(Eng) Weasleys, Pranks and other Curses

38

There was a bang, but the hail of stones did not come.

Uncertain, I lifted my head. Daylight burned in my eyes. We were buried under a thick layer of dust. George picked himself up and wiped the dirt from my head. It was a wasted effort, as dirty as everything was here.

All around us our friends stuck their heads out. Even my parents came out after some struggling. Only now did I notice that my father was tied up.
"What happened?", I asked into the round, as if one of us had experienced something like that before.

"Are you all right?" an unfamiliar voice called down to us from above. "Stay calm, we'll get you out of there."

"So security doesn't get high marks," George grumbled, shaking his head. It looked like fine powder snow was trickling out of his hair.

The initial shock was just wearing off when I noticed that the stone tree had become a real tree. Its gnarled branches moved in a non-existent wind, filling the air with even more dust.

"Maddie," I whispered for some reason. "Do you know what that tree is now?"

My friend stared open-mouthed at the tree. "That's not a plant. I think - I think that's an Erida." And because she knew we had no idea, she added. "A magical creature equal to a dragon in power. They were said to be extinct."

"And now?"

For the first time, my parents could have proven their usefulness, but they both just stared in complete shock.

"I think you should go there," George nudged me, pointing to a particularly large leaf at our height that seemed to beckon us.

After each step, I glanced back. I no longer had a wand, but George didn't leave my side either. Together we approached the tree and sure enough, there was a shiny, showy ring on the leaf.

"I think you've solved the riddle," George whispered to me.

"Riddle?" Halfway through, I had forgotten that it wasn't about my curse at all.

"You must be the heiress to that Osior." George nodded at me to accept the ring. But somehow that felt wrong to me.

"Ehm. Hi. Hi. Erida? That's really nice. But unless you happen to have four more lying around, you'd better keep that ring. I never would have gotten this far on my own. But. Thanks."

George behind me almost burst out laughing, but it quickly caught in his throat as another leaf slid over the first and now there were five identical rings. And a sixth, much smaller ring that reminded me more of a bead for a bracelet than a ring.

Puzzled, George and I looked at each other. "Oh. Eh. Thanks." I held out my hands and the tree let the rings roll off the leaf.

I was about to ask something else when the tree started moving violently again. We stumbled back just far enough to see the tree turn in and poof disappear.

We didn't have time to process what we had seen, because already the men and women from the guard were coming running.

I had wanted to frantically explain to the guards why they were not allowed to believe my parents, but my effort was unnecessary. I learned that they had entered the camp just as we had, but instead of trying stealth, they had disarmed and stunned everyone they found.

I was much more shocked by how George looked when he finally got professional help. All the blood and his shaggy hair had covered most of his wound, but now his strange behavior suddenly made sense. All that was left of his ear was shreds. The first time I burst into hysterical tears as the doctor cleaned the wound. The second time was when the doctor said that there was not much left to save in a hurry, and from then on, most of it was actually a single hysterical fit.

I remembered that I laughed and cried at the same time when I was asked if I knew anything about my parents' plans. They had considered giving me Veritaserum, but then decided against it.

And finally they had recovered the Augurey from the rubble. I still wasn't sure how much Ellen was really inside the bird. After Maddie's explanation at Hogwarts, I had somehow assumed that Augurey were similarly immortal as phoenixes, but since she still hadn't dissolved, I must have been wrong.

"Ah." I took the strangely tiny ring out of my pocket. Now I understood what it was. "It's a bird ankle ring," I explained to no one in particular and approached the table. Yes. There had been six of us. All the time. I undid the little buckle and put the ring around the bird's cold leg. No sooner had I closed the buckle again than it gurgled and bubbled and the augurey dissolved into a musty puddle.

Minutes passed, during which all present were tense silent, but nothing happened. The water dripped off the table and ran down my shoes.

"Well," I breathed in an attempt to keep my composure.

"Careful!" Maddie sank to her knees and reached between my feet. When she came back up, she had an ugly little chick with big googly eyes in her hands.
And immediately my crying went into next round.

"What was your parents' goal?" Maddie had a box of tissues on her lap, just in case I did burst into tears again.

They had informed the others' parents and we were just waiting to be taken back to England. I wasn't sure where it was going for me.

From what I understood, my parents were responsible for much more. The inspector who came to question me at the second attempt had asked me about the legend of the ruin, and I had only been able to explain to him what I had done with the wands. What exactly it all meant, I really didn't know. Then he had asked me about Ellen and after another nervous breakdown I had told him that we had actually only had a few months together while my parents had been part of the excavation.

In turn, the man told me that Ellen had not been seen again since the day we left. This was only a few days after I had started all this mess. Instead, the man showed me a stack of letters. First and foremost, my Christmas card. Ellen had gotten my mail and only knew where I was because of it. No terrible curse, just a child's attempt to show me what had really happened.

That was the push I needed to talk about my feeling. About the third body in the coffin and the nagging feeling that this was Ellen. But how she had been part of the augurey at the same time? I told of how she had warned me and that she must have hidden the wand, but now after years the spell had faded and allowed me to find it.
It wasn't until the man put his quill aside that I slowly collapsed in on myself.

"Your parents are suspected of having done terrible things. You're going to have to stay here for quite a while." He leaned forward, probably to seem less official. "Is there anyone we can contact for you? You must have family somewhere you can go to?"

There was a knock on his door and I was given a brief moment. I had to have relatives somewhere. Grandparents, maybe? But traveling all the time had never given us the time or opportunity to visit anyone.

I sank deeper into my chair. An endless heaviness pressed me down. Why did I feel so empty? After all, everything was the same. I could go back to the big, empty apartment. Mistle would bring me breakfast and remind me to pack my things in time for Hogwarts. I would travel alone and just spend most of the vacations at school. It wasn't like I ever spent much time with my parents.
And yet.

"Do you hear me?" Someone with red hair got down on one knee in front of me.
"That'll be the shock. You can see the doctor again before you leave." I recognized the commissioner's voice. But the other one made no sense.

"Camille? Do you need a doctor?"

"I'm fine," I replied as if shot out of a gun, finally raising my head.
Bill Weasley squatted in front of me, pulling up the scarred corner of his mouth. "Told you. Weasleys are tougher than you think." He patted me on the shoulder as he stood back up. "She's one of us. Even without the last name, she's definitely a Weasley."