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Chapter 4: Amber Delacour
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Before long the mascots came out and it was clear the match would start soon. When the match started everyone turned their attention to the field. The teens all nearly screamed themselves hoarse cheering.
Several hours later, Harry, Ron, and Hermione invited Rose and James back to their tent to socialize a bit. Sirius was simply all too pleased to have some alone time with his boyfriend. Remus made Rose and James promise to come back to the tent no later than one o'clock.
Back at the tent, Rose and James officially met Ginny and the Weasley twins as well. They had been in the stands of course but had not had proper introductions yet. James was not surprised when the twins swarmed Rose just like Harry and Ron had earlier. She was quite attractive after all. He sat and played a card game with Harry, Ron, and Ginny. They had only gotten through a few rounds of cards when a ruckus was heard outside and Bill, Charlie, and Mr. Weasley came running into the tent.
Death eaters were attacking. Everyone scrambled to collect their wands and made their way to the door… everyone was ready to leave in less than ten seconds… except for Harry.
"My wand's gone," Harry said. "I thought I had it in my pocket but it's not there… and it's not by my things."
"Forget it, Harry, we need to go now!" Ron said following right behind his siblings as they all filed out of the tent. Hermione, James, and Rose hesitated.
"We should go, Harry, we don't have time to look for it," Hermione said nervously.
"Is this your wand, Potter?" James said, bending down and sliding his old wand out of the wand holster he kept hidden up his left sleeve. When he and Rose had bought new wands they'd both made sure to secure their old ones with hidden holsters as backups, just in case they were disarmed.
"Yeah, that's it!" Harry said, running forward and taking the spare wand from James. "Thanks, Black… let's go!"
Hermione, Rose, James, and Harry filed out of the tent only a few steps behind Ron, Ginny and the twins. They sprinted towards the forest for cover.
Fireballs we're flying through the air. In the commotion, a small crowd of freighted Bulgarians ran between the two groups. When the foreign wizards got out of their way, James and his group had gotten separated from the Weasleys.
"Hurry, this way!" Rose squeaked, unable to see the redheaded family and instead simply aiming towards the trees. A moment later, however, a blood curdling scream rang out from back the way they came.
"Harry, no!" Hermione yelled, but Harry had already turned around and sprinted towards the scream, wand drawn. Hermione, James, and Rose bolted after him.
The source of the commotion became clear at once. Five hooded figures wearing masks were surrounding a beautiful blonde witch in light blue robes. One of the men was handling her roughly, pinning her to the ground while the other laughed and jeered. The man had her pinned down and was laughing as he dropped his trousers and ripped the girl's dress away roughly.
"Petrificus Totalus!" Shouted James, being the first one on the scene, having caught up to Harry due to his longer legs. The brute was caught off guard and unable to dodge or block the spell. The man's whole body stiffened and the girl became pinned under him.
"Stupify!" Harry shouted just beside James. One of the other death eaters keeled over. He was out cold.
The three remaining death eaters launched fireballs at Harry and James, but Hermione and Rose both cast powerful shields at the same time. The first shield took two fireballs before shattering. The second shield stopped the remaining fireball.
James and Harry continued to rush forwards casting disarming spells as they moved. With two opponents down, the battle was now three versus four. One cowardly death eater disapparated, but it seems the other two remaining were not skilled enough wizards to know how to do so. Apparition was, after all, very difficult.
Since the boys were covered by the girls' shields, the boys focused on attacking only. Harry and James managed to stun them both as well. Hermione, Rose, and Harry then hit the stunned Death Eaters all with petrification spells.
James ran to the blond girl and threw the first petrified man off of her. "Come on, we have to go!" He pulled her to her feet. The girl was bleeding from a head injury and clearly a little dazed.
"Ma baguette! J'ai laissé tomber ma baguette! ... Accio baguette!" (My wand! I dropped my wand! ... Accio wand!)
A wand flew out of the darkness and into her hands. The French girl, even in her stunned and injured state, had been powerful enough to cast a wandless summoning charm to find her wand in the dark in seconds. James was stunned by this casual show of power. How had the death eaters managed to pin down such a powerful witch? Surely they had simply caught her off guard…
Rose approached the blonde. "Nous devons partir maintenant!" (We have to leave now!) Rose said. She took the girl's hand and began to guide her back towards the forest.
The blonde screamed in pain once again. "Mon pied! Mine foot! I need 'elp walking," she cried clearly in pain and also in panic. Despite her issue she'd gained enough stock of the situation to know to switch to speaking English.
James, without even thinking, holstered his wand and scooped the girl up into his arms in a bridal carry. "Go!" He shouted to his sister. Rose led the group back to the forest without further incident.
Just as they arrived at the edge of the forest, two men came running at the group from the North. Harry drew his wand but lowered it again when he realized who was coming. "Sirius!" he called. Sirius and Remus were approaching the group at top speed.
