The Minster’s late Sunday message had ensured that Harry would be in his office for an eight o’clock Monday morning appointment. So, Harry arrived ten minutes early and was informed that the Minister did not usually arrive till half past nine and that he had left instructions for him to wait in his office until his arrival. So Harry sat in an uncomfortable thinly padded leather chair in the Minister’s waiting room feeling very much like he had as a student called to Professor McGonagall’s office for speaking out of turn in Umbridge’s class.
The Minister’s Assistant was very kind to him. She offered him choice of cakes, tea and coffee. After originally rejecting her offer, he eventually accepted a cup of tea. And every day this week, he had arrived on time and waited for his ‘superior’ to show up. Ron had had offered to come in his stead, but he had been in such pissing matches in the past with other jackasses. He couldn’t give in. He hadn’t given in to Snape, Umbridge and he would not give in to March Lee.
However, today was Thursday and also the day that the rest of his family was heading back to Puddlemere and eventually to America. So, Harry sat there reviewing reports, sipping his lukewarm tea, and trying not to seethe about this giant waste of time in some ‘immature’ power display. He pulled off his glasses, looked up to the ceiling, and closed his eyes. I miss Kingsley Shacklebolt. Kingsley was a man of action and the solver of tasks. The current Minister is a bureaucrat, the type that would rather do nothing than risk doing something wrong.
What could Harry tell the Minister today that he hadn’t already told him? Nothing. Since the break-in at the prison, no criminal or terror attacks had occurred in either the Magical or Muggle world that could be linked to Malfoy and his organization. With the help of his Aurors, all of the escaped prisoners, except the two who were on the brooms, had been re-captured. He had supervised the modifying of memories of guards, prisoners and drivers on the street near the prison.
Where was Bones? There had been no sign of him. He was not in St. Mungo’s or in any Muggle Hospital, nor had been been found dead. Monday after work, Harry and Ginny had gone to St. Angus’ Watch to comfort his young wife, Maisey. Ginny comforted the young mother and Harry spent time playing with their little two-year-old son, Reggie.
What about the two escapees? All he knew about them was from the reports that Anthony had forwarded from the police. Lee Laird was, in the parlance known as a puller, or a canon. To the rest of the world, he was called a pickpocket. He had been preying upon a group of Australian tourists when he was noticed lifting a wallet by a former Melbourne law officer. During his attempt to escape, Laird had fought through a crowd, slamming an elderly school teacher into the wall at the Tower of London. The teacher had died and he was convicted for the death of the man.
The second escapee, Robert Day, was former military man, who had been part of the Yeoman of the Guard before spending a year in the Muggle war in Iraq. While on patrol, a bomb exploded near his lorry, Day had been gravely wounded and was relieved from his duty in the military. After his service, Day had drifted into alcoholism and into petty theft. He had been a model inmate who seemed to have turned his life around and had only two weeks remaining on his sentence when the door to his cell was blasted open and he was ‘rescued’. Why these two men out of the prisoners in Wandsworth had been chosen, neither Harry nor the Muggles knew.
Why had the crime way so abruptly ended after the break-in, the Minister would ask him? The only answer he had was it was because Malfoy wanted it so. The Minister would not be happy with that answer. The truth was that he wasn’t happy with the answer either.
All of the boys on the squad waved their hands in the air above their heads as the caravan began its rocking back and forth as it left the Isle of Man for its transcontinental flight. Rose and Lily sat behind the boys leaving Kaitlin in the back by herself. Lily, in spite of Rose’s protestation, had somehow loosed her straps and was seated on her knees looking backwards holding onto the seat back for support as she closely watched Kaitlin Jones like she was some sort of strange animal in the London Zoo.
Kaitlin noticed the unwanted attention and glared back at the younger girl. –What!â€
–Just watching to see what colors you turn before you hurl. I’ve got a bet with Hugo. So, go ahead and feel free to get sick. You could think of something greasy and disgusting, you know like James. Don’t hold back.†Lily gave Kaitlin her best innocent little sister smile.
–If I get sick, I’ll make sure you’re in front of me when I do. And then I will get Malfoy because I took an anti-nausea potion his mother cooked up for me.
Lily was not deterred by the Kaitlin’s news that she would be targeted. She just rocked back and forth with the caravan until it landed. As the window stopped flashing blue, changing to a noon-time sky, Kaitlin did not change color. Lily’s face dropped and she turned to her cousin Rose in the adjoining seat. –Hugo won,†she said.
