~*~Chapter 7~*~
"Sing a new song unto the Lord! Let your song be sung from mountains high! Sing a new --"
"Jeez Mum! I'm up, I'm up!" Lily darted out of her bed as soon as she heard her mother singing so she wouldn't continue. "No need to try to kill me in my sleep."
Chloe, being used to this criticism and knowing that her voice wasn't the greating thing to he heard and was a half step flat, wasn't hurt by the comment, but instead laughed. "Well aren't you cheery in the morning!"
"I try," She grumpily said into her pillow.
"You're lucky I didn't bring out the old guitar and sing 'Home on the Range'."
"Please don't. That's enough to drive anyone up the wall."
"I think it sounds pretty good."
"You're tone deaf," Lily replied honestly.
"Thanks a lot," she said sarcastically. "Your morning mumbling goes straight to my head."
Lily and her mother always joked around like this, pointing out eachothers faults. It was a strong philosophy of theirs to tell people what they need to work on. After all, it's better to have someone tell you you can't sing worth beans than to go sing on a stage and learn the hard way. Very few people understood them, though.
Picking up Lily's clothes off the floor, Chloe said, "Your father told me that you all were leaving at 9, after him and Mr. Potter got a chance to talk business for a while. Make sure you're ready on time."
"Gotcha. Is Dad staying?"
"No, he said he had something to do, but he'll be there to wish you a happy birthday."
"Great. Let me finish packing and I'll be right down."
~~~~~~
"Have a seat, Frank," Carson motioned to a lawn chair across from himself as he took two cigars from a wooden box and handed one to his guest.
Mr. Evans was invited over to have a meeting outside to finalize details of the opening week at Steep-Ridge.
"Thanks," he replied, lighting it up. "Alright, first matter of business: Do you want me to do the paperwork this week while you take the kids to the resort?"
"Don't get me wrong, I want you there more than anyone else," he chuckled. "We both know the paperwork needs to be done. Those professional quidditch players will be on our tails if we don't get them the liability contracts."
"No doubt."
"Well, do you want me to do it? I gladly will. It is your daughter's birthday."
Frank exhaled a puff of smoke. "No, I'll do it. I want to make sure I get it all right, and I'll deliver the contracts to them myself. Plus, it was your idea to take them there and you are used to being on a broom. You can play with them."
"Are you sure? Lily might be disappointed."
"I'm sure. One thing I know about my Lily is that she doesn't care about gifts or anything people give her. As long as she knows I love her, she'll be content. I will come with you so I can give her the new broom for her birthday. It's the Speed-Ridge Spectacular."
"Nice broom, if I do say so myself." Carson winked.
He laughed. "I'd think so too, if I'd designed it."
"Ok, but I don't think you came here only to talk about doing paperwork and buying brooms, Frank."
"No, I didn't. I need to talk about this week's security. All the aurors."
"What about them?"
"We don't need them."
"What do you mean we don't need them? Of course we do! There's going to be over 10,000 people there! You never know what could happen, especially with that lunatic that we've been warned about."
Frank's fists clenched.
"He's gaining more and more allies, you know. He has the giants, from what I've been told. And now he's trying to get all the werewolves on his side! We aren't safe!"
"That's exactly what he's going to think! Think about it Carson, he's sure we'll have the aurors there, so he'd be stupid to attack."
As Mr. Potter was about to reply, Mr. Evans pointed to the ground yelling "SNAKE!"
There was a rattlesnake lying next to the lounge chair, not doing anything. It was almost as it enjoyed listening to them argue. Even stranger was its appearance. It was reddish with green diamond shapes around its eyes and the rattle was squashed.
With a lazy wave of his wand, Carson sent the snake over to the other side of the yard.
Frank continued hastily. "I think you should consider it."
"Why are you so eager to not have them there? What harm could it do? Better to be safe than sorry."
"I just think it's better to let the aurors stay on the hunt for this man... it'd be a better cause than to have them hang around the resort, making circles. That's how I look at it. I suggest we just have minor ministry protection there for think like theft and what-not."