"Hands! Everyone hold hands!" Remus commanded as they closed the distance to the teens. Rose took Hermione's hand without hesitation. Harry was close to the girls but hesitated to follow orders. Sirius arrived first grabbing Harry by the arm on one side and taking Rose's hand on his other. He twisted in the spot and all four disappeared.
The girl in James's arms trembled. Remus reached James and the girl a moment later, grabbed James by the shoulder, and also disapparated.
James, being very concerned with maintaining his balance upon landing due to his delicate bundle, managed to keep his footing and his stomach. Upon arrival at their desenation, however, he saw Harry had fallen over into the grass. Harry had fared much better than the girls. Hermione and Rose were both vomiting into a rosebush a few feet away. This was the first time any of the teens had disapparated.
"Remus… where are we? The Weasleys! They ran to hide in the woods and we lost them!" James sputtered, setting the girl with the bad foot down on a cement step.
"We are at Sirius's house, number twelve Grimmauld Place, Islington," Lupin answered immediately."
"Don't worry, James," Sirius barked. "We'll go back and help Arthur and his kid. Arthur can't do side-along apparition. Percy can but I think he left after the match. Bill and Charlie can side-along but not consistently and not under stress. It's really hard, you know. No shame in not mastering apparition."
"Kreature!" Sirius shouted at no one. A grumpy, ugly old house elf appeared amongst them with a pop.
"Kreature lives to serve the noble House of Black," he croaked with a bow. Rose and Hermione were both done being sick and approached the others on the porch.
"Kreature, these are my cousins James and Rose Black. Show them inside and make sure they and their friends are taken care of. And follow any order they give you! I've added them to the family tree so you must obey them."
As Sirius was instructing Kreature, Lupin had bent down and was muttering a spell while aiming his wand at the injured girl's foot. "Hold still, my dear," he said softly. "Episkey," he muttered. With a horrible snapping sound, her ankle straightened out. She let out a painful moan and tears fell down her face.
"Sank you, Sir. I sink my ankle is fixed," the blonde girl sobbed softly.
"Everyone inside," Remus ordered, standing and then stretching his hand out to Sirius. "We'll see you once we've rescued as many as we can… at least the Weasleys…"
And with that, Sirius grabbed his boyfriend's hand, they both twisted on the spot, and disappeared with a pop.
"This way, young masters," the old house elf said, opening the door to the town house and gesturing inside.
James took their French guest by the hand to help her to her feet. She put her hand on his shoulder to steady herself. She was still in a lot of pain and she put a great deal of her weight on him as they walked. Rose followed Kreature into the house, followed closely by Hermione and Harry, and then James and the French girl.
Kreature showed them down a long hall to a sitting room. "You may go anywhere on this floor or the first landing," Kreature informed. "Master Sirius says the rest of the house is not safe…"
"Kreature, please get new witch's robes for our guest," James said to the old elf. "And after that I think we could all use a drink."
Kreature bowed low to James and then vanished as everyone sat down on couches and chairs.
"Simply barbaric," Hermione and Rose muttered at the same time. They turned to look at each other.
Hermione frowned. "I've only ever read about house elves. I've never seen one. It's awful how they've got to follow orders."
"I agree," Rose said. "But right now, this girl needs new robes and we all need water… I could also go for a mint…"
Rose turned to the French girl who still looked panicked and shell shocked. She was sitting on a couch glued to James's side. Her ripped robes were doing a poor job at hiding her lower half but no one present was foolish or rude enough to stare or even chance a look at her semi-naked state. Rose thought it was probably a good thing Ron wasn't there right now because he had very little self control.
Hermione and Rose began speaking to the girl in French again which calmed the blonde down. Harry and James were lost and turned to one another.
"We petrified four of them," Harry said, looking stunned. "It all happened so fast. You recon the ministry will capture them? Or do you think their friend that ran will go back and end the body bind curses?"
"I bet they get arrested," James said. "That one that ran was a coward. He's not coming back… they're all cowards..."
"Thanks for having my back," Harry said. "I might have died if you all hadn't followed me."
"Yeah, when that first shield broke I thought we were done for," James sighed. "I'm glad we did it though. We saved somebody."
"Hey… Black… are you okay? You're shaking," Harry said, his voice filled with concern.
"I'll be fine," James said. "What about you? You good? You're freaking out too, I can tell. You're just hiding it."
"I'll… be okay," Harry said. "I just need something to calm me down. Maybe I just need to relax for a bit."
Just then, Kreature returned with two sets of witch's robes for the girl to choose from. He led her away to a restroom to change.
"Her name is Amber Delecor," Hermione informed the boys. "She's turning seventeen in a month and attends Beauxbatons in France. She's traveling alone but wants to check on her cousin who was also at the world cup. This cousin was with the Bulgarian mascots."
