(A/N: Thank you for your good reviews and thanks to my wonderful BETA readers ChEeRyDaNcE, Nonya and Ariana for their great job! Here is the next chapter!)
Chapter 6. RUFUS MAGNUS
My eyes widened in surprise when I realized that the winged lion of St Marco's Square had just winked at me.
"You're a wizard?" I stuttered, in shock.
"My name is Rufus Magnus. At your service milady" he answered with compunction, bowing deeply in front of me. I nervously looked around, fearing that someone could see the moving, talking statue.
"Oh, don't worry milady. Muggles never see anything! We won't run any risk at all!" Rufus tried to reassure me, but I couldn't avoid having doubts.
"Do you have any news?" asked Angy in a professional manner.
"Nothing more than what you already know milady. What we fear will happen is already set. At midnight on March 1st, in exactly four days, all the international Death Eaters heads will secretly meet right here in Venice. But we don't know the true reason for this general meeting. They're probably going to figure out a new plan."
"Do you know anything about the place they will be meeting?" asked Angy.
"We have an idea, but we are not sure about it yet. I will be able to give you more detailed information tomorrow morning."
I was carefully listening to every word, trying not to find the situation strange: a giant white marble lion with a moving mouth and eyes. But I knew that in the magical world such things happen every day.
"Then I'll see you tomorrow at noon. Good night, Rufus" said Angy.
"Good night to you, my dear ladies."
Rufus Magnus again bowed deeply to us and then became still again, just like every other common marble statue.
***O***
After our meeting in St Marco's Square, Angy and I headed directly to the hotel. Along the way, we grabbed something to eat: in a little nearby kiosk, we bought some delicious fried cakes and hot aromatic wine.
Two hours later, we were lying on our beds, thoughtfully staring at the ceiling above us.
"May I ask you something?" I asked Angy. There was something not clear to me about the entire story, and I really wanted to figure it out.
"Mmmm..."
"Do you really trust Rufus?" I wasn't convinced about the strange wizard.
"Of course I trust him, Rufus and I have been working together for ages. He's a smart guy, one you can really count on. Don't worry about him," replied Angy reassuringly.
"Is he going to help us rescue Harry? I mean, is he going to come with us to the Death Eaters' meeting?"
"Naturally! Or do you want to go there alone?" Angy spoke with an annoying and impertinent tone.
"I really hope that you have a plan because without one, we aren't going to make it!"
"Sure! You just have to trust me, all right?"
"Well, it's a bit difficult to trust someone who doesn't tell you anything at all about important things like this, don't you agree?" I leaned on my pillow and rose up to look her directly in the eye.
"If you want to know about my plan, you just have to ask me," she replied.
"Well?" I was starting to lose my temper. I couldn't understand how Angy could remain calm while her boyfriend was risking his life.
"We'll just have to reach the meeting place at the appointed day and time, and then without being noticed, we'll rescue Harry, that's all!"
In that moment I felt my blood rising and I completely lost control.
"Who do you think you are? How can you be so calm while your boyfriend is fighting for his life? At the meeting, there are going to be at least a thousand Death Eaters, if not more, and there'll only be three of us! Tell me, what do you think the chance of us being successful is?"
"Why don't you calm down? Do you want to everybody to know about our problems?" she shouted. Angy had also risen from her bed.
"I don't care if someone hears us! Now we need to think about a good plan for not getting killed, do you understand me?"
"All right, all right, but try to calm down. We aren't going to get anywhere with your hysteria."
Angy looked a bit intimidated by me and mostly for this reason, I slowly regained control of myself.
"Naturally, we are going to arrange some sort of diversion, maybe something that will make them leave the place long enough for us get Harry and leave."
"Do you have something in mind?" I asked, after thinking about it for a moment.
"Not yet, but I'll come up with something soon. After all, the secret meeting will be in three days, so calm down. Everything will be fine."
"I can't calm down!" I was still really worried. "You don't seem like you care enough to be his girlfriend at all! If I were you, I'd..."
"Aha! That's the truth! You're jealous of me, isn't that right Hermione? You'd like to be in my place. Well Harry chose me instead!" said Angy.
"That's not true! Besides, you don't even know me, and you don't know what I'm thinking or what I'm feeling right now! Nobody allowed you to judge me like that!"
"You don't know me either!"
"And I don't want to!" I threw out the sentence, using my sharpest tone.
Angy stretched out on her bed and turned on her side, closing herself in a stubborn silence. I did exactly the same.
