Harry and the Pirates, Chapter 47
In the Crosshairs
by Technomad
When Harry and Dudley got back to Britain, they were met by Hermione and her family. The Grangers were all glad to see them, and vice-versa. Once her parents were well out of earshot, Hermione was agog to hear that Luna Lovegood had not only survived Roanapur, but thrived there.
"Oh, my god! You mean to tell me that she was kidnapped…and not only got free, but captured her kidnappers?" Her big black eyes went very round. "And she faced down Balalaika?" Both boys nodded, Dudley looking as proud as he might have had Luna been his own sister. Hermione looked very thoughtful. "I may have to re-evaluate her. I don't think I lack courage, but I'd no more contradict Balalaika to her face than I would spit in a dragon's eye!"
"I think Balalaika respects her," Dudley said. "We were all frantic when she disappeared, but Balalaika said that she was an intelligent young woman of considerable courage and resource. Guess she was right, but I've never known Balalaika to be wrong."
Hermione grinned wryly. "I sure hope that whoever you two marry doesn't mind hearing about Balalaika all the time. Not that I blame you. Seeing her in action was an education in itself. I'd love to see her talking to Professor MacGonagall." Harry pictured that, and found that he liked the idea. The stern, upright Scottish witch talking to the elegant, cynical Russian crime queen…he thought they'd strike some interesting sparks off each other. The next day, they were off to Diagon Alley, to meet the Weasleys and Luna.
They noticed that the atmosphere in Diagon Alley was tense, and Dudley asked: "Is something wrong?" Both Harry and Dudley unobtrusively made sure that their wands and pistols were in easy reach, and Hermione followed suit, at least with her wand.
Dudley's eyes lit up. "There are the Weasleys! And the Lovegoods! Hi, Luna!" The next second, he found himself swarmed by a blonde. Ginny followed, not quite so quickly, but she grabbed Harry by the hand and smiled up at him; he found himself smiling back. Then she hugged him, and he was hugging her back. Her hair smelled of jasmine, and for a second, he had a flash of homesickness for Roanapur; the smell of incense and flowers could often be detected there, even through the fug of traffic fumes.
Ginny smiled up at him. "It's so good to see you!" She giggled. "Luna's been telling us all about her trip to Thailand, and it sounds like she had a wonderful time there!" In a lower voice, pitched so that her mother couldn't hear from where she was greeting the Granger parents, she went on: "She was telling my brothers and me all about her adventures, and I can't believe the half of it! Was she really kidnapped?"
"Yeah," Harry confirmed. Ginny's eyes went wide. "We'll tell you all about it, but this isn't the right place." He nodded at the adults. "I don't think your mother or the Grangers need to hear the details." They exchanged conspiratorial grins.
The Weasleys came bustling over. Harry and Dudley found themselves being hugged by Mrs. Weasley, and having their hands shaken by her husband. "Oh, Harry! And Dudley! It's good to see you again! Particularly with that maniac on the loose!"
This explained the tense atmosphere, at least. "What maniac is that, Mr. Weasley? We only just got back to Britain a day or so ago, and we were at the Grangers' house. Is something going on we need to know about?"
"It's Sirius Black! The man who betrayed your parents to You-Know-Who! He escaped from Azkaban, and the guards report that before he left, he was muttering 'he's at Hogwarts, he's at Hogwarts!'" This was interesting, to say the least.
"So you think he might come after me?" Harry unobtrusively moved so that he could draw his wand or pistol quickly, and he noticed that Dudley was doing the same…as were Ginny, Luna and Hermione. Harry smiled inwardly. The training they had received in the Duelling Association had not been wasted, it seemed, any more than his own upbringing and training in Roanapur before he'd ever heard of Hogwarts.
"We're afraid so. Professor Dumbledore has stated that Hogwarts is as secure as any place in Magical Britain, but Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge has gone to the length of stationing Dementors at Hogwarts to protect the students!"
"What's a Dementor?" asked Dudley. Harry was also curious; he hadn't come across that term before. Of course, with an utter fraud succeeding a possession victim as his Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, there were probably all sorts of things he was expected to know but didn't.
"A Dementor, Dudley, is a spirit of unhappiness and despair. They guard the prison of Azkaban. They feed by sucking the happy memories out of their victims, and if one of them should Kiss you…which, mind you, should never happen but by Ministry order…it'll suck your soul right out, leaving you a lifeless husk." Dudley's eyes went wide, and Harry stiffened, holding Ginny a little closer. He could feel a shudder going through her.
"And they're putting these things around a school, full of children?" Harry raised an eyebrow in a gesture he had unconsciously copied from Balalaika, when the Russian woman was feeling skeptical of what she had been told. Harry was well used to danger, but he knew that not all his schoolmates were, and he did not like the way this sounded at all. "May I ask why?"
"To keep Sirius Black at bay! The Ministry is concerned for your safety!" At this statement, Harry, Hermione and Dudley exchanged glances of pure shock.
"Let me see if I have this straight, Mr. Weasley. These things apparently didn't stop this Sirius Black character from blasting out of Azkaban, but now you're trusting them to protect us from him? What is wrong with this picture?" Hermione's tone was respectful, but from her expression, she was rapidly losing respect, at least for the Ministry. Mr. Weasley had the grace to blush.
"For what it's worth, Hermione, I was against it, but I'm too low-ranking to change the Minister's mind. Professor Dumbledore is also not at all pleased, and has repeatedly demanded that the creatures be removed, to no avail."
