Harry Potter and the Lake They Call Michigan

Chapter 3 Ending by a Lake

Sears Tower Lobby- 4 p.m.

"Fraser, what are we doing here again?" He's dragged me back to Sears Tower to look for evidence or something. He's not even listening to me. Instead, he's talking to Dief and the wolf is sniffing around. Suddenly, Dief is running across the lobby, headed for the bank of elevators.

"Ray, he's caught a scent." Dief disappears around a corner, so we have to run to not loose him. As we round the corner, I plow into Fraser's back. He has stopped short so as not to bump into a maintenance guy who's moping the floor. I back off.

"Sorry Frase," I mutter, while trying to spit out the wool fibers that have gotten stuck in my teeth. There's nothing like chewing on a Mountie. I can't help but chuckle at the mental image. Oops, I've lost Frase. He and Dief have gone on to a bank of freight elevators.

The wolf has stopped at the wall between two elevators and Frase is poking at the wall. As I catch up to them, Fraser steps up really close to the wall like he is going to lick it.

"Not again, Frase, don't . . ." I shake myself, blinking 'cause my eyes ain't working right. No, I did not just see that. Fraser did not just disappear through that wall. I rub the peepers and blink a few more times. Nope, Mountie still gone. I step up close to the wall too. He must be here somewhere. Then it hits me! Doh! I am so late for the dentist. How could I have forgotten? I step back to find my way to the car and get my tardy butt over to Dr. Paine's office when I hear Frase calling me.

". . . Ray, Ray, RAY!" Now he is suddenly standing next to me again. In spite of the sudden special effects I can't seem to say anything except;

"Frase, I gotta go. I am SO incredibly late for my gum scraping, and I've got all that paperwork to do on the Wasneski case. I can't spend anymore time watching you and the wolf look for Lon Chaney Jr. wannabes." Can't he see how important my time is? Stubborn Mountie.

"Ray, this will only take a few minutes. The pursuit of justice is worth the extra effort." I'm pulling away 'cause I can almost feel my gums receding here, but Frase has me by the forearm and is pulling me back towards the wall.

"Frase, let go! If you don't let go I'm gonna pop ya! Fair warning." I'm ready to do it. He pulls me hard now right into the wall and I brace for the meeting of wall and face; the jarring pain, the rain of my barely cemented teeth hitting the floor, but somehow the impact sort of isn't. Not jarring, not pain, no rain of teeth, no impact! I open my eyes and we are standing in a freight elevator.

"Ray, it is just an elevator. I just want to see if I can figure out which floor Black may have come from. Hmm. None of these buttons appear to have been pushed recently. Not even the one for the Lobby. See Ray, they are all covered in dust. How did Black use this elevator with out depressing any of the buttons?" He pushes the second floor button and we wait. There is no movement, the doors don't close, the motor doesn't whir, no juice at all. Undaunted, Fraser just says, "Well, Dief, we better backtrack and try to see where he was before he entered the tower." He and Dief are walking back out of the elevator and back across the Lobby to the revolving doors. I follow more out of habit than choice. Out on the street we head in a completely different direction than we followed Black three hours ago. We are going east on Jackson towards the Art Institute. Frase and Dief are walking and I am following in the car, holding up rush hour traffic in the name of international cooperation. I'm so busy trying to wrap my head around the wall that's really an elevator door, that I don't care about the chorus of angry horns blazing behind us. The really funny thing is that my gums are fine. I don't even know a Dr. Paine. My guys name is Klein. Dief turns north when we hit Lakeshore Dr. and before I know it we are on the shores of The Lake They Call Michigan. The wolf is just sniffing around and waiting while Fraser is staring out at the water. Did I say I hate when cases get weird?

"So, he lose the trail?" I ask.

"No Ray, we just can't follow it any further with out scuba gear," he snaps.

"He went swimming here? Why?"

"That would seem to be the question. It is certainly not an appealing place for a recreational swim."

"So, okay, what was that back there anyway? How did you know that place was there? The elevator I mean."

"Ray? Dief just followed Blacks scent." Like that is an explanation.

