Character Assassination

Character Assassination
5. Be Mine

Telling our families where we going was interesting.

"Me and Mal are going to Scotland," Khalid told his parents, head bowed, when they returned. He'd explained the whole thing, and they'd barely said a word. "To...put things right."

Khalid's parents looked at each other and it was Fatima, his mum, who spoke first.

"The things that took Leila. Will they be there?"

And we looked at each other, we hadn't thought of that.

"No," said Khalid. "I think they're...gone now."

"No-one on earth is stupid enough to keep those things around," I said.

"Hussain," Fatima said, in a nervous voice, "talk them out of it."

Khalid's father looked at us all. Me especially, and he said, "We're coming too."

Khalid nodded as if he'd seen that coming. "I booked six tickets," he said.

"Six?" I asked.

"The other two are for your mum and grandad."

*

So I went back home, and talked to them.

"So if you want to come," I finished lamely, "we have two tickets. But I don't think you should. I mean, it's dangerous."

"We'd be bloody idiots to let you go on your own, then," Mum said. "Dad? You're gonna need your gun."

And just like that, he went upstairs and returned with the gun. I watched as he started cleaning it out.

"Mum, people are gonna die. Actually going to die." It was one of those things that took forever to sink in. "We're going into a fucking war!"

Mum went to make a cuppa. "I've been talking to Moira," she said, not looking at me.

"Who now?"

"Hermione Granger's mother. Moira. The one who told us about Dolores in the first place."

"Oh." And I thought of her reading messages saying her daughter deserved to die and rot. "What'd she say to you?"

"Everything you've said. That there's gonna be a fight."

"Is she coming to Scotland? I mean, her daughter..."

"I think she will." Mum sighed. "Everyone's gonna to come to Scotland, things will blow up like fuck. We knew this was coming." And I thought, we're the only people in the whole world who know, us people living just outside the magic. We know. And heck, the whole planet could go up in smoke here, all that raw power around...

"Hermione Granger's mother. Be cool to meet her. Is her husband gonna come too?"

"I dunno. They're divorced."

*

A day later we touched down in Scotland, we went to the hotel Khalid had booked for us, and we sat, in Grandad's room, wondering what to do next. Khalid had his laptop perched on his lap, and he had the forum open, and it looked like nothing was happening. There was one message from John saying he was staying out of things and the British government were turning a blind eye. I'd expected that completely.

Khalid had chosen the hotel very carefully, and in the distance you could just make out a castle. It looked like a ruin, but we knew better.

"We've got to go there," I said. "Straight to the castle. And wait for something to happen."

"And after that, what?" said Khalid's dad. "We have one gun. And we are putting ourselves into big trouble."

"You don't even have a flipping license for that gun," Mum told Grandad.

We sat around.

"You kids aren't coming," Mum said, out of the blue. "We talked about it on the plane."

"What?"

"When something happens, you're staying here. Where it's safe."

"Mum, we're the ones who fucking-"

"Would you please mind your language," she snapped. She didn't mind me swearing at home, but there were other people around now. "You're not joining us in this."

"We're old enough," Khalid said, looking at his parents.

"You're not coming," his dad said. And then he turned to the others. "Jeremy. I have my little telescope in a bag. We can keep an eye on the castle, see if anyone approaches..."

"We need to keep watch day and night," Fatima said. "We'll organise shifts."

I stared out at the castle while they talked. I imagined Roseanna seeing it for the first time, crossing the lake, so many people, so many lights-

Most the people she'd known at Hogwarts were dead...

"Mal," said Mum, "you and Khalid have to make sure we've got an alibi, alright?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean it looks a bit weird, us all on holiday together, stuffed up in three rooms. So we're cousins, yeah?" And me and Khalid looked at each other. "Hussain's my cousin, who I've only met a few times, and we all decided to go to Scotland. To check out old castles and stuff. So if anyone asks, this is all perfectly normal, yeah?"

I almost rolled my eyes. "Okay."

"For God's sake, Mal, you can't have thought we'd have let you walk in to this."

"Not after losing kids already," said Grandad.

The room was quiet, and me and Khalid nodded. Outside the sun was setting, and the castle seemed to change. It looked like a monster, black against the yellow, on the horizon. A cliche, but that's what it looked like.

*

In order to keep up the pretence that we were all on holiday, we went out shopping the next day. Grandad and Hussain stayed behind to watch through the telescope, and we all went into town. Me and Khalid went off on our own while our mothers went shoe shopping, and we sat in a cafe and had tea. Khalid paid.

"I'm sorry about that night," he said, as soon as we'd sat down. "You know, when I..."

"It's cool, really it is."

"I just feel so embarrassed about it all."

"Well, don't." I glanced around the cafe. Everything looked so normal. And Khalid looked so sad. Then again, he had more than a good reason to. "I meant to thank you, actually. Kinda. For saying I was the only girl you'd ever like."

Khalid almost choked on his tea. "You are! I mean...I've never had a girlfriend. And you're a girl, and you're my friend..." He looked at me desperately. "I know you probably don't like me in the same way."

I thought about it. I came up with a hundred different things and I looked at Khalid hard. And I inexplicably thought of my mum and dad, and then I thought of how I'd never wanted a long-term relationship, no reason I could think of, I just didn't...and I said, "We should have sex."

"What?"

"We nearly did before, so there's nothing to stop us."

"But...you mean...how?" He caught himself. "No, I don't mean that! But our parents are here!"

"We'll get a room."

"We've got a room! With our parents in it!"

"A different room. Wanna do it? Can I get a yes?"

"Yes," Khalid practically squeaked. And we got up and walked back to the hotel, barely exchanging a word, and we went up to the top floor.

"I used to work in a hotel," I explained to him. "Sometimes they leave rooms unlocked on days the staff can't be arsed." I ran down the corridor, trying each door. One of them was open, and the room was clean with the keys on the table. I shoved Khalid in and locked the door from the inside. "Right. Get your pants off."

"What?"

"Come on!"

He did, and we got under the covers. Things happened. And heck, I'll be honest, I've slept with four guys and he wasn't as good as any of them, but better than I expected considering it was his first time. And intense. "You're everything I ever wanted," he said towards the end, and I thought, oh God, I'm having sex with a guy who might actually love me. Has that ever happened before? That's never happened before.

"You're everything I ever wanted too," I gasped, and it was sort of true at that point. Anyway, once we'd finished we cleaned up pretty quickly, left the room as we'd found it and went out to the hotel grounds. We sat under a tree.

"Mal," said Khalid, "I want you to be my girlfriend."

"This doesn't mean I have to marry you, does it?"

"No," He looked hurt. "I just want to be around you. A lot."

"Sorry," I said. "For the marriage comment." Khalid looked so hopeful, I just wanted to hug him. "S'just, Khalid, relationships aren't that easy, y'know. I've never actually been what you'd call a proper girlfriend..."

"Then be mine."

I think it was the romantic tone of the words that got me. I thought about it. "Okay."

"Really?"

"Yes. I'll be your girlfriend."