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Old 05-12-2012, 05:05 AM   #26 (permalink)
Ivana R
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Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Brazil
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Default 7. Bringing the Army together
Portuguese Hippogriff Harrys Schokofrösche

When she recovered she was lying on the couch. Her eyes opened with difficulty and she saw the couple sitting at the dinner table, in front of her. They were talking softly, looking a little nervous, about what they would need to do and on who they would be able to rely for help. Flora was dizzy when rose up from the sofa and approached them, leaning on the table. The table was filled with paper where Neville and Hannah were doing a lot of notes. Neville looked at Flora and he came up with an idea:

“Let's call the DA. We must hurry before the Death Eaters get organized ... Let's meet at my grandmother's house; it’ll be safer and it’s roomy enough. Could you get our old galleons, Hannah-honey?”

Hannah stood up, walked to the fireplace and quickly returned with a picture frame on her hand, where there was a couple of coins gently stored between the glass and a piece of parchment with a picture of a smiling group of teens. . In the parchment, it could be read "Dumbledore's Army" followed by several names. Their names were there: Neville Longbottom and Hannah Abbott, followed by a dozen other ones. She cast a Tollerium Charm (a spell to remove objects from within other) against the coins within the frame, and the glass seemed to vanish in front of the coins, which got out of it. She caught them and cast another spell which made the coins began to shine in a different way. Then, the address and the time of the meeting appeared in their tail face. It would be in 16 minutes.

“Let’s go.”

Neville took Hannah by the hand and reached for Flora that stared blankly at them.

“Let’s meet some old friends. For the time being, we don’t think it's safe to ask the ministry for help, since it’d be very difficult to explain to them why you need protection. McLaggen, the Minister for Magic, is a foolish bureaucrat. It will be decades before he gets what is going on.” Hannah said, gesturing a little nervous.

“W. .. W. .. W. .. What was that thing?” Flora said pointing to where the bright wolf had appeared.

“Draco’s patronus ... Funny, I thought he was incapable of conjuring one. It must be Harry’s thing,” assumed Neville. “But the voice on the message was undoubtedly his. No one could do that but Draco.”

"What's this patronus? Draco okay?"

"I suppose so ..." Neville smiled at her. "Patronus is a spell that evokes a positive force that can both be used as a shield against Dementors and can be used the way you saw, to send urgent messages. Anyway, I ask you settle down; we have already been in worse situations. We’ll help you. But we need to hurry up.”

Flora held out her hand to him. Neville suggested her to pick up her wand. She still wasn’t used to taking her wand to wherever she went, although it felt to her like an extension of her arm. Anyway, she felt safer with it. The three joined hands and went by Apparition conducted by Neville. It was her third experience with Apparition, one could say it was a success, as this time she closed her eyes in time and, despite having felt her body pressing she did not feel nauseous. This gave to Flora a momentary sense of triumph and she smiled in secret.

Some seconds later, they arrived at the house of Neville’s Grandma. She was a tall lady with very white hair, was dressed in a heavy velvet suit, and was in high heels. She was happy to see Hannah. The old lady fondled Hannah belly and talked to the still unborn baby:

“Good morning, great-granddaughter. You’ll be as great a witch as your mother.”

“Come on, grandma.” Neville said a little embarrassed. His grandmother pretended not to hear him and said:

“Neville, your friend Ron has just arrived; he is in the living room. He thinks you are going to throw a party or something like that. He’s asked me about the other guests ...”

At that moment Hermione, Ginny, Ernie Macmillan, Finnigam Seamus, Dean Thomas, Cho Chang and Luna Lovegood arrived.. Flora stood at a corner of the room withdrawn from the others. She was not sure how all those people were going to received her. Besides, she was so concerned with her family that she didn’t even notice the arrival of the others. To her relief, everyone was so excited about the meeting that they took to realize her presence. Neville approached Ginny:

“Where is Harry?”