The door opened and a familiar face appeared in the entryway. Mrs. Davis looked around inside and asked, –No one needs to exit quickly? Anyone?â€
A few chuckles were her only reply. The players undid their seat straps and began to queue up to exit the caravan. From the front of the trailer came Coach Potter’s voice, –James-–
–I know, Mum, watch Lily. And don’t sell her to any Gypsies, unless we get a really good price for her.â€
Lily stuck her tongue out at her brother. As Geoffrey Grindus stepped out of the camper, he leaned back toward Scorpius and Albus to ask them, –What is a good price for a little sister?†Albus shrugged.
Kim Davis pointed to the pole in the circle with the sign ACE on it. –You are the ACE side.†Sitting behind the caravan, were two campers: one with the Egyptian flag and a second one with the red flag of China.
–What is ACE?†asked Rose.
–The winners of groups A, C, and E along with the second place teams of group B, D, and F make up the ACE group.†Davis responded.
–That means we can’t play Russia!†Kaitlin was furious. –When can we next play them?†She said attempting to take the packet of paper from the older woman to hunt for her answer directly.
Davis reflexively pulled the sheets back. –Let me check! Hum, let me see…the top two teams from each side will meet in the semi-finals. You could meet them then.â€â€“Brazil won Group A, China Group C, and Egypt won Group E.†Rose paused crinkling her nose in thought the way that Scorpius had seen at least a thousand times. –The last three teams will be Cuba, Argentina, and us?†she asked.
Davis nodded in reply. –And where are our Russian friends?†asked Kaitlin. Scorpius heard a note of menace in her voice, which Davis seemed to miss.
She turned toward the commissary and pointed toward a flag pole in the distance. Kitty-Kat followed the older woman’s finger into the distance. A weird smile spread across her face. Scorpius wondered what she had planned for them.
After the pre-game walk-through and evening meal, Kaitlin and Rose did not return with the team to the caravan. Ever since they had arrived at the Institute, Rose and Kaitlin had been talking incisively to each other. Whenever Scorpius tried to get Rose alone to talk to her, Kitty-Kat would show up and escort Rose away. Had Rose asked Kaitlin to keep him from talking to her? Did she no longer want to be his ‘friend’ anymore, but couldn’t tell him? He was confused and for the first time in his life feeling depressed.
When they arrived back at the base, he realized that the two girls had disappeared around the commissary. The commissary was halfway between their campground and the Russians. Was Rose meeting Denis Federov? A half hour later, the two errant girls returned to the caravan. When James asked where they had been, the girls did not respond verbally, but both of them shared a smile and nod.
Feeling totally drained, Scorpius walked past James Potter and Rhys Jones, who were playing Exploding Snap, and Geoffrey, who was crushing Albus in Wizard’s Chess, and slipped into the sleeping quarters. He crawled into his upper bunk and stared at the ceiling. The sounds of the explosions were not enough to rouse him and he fell asleep three hours before curfew.
It was dark when a noise from the common area awoke him. Scorpius sat up and almost slid off of his bunk before his dangling legs reminded him of the fall facing him. Trying not to rock the bed enough to wake Grindus, he jumped blindly onto the floor. He landed slightly off balance, but nearly silently. He pulled his clothes off of the bed rail and put on his pants. Turning the knob as quietly as he could, he cracked open the door.
–It’s lights out, Malfoy.†The voice was James.
He shut the door quietly and turned toward the voice. –I heard something.â€
–So did Iâ€
–And you weren’t going to check?â€
–Only after you did. My mum still hasn’t forgiven me for the red sparks, if she finds me out there by myself-†James made a motion across his throat and a slicing noise with his mouth coinciding with the moving of his finger.
Scorpius shushed James, turned the knob and opened it. Two familiar cloaked forms were undoing the front door locking spells and then exited in the night. Rose and Kaitlin were outside. He turned back to James and whispered, –Rose and Kitty-Kat have gone outside.â€
–Rose break the rules? No way! She’d rather die than get into trouble. Unless, she is going with Kitty to keep her out of trouble.†James responded in a knowing voice.
He had a different idea. She and Kaitlin might be going to see the Federov brothers. He had to know what was going on. If he stayed in, he would have just stared at the ceiling and worried, so following the girls was a logical thing to do. If he saw Rose with Denis Federov, he might break that stupid nose of Federov’s.
–Wait, I’m coming,†whispered James. After James exited, the two boys shut the door on their room and finished dressing. Scorpius, who was dressed first, opened the door and, through the moon and starlight, followed the girls toward the other campground.
