Nick Cleveland and the Coven of Lancre

Nick Cleveland and the Coven of Lancre

Chapter 8

by Technomad

Minerva McGonagall was seldom at a loss for words. However, this situation was one she had never thought to find herself facing, and she couldn't think of anything to say. From what the strange witches said, as well as Professors Vector and Flitwick, Nick Cleveland had stumbled across the secret of inter-world transportation via Portkey!

The more she found out, the more agog she was. When one of the house-elves popped up behind her, saying "Mistress Assistant Headmistress, you is wanted down in the sickbay! Mister Flying-Schemer is asking for you!" she was just finishing contacting Luna's father. Nick's parents had been contacted earlier; they had stayed on in Britain while their son was missing. McGonagall gave a silent sigh of relief that Nick had been found; Asgeirr Cleveland had fully intended to carry through on his threats of carving the "blood-eagle" on whoever he thought was responsible for his oldest boy's disappearance.

It didn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure out who the elf meant. As she went down toward Madam Pomfrey's domain, McGonagall wondered what Nick could possibly want. The last she knew, he had been terribly weak and unconscious.

When she came in, she saw that Asgeirr and Grace Cleveland had arrived. "So good to see you! Apparently Mr. Cleveland-your-son is apparently recovering consciousness, and he's asked to see me."

"We'll all go in together," said Asgeirr. "I heard he'd been hurt in a duel. I must admit I'm surprised to hear it; those protective amulets he worked up should have protected him from any normal wizard or witch. Was he fighting You-Know-Who?" The Norwegian wizard looked very worried.

"No, Mr. Cleveland. He wasn't even on our world. Mr. Cleveland-your-son inadvertently discovered inter-world Portkey transportation. The witch he was fighting...she's upstairs with Professor Dumbledore, Professor Flitwick and Professor Vector." She opened the door to the sickbay. "Here's Madam Pomfrey. She can tell us if Mr. Cleveland's really fit to receive visitors."

Nick was lying in a hospital bed, with Professor Snape working over him. Snape looked up and gave them a haggard smile. "Hello, Minerva, Grace, Mr. Cleveland. Mr. Cleveland the younger's stable, and conscious."

"And able to know when you're talking about me like I was part of the furniture," Nick rasped. At this, everybody's eyes turned toward the bed. "Hi, Mum, Dad. Sorry to be so much trouble. Next time I'll check those stupid equations better."

"Never you mind that! I'm just glad you're alive!" Grace launched herself toward her son, hugging him as hard as she dared. "I was so worried...I knew you were alive, but didn't know where...I had visions of you lost, unable to find food..."

"We were in a forest by a lake, Mrs. Cleveland," piped up Luna Lovegood, who had come wandering in to see what the fuss was about. "Nick knows everything about wilderness survival, at least with magic to help, and we ate and lived pretty well, I thought."

Asgeirr and Grace both stared. "You must be little Miss Lovegood...the one that he and Melinda took under his wing?" At Luna's nod, they both descended on Luna. "Oh, sweetheart! How could anybody have had the heart to be cruel to you, you poor motherless thing?" lamented Grace. She hugged Luna tightly.

"There are lots of times I would like to throttle Nick," commented Asgeirr, wiping at his eyes, "but there are also lots of times I'm very proud of him. This is one of them."

Grace had unwrapped herself from around Luna, and turned toward her son. "Nick...sweetheart...why did you want to see Professor McGonagall? Why not Professor Flitwick? He's your Head of House, after all..." Asgeirr raised one eyebrow and waited for Nick's answer.

"Wanted...to thank her..." Nick mumbled. He reached out and took Minerva's hand. "You...taught me Transfiguration. Real lifesaver. Used it every day, in all sorts of ways. I'll...write it up...when I'm feeling better."

"I was just doing my duty by you, Mr. Cleveland. I was rather surprised that you did well enough on your OWLs to join my advanced classes, but I was told that the good Miss Yang forced you to study systematically for once. Unlike most of your studies, this doesn't come easily to you."

"Came in...useful," Nick whispered. "Turned...fish guts...into good things to eat. Remembered...edible stuff to edible stuff...easier to do, and less dangerous."

Minerva straightened, to find herself looking into Grace's eyes. The two women shared a moment of complete understanding. "A teacher can't ask for a finer reward," Grace remarked, before she hugged Minerva. Minerva couldn't answer her; it was all she could do to not burst out crying. She had never expected to hear such words, particularly from Nick, who had always struggled in her class.