Carson sighed. "Very well. I'll arrange it." He grinned sneakily as Frank left to get Lily. Everything will be fine, he thought, watching the snake slither away.
~~~~~~
"You're here -- finally. I've been waiting for you," a paramount voice was heard through the door where a person was standing, ready to enter. "Come in, my servant."
They walked in, handing confidently clutching a bottle of wine. "Here's for you. Helps with stress, My Lord."
The man grabbed it fiercly and downed a shot. "If you'd actually done what I asked of you in the first place, I wouldn't have stress, would I?"
The person remained motionless.
"WOULD I!?" He growled.
"Um, no, Sire... Sir, your Lordship, I --"
"Don't badger me with small-talk or I'll show you true stress going through the bones of you body."
"No sir!"
"Well, did you get the informatin or not? Or do I have to put you permantently to sleep?"
"Yes, I did, I mean --"
"Crucio!" The man yelled, wand aimed at his servent. "How was that as a reminder? Now spit it out!"
"The aurors, there won't be any at Sttep-Ridge opening week. It's all clear." The person was straining to lift themselves off the floor, but was failing.
"How are you sure?"
"Don't worry, Master, it was all taken care of. There will be no aurors."
A sickening lop-sided smile crept upon his lips. "Perfect..."
~~~~~~
"And here we are!" Mr. Potter announced happily as him, James, Frank, and Lily stepped out of a grand fireplace into a large, homey log cabin.
"Wow, it's so pretty!" Lily marveled at the small indoor waterfall surrounded by brown leather sofas and the growing vines, stretched along the walls like a blanket of greenery.
"You think the cabin's nice, take a look out the window."
Both Lily and James rushed to the other side of the room and looked through the glass, eyes lit with amazement.
"Holy moly, check that out, Lily!" James breathed the wrds, he was so in awe. "I've gotta get out there!"
Right in front of them lay a quidditch pitch: brand new shiny goal hoops and clean cut grass. It had never once been used, and it waited for them, no more than 30 meters away.
"Is this whole pitch ours to use?"
"No, we're sharing it with five other cabins, and you just wait until you see who's in one of them." Frank smiled brightly.
"Who Dad who?" Lily couldn't hold in her excitment.
"You'll find out soon enough. As for now, I had better give you your birthday presents before I leave -- Here you are, Hunny."
Lily ripped two packages open, receiving the Lord of the Rings book trilogy and a new racing broom.
"The Speed-Ridge Spectacular! Wow, thanks Dad!"
"You're welcome, but don't thank me. Thank Mr. Potter over tehre, the designer who gave it to me."
"Thanks, Mr. P."
He let out a light laugh. "Anytime Lily."
"Well, what are we waiting for?" James broke the silence. "Let's go!"
They grabbed their brooms, Lily hugged her dad goodbye, and then went out to play.
~~~~~~
"The plan is almost complete, My Lord."
"Are you sure? It must be faultless."
"Like I said, My Lord, the aurors won't be there. All the bugs are worked out," the person said confidently.
Two venemous eyes were shot at the servant. "There better not be any 'bugs'..." He growled. "Or it'll be you I come after."
"Yes My Lord! You can count on me! I won't let you down, don't worry!"
"Then get going!" The master roared violently, then swirled his chair around so it faced the fireplace. "My moment has come..."
~~~~~~
�No way! No way!�
�James, stop blubbering and tell me what�s �No way�!� Lily landed her broom next to him.
He couldn�t cease his gawking. �Look�it�s�it�s Jereon Vonneli!�
�Who?�
�The star chaser for the Britain Knights! My god, Lily, you need to keep up with the quidditch news! He�s only one of the greatest players the team�s ever had! He�s my role model,� he sighed dreamily.
�Close your gaping mouth, James, and let�s go talk to him.�
�No, I can�t! I can�t! That�s Jereon Vonn��
�I know who he is! Now stop acting like a love-sick, celebrity idolizing, teenage girl and come with me.�
Along with Vonneli was his bodyguard, brother, and teammate. Just as Lily and James were about to meet them, three Hogwarts teachers exited one of the cabins to play on the pitch.
