An Afternoon Visitor (Shalie/Burrow Occupants(?))

[Harry Potter]

There was hardly any time left before Bill and Fleur's wedding and the Burrow was in full panic mode. Not a second went by when Mrs. Weasley wasn't hollering orders to someone because they swore that there was nothing else to do and so they were just going to go lie down (Ron) or shrieking that leaving transfigurable wands around was not funny and that someone might actually try to use one on a death eater and get themselves killed (the twins) and on and on.

Harry, on this particular afternoon, had been sent out by Mrs Weasley (who was, on top of all the yelling, trying very hard to keep Ron, Hermione and Harry apart so they couldn't continue to plan and wouldn't abandon their education to go on a dangerous mission) to check the garden and make sure all the gnomes were still gone after the large de-gnoming ceremony that had taken place a week ago.

He wandered through the vast garden, stamping his feet every now and then to see if a gnome would poke their head out to find out the source of the noise, being that they weren't the brightest, but the garden remained silent and gnome free. When he was one hundred and ten percent certain the garden was pestless, he went up to the top of the hill in the apple orchard where he and the weasleys used to practice quidditch and looked around. There was nothing to see for miles aside from barren land. The closest neighboring house was a few miles up the road, past all the protective enchantments placed on the Burrow. The combined efforts of the ministry and the order had made the Burrow effectively untouchable and very hard to approach unless you knew what you were doing. You had to apparate to a spot just beyond the enchantments and then walk the rest of the way, but if you didn't apparate to just the right place, you weren't allowed past what Harry always imagined as a giant transparent bubble.

There was always the chance, of course, of apparating to the right spot beyond the "bubble" by pure luck, but you would have to be extrodinarily lucky and no death eater was going to sit there for hours, trying to get the exact right spot which is why Harry felt certain that when he saw a figure in the distance walking towards him that it was not a sign of danger and therefore he didn't reach for his wand right away. Only after he heard Hermione's shrill voice in his head "You have to remember who you are Harry!" did he draw it and wait apprehensively.

[Shalie Matsuoka]

Getting away from the general chaos in her home wasn't easy for Shalie. She had assumed that most of it was over when her grandfather reminded her that she still had to find the will. It wasn't like her father to be disorganized, so she hoped that he had written it at all. It wasn't uncommon for people to assume that they were immortal. It was foolish but fear did strange things to a person. Once she got away she was faced with another problem. How was she going to get there? She decided apparating was the only logical way but since she hadn't been directly at the Burrow before it was a daunting thing.

Eventually, she did find the proper way to go about it through guesswork and intuition. She couldn't help but worry constantly that she was going to be turned away, or worse, have wands pointed at her on sight. She saw someone in the distance as she walked. If it was a Weasley she would have fun explaining just what she was doing appearing out of nowhere. Luck was on her side today. She gathered her nerves but smiled once she saw that it was Harry. “U-uhm... Surprise?”

[/color][/blockquote]

[Harry Potter]

Surprise hardly said it. Harry blinked a few times and then let out something between a laugh and a relieved sigh. "What are you doing here" he wanted to know curiously, although he had a pretty good idea of the answer he would recieve. Then he realized then he hadn't even properly greeted her so he darted forward to give her a welcoming hug, making sure to pocket his wand first so it wouldn't poke her or accidentally set her on fire or something. Pulling back he added, "Not that I'm not happy to see you."

He studied her for a moment. She didn't seem to be too badly banged or bruised so all the injuries from the attack had probably been healed by now. At least the physical ones. That would make sense, as the fresh scrapes and guaze wrapped wrist on Harry were from the move from Privet Drive. His own wounds from the death eaters had long since cleared up.

[Shalie Matsuoka]

Shalie was slightly nervous that he was asking what she was doing there only because her paranoid mind told her that he might not have wanted to see her to begin with. But her worries were put to rest when he gave her a hug and said, in other words, that he was happy to see her. “Well, I thought that there were some things that were better to talk about in person. I... hope that I'm not intruding or something.”

[/color] She didn't know quite how busy everyone had been but even if she did, it seemed like she came at a good time. “What were you doing outside?”[/color]

It was a little odd to be looking at Harry this way. She hadn't seen him since that day... But he looked alright, much better than he had before apparating. Then again that was shortly after being hit with a food processor and being hit with crucio several times. She smiled softly regardless of the way the memories came back to her. “I'm glad that you're alright...”[/color][/blockquote]

[Harry Potter]

Some things were better talked about in person. Now that was an understatement. But he understood what she meant and gave her an encouraging nod. "You are by no means intruding, you are giving me a well needed break" he chuckled before expanding on that explanation as well as answering her next question in one go. "There's a wedding coming up here in a few days and everyone is running around doing last minute things. If I have to look at one more recipe or seating chart or..." He gestured vaguely behind him at the garden. "...check for any more gnomes, I think I might lose it."

