The Rose of King's Cross - continuation story

[Lynne]

Lynne, having removed her finger from her bellybutton, rolled the clod of lint into a tight, fretted wad. How many times had she told herself the same thing, "Go home?". And still she realized she had no clue where that was.

What she did know was that it no longer mattered. The swish of what appeared to be broom bristles diminished as Porry vanished through the brush....the slim ends glistening like fine hair.

[brooks]

Lynne that's great.


Ok you two, you know who you are, I'm waiting ;D ;D

[johnnysauntie]

working on conjuring something, but am backlogged due to recent out of country experience! watch this space!

[Bara]

McGonagall, Trelawney, Longbottom, Potter and Mrs Potter nee Weasley were sitting over the pensieve in the Head’s study.

Ginny sat back. She was tired and weary. They’d been three days at Hogwarts and she’d seen hardly anything of her children, except at dinner, or in the pensieve – waving across the room or wavering in the water.

Their syllabus/syllabi were so full.

She’d caught a glimpse of Albus and Lily, but they’d been marching en route with their classes to ‘Potions’ and ‘Quidditch’ and they’d twiddled fingers at each other. She’d had a chat with her niece, Rose, she’d wagged a finger at naughty nephew, Hugo - but she hadn’t even caught a glimpse of her baby, Sev.

Harry put his arm around her. She slumped.

“I think,” said Harry, “We’re not going to get much further tonight…”

Ginny made a visible effort to rouse herself.

“No,” she said. “No. If Severus is truly a Sorceror, then I need to know …” she glanced under her eyelashes at Harry, “WE need to know,” she corrected herself, “what is in store for us – for him…” she finished, lamely.

Minerva fluttered her hands, helplessly, “Well, dear…” she began.

With uncharacteristic firmness, Neville interrupted :

“He will know his calling when his calling calls.” He said. Ginny sighed and closed her eyes. “Thank you, Nev…” she began,

“And the calling of the 7th of the 7th,” intoned Trelawney ..

Everyone in the room sat upright …

“…. Holds the key to the Next Awakening…

Handsome is as handsome does –
What is, just is – what was, just was.

Good is evil – evil’s good
It’s all contained in motherhood.

What’s good is good – what’s bad is bad
In boy or maiden, lass or lad.

Seven sevens – forty-nine
Sacred, indivisible and prime.
Take hold the seven sevens charm
And hold the sacred trust from harm.”

There was a long pause.

For the first time since Trelawney started speaking, everyone in the room took a breath, staring at her. She blinked, owlishly.

“Did we finish the scones, dear?” she asked Minerva.

Harry and Ginny turned to Neville.

“But you…?” They asked.

Neville looked confused –

Outside -

Abruptly, the moonlight snuffed out, and Lynne and Bara were left in total darkness. They could hear the rustle of branches as the others pushed through the hedgerow..

“Oh, for F…” began Bara .. a hand was clamped over her mouth.

“BE quiet!” hissed Sarah. Lynne gasped. “JA??” she enquired, waveringly.

Sarah made sure that Bara was quietened before she released her hold. “BE quiet!” she hissed. “Hello, Sarah,” whispered Bara, chastened. “What are you doing here?”

Even through the darkness, Lynne and Bara could perceive Sarah glaring at them. By her side was a 2ft, 1-legged Barbie doll. The doll seemed curiously alive, leaning against Sarah’s leg, arms clasped around her thigh, but she was glancing around, furtively left and right. She fiddled with an ornate, gilt ear-ring, then fixed her gaze on Lynne and Bara.

She blew the long, blonde candyfloss hair out of her eyes : “ I’m a portkey…” she said.

Lynne, ever the hostess, said “SO pleased to meet you, Barbie – meet Bara, who …” The doll glared at her and hissed again. “SHE is the ‘Narrator’ she nodded at Sarah - I AM a portkey.”

Sarah had been concentrating on the commotion beyond the hedge, but now all was quiet. She turned.

“Yes, she is a portkey, and a special portkey. Even she ..” she nodded her head at the doll – “even she doesn’t know where she can access …”

“Well, no,” said the Barbie, modestly. “But,” she said proudly, “I am access to one zone only – a special zone…”

“Where???” breathed Lynne, reverently. The doll looked disconcerted. She hopped away for a moment – hopped back, clung onto Sarah’s leg.