�Man, I thought I�d get the whole summer without teachers,� James groaned.
�Oh relax, these are some of the cooler professors,� she said, then added as an after-thought, �Except Figg� what�s she doing here? She�s been fired.�
�That doesn�t mean she can�t associate with other teachers, duh,� James rolled his eyes sensibly.
�Right� hello Madame Hooch! Professor Figg! Professor Christ�!�
They all waved back happily. Professor Christ� was the young Muggle Studies teacher who was supposedly pretty good on the quidditch pitch.
After introductions and James almost fainting when Vonneli shook his hand, the whole group of them went to play a scrimmage.
~~~~~~
�This is insane,� Mr. Evans said to himself. �I can�t believe I�m filling out paperwork the week of my daughter�s birthday! I should have let Carson do it.�
He slammed a stack of files down on his desk and put his head in his hands, completely stressed.
�Maybe I shouldn�t be there� something�s going to happen� I can feel it��
His mind back-tracked as he continued arguing with himself.
�Wait, that�s the reason you should be there! To experience it� but that�s too late now.�
He quickly picked up his keys and locked the door to his office.
~~~~~~
�Score baby score! That�s 50 points for us winners, 20 for the losers!� James started doing his �victory swoop� around the goals after throwing the quaffle through the middle ring. �Take that you--�
In the blink of an eye, a bludger soared right by him, scaring the daylights out of him and almost causing him to fall. Across the pitch, Lily could be seen smiling angelically, pretending she hadn�t even done anything.
"Hey! James! Over here!" Vonneli was beckoning over to him. "Listen dude, you can't let your head get in between you and the game, got it? You can celebrate after you win the game. Until then, stay focused on what you're there to do."
"Got it!"
It was their fourth day there and so far, all of them were having a great time, and on top of it all, it was August 2, Lily's 12th birthday!
James got private lessons from Vonneli constantly every day and he was loving it. Lily was being trained by Carson, who claimed to be "a great beater back in his day" and captain of the Gryffindor team.
All in all, everyone felt that both James and Lily would knock their socks off at try-outs this coming year. Even Madame Hooch, who was sworn to being unbiased while refereeing, congratulated them and expressed her surprise in their improved skill.
They had been playing for a rough four hours when Lily said, "I'm exhausted. Anyone up for a soda?"
"Me!" James called out, landing his broom and flipping off of it as a show-off dismount.
"I'm right behind you." Frank caught up with them, chit chatting along the way to the Alotawata Lodge.
"I'll take a coke," James told the waitress as they arrived.
"Make that two."
"Three," Mr. Potter grimaced as the waitress threw him a flashy, crooked-tooth grin, making it painfully obvious she was paying attention to him only because of his money.
"That'll be 5 knuts please," she twisted around flirtatiously. "Why don't I go to the back to make sure your drinks are ice," she paused to lick some lipstick off her front tooth. "--cold."
"Sure, ok..." He agreed tentatively.
James laughed and Lily rolled her eyes as they waitress giggled and walked off, shaking her hips as she did so.
"She looks like a penguin." Lily laughed.
"--with a wedgie."
This comment from James sent them all into a fit of hysteria.
"Now kids, that's not nice," Carson strove to regain his natural air as a man of stature and suave-ness, but he too was snickering.
"I'm sorry Dad, but some people are just daft. -- Falling all over people because of the size of their Gringotts vault."
Lily hacked a fake cough that sounded much like the words 'Jereon Vonneli' and then smiled.
"Not true Lily. He has skill along with money."
This conversation went back and forth until Lily mentioned, "I wonder what's taking her so long to get our sodas."
"I'll go check." Carson volunteered and freely made his way behind the bar to the back of the kitchen, but stopped abruptly when he heard a voice snarl.
"Tell me... where is he? Either cooperate, or die! It's your choice, woman, now choose!"
"I...I Can't! Confidentiality --"
He cut her off cruly. "Crucio!"