“He's working, Neville. He was the countryside to help in the arrest of a darkness artefacts smuggler before going to the ministry, he'll have a meeting at 10am with the minister. He usually leaves his galleon at home, so he didn’t see your message. I was nearing the Daily Prophet when I felt my pocket warm with the galleon..." She admits, a little embarrassed. "Er ... I think it gives me luck ... Anyway... What was so urgent? I see that your baby hasn’t been born yet. Is that meeting simply because you’ve missed us?”

Ginny looked kindly at Hannah, and then to the Flora, intrigued. Neville took a deep breath and said:

"Friends, please. Need to introduce you someone ..."

Everyone looked at him and then immediately look to see who would be the person. Flora felt them gaze at her. Then Neville concluded all in a row:

“This is Flora; Draco’s cousin; Bellatrix and Voldemort's daughter .... “

And Neville told them what was happening. Everyone looked terrified and listened attentively to the whole story in silence, dared not even look at each other, as they were in shock. They examined Flora in the old and poorly lit room. At first, not so gently as her profile in the dark reminded Bellatrix’s. Flora noticed that some of them discreetly placed their hands on the wands, wary. Then, Hannah asked her to come to the light, and they stopped being suspicious of her as then, Flora’s delicate features didn’t look frightful to anyone.

“Sorry; as we don’t choose our parents, my origin is not my fault. Fortunately, I was raised by a great and very loving family in Brazil. I have three children. Draco went over there to help my husband to protect them. My husband and I had no training in magic. The little I know, I’ve learnt in these last days. I'm scared, I want to go home.”

Flora's speech was so confusing, since she was very nervous about the situation and afraid of how people could judge her. This was a completely new feeling for her in which she did not know to cope, because she had never really worried about other people's opinions on her. All of them listened to her in absolute silence again, finally Ron said:

“Then Draco went to Brazil while here things are on fire? It’s exactly like him, that coward.”

“Ron, Lucius Malfoy sent dementors behind Flora’s family to force her to surrender. This time Draco seems to be doing the right thing. But I think he’ll need help. It would be nice to check if everything is going well over there. Perhaps it is best to bring her family closer.”

“No!”

Flora cried.

“I’d rather let my children away from it!”

“Flora, it may be easier to protect them here. We could take turns.” Hannah tried to explain.

“For the time being I say no. I believe everything will soon be finished and I’ll go back home then. Please hold on a little.” Flora replied, trying calm down herself.
Hermione checked her watch and said:

“Oh, no! Harry should now be at the Ministry. At this point he’s already being watched by Death Eaters. Lucius should know that we would look for Harry and he should fear it... He must believe that Harry is the most obvious threat for Flora, as he was for her father ... He'll want to keep him away from her ... I hope they not hurt him! We must do something quick!"

Just as Hermione had supposed, Harry was in the ministry and could not go home as every time he was about to leave, a urgent work turned up for him to solve. Therefore, he didn’t know what was going on yet. Neville found it risky to send him an owl or a patron, as they could be intercepted by a witch or wizard. Besides that, as he hadn’t gone home, nobody managed to access him through the Internet, as electronic objects did not work where there was high concentration of magic.

After a short meeting led by Neville and Hannah, they decide that before anything was necessary to ensure the safety of their family. Then, Ginny and Ron went to the Burrow, theirs mother home, to ask them to double their security and don’t let out the children that were spending some days at their grandparents'. The other DA members did the same to their family and friends and then returned, as they had been agreed.
Meanwhile Hermione tried to warn Harry in the ministry. Nevertheless, she was attacked by Death Eaters and was forced to return. She got agitated and talking rapidly, almost breathlessly, a little disheveled. Soon they were all around her, attentive listening:

“We need to send Harry a warning, he doesn’t know anything about what’s going on, and he’d be attacked. I was attacked on arrival in the ministry. There was a lot of them and acted discreetly, I had to go back. As I had supposed he’s in danger. It’s likely the Death Eaters believe he is a threat to Flora just as he was to Voldemort and they don't want we meet him… Yeah, I’m sure… They’ll attack him and he won’t even know why. Moreover, the city’s outskirts are characteristically cold. It means dementors are over there. They are more organized than we could imagine. ”

Flora scared, but wanting to help them, dared suggest them something:

“Sorry, I'm not prepared for all this in any way. But Mrs. Narcissa Malfoy said that Harry talked to snakes, just like my father. The point is that I can speak to snakes too. We could send him a message through a snake.”