"Right, whatever. So, are we done here? You wanna get some dinner or something?" I start dragging him back to the car, 'cause staring at the lake isn't doing anything for the case or my growing annoyance.

***

The Common Room- 10 pm

Harry and I can't leave to look for Ginny because a couple of second years are hanging out in the common room, so we sit and pretend to play chess while we wait for them to go up to bed. As soon as they leave Harry pulls out the Marauders map to look for Ginny. "Ron, she is outside, see, walking by the lake," he points to her tiny figure on the map.

"Who is that with her?" I peer over his shoulder, "Moaning Myrtle. Harry, we better get out there. That Myrtle is mental even for a ghost, you know?"

"You're right. Let's go," he says as he rolls up the map. We slip under the invisibility cloak and go through the portrait hole. As we get nearer to the main staircase down into the entrance hall, we can hear the sound of someone singing greatly off key. It is accompanied by an intermittent banging noise. Peeves the poltergeist is throwing something at the portraits as he floats along singing about a fat girl?

Sixty-six bust and a forty-eight waist,

Eighty-two hips and elephant legs,

And looking at Stella Grey from the behind,

Just makes me go outta my mind,

Woh! How I love Stella Grey!

One quarter ton of bounce and play. . .

She's my mammoth mamma,

My darling Stella Grey. . .

Now she's so fat that if you want,

You can see her backside from the front

As we slip out the door, we hear the caretaker, Mr. Filch, ranting at Peeves. We walk over the lawn and Harry is kind of quiet in front of me so I figure I had better make sure he is not mad about the self-juicing pumpkins thing. Eh, Harry are you . . . er, we all right? I mean I know you're not a pumpkin or anything."

"Yeah Ron, we're fine. I just don't think you ought to treat Ginny like a joke. That's all," he sighs.

"Okay Harry. Sorry. You know, you seem awfully protective of my ickle baby sister. Maybe you do like the attention from her, especially since she, how did Mum put it? 'blossomed' over the summer. You don't fancy her now, do you?" I tease.

"Er . . ."

"Harry! You don't, do you?" I ask.

"Well, she is really pretty Ron," he smiles hopefully.

I think for far longer than I should need to about that and suddenly realize, "Okay, right, so you can like Ginny. I mean, if I want anybody to date my sister, I'd want it to be you."

"That's very generous of you."

"Just don't snog her in front of me. Wait, don't snog her behind my back either."

"How about standing next to you with your eyes closed Ron?" We both laugh. We are nearing the lake now and can hear snatches of conversation.

". . . sorry for how you died. It must have been terrible. I wish I didn't remember it either. Not that that would help you, but it is hard to keep dreaming about it all," that's Ginny's voice.

"Oh, yes, it was too awful for words. Too bad I didn't have famous, handsome, Harry Potter to save me from the basilisk, like you did. Tell me Ginny, did you kiss him as a reward. I would have. That would have shown that Olive Hornby for sure." Moaning Myrtle seems gone on Harry. Harry pulls the cloak off of us and we walked a little closer so Ginny can see us coming.

"Hey Ginny. Hi Myrtle," Harry calls out cheerfully.

"Oh, Harry, were you looking for me?" Myrtle coos.

"Oh, actually we were looking for Ginny. She is out past lights out and we didn't want her to get caught," he says, "But it is good to see you too, Myrtle."

"Yeah we just don't get to the girls toilet often enough these days," I add. Ginny pulls a face at me and gets up to leave.

"Thank you for keeping me company Myrtle. Good night." Then she looks at me and says, "Thanks for coming to get me Harry. Let's go," and she walks off towards the castle. So, she is still mad at me. I run to catch up with her, Harry trailing behind.

"Oy, Ginny hold up a moment, please," I plead. She slows down a little, but doesn't look at me. "Look, I'm sorry. I didn't know you were sitting there. You weren't meant to hear that. Of course, I shouldn't have said it anyway. It's not like you're Colin Creevey or something. So, sorry. Okay?" I stick out my hand, hoping. She lets a little smile slip and I know were all right.

"I guess I can forgive you, as long as you promise not to do it again," she states.

"I promise," I say solemnly.

"Never?" she asks.