Mr. Potter tensed up as he heard the forceful thump of her body hit the floor.
Wand! Where the hell is my wand? He thought, running his hands through his robes. He had no chance against this person without his wand.
"What say you now, woman?" The voice roared.
Mr. Potter was growing fearsome and he knew his time was running short, but his wand was nowhere to be found.
The waitress, too weak to speak, whimpered as her head clunked downwards.
"So be it! Avada Kedavra!" He smiled sickeningly as he watched the green light absorb into her cold body, then drop to the floor, lifeless.
Dammit, where is my wand!? Carson cursed himself for not being able to save the innocent woman. Once he realized there was nothing he could do to the killer, being weaponless, he began sneaking around the corner to escape just as his son jogged up to him.
"Hey Dad! Vonneli said you dropped --" He was waving the long wand in the air.
"Shh!" Mr. Potter clasped his hands over James' mouth to keep him quiet and tried to cover his eyes as well, but it was too late. James' expression turned to panic the moment he saw their waitress' dead form displayed on the floor.
The killer's eyes locked with theirs as soon as James spoke. "Ahh...visitors..." He took one glance at Carson and knew instantly who's company he was in. "And what d'ya know... The guest of honor."
He walked towards them, James trembling like a leaf.
"Let's do something about the young one first, shall we?" His arm was held high in the air, brandishing his weapon threateningly.
Carson snatched his wand and shoved James roughly in the other direction. "Run James run! Get Lily and find Dumbledore!"
"Let me help, Dad!"
"You can't help by getting yourself killed!"
"But Dad --" James watched as a hex was flown at his father, draining him of his strength.
"Do as I say, Son! NOW!"
"Crucio!" The mad-man caught him off guard, making him fall to the ground, his energy sucked out of him like a vacuum in a black hole.
James, teary-eyed, took one final look at his father, the man hovering over him, and ran for dear life.
~~~~~~
"What do you mean you can't get ahold of an owl?!" A man with slit green eyes slammed his fist down on a table in the Owl Post Office of Steep-Ridge Quidditch Utopia.
"What does it look like? Maybe you could help me out a little, eh? Damn birds!" A chap of short stature was groping wildly in the air to catch an owl.
The whole scene was completely chaotic: 50 or so owls swarmed both levels of the building; droppings littering the ground, desks, and boxes; hundreds of letters and packages clouded their view; and the two, poor workers, trying with all their might to get them under control.
The customer waved his letter impatiently. "Maybe you could use the immobulous charm, for Merlin's sake!"
"Maybe you could help us out a little! And besides, delicate owls like deliverers don't take kindly to charms. They'd never work again!"
"Too bad that's not my problem, 'eh?" He mocked snidely, kicking a package labeled 'FRAGILE' out of his way. "What the hell did you do to make them do this?"
The man, now completely worn out, shook his head at the customer's liking of curse words. "I didn't do anything, sir!" He was getting fed up, and in his opinion, the phrase 'The Customer's Always Right' need to be eliminated. "One of the owls has special abilities when it comes to sensing danger, but he's a bit out of practice. He'll warn us about something constantly, but it never is anything dangerous. But today, he just went crazy! I assure you though, it's just a false --"
The customer gave him no time to finish for he was already sprinting out of the building at break-neck speed. Just as he was out, an earth-shaking explosion caused the Owl Post Office and everything around it to defy gravity and crash and burn as a pile of debris.
He went into a string of curses as he heaved his bruised and bleeding body off the ground and started hobbling away, letter left on the hard soil, forgotten.
~~~~~~
Minutes later, James ran by, unable to see through his tear-stained eyes, his mind racing as to why he felt an explosion like dynamite rumble beneath his feet.
"Ouch!" He cried as he tripped over a fairly large roof shingle. Opening his eyes, he saw that his nose was level with a parchment envelope. "What's this?"
He turned it in his hand and looked it over as he took off running again. It was made from deep green parchment labeled "PRIVATE" and addressed to "My Lord". He didn't have time to think about it because just that moment, he ran head-first into something and fell.
