The Bat Returns From Hell
- Chapter 7: Unusual Information
Harmony Farmer was pleased - and impressed. Despite Manhattan's perpetual severe housing shortage, an inevitable product of decades of rent control, the power of Runway once again manifested itself. Less than twenty-four hours after being evicted, she was in a nearly new, three-bedroom flat in the heart of the Village.
The place was a bit of a mess when she moved in, but that could not be helped. After all, beggars cannot be choosers. Besides, she badly needed to calm herself and refocus. Cleaning the place helped do that. She did it strictly Muggle-style. After all, those accursed goblins might well still be about, searching for her.
Damn that obsessive Harry Potter.
From cleaning up their leavings, she gained an odd acquaintance with the flat's prior residents. There were four of them, all from France. They stayed for approximately two weeks - judging from the dates on discarded envelopes. Their names were Julie, Claire, Cécile and Brielle. They were relatively new to the business. It was apparently their first trip to New York.
Harmony was just finishing, moving a stack of French newspapers and magazines to the trash bin, when she tripped over a minivac left carelessly in the hallway and dropped the whole lot. Cursing her inattention, Harmony started to retrieve the mess when she gasped, and came to a complete stop.
She stared at the masthead of Le Monde Magical, wizarding France's leading publication. That could mean only one thing - at least one of these models was a witch. After an initial surge of adrenaline from this discovery, Harmony reminded herself that it was really none of her business. Who was she to intrude upon a witch trying to make a go of it in the Muggle world? She was doing exactly the same thing.
Harmony shrugged. She gathered the scattered papers and took them to the same chute through which all the prior occupants' other remnants had vanished. But before consigning this lot to some New Jersey landfill, curiosity got the better of her. She had not seen a wizarding publication in many years…. Nobody knew she had it. It was an accident….
She saved it out, made herself a cappuccino, sat down, and started leafing through it. It was dated the previous month, meaning it had been brought over when these models first came to New York. This was the only one - everything else was Muggle.
The fare was mostly standard - comings and goings of the French Ministry, EU broom standardization, whether or not Turkish wizardry was ready for accession, the latest staff appointment at Beauxbatons, promotions, obituaries…. Fleur's mother had died. Too bad. Apparently her father was some big muckety-muck in the French Ministry.
Then she saw it. "Oh my. Oh my. Oh my." He had really done it. She had wondered if he might do something like that.
It appeared on the lower half of the society page, in the non-French items: Harry Potter had gotten an annulment, not just a divorce. Apparently it was amicable enough. Only "irreconcilable differences" were mentioned - no hint of infidelity on either side. Not that she thought there would be. Harry was too honest and honourable, and he was Ginny's whole life. A huge settlement was apparently involved. Ginny was the new Lady Black; Harry kept the Potter inheritance; and unspecified "other assets" were divided. Harmony knew that meant at least the Google stock and the book royalties
Still she was astounded. How in the world had those two not been able to make things work? What had happened to wreck the marriage of the century - as it was called at the time? Why had they chosen an annulment? That implied that their entire marriage was doomed from the beginning.
After musing futilely for some time, Harmony shook her head. Harry's affairs were none of her business. She had seen to that nine years earlier, when she left England rather than endure the emotional torture of giving Harry away - not just emotionally, but actually at their wedding.
She had work to do - page proofs to review and schedules to sort out. This was the busiest time of the year. She had to do whatever Ms. Beastly and Emily wanted to prepare for the Paris show, high fashion's biggest annual event. For months, Emily blatantly looked forward to that trip.
After an evening of swotting, and a disturbed night's sleep with dreams featuring memories from long ago, Harmony Farmer was in the Boss from Hell's office bright and early the next morning, making everything ready.
Suddenly, fifteen minutes early, the great lady swept in.
"Ms. Beastly, I'm sorry, I'll have everything ready in a couple of minutes…. You're early," Harmony said obsequiously.
"Don't worry about it," the boss replied in surprising friendly tones, "and close the door."
"Yes, Ms. Beastly," Harmony hurried to the door and started letting herself out.
"No, Harmony," the boss corrected. "Close the door with you on this side."
"Oh," was all the younger woman said. She shut the door and nervously faced her boss, uncertain of what was to come.
"You were excellent at the party. You took over admirably when Emily proved herself … unprepared. After a rather … untidy … beginning, you've also cleaned yourself up nicely…. You're actually been looking quite … acceptable lately."
"Thank you, Ms. Beastly."
"Thus I want you to make plans to come to Paris with me next month," the boss declared.
Harmony had to restrain herself from jumping up and down. She had made it! She made the cut. Nobody on the Runway staff could claim the boss' true acceptance until selected to accompany her on the annual Paris trip. Some employees were still waiting after years. She had proven worthy in her first year.
"Yes, Ms. Beastly, I'll make the arrangements immediately," she agreed, willing her voice to remain even. "I think I should be able to stay with Emily."
"That won't be necessary," Ms. Beastly stopped her. "You can just take over her accommodations. I also need you to tell Emily that she will be holding down the fort here."
"But Ms. Beastly, she was…."
"That is all."
* * * *
Little Molly was positively bubbling when, after her play date with Tommy, she returned from her mother's estate.
"Tell me Pumpkin, did you have fun with Tommy?" Harry the proud papa asked. He went back to cooking his daughter her this week's to-die-for favorite dinner - Muggle SpaghettiOs out of a can.
"Oh, yes!" she squealed happily. "We flew on the Peggies, and swam in the lake, and Tommy showed me his Pygmy Puff, and Mummy read to us, and we ate the new peanut butter-filled Chocolate Frogs, and Tommy got your card, and I showed Tommy how to feed the fish, and - oh Daddy, Tommy is so silly…!"
