway caught Harry's attention as he was finishing his second breakfast. "What's going on there?" he asked as he saw the stretchers being brought in. "It looks like some people were hurt in the storm."
"Hurricanes are really destructive," Ron observed as took another cinnamon bun from a platter. "Let's go out and watch it for a while. We'll be safe enough inside the spell, and we might never get a better opportunity to see something like this."
"Right," said Harry, and he got up from the table. The search for Snape could wait for a few more minutes while they did some hurricane-watching.
His backpack, which lay forgotten against the wall, shifted slightly and the zipper started to slide open. Slowly, a fingertip poked out from inside. It hesitated for a moment, and then it cautiously pushed the zipper farther open. More fingers appeared, and then the entire hand-creature emerged. It hopped down and quickly scurried behind the potted palm.
A/N: The song 'Potions Genius' was inspired by 'Pinball Wizard', which is the property of The Who and others, and can be enjoyed on YouTube.
P.S. My life will be very busy for the next week or two, so I may be slow to answer your reviews, but will get to them as time allows.