The 'something' turned out to be a someone.
"Mr. Potter!"
"Professor Dumbledore! I've been looking all over for you!"
The professor wasn't really listening; he was more intent on the letter James had dropped. "Where'd you get this?"
"I found it on the ground by the Owl Post Office, but the building's exploded!"
"So it has --" He changed his focus over to reading the scrawgily writing on the parchment. "So that's what's going on!"
"What is it, Sir?"
The headmaster grabbed him by the arm and broke into a jog surprisingly fast for an older man. "No time to explain now! Time is of the essence, my boy! I must get you to the shelter!"
In what seemed like an eternity, they reached the edge of the White Cliffs of Dover, but Dumbledore didn't slow down.
"Professor!" James grew terrified. "Stop! We're going to go over the cliffs!" He must be insane!
This only made Dumbledore grip his hand harder and run faster. "Keep up!"
"PROFESSOR!!!" James screamed as they jumped right off the ledge and fell helplessly toward the jagged ocean bottom below.
As James screeched with a cry as deafening as that of a mandrake, Dumbledore grinned. Muttering an incantation, he felt them fall slower and saw James open his eyes tentatively.
"Woah..."
What he saw what nothing short of unbelievable. It was straight out of a Porky Pig and Daffy Duck cartoon he had seen at Lily's house, he remembered. It was the episode where Porky and Daffy buy a piece of land that's filled with oil. When they drill for the oil, it splurts out of the ground like lava from an erupting volcano; Porky and Daffy are comically suspended in the air by the shooting fountain of oil.
In this case, it was James and Dumbledore resting on top of water from the Strait of Dover.
"Professor..." James panted. "Don't ever do that to me again! You could have at least warned me."
"A bit of fun amidst hard times is never a bad thing, Mr. Potter." He managed a grin then immediately turned serious again, grabbing his hand. "Jump!"
They both pushed off from the water as hard as their worn muscles would allow them and landed with a thump on one of the ledges extending from the side of the cliffs.
"Uh... where to now, Headmaster?"
In front and around them there was nothing but cliff and something close to a 500 foot drop.
Dumbledore had jumped back onto the fountain of water in haste. "See that rock there?"
"Yes."
"Punch it -- as hard as you possibly can! Good luck and goodbye. I'll be seeing you soon."
With that short farewell, he waved his wand and the water swiftly returned him to the top of the ledge, leaving a dumbfounded James.
"Punch it as hard as I can, huh? How weird is that! No hurt in trying... well, except maybe a broken knuckle or two..." He shuddered as the wind blew, almost pulling him into the freezing ocean tomb below. "I prefer a broken hand to plunging to the bottom, that's for sure. For both our sakes, Dumbledore, you had better not be pulling my leg."
Without another thought, he brought his right arm back and shot it at the rock with all the strength he had left in him.
It would have felt less strange, much like the sensation of running through Platform 9 3/4 or having Nearly Headless Nick glide through his body, had there not been a thick rope on the 'other side'. Plus, seeing his body outside and his arm disappearing into the rock didn't exactly ease his mind either.
"This is weird..."
He did as his common sense told him to do and pulled hard on the rope, gasping when his body was sucked through the wall.
"Oh James!" Lily exclaimed when she saw him appear.
He opened his eyes upon feeling an embrace.
"Hey Lily."
"Stop being so nonchalant. That's just like you. We've been worried sick."
He blushed as he noticed she was still hugging him. Everyone's eyes were on them, so he stepped back, to the disappointment of all the elders around. "What is this place?"
"It's a hideout; from what, I don't know. The resort staff just rounded us all up and told us to stay here. Do you know what's going on, James?"
While she was talking, he took the time to take in everything around him. The sight was almost repulsive: Women and children sitting on the dusty floor, crying and whimpering over the situation; a little boy wadding around, bawling for his daddy; the smell, like sulfer, must, and sweat -- dead-like; the air was close to unbearable and it seemed like terror, lingering among them, clouded everyone's view.