"I heard that Mr. Cleveland, my daughter's friend, is awake," came a voice, and they all turned to see Mr. Lovegood. "I wanted to thank him for keeping my daughter alive."

"Not...a problem...Mr. Lovegood," Nick mumbled. "Just...remembered all I've been taught. Rest...was easy."

"He taught me ever so much about how to survive in the wilderness!" Luna piped up. "He said that he'd been taught those tricks from the time he could walk."

"There never was a Ravenclaw but was a teacher at heart," Minerva remarked. "They have a system in that House where the upper-level students help the firsties and second-years with their studies. In Ravenclaw, anybody who's having trouble is expected to let others know, and there'll be help for him or her."

Just then, Madame Pomfrey came in, leading Nick's girlfriend, Melinda. The Chinese girl looked dreadful; she was wearing nothing but a stained sleep-robe, and she looked half-starved. "The poor thing..." murmured Mrs. Cleveland. "What happened to her?"

"When she found out that your son had disappeared, she went nearly catatonic," Madame Pomfrey answered. "We had a job on our hands keeping her alive."

Melinda's eyes were wide, and stared at nothing...until they lit on Luna, and Nick. Suddenly, life and intelligence came flooding back in, and she threw herself at the bed. Madame Pomfrey and Mrs. Cleveland held her back before she could land straight on Nick, but she held her hands out, running them over his face as tears streamed from her eyes. "You're...alive..." she whispered. "I didn't...know...if I'd ever see you...again..."

"Don't cry, Melinda," said Luna. She approached Melinda fearlessly; she, unlike nearly all Hogwarts students, had no fear whatsoever of Melinda, despite her reputation for insanely intense rages. "Please don't cry. Nick was with me, and he took good care of me."

Melinda turned and focussed on Luna, and grabbed the younger girl, hugging her as hard as she could, while she finally gave in to the release of weeping. Her whole body shook as she sobbed out her relief and the terrible fear that had paralysed her for so long. Luna hugged her back, crying. This was unusual; Luna normally did not show much emotion. "There, there, Melinda, sometimes it's good to cry. Everything's going to be all right."

After a little while, Melinda straightened, wiping her eyes. In a hoarse voice, she asked: "How did he come to be so injured?" Her face twisted in a diabolical smile. "Whoever did this will answer to me!"

"Got...in a duel." Nick slowly opened his pyjama top, showing her a burn on his chest the exact shape of an Arrows-of-Chaos pendant. "Lost. Got this thing melted in the fight. Overloaded."

"Merciful Buddha!" Melinda's red-rimmed eyes went wide with wonder. "You wrapped that thing with every bit of protective magic you could think of...and can't you think, just?" She shook her head slowly. "Who could have done such a thing?"

"Apparently Mr. Cleveland fell afoul of a very high-ranking witch in the country where he and Miss Lovegood-from-Ravenclaw ended up," Madame Pomfrey explained. "She landed at his campsite and asked for Miss Lovegood; in that country, women are trained by women and men by men, and she thought it unfitting that Miss Lovegood should be under Mr. Cleveland's protection. He wouldn't give her up, and a fight broke out."

"I'll want to meet this witch, soon," decided Melinda. She gave a prodigious yawn. "I'll show her who isn't allowed to meddle with my boyfriend!"

"Right now, Melinda, I think you need to get some sleep," Luna said. She tugged at Melinda's hand, towing her along toward the ward door. "I'll see you back to your bed. You don't look like you've had a decent night's sleep since we've been gone."

"Very well...I admit, I'm very short on sleep," Melinda said. "Will you stay with me till I drop off?" For a second, the mask the Chinese girl almost always wore slipped away, and the adults could see a vulnerable child behind it, a child terrified of abandonment.

Luna saw it, too...little ever got past her, for all her spacey demeanor. "I'll do you one better, Melinda. I'll crawl on in with you and stay with you till you wake up. I need sleep, too." With that, she pulled Melinda off toward a bed.

Madame Pomfrey looked at the others...Minerva McGonagall, Asgeirr and Grace Cleveland, and Mr. Lovegood. In a low voice, she said: "One of these days, I hope to meet the people who mistreated that lovely young lady." She fingered her wand, and smiled ominously. "I...dislike...people who could twist and warp a sweet, intelligent child so."

"After she marries our son, I think quite a few of us want to have a talk with her mother, and her cousins," said Asgeirr Cleveland. "She'll be considered a member of our family once she and Nick are married...and the Clevelands take a dim view of anybody who hurts one of us."

"She protects my little girl," murmured Mr. Lovegood. "When the day comes, call me; I'll be there!"

END Chapter 08