All summer when he had been getting letters from Ron and Hermione about the craziness of the wedding preparations he had thought that they were exagerating. But they most definitely were not.

He dropped into a seated position on the grass and his feet thanked him. He gestured for her to join him before adding, "I'm glad to see you're alright too. I really am sorry about what happened." He left it open ended so that Shalie could take what she wanted from it without getting too specific.

[Shalie Matsuoka]

Shalie listened to his explanation with a small, uncertain smile on her face. It was odd to hear word of a wedding when things were so bad in the world, but she thought that it was possibly a very good idea. It would relieve the general depression temporarily (other than the usual spats that weddings caused) and it was also possible that the two getting married might die. A grim thought that was not at all unlikely. She wrinkled her nose a little bit when he mentioned gnomes. “I've never seen a gnome in person before. Not that I really want to, but... Well, you know, since you lived in a muggle neighborhood...”

[/color] She had never had to de-gnome anything before.

She sat down and pulled her legs to her chest, resting her head on her arm. “You shouldn't be sorry... They couldn't have known that they would find you there, it was all a coincidence.”[/color] What a happy coincidence it had been at first to find Harry while a boring business meeting was going on. She'd had no idea it would turn into a tragedy. She thought of her father, the green light, and the torture and all and felt tears forming in her eyes. She looked up toward the sky to hide it. At least she'd worn her hair down to make it less obvious. She still didn't want to bring up her father because she was afraid Harry would blame himself, as they killed Matsuoka for Harry leaving.[/blockquote]

[Harry Potter]

Harry chuckled a little as she made a face thinking about gnomes but before he could explain that they weren't anything like the gnomes you saw in muggle gardens, the chuckle died in his throat. Shalie was looking skyward. Her hair blocked her face from his sight though he was fairly certain she was crying. Again, he didn't want to push her on the subject, hoping that she would talk about it when she was ready, on her own time.

He gave her a few minutes of awkward silence and then cleared his throat hesitantly. "So...things that are better spoken about in person...did you have something specific in mind?" He held his breath, waiting. He was nearly positive that it would be about Hogwarts as that is what she had been talking about in her letters before he had made the subtle hint that talking to him at the burrow in person would be better than explaining in written form.

[Shalie Matsuoka]

Shalie was quiet for a minute more, then she looked at Harry. “Well... Sort of a lot of things, I guess.”

[/color]She was so unsure of what to say. There were the little hints she had gotten from her visit to Diagon Alley about the coming state of Hogwarts, whether Harry was actually going to be at Hogwarts or not, and then there was the death of her father which really she didn't know if she would ever bring up. “I still don't think that you should go back to Hogwarts, you know,”[/color] she said matter-of-factly, maybe almost in a bossy tone because she was getting over her near-emotional moment. She was also partly wondering if he had lied about that, though she didn't want to think so. [/blockquote]

[Harry Potter]

And there it was. Hogwarts. He let out his breath slowly, thinking about the best way to go about this without blatantly admitting he had lied to her from the start. "Well..." Now it was his turn to look skyward, but not to hide tears or anything, just to get his thoughts straight. Finally, he looked directly at her with a blank expression. "I won't be going back this year. I have some...things that I need to do." He was being as vauge as Draco but with no malicious or mysterious intentions. He just couldn't tell her...or anyone apart from Ron and Hermione.

[Shalie Matsuoka]

That was really all that Shalie needed to hear. She didn't know the specifics... But Voldemort and Harry obviously had it out for each other (which was the understatement of the century) and she was sure that it had something to do with that. Mostly Shalie was upset that he was likely going to be putting himself in danger, but she was also upset because she didn't know who all would be at the school. She was relieved though that he wouldn't be around the Death Eaters that would inevitably be stalking the school. Not that it mattered if it ended in another confrontation with Voldemort. Clearly, she was torn on what to think about it. One thing she was sure of though was she didn't have to go into detail about the changes that Draco had mentioned. That would only cause Harry to worry about things outside of whatever he had to do. For all her thoughts on the matter Shalie couldn't bring herself to speak much. “Oh... I thought... Maybe.” As if that made sense! Some Ravenclaw she turns out to be.

[Harry Potter]

Harry was relieved that she didn't seem mad at him for the lies he had been telling her, promising her that he would be back at school and that everyone and everything would be fine. He looked down to his guaze wrapped wrist, trying to sort through the jumble of thoughts in his brain for something to say. "I thought you would understand...I'm sorry I didn't tell you before. Owls were getting intercepted all the time and talking about things like that in something that could so easily fall into the wrong hands is...well, as Hermione would put it...suicidal. I need the death eaters to think that I'm going back...at least until the welcome feast..."