Harry smiled indulgently at the girl who was the apple of his eye and the reason that his messed-up life was worth continuing. "And how was Tommy being silly this time, Pumpkin? He didn't try to get you to do flips on the Pegasus again, did he?"
"Oh, no … nothing like that," she responded happily. "He said I've got two Mummies. I told him to stop, of course I only had one. He said he had overheard…."
CRASH!
"Daddy - are you all right?"
Harry stared at Molly like he'd seen a ghost (and this house had no ghosts, except when Nearly Headless Nick came to visit). The bowl of hot SpaghettiOs lay shattered on the floor.
Quickly Harry drove away the cold sensation of a dagger to the heart that had sliced through him at the sound of Molly's words.
"I'm sorry, Pumpkin," Harry spoke robotically, "I accidentally dropped your dinner. I'll make you another can. He promptly did so, after Scourgifying the mess he made.
Children have very short attention spans, and after Harry's accident interrupted her train of thought, Molly quite forgot about Tommy's unusual "two Mummies" comment.
Harry could think about nothing else.
He returned to it when he tucked Molly in for the night.
"Molly dear," he said very softly to her while sitting next to her on her bed. "When Tommy said what he did about you having two Mummies, why did you think it was so silly?"
"Because nobody has two Mummies," Molly said. "I've got one Mummy, Ginny, and she loves me very much…."
"…Yes she does," Harry agreed.
"I wish you still loved her too," Molly added somewhat sadly.
"I do, just not like a Daddy should love a Mummy," Harry tried to explain to his eight-year-old. "There's more than one kind of love."
"That's fine Daddy, don't cry," Molly said as she gave Harry one of her sweet smiles. "Mummies love their kids; that's why I know I've only one…."
"How's that, Pumpkin?" Harry asked.
"Because if I had a second Mummy, she'd love me too. Since I've never seen her - she can't love me. If she loved me, she'd come…."
"Molly dear," Harry said with difficulty. He was all choked up.
"Daddy, what's wrong?" Molly squeaked, crawling out from under her sheets, and over to give her father a much-needed hug.
"It's just … I've got to tell you something," Harry said as he struggled to maintain some semblance of composure. He stroked Molly's dark red hair absent-mindedly. "Daddy's done some very dumb things. Tommy's right. You do have a second Mummy. She's who saved your life back when you were so sick…."
"But where is she, then?" Molly asked, her wide little eyes shimmering with unshed tears. "Why doesn't she love me…?"
"I-I … I don't know where she lives," Harry confessed. "Nobody does. But I'm sure she loves you - or would if I'd let her…."
"Can't you find her?" Molly requested. "Tommy says you can do anything."
"I wish I could, but with her, I'm afraid I can't do anything," Harry replied sadly, but by now more or less under control. "Let me tell you about her. She's an amazing woman…. Her name's Hermione…."
"That's the new middle name you're giving me," Molly observed.
"It is, and now you know why I want to do that," Harry told her. "Here's a true story from when Daddy was growing up…."
* * * *
Harry Potter's very annoyed head popped into Remus Lupin's Floo late the next morning.
"Remus, I know you're there. I need to talk to you," Harry demanded.
"Hold your Hippogriffs, I'm coming," Remus Lupin replied. "Just let me finish shaving, will you. It's still bad around the Full Moon."
Maybe thirty seconds later, the ex-werewolf's face came into view and he sat on the ottoman opposite the fireplace. "What is it, Harry?"
"Are Tonks or Tommy around?" the younger man asked.
"Nope, sorry," Remus replied. "Tonks took him out to buy some new clothes. I'm afraid you missed them."
"Good, because I didn't want to talk about this with them around," Harry said testily. "One or both of you've been right big blabbermouths, and now I've got a real problem."
He had Remus' full attention now. "What happened?" the older man sighed.
"Tommy overheard you talking about Hermione, that's what," Harry revealed. "He understood that to mean that Molly has two Mums…."
"…Oh, we'll just tell him it was a joke or something," Remus offered.
"Too bloody late," Harry scowled at him. "He's already told Molly. Because of that, I had to tell Molly the truth about Hermione last night. Now you have to help me…"
"Help you do what?"
"Arrange a reunion with Hermione, that's what," Harry declared. "If she doesn't want to … to see me…. Well, I'm afraid … I'll just have to accept that. But I want her to give Molly a chance…. I don't want Molly thinking Hermione's a bad person."
"I don't know if we can do that, Harry," Remus told him.
"If you don't, then I'll tell Molly you know where her other mum is," Harry threatened. "And I'll sic her on you two. You know how determined she can be…."
"Just like Hermione," Remus remarked, a sad smile on his face.
"Damn straight," Harry growled. "I mean it."
"Well I have something at the Ministry today that can't be put off, so why don't you come over tomorrow?" Remus offered. "We'll arrange for Tommy to have a session with his tutor…."
"Dammit," Harry swore. "I can't. I have to try talking some sense into Gabby and old man Delacour. Fleur owled me this morning. There's been another fight. Apparently, I'm the only one in the world that both magical-chauvinist father and Muggle-crazy daughter respect enough to try to resolve their damn fights. I'll talk to you once I get back from France. Molly's going to be at…. Oh, double shite!"
"What is it, Harry?" Remus inquired.
"I have to tell Ginny that Molly knows," Harry realized. "She's not going to be happy about that. Not one little bit."
- 7 -
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\HP & The Fifth Element.Bat from Hell Ch 6 Endings and Beginnings.doc.doc 12/28/06
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