Rose had pulled a quill, ink, and parchment out of her purse. "I'll have Kreature deliver a letter and wait for a reply from this cousin once he delivers our drinks… oh, thank you Kreature."
Kreature had just returned with mints as well as water, tea, and whiskey. James wondered if Kreature didn't know they were all under age. Harry and Jame's eyes locked briefly and both reached mischievously forward to pour themselves a glass of whiskey. That would certainly help calm their nerves. The girls both took a mint to get rid of the taste of vomit before choosing tea. Amber, upon her return, took water.
Once Rose explained to Amber how she could check on her cousin without leaving the house, Amber wrote a quick note to her cousin and handed it to the elf. Kreature disappeared.
Amber was no longer pressed into Jame's side but she was still sitting very close to him on the couch.
"Sank you all for rescuing me. I 'ad a few alcoholic drinks a leetle bit ago… zose men caught me off guard. I sink you saved my life today… and if not, you at least have saved my honor."
The boys gave proper introductions to Amber. The girls had already done so in French. Then the teens talked for what felt like an hour waiting for Kreature to return. In actuality it had only been about five minutes by the time the elf came back with a response in hand.
Amber read the response and breathed a sigh of relief. "Zee commotion did not last long and did not even reach zeir half of zee campground. My cousin is safe…"
"So who wants to explore the house?" Harry said, jumping up. James really wanted to but could tell Amber didn't want to. In fact, despite it all being over and everyone being safe, she was still trembling.
"We should wait until Sirius comes back," Hermione replied.
"Oh, come on, Kreature said we could," Harry said. Hermione looked torn between wanting to keep an eye on Harry and wanting to keep an eye on Amber.
"I'll keep Harry out of trouble," Rose volunteered. "And we're not going to the places Kreature said are unsafe," she said, standing and joining Harry over by the stairs.
"Oh come on, what's the fun in that, Rose?" Harry fake pouted. Harry downed the rest of his whiskey and the two disappeared down a hallway.
"Miss Delecor," James said softly. "You're alright now. Everything is alright… you seemed calmer when you were over here… do you want to come back over here and lean against me some more? I don't mind. It was nice actually."
Amber nearly dove at him. "Yes, monsieur Black, it would make me feel better. Sank you… sank you for saving me," she repeated as she buried her head into his side. James didn't really know what to do so he began to stroke her hair. This seemed to be the right move and it was calming her down even more.
James looked over at Hermione on the chair beside them and caught a bit of jealousy on her face. She quickly screwed her face up and tried to hide her emotions but she'd already been caught.
"I have two shoulders," James said, giving Hermione a half smile. Hermione blushed and moved over to the couch. James now had an arm around each girl. Amber's head was snuggled into his chest while Hermione was resting her head on his collarbone.
"That's much better," Hermione said. "I think I'm already calmer. James, you were amazing. I already knew Harry could fight of course. And you're just as wild as him it seems."
"You saved our arses with those shields, Hermione," James said. "I'd be dead if you hadn't cast your shield. Thank you."
James heard the quietest, gentlest snore imaginable coming from his chest. Amber, in her panicked and drunken state, has fallen asleep on him.
"It's very kind of you to be her support right now," Hermione said. "You're her knight in shining armor you know… You got the one trying to rape her and you carried her away to safety."
"Yeah, I guess you're right," James said. "So, you think those two ran off to go snog? I know a near death experience can make you want to do that." James fondly remembered snogging Hermione in the woods when they thought they were going to die due to breaking the timeline. Though it hadn't been this Hermione of course. It had been weird but it had been nice.
Hermione laughed. "I wouldn't put it past Harry to try and snog your sister," Hermione said.
"And I wouldn't put it past her to snog him," James replied.
"Well if they're snogging… maybe we should be too," Hermione suggested jokingly.
"I,er… do you…want to do that?" James said, taken aback. From his perspective that had come out of nowhere.
Hermione went red. "I didn't mean… I don't know why I said that. I'm sorry. It was a bad joke," Hermione said quickly.
James could see that Hermione had made herself vulnerable. He wanted to tell her it was okay but didn't quite know how to do that. "I'm, er, not sure about a snog, but maybe…" James leaned down and kissed her sweetly on the forehead.
Hermione shivered and relaxed under his lips. "I… thank you, James. I don't know why I'm trying to move so fast with you. I'm not even fifteen yet… I just… I…"
Unable to find the correct words, Hermione instead leaned up and planted a kiss on his jaw. She'd been aiming for his cheek but missed. James smiled. It was so nice to re-establish this intimate connection with his best friend.
"There's your reward for stunning those Death Eaters," Hermione blushed.
James laughed and kissed her once more, this time on her temple. "And that's for saving my arse with your shield."