“I don’t KNOW!” She snapped. “Special…? ” she glanced up at Sarah, pathetically. Sarah smiled down, nodded encouragingly.

“Yes, special,” said Barbie. “Somewhere, there is a picnic bench, a plant stand, a light pull – and a pair of ping-pong bats…..”

The Muggles goggled at her… She sighed.

“Oh, pay attention!” she snapped. “You need to find those things. With those, I AM the portkey to …”

Sarah, Lynne and Bara stared at each other. Beyond the hedge came a rustling.

“Oh good grief,” said Lynne. “We’ve done ‘bunking out’ – but we’ve never tried ‘bunking in’. You and Barbie had better bunk down at Slytherin,” she said to Sarah.

Bara looked doubtful, but with a last, wistful glance at the closed up gap where Porry had gone, she followed Lynne, Sarah and the one-legged Barbie back to the Slythern dorm.

Beyond the bushes, Impo and Illustria were clasping hands, although perhaps they didn't realise it. Before them, the young Centaur and the old Broom had formed ranks, although, perhaps THEY didn't realise it. Lilliput and Porry formed a small, jagged defence line. Before them were the silhouettes of the two elves, hand in hand. Before that - a creeping shadow - a small, nocturnal creeping form. In the bushes, a light foot cat, belying her years, stalking the shadows.

Beyond that. Nothing. No sign of any humans.

Axiom awoke as the firelight was flickering its last in the grate. Ebbie was still hunched over her needlework.
Axiom blinked, trying to focus on the wooden object lying by Ebbie’s chair.. it looked like a human leg, fully fashioned, slightly under-scale and painted an unlikely shade of pink.

“Ebbie?” As he spoke, he hurled himself in front of her, making a classic rugby save as she hurtled head-first towards the stone fireplace. The two slid harmlessly down the side of the fireplace.

“Yes, dear?” said Ebbie, straightening her hat and counting her stitches. Axiom shook himself and straightened his tunic.

“What are you doing, dear?” he asked. “It’s long past bed-time.”

Ebbie held up her needlework. It was a perfect Slytherin uniform in miniature, hat, shirt, tie, gymslip, socks and shoes – all knitted. “It’s for Barbie!” she announced proudly.

Axiom nodded slowly. “And the wooden leg?” he asked.

“Knitted.” Announced Ebbie, proudly.

“Yes, of course,” sighed Axiom. “Shall we go to bed, dear?” He asked.

And so Axiom was to be seen apparating in the Slytherin dorm at 4 a.m., carrying a knitted wooden leg and a full, if small-scale, Slytherin House uniform…

Albus sat up in bed, watching him curiously. “Axiom?” he said. The Elf jumped, spinning and hissing…

“OH! Master Albus!” he wailed under his breath and headed the nearest wall.

“AXIOM!” hissed Albus, gently. “You need the girls’ dorm…”

[brooks]

[Goalie]

I like it

[Bara]

Unnoticed and forgotten, Thea had pushed through the hedge behind the others.

She watched the centaur and the broom, the elves. She saw the marsupial and felt the presence of the cat. Illustria and Imperator were clinging together and Thea replayed Impo’s words : ‘It’s tonight.’

‘What’s tonight?’ she thought to herself.

An eerie light glowed in the distance. Thea watched the silhouettes of the centaur, the broom, the elves, the children and the animals.. They seemed drawn towards the the strange, green glow.

It was as though Thea was detached from the scene, she thought to herself. As though she were … an observer. She put her hand on the broom. Porry seemed to shake her away – not rudely, but distractedly. She caught Illustria’s hand. The girl turned, smiled, but gently detached Thea’s grip, never taking her eyes away from the glowing light ahead.

Thea panicked. “Lilliput!” she called. The centaur turned, smiled at her, but continued on towards the strange light.

It seemed to Thea that the whole company was moving inexorably towards the strange light, with no rhyme or reason.

Impetuously, she reached out and caught the two elves by their arms as they drifted past her as though in a dreamworld. Instinctively, Ebbie and Axiom wailed and tried to pull themselves away, heading face first into the ground.

