Chapter Six
New Fits
Light flooded through the windows as Heather Potter sat at her desk in her bedroom, typing on her laptop, trying to figure out the reasons why Danielle MacNeal would want to go so far as to kill her parents. Loud menacing heavy metal music pounded from the speakers of the device and Heather knew deep within her soul her sworn nemesis was behind this. The evidence; however, was lacking to point it at her.
Danielle never had done anything in the past with out there being something in it for her in the process. She had always lived by the "If you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" policy. So why would this have to be anything different? Heather scratched her head, trying to come up with a reason as the music's mood changed to something lighter.
Heather's thoughts wondered back to all the people in her life who had to die because of people like Danielle. First her biological parents, then Hector, Rachel, and the countless others who died in the Chicago Institute incident (as it was come to be known as), and now the only people she ever known as her parents and one of Ron's many brothers. "Someone is going to pay." Heather thought aloud to no one in particular as she signed off on the Nelson's will. "Someone is going to have to pay big time."
She also knew deep within her heart there would be no turning back at this point. Thoughts of killing were just as bad as performing the deed itself. Heather stood up, walked over to her closet, and opened it. Once inside she headed toward the back corner to her trunk. She opened it and began strapping on the leather stealth uniform from her time at the Great Lakes Academy of Auror Training and Advanced Magic. Once on, she looked at her image in the mirror. She adjusted her wand holster and turned to the side. The uniform fit her differently than she last remembered.
"You know, you always looked incredibly sexy in uniform." Ron's voice floated into the closet and Heather served to see him standing against the door frame.
Heather smiled flirtatiously. "You think so?"
"Yea," Ron's ears began to turn a bright shade of crimson.
"Well, I have some work to do, but I think I'll have it fitting properly soon."
"Where do you think you have to trim? You look good."
"My chest is way too big for this. I feel like I'm spilling out over the top. Some sit-ups for my stomach and some squats wouldn't hurt for my butt." She glanced back at her reflection in the mirror, again.
"I think your arse looks fine." Ron smiled appreciatively and she returned the smile with a bit of a chuckle. Heather hadn't chuckled or smiled for him in a real long time. It comforted him somehow to have her do it again.
"Have you heard from your family, yet?"
"No. Hermione thinks perhaps the mail is being intercepted. Not this surprises me any. Anyone really could have figured it out."
"Except you of course," Heather grinned evilly. When Ron pouted in response, she confessed. "Come on, Ron. Even you must admit that logic and reasoning has never been your strong point. You feel with your heart way too much. Harry does it too."
"Yea."
"So what did you need? I doubt you came all the way here just to tell me that you like my ass." Heather eyed him carefully.
"I wanted to give you something."
"Oh, what is it?"
"This," Ron unloaded his left hand from his pocket and removed a small diamond ring which was rapped around his pinky finger. He slid the ring off his finger and offered it to her.
"What's this?"
"What does it look like? It's your engagement ring. I thought perhaps we could give it another try."
Heather stood rooted and stared at him. She wrestled with it and Ron prayed he just didn't loose his chance with her, again. She took the ring from him and fingered it. When she finally spoke, she was still fingering the ring. "Ron, I don't know if you know this, but I've changed. I'm not the same girl you fell in love with at Hogwarts. You may want to get to know me before asking, again."
Heartbroken, Ron's head lowered. "Oh, I see."
Heather handed him the ring, but he waved it off. "It belongs to you. No one else could ever wear it." Solemnly, he walked out of the room as if his entire world had been crushed.
Once Ron had shut Heather's bedroom door behind him, he closed his eyes and wished for a moment that everything would go back the way it was before the baby. "Maybe Harry can help me sort this all out." Ron sighed as he went to go find him.
*****
Water trickled down the creek as a warm spring breeze carried seeds in the air to transplant them miles away. It had been warmer than the typical spring in Illinois. In fact, it had been overall a warmer than normal winter with the temperatures reaching a high of almost 50 degrees F.
Hermione had packed Harry and herself a picnic lunch. The couple decided to take advantage of the warm weather and the horses by taking a horseback ride following the creek to the lake on the former Nelson estate. Harry had chosen Heather's horse, Stargazer and Hermione took the horse which once belonged to Rachel: Orion, leaving Supernova (the black and white pinto with a spitfire attitude) at the stable. "Awfully strange weather, isn't it?"
"Yes, it is." Harry agreed as he poured some hot cocoa into her cup. "Remember a couple of years ago when we were sitting on the Nelson's plane and it was sub-freezing outside?"
Hermione laughed heartedly. "Of course I do. Remember the twins' faces when Heather told them? It was hysterical!"
"Yea, it was."
