AN: I'm having a seriously impossible time finding Chinese folktales ... like the story of Buddha's journey with the monkey and the pig ... seriously, it's only like the equivalent of Cinderella in the East but here? Nothing. Ditto with Water Margin, totally well known in the East and completely obscure (except on Wiki which doesn't help) in the West. *sighs* How does one do research on this stupid thing called internetz? Tomorrow I'm just asking the librarian ... good old books any day thank you very much. On that note and love I leave you ♥
This chapter I dedicate to Rupert ... cuz he's soooooooooo bloody cute. Even now. ♥ And Ottery's Angels wherever the four winds scattered you ... you were all the best readers ever. “Now I've got one less egg to fry ... one less bell to answer
One less egg to fry ... Oh, why, why did he leave
And all I do is cry
One less bell to answer ... Because a man told me goodbye
Oh, why, why did he leave?”
~5th dimension Towards the end of any great campaign a general finds himself wondering, pondering the possibility of failure whatever his previous successes, likewise and on the opposite face of the coin a general on the verge of a major defeat loses himself in thought at the unique possibility of an ironic victory that would lay his enemies at his feet. Thus and like neither Ottery St. Catchpole paced the small confines of his Azkaban cell. A small terse room hewn out of rock, an empty cube built to house a soul.
“You pace like one whose done this before,” a grating voice susurred in the quiet night.
“What? Thinking?” the boy said self-deprecatingly.
“You’re a funny one aren’t you? I meant the pacing,” the dark voice replied.
Still the dark haired boy did not raise his head. His eyes stared only at the dirty dusty floor. He gave in to his curiosity and looked up. Ottery’s cell sat in the highest reaches of Azkaban, he well knew because the sound of the ocean outside lulled him to sleep each night, the gulls crying out marked the hours of the day, he could almost smell the salt air but knew he couldn’t nor could he see it because of the enchantments on the room. It was one of the ways that the Dementors tortured their prisoners.
On looking up the boy smiled. He closed his eyes and finally smelled the salt sea air wafting in from the newly made window, a window with bars. The boy stared past the crow and the bars at the stormy sky behind them. He could hear the sound of thunder in the distance.
“They’re moving you tonight, you know?” the crow asked.
“I didn’t expect my execution would come so soon,” the boy sighed. The new ministry was running things differently now.
“You should be so lucky boy. You’re a valuable little pawn to them alive,” the creature replied.
“A pawn? You mean a knight or at least a queen,” the boy answered back annoyed.
“Think highly of yourself do you, Ottery St. Catchpole?”
“Well somebody has to,” the boy answered with his usual mischievous grin. “So which one are you? One of Sebastian’s or has the Dark Lord finally realized how dangerous I am to him? Because you’re not Dumbledore. He isn’t an animagus. So … are you one of Valerian’s boys? The Coven Darque, who sent you?”
“A werewolf clan.”
“But you’re a crow,” the boy complained.
“What? I can’t be a crow and an animagus at the same time?”
“And you’re a wizard?!” Ottery remarked.
“Well you’re swift aren’t you. Anyways, the reason I’m here is because they’ve put a hit out on you, Ottery. The wolf pack of San Gilman want you dead.”
With those words the bird flew at the boy pecking at his face, the dark haired boy just had time to cover his head with his arms. Ottery grabbed the crow in his hands and holding its neck in one hand chocked it slowly while it still writhed and tried to peck him.
“Pity it takes more than a little bird to kill me. Care to try it in your wolf form?!” the boy exclaimed angrily. “You could have ruined really nice robes.”
“Stupid boy … my beak is laced with poison. I may die but you go with me, mudblood.”
“You’re really sick, you know that? There’s nothing I hate more than a zealot. And I‘m pureblooded for your information,” And with that the boy threw the bird against the wall. “Go on. If you’re going to die at least go spend your last hours with your family.” The crow watched him through slit eyes, wary and unwavering. The dark haired boy lay down on his hay mat and sighed before he fell asleep, muttering, “Oh great, my assassin is a bird. They send someone to kill me and it’s big bird. Teddy’s never going to let me live this down.”
After much deliberation and arguments, not a few fights, and hexes fired at one another and some talk over drinks the boys, Teddy and Angel decided that the team to rescue Ottery was going to consist of five members, the sixth volunteered on her own, against both their vehement wishes.
As they stood around the zeppelin in the empty airfield the figures there each looked at one another assessing their teammates on Ottery‘s rescue.
“Look, we know we all don’t know each other,” Angel said, “But we’ve got Ottery in common. He’s a friend and he needs us right now. He’s been unjustly incarcerated and it’s our job to get him out.”
Tiffany sighed, “You know, he’s got lawyers, right? Wolfram and Hart. It‘s not too late to stop these asinine shenanigans,” she remarked with a level headedness that took the boys by surprise.