The strange light sank and died, the company lost in the darkness before it. Thea held the struggling elves. Eventually, the moonlight re-established itself and Thea could see nothing but empty space before her.

She became aware of 4 globe-like eyes turned towards her and she realised that she was still holding Ebbie and Axiom by their arms. She slipped her hands down until she had each of them by the hand. She knelt.

The two elves were staring at her, wide-eyed. She took a breath.

“I don’t know what we have witnessed here, tonight,” she began, “I don’t know where they have gone. Or what they will meet.”

The elves were still staring at her.

“But I don’t think,” Thea continued, “that it would have been right for you to go there.”

“I don’t think it’s right,” she thought to herself, “for the others to have gone there. Wherever ‘there’ is.”

The elves nodded, solemnly.

“I have knitting to do, Miss Thea,” volunteered Ebbie.

Thea stood, holding firmly to the two small hands. “And I’m late for lights out,” she said. “Shall we go home?”

Troubled, Thea walked back to the castle, the two small, trusting figures trotting beside her. Already, they seemed to have forgotten the drama of the evening.

But Thea could not forget that Illustria and Impo, the centaur and the broom and two small animals had disappeared into an eerie green glow. She knew she wouldn’t sleep until she had spoken with her fellow tarts.

“So - ?” she asked. “What are you knitting, Ebbie? Can’t it wait until tomorrow?”

[Bara]

I know you're there, Sarah, with a one-legged doll clinging to your leg - ;D ;D

[Bara]

AND I know she has a backlog of storylines to add ... But no, she wouldn't tell me.

We tried for an 'editorial conference' whilst she was here, but we were laughing too much.

It's over to you, Lynne. I don't know if we made it back into the Slytherin dorm with JA and Barbie as 'illegal immigrants', without being busted by Lucinda ...

I do know that when I was at school, a million years ago, we never managed to smuggle anybody into the dorms ... It was hard enough getting out ...

[brian]

Finally after hours of following one another through hedgerows the greatest font of esoteric mystical knowledge ever revealed himself to them in a blinding flash of light................ they beheld ..........



Pedro.


They stared at him with glassy unblinking eyes and mouths gaping open like the giant sea basses at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

"Hey Meester yunior weezards ..." He said .

[johnnysauntie]

OMG I have to go back and re-read everything. I'm coming, I'm coming! Just got to get those creative wheels turning again...

[johnnysauntie]

The centaurs, children, brooms and creatures watched the Muggle and the elves leave the clearing.

"Did you hear what it said?" said Lilliput.

"I did, Lil, but I don't know what to make of it," said Impo. "What could it mean? Come to us, soaring??"

The message had been unmistakable. The woodland group had been drawn inexorably, inexplicably by the green glowing light. They had all heard it.

With your moccasins of dark cloud, come to us.
With your leggings of dark cloud, come to us.
With your shirt of dark cloud, come to us.
With your head-dress of dark cloud, come to us.
With your mind enveloped in dark cloud, come to us.
With the dark thunder above you, come to us soaring.
With the shapen cloud at your feet, come to us soaring.

The two looked at each other, and shrugged, and then started at a movement towards the edge of the clearing.

Porry was flying loop-de-loops overhead.

"Soaring," Lilliput breathed.

[johnnysauntie]

The night was just getting underway in New York. Petunia sat on her bed, with her comforter wrapped around her, glowering at her brother. She hated it when he Apparated into her New York studio apartment. The neighbors always questioned the loud CRACK that accompanied an Apparating wizard. It did sound kind of like a gunshot, she admitted to herself.

But she wasn’t going to yell at her brother, not now. She studied him as he sat on the radiator in the corner, twisting his wand worriedly. He wasn’t a worrier by nature, and his state of mind was even more disconcerting than his abrupt appearance at 2 a.m.

Sighing, she tossed the comforter aside, and went to the dresser, stopping to pull on a pair of jeans and to bundle her hair into a ponytail. She dug around in the top drawer, and found here wand. She went over to her brother, who was now on his feet.

”I’m a little rusty,” she said. “Can you take me Side-Along?” She reached out and grasped his sleeve. He twisted on the spot, and she felt the familiar pull at her gut and then the plummet into whirling nothingness. Then the ground rose up under her feet, and she landed, in the front yard of her parents' house, next to Jim.