"You don't think the weather change might have something to do with the things going on magically?" Hermione handed him a small bag of potato chips.
"It wouldn't surprise me much really."
Hermione paused, trying to figure out if she should admit to him her thoughts in which had plagued her past couple of days. "Harry, I am scared."
"You'd be foolish if you weren't." Harry sighed as he wrapped an arm around her. "It's going to be okay, I promise."
"You can't promise that."
"I know, but you can't blame a guy for trying." Harry chuckled until he realized she wasn't laughing with him.
"I'm serious, Harry. What if the Death Eaters…"
"Do what, kill me?" Harry rolled his eyes. "Come on, Hermione. We've always known about they've could kill one of all of us. That never stopped ups from doing what need to get done."
"Yes, but that was before we were trying to have a family, Harry. What if what happened to Heather and Ron happens to us?" Tears formed and threatened to roll down her cheeks from Hermione's eyes.
Harry took a leaf from a near-by bush and transfigured it into a handkerchief wand-less. He offered it to her and pulled her closer to him. "Hermione, I know I can't promise tomorrow. I wish I could, but I can't. I'm not a seer. I wish I was, but I'm not. All I know is that we have what's here." He took her hand and placed over his heart. He moved a stray hair out of her face.
Hermione smiled, knowing what he meant. She often appreciated their relationship didn't need them to speak everything they thought in order to know what the other was thinking.
The saccharine moment was interrupted with Ron approaching with Supernova. Fear filled in his eyes as the horse decided to gallop at high-speed the entire way there and not looking like he wanted to stop. "Ron, straighten your legs!" Hermione called from the blankets as she quickly stood up.
"I've tried that, but it doesn't work with this thing." With it said, Supernova suddenly stopped, flinging Ron off of him.
Time stopped for Harry and he was vaguely aware of Hermione's death grip on his arm while they witnessed their best friend being thrown from the horse. Once on the ground, the duo raced to his side. Ron lay limp and Hermione reached him first. "Ron, are you okay? Oh, Merlin! I wish I had my medical bag!"
Suddenly Ron's eyes fluttered open and he looked up to see Harry and Hermione hovering over him. He shook his head and declared, "Thank goodness I wore this helmet!"
"Ron, you okay? Can you feel your toes?"
"Of course I can." Ron rolled into a sitting position.
"We'd better get you back to the house so Hermione can check you over better." Harry offered his best friend his hand and helped him stand up.
"Yea, but I'm not getting back on that horse, again. He's completely mental!"
Harry nodded as he gathered Supernova and Stargazer's reigns. Supernova tugged to get away from him, but Hermione caught them before the reigns completely left Harry's control. Hermione looked the horse square in the eye and voiced her thoughts. "You will be one lucky horse if you don't get sold after this and I'm not talking about another stable."
Supernova's eyes grew hefty; at least that is what Harry thought. Either way, her words must have had some effect on him because he behaved the entire way back to the stable.
Once the horses were put away in their alcoves, the three of them noticed a car sitting in the drive. "Who owns that car?" Hermione asked aloud.
"I don't know." Ron admitted.
"There is only one way to find out." Harry offered as he turned the doorknob and opened the front door. Instead of a noise as he was expecting, he was met with silence. He lifted a finger to his lips and the three of them entered the house carefully. They rounded the staircase to the second floor and began listening for any sign of intruders. They then came to the rice paper door of the dojo and heard grunting behind it. The sounds of grunting and rustling came from behind it.
Hermione nodded to Harry as she peaked through the door. She heaved a sigh of relief when Mika Salena and India Jade conducted their spells against one another. She stood from her crouched position and opened the door, announcing their presence. Mika and India stopped their duel and welcomed them. "Who owns the car is that out front in the driveway?"
"It's mine! Do you like it?" India giggled. "It's only a Toyota. Not as nice as Heather's car, I know but it gets great gas mileage. I wish it were any color but beige though."
"You could get it repainted, you know." Mika suggested. "Perhaps magenta color if you like."
India lifted an eyebrow at her. "I was thinking more like blue or green."
"Or you could add some decals." Hermione offered.
"How did you two get here?" Ron asked, interrupting. "Don't you two live on the opposite ends of the country?"
"You've lived around muggles way too long, Ron." Mika rolled her eyes. "I floo-ed here."
"I was here in town anyway. I am looking away from my bobbie*. She's absolutely driving me crazy." India admitted. "Heather called me and mentioned you guys might need a couple extra wands."
"I guess we could." Harry nodded.
"She also told us you've trained for wand-less magic. Can I persuade you to give us a demonstration?" Mika asked bashfully.
India clapped her hands ecstatically. "Yes, please. After all, wand-less magic abilities vary from person to person. Some people can do it incantation-less."