"James?"
He shook his head as if to clear his mind of horrendous thoughts. "Sorry."
"I asked you if you knew what was going on. -- And where is your father?"
"I don't know the answer to either of those questions. You know when Dad went back into the kitchens at the lodge and I went back there to give him his wand because he had dropped it?"
She shook her head yes.
"Well..." He related the whole story of what had happened in immense detail to her. "-- Then I ran into Dumbledore and he brought me here, leaving me in a rush."
As he finished, he took note of her facial expression: full of frightful emotion, all bottled up and ready to explode like a cork in a champagne bottle when shaken up. He wasn't even surprised when she almost knocked him over with another hug.
"I'm so sorry! That's awful you had to see that. I'll pray for your dad."
He smiled at her tenderness and care, and despite their past relationships and how his friends would tease him if they happened to have been watching, he said, "Thank you, Lily," with a superior grin on his face, expressing the overwhelming amount of love and thankfulness he felt for her right then.
~~~~~~
Everyone was beyond exhausted from the day's events and almost directly fell asleep. James and Lily were the last to do so.
As he sat down against a rock wall, he grinned, watching Lily, who was laying across his chest and fumbling with a set of blue rosary beads, her lips mumbling a silent string of 'Hail Mary's.
~~~~~~
"Mr. Potter -- Miss Evans -- Pst!" Professor Dumbledore poked at them in an un-professor-like manner.
Lily woke up first, stretching. As soon as she looked around and realized where she was, she slumped back down. "James," she groaned quietly. "Wake up."
He awoke in a typical-man fashion; he groaned and rolled over without even opening his eyes.
Dumbledore chuckled. "Mr. Potter!" He whispered.
Lily elbowed him and he got up with a startle.
"Where's the fire!?" He yelled stupidly, right before Lily clamped her hand over his mouth to keep him from alerting anyone of a false alarm.
"Come on you two," Professor Dumbledore helped them up hastily. "We must leave. Time is of the essance."
Lily noted that he really seemed to like that phrase. "Leave? Why?"
"Come," he simply repeated, leading them to a pair of broken sunglasses in the very back of their cave shelter. "It's a portkey. On my count. 1, 2, 3!"
They landed disgracefully in a matter of seconds.
"Why are we here?" Lily asked the professor, looking around at a deserted Platform 9 3/4.
"Follow me." He scooted them onto the train, devoid of any passangers save themselves. "You're going to Hogwarts early." He held his hand up for silence. "To answer your unspoken question -- why -- It's because we have good reason to believe that you are in real danger. As such, Hogwarts is the safest place for you right now."
"What's going on?"
"You'll be informed later. There's no time now, and as I've said before, time is of the essence."
"How long will we be at Hogwarts?"
"I'm not sure. Anywhere from four days to four weeks," he replied.
James' eyes popped out of his head. "That long!?"
"Possibly." He sighed at the sight of their crest-fallen faces. "We'll know when the time comes. Now scoot and scadaddle. The train leaves in a couple of minutes. I'll see you at Hogwarts."
He turned to leave the train, but came back smiling. "I also happen to know that the candy trolley rests in the very back closet, in case you're wondering. I assume you'd go looking for it anyway, so I thought I'd give you the heads up." He left with a wink.
James took not a second to debate his options before he was off a lightening speed to the end of the train.
Ten minutes later, their compartment was mounded with sweets, and the train was speeding through the hills of England.
Lily watched James eat his candy angrily, ripping it into shreds before devouring it. "James, I know we're not in the greatest of circumstances here, but I do know something's wrong. I don't have to see you murdering your fodd to figure it out either."
"It's my dad."
"Oh." She nodded her head knowingly.
"I'm just really worried about him, you know?"
"Of course you are. But it'll be ok. I'm sure you'll see him soon." She swung a friendly arm across his shoulders.
"Today has absolutely sucked."
"No doubt. What a great birthday it's been for me. Happy birthday Lily," she scowled sarcastically.
Chapter 6 ~~~~~~ Chapter 8
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