Hermione giggled and melted into his arms once more. They were both exhausted. The couch the three were sharing was reasonably comfortable and the cushions were soft enough that it allowed James to recline a bit. After a few minutes of silence James and Hermione drifted off to sleep as well.
Their rest didn't last long because moments later, or perhaps it was a few hours later, the front door opened loudly and three men entered the house. James, Hermione, and Amber startled awake. James noticed Harry and Rose who were cuddled up on the other couch were stirring as well.
Sirius, Remus, and Charlie Weasley entered the room. Sirius dropped his bundled up tent and his rucksack on the ground in the entryway. Remus had his own bag and James's. Charlie had Rose's bag and, luckily, Amber's bag.
"Your tent was destroyed, Amber, but I recovered your other things. My family are all safe," Charlie informed. "No one was killed. Tons of people have minor injuries. Four Death Eaters were captured. I'm here to take Harry and Hermione back to The Burrow. Ron's worried sick."
"Charlie! Oh goodness, eet is so good to see you! How did you know I was here?" Amber asked, walking over to Charlie and accepting her bag from him.
"Remus described you and I recognized your description" he grinned.
"Charlie and I have been friends for a little over a year," Amber explained. "Eet is a small world, no?"
"It's good to see you, Amber. I'll come back tomorrow, okay? I'd take you to The Burrow tonight but we're out of beds at the house. Sirius said you could stay here."
"I am 'appy to stay wiz James and Rose tonight," Amber responded.
The group said their goodbyes and then Charlie took Harry and Hermione's hands. He closed his eyes and focused for ten or fifteen seconds… much longer than Remus or Sirius needed to side-along apparate, proving it was indeed a difficult feat… but then a moment later he turned on the spot and the three disappeared.
"Let's show them to the guest rooms," Remus said. They went up the stairs to the first landing where there were two empty bedrooms and a bathroom.
"Remus and I are on the third floor if you need anything, but try Kreature first, okay? And if you come up to the third floor don't stop on the second floor. My family has a lot of cursed items and the house was heavily trapped when I moved in. I haven't had time to clear it all out. The ground floor, first floor, and third floor are all safe. The second floor and the basement are not." Sirius and Remus went up to their bedroom.
James, Rose, and Amber peeked into both rooms. There was a king bed in one and a twin bed in the other.
"James and I will take this room then," Rose said, indicating the larger bedroom.
"I… do not wish to be alone wiss my thoughts tonight," Amber said in a slight panic.
"I… neither do I," James said, still very shaken from the battle.
"Nor I," Rose finished, looking nervous. "We'll all share the big bed."
"I am sorry if zis is awkward for eazer of you… I… I can take zee small room, eet is no big deal."
"No, Amber, we're not leaving you alone tonight… come on," and Rose dragged Amber by the hand into the larger guest room.
"Yeah, sleeping with you in a bed is no more awkward than sleeping with you on a couch… oh, er… sleeping with you on the couch wasn't awkward either I mean…. What I mean is it's fine… we'll all be fine…" James rambled.
They retrieved nightclothes from their bags and took turns going to the restroom to change. Amber changed last.
"You snogged him, didn't you?" James asked as soon as he was alone with his sister. "When you and he were exploring the house. You got him alone and snogged him." His tone was not accusatory and his face still bore a smile.
Rose was startled. "What? I … er…"
"I've been reading your body language since we met them. It's okay that you snogged him," James continued. "I'm not mad, really. I know that you were hoping for something to happen between us… I'm sorry I didn't feel the same."
"No worries, Jamie," Rose said. "He looks like the Harry I fell for and you don't. I'm not saying you don't look good now by the way because you're gorgeous… but you just don't look like the Harry I fell for anymore. I told you I wasn't sure if I liked you like a sibling or like a partner… well, maybe I can have both?"
James smiled and nodded. The bedroom door creaked open and Amber entered the room.
"Amber!" Rose smiled, approaching the girl. "You're understandingly on edge… so would you want to sleep in the middle with James and I on either side?"
Amber's eyes lit up. "Oui, yes! I would like zis very much. You boz make me feel safe…"
"We barely know each other at all, Amber," Rose smiled. "The fact you trust us enough to sleep with us makes me feel very good."
"Normally when I am upset at night, I will go into my parent's room and sleep between them," Amber shared. "Zis is much like zat."
All three climbed into the king bed. "Sank you both again, especially you, Mister Black. You took out zee man who had 'old of me and also carried me to safety. You all saved me but I feel zat I owe you zee most."
"You owe me nothing, Miss Delecor. And please, just call me James." James said with a yawn.
"Zen I am just Amber," she responded. Amber then rolled into Jame's side and put her head once more on his chest. His arm was wrapped around her as well.
"Rose," Amber said. "I very much enjoy zee cuddles… eef you wish to join. A moment later Rose, also on her side, curled up behind Amber and hugged her around the tummy. All three fell quickly to sleep.
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