"Oh, he can do it incantation-less." Heather smiled knowingly as she stood up from her seat on the mat. Hermione had not noticed her sitting there until she said something. Heather cracked her knuckles eagerly. "He used it on Ron and me at Hogwarts. You didn't I didn't know about that, Harry. Well, I did. Now it's payback."
"Oh, you think so?" Harry playfully teased his sister as he took a spot on the mat. "You've been out of practice, little sister. Remember last year…you know your sabbatical?"
Heather laughed as she took her stance opposite from him. "Talk about deja vous."
"I know, tell me about it." Harry chuckled as he waited to strike until Ron and Hermione were seated safely out of danger. Hermione had pulled out her medical kit from the cabinet where they kept the weaponry. Hermione pulled out her wand and began to cast several spells to diagnose him.
"What happened to Ron?" Heather asked once she deflected Harry's first spell.
"Supernova bucked me off." Ron admitted as Harry and Heather fought. "I'm alright though."
"Of course he's alright; he landed on his thick head." Hermione spat as she finished her scan. "Don't worry, though. It protected him from too much long-term damage. Fortunately, he only has a mild concussion and a few missing brain cells."
"Thanks a lot, Hermione." Ron offered sarcastically as the pounding in his head began. "Can you give me anything for it? My head hurts."
"No, actually I can't." Hermione admitted. "Concussions and medicine, magical or not, is never a good combination. Give it a day or two. Maybe I'll give you something then."
"Thanks a lot."
"No problem."
The duel continued until both Harry and Hermione summoned swords from the opposite wall. The two of them hesitated before continuing their spar. Heather heaved to catch her breath. "You're stronger than I last remember."
"More confident, actually," Harry was also trembling to catch his breath. "You of all people should know that."
Heather grinned knowingly as she went for the 'kill'. Before she could take aim for the final strike, a blue light reflected off her sword and the power behind it was enough to throw her backwards into the bamboo rod cabinet.
"Heather!" Mika and India gasped as they ran toward her with Ron following not too far behind.
Hermione went over, mouth agape to Harry in enough time to witness the blue cloud lifting from his eyes. "Harry, are you okay?"
When the blue cloud lifted, he shook his head. "I'm alright."
"What the bloody hell was that?" Ron asked as Heather sat back up. "How did you do that, Harry?"
"I don't know." Harry imediantly went over to Heather's side. "Are you okay? I didn't mean to hurt…"
"I know you didn't, Harry." Heather winced. "Hermione, could you please make sure I didn't break anything, please."
"Kvetch, Kvetch, Kvetch**," India waved her off. "I've had hangnails worse than what you've got."
"Kvetch? Bobbie? Are you even speaking English?" Ron guided Heather off the floor and out of the room.
"Yiddish, actually." Mika explained. "India's grandmother is Jewish."
"Harry, so I guess not only are you a wizard but a mage." India commented, not hearing the conversation about her heritage. "Who would have known? Your parents must have been very powerful to have you as their first born. It's no real wonder how you and Heather kicked Voldermort's ass."
"Does it really matter if I'm first born or not?"
"Of course it matters. The placement of the child in a family is everything. How powerful they are and what kind of powers they have." Hermione rambled off. "It's kind of like the theory of birth order. Each child has a unique quality due to their placement in the birth order. It's like their magical birthright."
"Oh."
Harry didn't listen to Hermione continue her ramblings as Ron was trying to figure out how India's grandmother was Jewish and she wasn't. "But if her grandmother is Jewish doesn't that mean she is?"
"Not according to Jewish law. It was her father's mother's side that was Jewish. The law states that you are Jewish through your mother not your father unlike most cultures. The reason for this is because it used to be the other way around. Way back when the Romans ruled the world, Roman soldiers would rape Jewish women. The children would then in turn not be Jewish and then they would have to take time to convert them. The law later changed and this is why she's not Jewish. She acts like it though because she's lived with her grandmother since she was six."
"What happened to her parents?" Ron asked. "I don't believe she's actually talked about them."
"What's to mention about them? They're dead." India offered as she caught the last part of Ron and Mika's conversation. "They died when I was six years old."
"I'm sorry. Did they die during…?"
"No, they weren't killed by a Death Eater or a Voldermort supporter. They were killed in a car crash on the way home from a convention. My mother was a witch and she and my dad eloped. To say the least Bobbie wasn't exactly excited about the match made with out her blessing. My mom was a Herbologist and my father was her assistant. Like I said, they were on their way home from a convention and they were hit. Some idiot decided he wanted to go drinking and then drive his car into their lane. My dad swerved to miss and he ended up flipping the vehicle. It was after I was sent to live with Bobbie, my powers exploded because I was grieving. That was when she sent me to Salem Academy. They had a magical elementary program and she knew she couldn't control me."