He trailed off as Fred and George came loping over, identical grins on their faces. "Oh there you are Harry! Mum's all worried because you didn't come back after the gardening." Fred clicked his tongue.

"Honestly, you'd think all the wedding worries would keep her from worrying about you too. I dunno how she thinks about so much without exploding." George shook his bandaged head and then got a weird look on his face. "Speaking of exploding, we left some of that-"


"Oh no!" Fred interrupted, panicked. "Well, we'll let her know you're fine mate." The twins took off at full speed back towards the house.

Harrysat there for a minute after the confusion, just staring at their retreating backs.

[Shalie Matsuoka]

Shalie listened to Harry's explanation. She did understand, except she wondered why he had held back on the information when they were both in the same place over the summer. That was the first time that he had said or at least hinted that he would be coming back to school. In the end it was a good thing that Harry didn't say anything because she didn't know if there were more Death Eaters hanging around than just the two morons they were stuck with. If there were, they must have not been paying any attention to their comrades because she was sure it would have been handled more gracefully with more. They were somewhat lucky in that regard.

She was going to talk more on the subject when the Weasley twins came over. She was slightly worried they would be wondering what she was doing there in the first place, but actually, they didn't say anything about her at all and only about their mother worrying about Harry. When the twins had left Shalie remembered her voice. She giggled just a little bit. “Must be entertaining being here. Or dangerous, if I remember my fifth year correctly,”

[/color] she joked, referring to the Weasleys and their antics while leaving. It still made her smile to think of the bad words in firework form.

“I've been staying with my grandfather when not busy at home. He works in Hogsmeade, you know, so I've been able to see how it is there during the summer. Not nearly as fun with all the places closed anyway.”[/color] She was speaking casually and adding on to what she really meant to say. She didn't want to lie either but was speaking about what she had been up to as well. She figured that after a while it was just plain creepy if she pretended she had materialized here just after the last time she'd written him! [/blockquote]

[Harry Potter]

Harry, glad that Shalie either hadn't noticed George's bandaged head or just hadn't said anything about it, tried to hide a smile when she mentioned it would either be entertaining or dangerous living at the burrow but failed. Grinning broadly, he leaned back onto his elbows to get comfortable. "It depends on the time, honestly. Mrs. Weasley is quite easy to get-" A loud crash and following shrieks interrupted him and also startled him so much that he sat straight back up again, putting weight on his wrapped hand and wincing. Looking to brush over that part, he inclined his head towards the house and finished his sentence. "...angry."

Feeling that he owed Mrs. Weasley a much bigger explanation than that since she had always been so nice to him, he expanded. "I mean, she's a great person and a great mom but she gets stressed...I suppose she has a good reason and all..." Harry was referring to the wedding obviously, but there was also the lingering hint of Ron, Hermione and himself going off on their own on a life threatening journey that could also be causing her a lot of un-needed stress.

[Shalie Matsuoka]

Shalie wondered what was wrong with Harry's hand in the first place but she didn't ask because he was already on another subject. If he was lucky then maybe it would slip her mind completely. She nodded softly when Harry began to explain about Mrs. Weasley, but jumped and loosened her grip on her knees, which until then had still been pulled toward her. “O-oh... I hope nothing's happened,”

[/color] she said, though from Harry's reaction she thought that maybe this sort of thing happened often here.

“Well, I think having so many troublemakers around would be stressful,”[/color] she teased in order to avoid commenting on what might really be behind the stress. “I mean, Fred and George... You...”[/color] She looked up at the sky though her expression was quite different from the last time she did this. “The school is changing a lot, you know,”[/color] she said suddenly before she had a chance to remind herself she wasn't bringing that up. It was probably alright as long as she didn't bring up certain things. “I ran across Draco and Blaise in Diagon Alley when I was getting Bristol.”[/color] She knew she had to leave eventually so that Mrs. Weasley didn't get too worried about Harry, but a little more talk wouldn't hurt much, right? They might not see each other again after all. [/blockquote]

[Harry Potter]

Harry's mind was running along the same train of thought as Shalie's. He really should be heading back to the house to help out so that it wasn't all left up to Hermione, Ron, Ginny and the twins, but he didn't know when or if he would ever see Shalie again so he was stalling. When she mentioned running into Blaise and Draco, his spine stiffened a little bit. "Really?" He tried to keep his tone upbeat. "I'm sure they were happy...you know, the world being in their element right now and all...is that how you learned about the school changes? From them?" He wasn't sure you could trust anything either of those boys said but still a part of him really wanted to know.