Just as they left the caravan, both boys pulled out their wands and almost shut the door. He and James did not speak as they tried to get close, but not too close to the girls. With each step, he was more and more certain that they were headed to the BDF site and a romantic rendezvous with the Russians.
However, when they got to the other campgrounds no lights were visible in any of the dwellings. The girls had stopped just outside of the onion domed camper of the enemy, but they did not walk toward the camper. Rose lit her wand and by its dim light, the boys could see Kaitlin with a stick digging in the dirt and dropping something onto the ground. Rose’s wand went out and a trickle of water on the ground was heard.
Scorpius cupped his hand around his own wand and moved his body in between it and the girls. He lit it. In the dim light, he saw James was equally confused by the girl’s actions. James mouthed silently, –Now what?â€
He shrugged in reply and realized his action was not visible in the half-light. –We can either go back, watch them, or confront them as silently as we can.â€
James nodded and said, –I’m not going back to the base without know what the hell they are doing? I mean, could you sleep after seeing this?â€
–No,†Scorpius whispered back.
–So, step aside and shine your wand at them. Let them decide. We can always run back to the caravan and lock them out and let the coaches sort it out.â€
–We can’t. We play China tomorrow. If they get caught, your mother will probably bench them just to prove a point about who’s in charge.â€
–She would,†replied James.
Scorpius stepped aside and pointed his lit wand at the two girls who were poking the ground a few yards away from their first spot. When the girls saw the light, they froze. Kaitlin leaned forward looking through the darkness.
In a whispered voice, she spoke –James is that you?â€
James nodded, lit by the wand light. He replied, –I brought Scorp with me.†Scorpius looked at James; he had brought Potter, not vice versa.
–Go back!â€
–No.â€
Kaitlin’s voice rose in volume, –I said, go back.†Rose reached over to silence her. Kaitlin swung around ready to explode when she realized she had to be quiet.
James pointed his head toward the girls and they walked over to join them. Kitty-Kat had her hands on her hips, face screwed up in anger, and stomped her heal into the ground when the boys got to her.
–I’ve seen that before Kitty-Kat. The second time, it’s not scary at all,†said James.
Scorpius sighed loud enough to be shushed by his three teammates. –What are you doing? We saw you digging in the soil.†He reached over to the pouch hanging around Rose’s neck. She slapped his hand. Now, he was as ticked off as Kaitlin.
The four Gryffindors glared at each other for at least a minute. Rose finally broke the silence. –If you must know, we are planting a little surprise for our Russian friends. I got a group of Dianthus mephitidae seedlings to plant around their camper.â€
Scorpius snorted and realized that James was in the both literally and figurately in the dark. –Dianthus mephitidae is skunk flowers, a member of the carnation family. They have a pungent flower odor and, when touched stains anything or anyone it touches with a smelly oily fluid.â€
James snorted in appreciation. –Let us help.â€
–No, it has to be us!†Kaitlin’s voice was getting loud enough for Rose and Scorpius to shush her.
Scorpius dug the toe of his shoe into the dirt; he heard the crunch of gravel. He bent down and put his finger into the second hole Kaitlin had dug with her makeshift spade. He placed the finger in his mouth just like Crystalline Dragonherd had taught him in Herbology club. He pulled the finger of his mouth and let his mouth analyze the soil. –The ground is too stony. You will need a good source of carbon.â€
–Great and does our resident plant geek have any in his pocket?â€
James responded to Kitty-Kat. –The commissary, they had a bonfire last night.â€
–So,†started Kaitlin before Rose interrupted.
–Brilliant,†said Rose as Scorpius patted his teammate on the back. Kaitlin was as lost as ever.
–Charred wood, charcoal, is almost pure carbon. I’ll levitate some over here.†James disappeared, leaving the trio.
Scorpius looked at the girls thinking they would be happy and appreciative for the boys help. He was wrong.
–How much should we add?†Rose spoke in a matter-of-fact whisper.
He looked back at her wishing he had stayed in bed. –Impossible to tell without doing a revealing spell on the soil. I’d guess by the taste to fill bottom in charcoal and go fifty-fifty on the rest.â€
–Good. Now, both of you leave us alone.†She had finished her benediction as James showed up with the ashes and charred wood fragments.
–Come on, let’s go. They want to be alone with their seeds. Oh, yeah! Don’t forget to add a little water.â€
The two boys turned and headed back to the caravan. James seemed upbeat about the encounter. Scorpius just wanted to die.