"Oh," Hermione breathed. "I'm sorry."
"What's to be sorry about? They truly loved each other. They did great things you know. They were really in love too. One didn't breathe with out the other." India shrugged.
Harry glanced at Hermione, reached over, and took her hand. "I love you."
Hermione smiled at him and mouthed back at him. "I love you too."
No one else noticed this display of affection between them because Miles entered the room. "The car is… Miss…are you okay Heather?"
"I'm fine. I am just winded from a spar." Heather admitted. "I'll be okay."
"Are you sure?"
Heather nodded. "Is the car loaded, Miles?"
"Yes, Miss."
"Good, I'm ready to kick some ass."
*****
The flight over back to England took forever. Hermione spent most of the trip with her nose stuck in one book or another. It wasn't until they were boarding the Knight Bus Hermione said anything at all. "How could I have been so stupid?"
"Uh, I don't know Hermione." Ron volleyed to her. "Considering you say just about every time you've over looked the simplest answer."
Hermione rolled her eyes and the other in the group urged her to continue. "Harry, do you remember what you used to destroy Tom Riddle's diary?"
"A Basilisk tooth; we've gone over this about a hundred times." Ron was exasperated they were going over the events of their second year yet again.
"It wasn't the actual tooth, Ron, which actually destroyed the journal. It was the venom inside of it, wasn't it?" Harry was catching on.
"Exactly," Hermione pulled out the book she had been reading. "All we need to do is find some Basilisk venom and we'll be able to destroy it."
"And where do you expect to find a Basilisk?" Heather asked as she adjusted her corset top. The leather top pushed her chest up suggestively out of it. As she adjusted the red ribbons, which was the only thing that kept her inside her top, Ron stared intently at her while she secured it. "It's not like they're running all over the place."
"Wait a minute, Harry; didn't you have an encounter with a Basilisk while you were at Hogwarts?" Mika was twisting a bit of suede around the rim of the dream catcher she was working on; taking care not to get it tangled in the feathers dangling in her long black hair.
"Why?"
"We could take a sample of the poison, put it on a sword, and stab the shit of the spell books. We could use it on the pain-in-the-ass Death Eaters too, if you'd like."
"There is only one small minor problem with that." Ron began as his attention faded from Heather's chest. "Harry defeated the snake in his second year. That was close to ten years ago. The snake would have decayed by now, wouldn't it?"
All conversation stopped and everyone turned their heads. It was India who said anything first. "Oy Vey! I take it you didn't pay attention much in Care of Magical Creatures, did you Ron?"
"No, he didn't." Hermione smiled smugly at him.
India sighed. "The Basilisk's bones wouldn't have decayed so quickly due to the lack of humidity underground. The bones should be well preserved."
"Why the bloody hell would we want the bones anyway? When it's the venom we want." Ron asked her.
"Not to mention there is a lot of water down there. Wouldn't that have an effect on the humidity?"
"Not if the underground is as deep as you said it was." Mika paused then turned to Ron. "Expecting the actual venom sack would still be in the same condition as it was the day Harry killed it would be foolish."
"Not to mention that soft tissue decays a lot quicker than bone tissue. If we can find the remaining fang and grind it, we may be able to get enough of the venom off to destroy both books." Hermione explained as she opened the book and faced the page to him. "All we really would need to deliver the blow would be something to penetrate all the pages. A sword, like Mika said, would be an excellent choice. We could cover the blade with the potion and both would be able to destroy it."
"Well, sorry to tell you this, Hermione, but I left all my bloody swords back at Heather's house." Ron grew quickly irritated with Hermione for making him look stupid in front of the entire group.
"What about Gryffindor's sword?" Harry offered. "I'm sure Dumbledore would let us use it."
"That's a great idea, Harry!" Mika hit her hand to her head, "But what about Dorko and his little Western Whore? What should we do if they decide to make an entrance? They have to know about the whole Basilisk thing themselves."
"Red squadron is still there, aren't they Ron?" India asked.
"Yea."
"Do you think they'll be willing to help?"
"If it means ending this once and for all, they'd be all about it. I'll send them a message once we get to King's Cross."
"Well, then. The stage is set. Time to get this show on the road." Heather beamed at the group and they responded with groans and eye rolling.
"Okay, Heather. You can stop with the bad clichés already."
"What do you mad clichés? Those aren't bad."
Mika shook her head. "If you say so, Heather; if you say so."
*****
End of Chapter
Author's notes:
* Yiddish for Grandma
** Yiddish for "Complain, Complain Complain"