Neville discouraged her. “Snakes are not like owls. They don’t know how to find people. This is out of question. And besides, he should no longer be able to speak to snakes now that Voldemort is dead. There was a link between the two through which they shared that gift.”

Flora looked at him confused as she wanted to help them somehow.. Ron interrupted:

“In fact Neville, he’s still able to talk to them. We don’t understand how come, but we went to the zoo with the kids a few days ago and after twenty years Harry spoke again to a snake.”

“Are you sure, Ron?”

“Yes, I’ve seen it myself. In the beginning he was apprehensive, but as his scar was as still as it should be, he relaxed. To tell the truth, we ended up having a great time over it. Surely, just Dumbledore would have the answer for this kind of thing, and he wouldn’t tell us, of course.” Ron laughed outright.

Flora remembered having felt something strange when passing in front of the Zoo with her aunt on the way to Diagon Alley. Then remembered seeing a happy red-haired family going into the Zoo at that very moment - could it have been Ron, Harry and their families. She opened her mouth to draw a comment on that, but she immediately gave it up as she had remembered her uncle's note about the mark on his forearm. According to him, it had been activated by her presence. She thought she was better to silence about anything that would suggest some resemblance between her father and her. Those people were being so kind that she had no reason to scare them. Flora felt confident that everything could be coincidence or things enabled by her genes, in which case, she was blameless. So she ventured guessing:

“We could send Harry a snake through an owl, since that according to my aunt there are few wizards or witches that can talk to snakes. Is it too crazy an idea? I don’t know how I could help. I need to, though, I’ve caused all this ...“

“Actually, Flora, Lucius Malfoy has. Don’t blame yourself. The idea of sending him a snake with a message is so insane - and these are usually the best - that it may work. I’m going to the field to find one.” Neville said, trying to comfort her.

“Take me with you. I can call them."

By Apparition, Flora went with Neville to the field. This time she could not handle the nausea and she threw up her breakfast. After she recovered, she began to walk through scrubs parched by the summer heat looking for a snake. As opposite to what was happening, she often found snakes in the fields of Brazil, she was giving up her search when she found a water snake under a rock, near a pond and talked to it using Parseltongue:

“Follow me. I'm not going to hurt you. I just need a favor. I’ll bring you back here as soon as possible. You’ll be rewarded.”

The snake consented and coiled around Flora’s arm. Flora shuddered to think the animal could be poisonous. Neville watched and soothed her as he lamented that poisonous snakes were getting increasingly rare in the whole UK, which hampered the preparation of many potions. He held out his arm and the two of them went back to the house of Neville's grandmother.

Hannah received them with cups of tea, She seemed to guess that Flora was with her stomach empty., and should be starving.

“It’s very sweet of your wife, Mr. Longbottom.” Flora said, thanked.

“She has this gift of making our lives easier and more enjoyable even when we’re under the hardest situations. She's a strong and very gentle warrior. I love my wife.”

Flora smiled. She loved when men were able to talk about their feelings. Flora looked at the snake which slithered between her fingers right in its face.

“Well, let's settle this: you will be taken by an owl to a man called Harry Potter. Don’t fear the owl, it won’t hurt you. When you find him tell him that he is in danger; that his family is already protected, and that he must meet his DA friends at the house of Neville's grandmother as soon as possible. Can you repeat that? Please it’s very important."

As the snake seemed to get messed up with the message, Flora said angry:

“It doesn't understand! It's such a stupid animal! I'll simplify: tell to the man to take care and come to the house of Neville's Grandma.”

Ron sent Harry his mother's owl so that he would recognize it; understand that the message was serious, and that they were well. He also sent Harry his magical galleon, transfigured in a collar for the reptile, hoping that Harry would realize the magic and answer the call, since he did not trust in slithering snakes at all.

Last edited by Ivana R; 06-27-2012 at 01:12 AM. Reason: a bit of sugar and cinnamon to flavor it...
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