“Yeah, cuz lawyers aren’t just different kinds of sharks,” Teddy grumbled as he loaded boxes of explosives onto the airship‘s hold.
The boy standing next to him held on to his spear, for all the world like he was leaning on it bored, but Cerberus was the one most ready for an attack. He didn’t speak. The sword at his side, and his apparently laid back manner would have been warning enough for anyone. The truth though was that he was ready to pounce, duck or dodge at a moments notice. Diego Cerberus was a bodyguard and the most dangerous individual there, the only one who could go toe to toe with Teddy D. Bear and one of Ottery’s staunchest allies and closest friends.
“You guys don’t think the dragon was a bit of overkill?!” Madison exclaimed.
Freddie sighed, “Where Teddy’s concerned we should consider this an understated ploy.”
Tiffany laughed at that in agreement. Freddie smiled back at her and Teddy grumbled from where he was walking out of the airship’s hold and Madison glowered silently.
On the other side of the air field the giant red beast flapped it’s wings and snapped at nothing then turned it’s attentions back to the haunch of cattle that were its meal.
“Are you sure you can keep that thing under control?” Madison asked Teddy a little worriedly.
“Of course, I can,” the boy replied. “Hey Drax, what’s up boy?” he asked walking over to the beast. The dragon for his part ignored him. As Teddy approached he yelled, “I’m talking to you you big brute!” The change in tone caught the dragon’s attention and it turned on the brown haired boy and spewed fire at him. Teddy had a shield up just before it struck him.
“Okay, I don’t see this happening,” Madison remarked.
“I’ve got him under control,” Teddy remarked.
Silent as the night Diego walked out of the group and past Teddy spear in hand. He stayed clear from the flames but he walked towards the dragon.
“Hey, what do you think you’re doing?” Freddie asked. Madison held him back. “You can’t love, I won’t let you,” she said. “But he’s going straight at the dragon and he’s … that boy’s crazy.”
Tiffany merely watched.
Diego Cerberus stood and waited for the dragon to turn it’s attentions from Teddy to him, and when the great beast turned to him to snap at him the boy caught the dragon’s eyes with his own. The dragon was angry and it reared its head back as if to fire at the boy but Diego would not look away. Teddy took out a cigar and placed the end on the melting tarmac. The dragon’s blazing fire had melted part of the runway. His cigar lit.
Drax looked at the boy angrily, but still Diego held it’s gaze. Then slowly and carefully he laid down his spear in front of the great beast only then his gaze leaving the beast, which left the boy at his most vulnerable as the dragon could snap him in two or fire off another fireball.
The great red beast snarled and nodded. It was then the boy smiled in the barest possible way. A thin line across his beautiful brown face. He shook his head. Diego’s sword never left his side. The dragon snorted, turned away and blew smoke rings deliberating. The dark haired, brown skinned boy merely stood there waiting patiently. Drax bowed his head and nuzzled the boy with his maw and Diego laughed. Blood smeared over the boy’s clothes but Diego Cerberus did not seem to mind he turned and pet the dragon’s large hot nose.
“Well that’s one way to tame a dragon,” Freddie said.
“If you want to do it the easy way,” Teddy grumbled as he walked past.
Madison stared at the boy in awe. Tiffany watched him warily. Something within her did not trust the boy, never had, nor would it ever trust Xerxes and his soldiers. But if Teddy were going to commit the most idiotic crime of the century and likely botch it since Ottery would be involved as well, she knew that his presence would likely help to get them all out alive.
In a hospital ward of St. Mungo’s lying asleep on her bed a frizzy haired girl mumbled something in her sleep, “Ron … Ronald, where are you? Its … you … I love …”
Her words echoed in an empty room, save the figure of Mrs. Weasley asleep on a chair across from her. The boy had gone home after standing vigil for two weeks straight. It had not been easy and it had involved Fred and George, Bill and Fleur forcing him to leave, but he was on the verge of collapse.
Hermione smiled in her slumber but sleep’s grip would not release her from her comma. Her hand reflexively closed around a piece of parchment on which the following was written:
Love Is In The Air
Love is not caught with hook or snair,
As it glides gently in the air.
If you grab and take by force,
It will rip and tear of course.
If you want true love, be smart,
Open up your lonely heart.
When the one whose meant for you,
Stops and hears your longing coo,
This will unlock that heart, you'll see,
Come in, come in, it's only plea,
I only beat for me and thee.
Love is free for all to pair,
As it glides gently in the air. It was a poem that Ron had found on the Hogwarts Express the day they had been attacked. The tiny burnt shriveled piece of paper had caught his eye and it had been the only thing he’d picked up before he’d taken Hermione in his arms and taken her to the healers. He had placed it in her hands … an unspoken promise that he would come back again. End Book One