***O***
I was slowly walking along a dark corridor. Suddenly, I saw a small light at the end of it and ran to reach it. When I finally got closer, I clearly saw where I was going: the light was coming from a huge mirror, narrow and really high.
In the beginning, the mirror just showed my image, but when I started to concentrate on it, an odd vortex of light and fog appeared inside of it. With great surprise, I saw that the vortex was slowly taking human form, and after a few seconds, I was astonished to see the reflected figure of Albus Dumbledore staring at me.
There was something strange about him: his robes were as white as snow, his face was shining as if directly illuminated by sunlight, and his eyes were twinkling. I stared at him, deeply surprised, almost scared, but he quickly tried to reassure me.
"Don't worry Hermione...Do you recognize me?" His voice was quiet and deep, and I nodded slightly.
"Pay attention to the stars...always follow your heart."
His words were still resounding in the air when his image disappeared from the mirror.
I woke up, panting heavily. I looked around and found myself in my hotel room in Venice. It was six in the morning, and Angy was still deeply asleep in the nearby bed.
I got ready in silence, not waking her up, still trying to remember every word of my dream.
Pay attention to the stars? Always follow your heart? But what does it mean?
I tiptoed out of the room and went down to have breakfast. The more I thought about the dream, the less I understood the meaning of it.
At nine o'clock, I found myself out in the street. The morning air refreshed me. I decided to have a look around before meeting Angy and Rufus later.
I walked along the silent rivers, climbed the romantic bridges, entered the beautiful churches and visited the nice little shops. I thought that Venice was the most romantic city in the world, the ideal place for any couple to honeymoon in.
I stopped in front of a shop that was selling little handmade glass objects, and my attention fell on a cute pendant in the shape of two white doves close to each other.
Melancholy took over me: I thought of Harry and how it would have been wonderful to get married and visit Venice during our honeymoon. I thought about all the things we could have done together as husband and wife, things that he'd done with Angy instead.
I couldn't avoid suffering when I saw them together, but I had to resign myself to remain his best friend forever.
I sighed deeply and put down the pendant, deciding not to think about the two of them together in the future.
It was soon noon, and I walked faster to the meeting with Rufus.
That morning, St Marco's Square didn't seem the same as it had the previous night at all. The masquerade people weren't there anymore, and in their place were thousands of white and black doves landing in groups, pecking at the seeds tourists were throwing at them.
When I reached the cathedral, I was surprised to not find Angy there. I looked around me warily and then turned to the winged lion statue.
"Good morning. Hasn't Angy arrived yet?" I felt like an idiot talking to a statue. The winged lion didn't move, so I asked another question.
"Rufus? Are you there?"
"Hermione!" I turned around.
Angy was sitting at a cafe table under the porches surrounding the square, signaling for me to come closer.
Trying to look casual, I walked over to Angy and noticed that she wasn't alone. At her table was a strange man, about fifty years old, with a curious little black moustache and a bowler hat on his head.
"So, you've decided to show up. You're late" said Angy annoyed, handing a chair to me.
"Good morning milady. I'm happy to meet you again." The stranger bowed deeply to me, raising his bowler hat with his hand.
"Rufus?" I was really surprised.
"Exactly, my dear lady. During the day, I cannot disguise myself as the winged lion statue, so I must assume my normal appearance."
Even his "normal appearance" wasn't normal at all. In fact, his clothes were really funny looking. He had on a strange orange jacket that ended in two tails that hung down behind his legs. His trousers were striped and of several different colours --> [Author:AS] .
I refrained from commenting about his look and turned coldly to Angy.
"Any news?"
"Rufus was waiting for you before telling me anything. Come on Rufus, now you can tell us what you've discovered."
"I just received important news: the date of the meeting has been changed" he said.
Our jaws dropped. He looked over his shoulder and spoke again lowering his voice.
"The meeting will take place tonight."
(A/N: Next chapter is going to be full of action! Please review and stay tuned for more!)
[Author ID1: at Tue Oct 12 00:31:00 2004 ][Author ID1: at Tue Oct 12 00:31:00 2004 ][Author ID1: at Tue Oct 12 00:31:00 2004 ][Author ID1: at Tue Oct 12 00:31:00 2004 ][Author ID1: at Tue Oct 12 00:31:00 2004 ]I don't know if the FA people worry about things like this, but this is an inconsistent spelling use: "colour" is the British spelling, but elsewhere, you've used the American spelling for words[Author ID1: at Tue Oct 12 00:31:00 2004 ] (like "realized" instead of "realised").[Author ID1: at Tue Oct 12 00:32:00 2004 ]
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