Harry took notice of this. He had heard before that Dumbledore was quite influential. Was his influence waning? He quickly decided that he didn't like that idea. Nobody raised in Roanapur was comfortable with the government getting ideas above its station; Harry tended to judge all government by the corrupt, ineffectual police and administration of his hometown.
Once everybody had been greeted, it was time to get new textbooks and robes. Without Lockhart there to create chaos, the scene in Flourish & Botts was much more peaceful. As he stood on line to pay for his purchases, Harry noticed a new book out: Gilderoy Lockhart, the True Story, by one Rita Skeeter.
"Hey, look!" All his friends turned to see the cover of the book, and Harry heard some gasps and snickers. The cover showed Lockhart being dragged away by two wizards, his hands cuffed. "I didn't know they were writing a book about him!"
"I'm picking myself up a copy," Hermione said. Suiting deeds to words, she snagged one, putting it with the huge stack of books she had already selected.
"You sure you can afford all of those?" asked Ron. He was sticking strictly to the required textbooks.
"Yes, and so could you. Remember the money for our share of the Basilisk's venom and other byproducts? Unless you've squandered it already, you should have enough for a lot of things." Hermione looked narrowly at Ron, and Ron blushed.
"Mum took charge of that money. She said it would go for new robes and other things I need, and that I'd get the rest when I left Hogwarts, as a start on the money I'll need to set up housekeeping." Ron looked at the ground, clearly rather embarrassed. "At least I won't have to wear hand-me-down robes any more. I also got a new wand; the one I had wasn't very good."
"That's excellent!" Hermione smiled, putting an arm around Ron's shoulders. "Don't worry too much about it. Harry wrote me that he and Dudley have another money-making idea and I bet they'll be happy to let you work with them on it for a percentage." The look she gave Harry and Dudley made it clear that they'd better include Ron in their scheme.
"Of course, Ron!" Harry and Dudley nodded at each other. The redheaded pureblood knew the pureblood world in ways that they didn't, and his poverty was enough of a problem for him to make sure he was motivated. Of course, that assumed that other purebloods would like Coca-Cola…but from the way Luna had reacted to the stuff, the boys from Roanapur weren't too worried.
Once they all had their books, the group went on to Madam Malkin's. There, they ran into another Housemate and his particular friends. "Welly-welly-welly-well! If it isn't Draco Malfoy and his Stones-that-Speak! How art thou, Draco?" Draco looked a little confused, as did Hermione and the other purebloods present. Of course, they had never seen or read A Clockwork Orange, which had been Harry's favorite movie for years when he was younger. Harry pitied other kids his age for their sheltered lives. When he had discovered George Alec Effinger's "Marid Audran" trilogy, he had thought that Effinger's Budayeen was like a toned-down, Arabic-speaking version of Roanapur. And he thought that Friedlander Bey would be a very interesting addition to his hometown, if he could be introduced without tipping the balance of power off kilter.
"What did you get up to this summer, Draco?" At Hermione's polite question, Draco's old sneer returned, and Harry heaved a huge mental sigh. Draco spent the summer marinading in his father's poisonous attitude toward anybody less rich or pure-blooded, and a lot of the work we did is to do again, he thought. At least the palanquin they had used was still up at Hogwarts.
"My father and mother and I went to France. I take it you were back in that criminals' nest in Thailand?" Draco's voice dripped contempt, and Harry mastered an impulse to slap a better attitude into him.
"We were in Roanapur, and Luna, here, got to visit us. She had a good time, and our employer thinks very highly of her. Her father met my Aunt Petunia, and they hit it right off, which surprised me." At that, Draco's expression changed to one appropriate to someone who'd bitten into an apple to find half a worm in it, and Harry grinned. "Who knows? They may end up becoming very close indeed! You know that Mr. Lovegood's a widower, and my aunt's a widow. Balalaika says that a healthy love life makes a person healthier! And I want my aunt to live a long, healthy life!"
"But…she's a Muggle! And Mr. Lovegood's a pureblood from a very old family!" Draco's voice dripped pure horror.
"It's none of your business. And not having a family tree that looks like a straight line has its good points, Draco," Dudley snapped. "In any case, what with this maniac running around, we'll have enough on our plates without worrying about what our relatives are getting up to! Maybe he'll come for you, Draco!" Dudley leered, as Hermione, Ginny and Luna all giggled, and Draco went red in the face. "He'll come in the night, and wind his long, strong fingers around your throat, and squeeze till your eyes pop out!"
"No! He'll be after Harry! He betrayed Harry's parents so that the Dark Lord could find them and kill them!" Harry narrowed his eyes. He found that he didn't much mind the idea of this Sirius Black coming after him. He could not remember his parents, and Aunt Petunia seldom spoke of her sister and brother-in-law, but he felt their absence in his life. If he could get his hands on one of the people responsible for orphaning him, he knew a lot of tricks to keep that person alive, and very, very sorry, for a very long time.
And he noticed that Draco spoke of Voldemort as "The Dark Lord." For the most part, the only people who used that particular locution were Death Eaters themselves, or in sympathy with their cause. Harry snorted quietly at the memory that told him that Mr. Malfoy had pled coercion and the Imperius Curse to get out of trouble after Voldemort's death or disappearance.
I'd bet anything I own that Mr. Malfoy was with that bunch because he wanted to be! If he could prove it, Harry had some thoughts about just how to requite him. In Roanapur, nobody sane allowed an affront to pass unchallenged, lest he or she be seen as weak, and an easy target.
Keeping his thoughts to himself, Harry sighed relief as Draco and his two bodyguards finally left, and lined up with the rest to be fitted for his new robes. As Ron was measured, his smile lit up the room, and Harry was glad that he'd been able to help out his friend.