“You can’t beat it for speed, but I still prefer business class,” she said to her brother.

“I’m sure that it won’t take long for you to remember what little you did manage go learn,” he teased her back, as they went inside.

Just as they were crossing the threshold, they felt a breeze and then realized that their parents had just landed their brooms in the front yard. They were staring at her in disbelief. Petunia – like her namesake but for different reasons – had done a good job of rejecting the wizarding world.

“Pet, what a surprise!” her mum exclaimed as she wrapped her in a hug. Her dad’s eyes shone a little more brightly than usual as he ruffled her hair and wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

“You’ll be behind this, then, James, am I right?” Harry asked his eldest son.

“Guess you caught me, Dad.” James stammered a bit, he really didn’t feel like venting his fears to his parents.

[Bara]

As the Potters and their two eldest children held their council of war; at Hogwarts, all seemed still and silent.

But, though the grounds and the castle were dark, all was not still.

As convenor of the Centaur Debating Society, Terrie had been the last to leave, following a few paces behind her fellow Hogwartians, deep in conversation with Passionata, the striking Palomino Centaur mare who worked with Terrie on the progamme.

They’d been pleased with the evening’s debate, controversial as it was, and were discussing future topics, when Terrie stopped dead in her tracks.

Passionata spooked and snorted, pawing the ground. Terrie laid a soothing hand on her shoulder.

The two stood stock-still, watching the drama unfold before them. They saw Lilliput and Porry; Impo and Illustria. They saw the shadows of two small creatures creeping forward. They heard Imperator’s dreamlike voice : ‘It’s tonight…’

And they saw the eerie green light.

They watched and listened to the strange exchange between JA, Lynne, Bara and the Barbie portkey. Almost, they moved forward to join them.

Then they saw Thea, outlined in the shadows as she pulled the two house-elves back from the too-fascinating lights.

They heard – something. A voice, a chant, wordless it seemed, indistinct; the light pulsating with the rhythm of the low sound.

They saw – something? An old school broom, illuminated – glowing green; looping the loop in the dark air above them.

“Soaring ..” murmured Terrie.

Passionata was almost wild with fear, her equine instincts telling her to RUN; her human instincts not far behind. The Centaur tossed her head, eyes wide, her long blonde hair whipping across her face, her hooves stamping.

Terrie pulled her eyes away from the bizarre light show, turning her attention to her new friend. Without conscious thought, her horsemanship took over. Speaking soft and low, with slow, firm measured moves, Terrie brought Passionata to calm.

“Miss Terrie?!”

The voice, a terrified whisper, came from behind them, and startled, nerves on end, Terrie almost felt the urge to bolt herself. She took a deep breath and turned, sighed with relief, though she saw two hulking figures in the dark.

“Hugo,” she said, “Areez. What are you doing here?”

“Oh, Miss Terrie,” whispered Areez. “We saw it all. But I’m not that sort of Indian, so I couldn’t help.”

Terrie looked confused.

“Passionata, you should go home. Do you want us to accompany you? We’ll talk tomorrow.”

The Centaur mare shook her head. Her trembling had subsided. She dropped her head on Terrie’s shoulder. “Please, let’s talk tomorrow,” she whispered, turned and cantered into the darkness.

Terrie turned to the first years and sighed.

“Let’s go back, boys,” she said, “You can tell me all about it.”

[Bara]

In Girls’ Dorm 1 at Slytherin, all Hell had broken loose.

Lynne, after only 5 days of Magical Tuition had defied all School Rules to try out her brand new greenwood wand, unsupervised, to apparate herself, Bara, JA and her portkey into the building.

Landing in a sprawling heap and with a loud CRASH, the party squeaked, squealed and groaned, laboriously disentangling themselves and loudly ‘SHUSHING’ each other.

At once, they were pinned into immobility by Lucinda’s ever-present torch. Up and down each side of the dormitory, agitated whispers and exclamations erupted and feeble wand-light flickered on in each of the seven cubicles both sides of the central aisle.

Lynne, despite being almost upside down, turned her most dazzling smile on the dimly perceived figure behind the dazzling torch beam.

“Lucy! Just the person…” she began…

Lucinda sighed. “I was there, Lynne. I saw it.”