"Never, ever," I reply.

"Swear on Harry's Firebolt?" She is smiling full on now.

"On, the Firebolt." I smile too.

"On Pigwidgeon?" she teases.

"On Pig," I laugh.

"On your and Hermione's unborn children?" she giggles.

"Ginny!" I sputter. I can hear Harry, who has been trying to stay far enough behind us that he can't hear, burst out laughing.

"All right then, you're forgiven." And I am. If I forget Malfoy and detention tomorrow night, life is good.

Chapter 4 The Unreasonably Short Chapter

Rays Apt. - 6pm

So, we go back to my apartment to hang and let go of this funky case. I'm thinking pizza, pineapple, beer, a Mountie, a deaf half-wolf and a Lon Chaney Jr. Film-fest; well it's not perfect, but I'll take it. Fraser is looking at my videos, but he is really still wrapped up in the Black thing frowning and thinking too much. "Ray, you seem to have a great number of on Chaney Jr. films; Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Ghost of Frankenstein, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, House of Frankenstein, Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Dracula vs. Frankenstein, The Wolf Man."

"Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers at night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright. . . ." I quote.

"There are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." He quotes back.

"You comparing Shakespeare and The Wolf Man Fraser? That's just sick."

"I apologize Ray. However, there is a certain thematic similarity. Although Edgar Allen Poe is widely considered to have invented the modern horror genre, he was by no means the first author to use the occult to unsettle his audience. In fact, Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth has even become part of popular superstition. Many thespians consider the play to be cursed and refuse to say its name inside of any theater, instead calling it by nicknames like the Scottish Play, the Comedy of Glamis, the Unmentionable, or That Play."

"Thespians, huh? You got a kinky side I don't know about, Frase? 'Cause if you do, I'm not sure I even want to know what a Glamis is."

***

The Fifth Years Boys Dorm- Midnight

I am standing at the bottom of the stairs in the entrance hall. The Yule Ball is going to start in a few minutes. Harry is next to me and Padma is holding my hand on the other side, but I can hardly feel it. I look up the stairwell and see her, the most beautiful girl I have ever seen in my life. Hermione is on Krum's arm. She is positively shiny. They sweep down the stairs and right past me. She doesn't even look my way. I can't stand it. I won't take it this time. I stride after them and grab Hermione's arm, spinning her around to face me. I say something. Something perfect. It is just the one thing she wants to hear. I don't even know what it is except that it is the right thing to say. By now, I have realized that I am dreaming, but I don't want it to stop, so it doesn't. I slip my arm around her waist and pull her close. The room is suddenly empty 'cause I don't need the rest of them watching in my dreams. I bend down to place my lips on hers and whisper another perfect thing. This one I do remember, "First choice, never ever last." I kiss her and it is perfect too. Ah, the power of dreams.

When we finally pull apart from the kiss, she looks just as she did in second year and her Polyjuice Potion went wrong. Hermione the kitty, complete with tail, has become a fixture in my dreams recently. Yeah, this one was going to be good. Hermione looks up at me with those blazing yellow eyes and says;

"Ron, Ron, wake up." Urg, when did her voice get so deep?

"Harry, what? Gah! What time is it?" Harry's head is floating disembodied above my bed. Out in the bloody invisibility cloak again! "Harry, don't you ever sleep?"

"Ron, I overheard Snape and Snuffles talking in Snape's office fireplace. Ron, Ron, Snuffles is sure Wormtail is in America and he's left Grimauld place to hunt for him. He thinks he may even be able to catch him this week. Of course, they have to wait out the full moon, because Lupin is with him, but that's all right, they'll find him. Think about it Ron, he might be free by the Christmas Holidays." He looks so hopeful, I don't have the heart to tell him how long the Ministry was likely to take to clear Sirius. Even if Wormtail were caught and confessed everything, it could take months, especially with Fudge still pretending You Know Who is not around.

"That's great Harry, now can I get some ruddy sleep please?!" I roll over knowing full well that Harry won't sleep at all tonight after this kind of news, but I don't care as much as I should at this hour. I lazily wonder what Hermione is wearing to sleep tonight.