CHAPTER 63
|CAN OF TOMATOES|
The scene changed from the black dog running into the woods to Neville and Ryan walking into the Great Hall.
"Does it hurt terribly, Draco?" a girl asked Draco who was sitting on the slytherin table with his arm in a sling.
"It comes and it goes." Draco said "Still, I consider myself lucky. Madam Pomfrey said another minute and I could've lost my arm. I can't do homework for weeks."
"Why didn't Madam Pomfrey mend it?" Remus asked.
"Maybe she's losing her touch in the future." James suggested.
The camera alternated to Ron, Hermione and Harry who were sitting at the Gryffindor table listening to everything that Draco was saying.
"Listen to the idiot." Ron said. "He's really laying it on thick, isn't he?
"At least Hagrid didn't get fired." Harry said.
"I hear Draco's father's furious." Hermione informed them. Ryan and Neville just arrived and sat down with the trio. "We haven't heard the end of this."
"The end of what? He caused his own injury." Cathy protested.
"Haven't heard the last of what?" Neville asked.
"The pain is easier to manage with time." Draco continued to boast.
"That." Harry nodded to the slytherin table.
Ryan turned around and rolled his eyes at the attention that Draco was attracting.
"Ahem!" Ryan cleared his throat loudly gaining the attention of most of the students. "Draco, everyone here knows that Madam Pomfrey can mend bones in a heartbeat. The only people who believe you are the idiots currently surrounding you."
Ryan turned his back to slytherin table. A lot of the students chuckled and laughed as Draco and the students that were listening to him turned bright red.
"Damn that's cold." Frank said with a smirk.
Lucius looked rather annoyed at Frank.
"You didn't have to do that." Harry said with a smile.
"Let's agree to disagree." Ryan said as he placed a fork with a piece of sauage in his mouth and winked as he closed his mouth and chewed on the food.
As the group of five began to eat a boy ran into the Great Hall shouting.
"He's been sighted! He's been sighted!" Seamus shouted as he arrived at the gryffindor table placed a newspaper among the students.
"Who are you on about?" Neville questioned.
"Sirius Black!"
Everyone in the audience looked at the screen with interest whereas Sirius sank into his seat with dread.
As soon as the name was announced, a lot of the students, including Harry and the rest of his friends, stood up from their seats and rushed over to the newspaper.
"Dufftown?" Hermione read from the paper in a worried tone. "That's not far from here."
"You don't think he'd come to Hogwarts, do you?" Neville asked fearfully.
"With dementors at every entrance?" Dean Thomas questioned.
"Fairly sure he's already there." James mumbled.
"Dementors? He slipped past them once, hasn't he." Seamus said. "Who's to say he won't do it again?"
"That's right." Bem said darkly. "Black could be anywhere. It's like trying to catch smoke. Like trying to catch smoke with your bare hands."
Ryan was looking down at Bem rather suspiciously. "Seriously who are you?"
"Why is Ryan so hung up on that boy?" Regulus questioned.
"You have to admit that's it's weird how that boy just popped up into gryffindor." Evan said.
"True." Barty Crouch Jr. nodded.
The camera moved past the students that were surrounding the newspaper and went upward towards one of the windows. As the view came closer and closer, the camera finally made contact with the glass and went through.
Instead of the outside of Hogwarts, the scene came to a clean supermarket that was lit up by bright white lights.
"Where the hell is this?" Fabian asked.
Cathy, Mary and Amelia were seen on the screen looking through the canned goods. Cathy was examining the shelves while Amelia was pushing a trolley and Mary was sitting on the end of the trolley.
"Oh! Other timeline." Gideon said excitedly.
"Muggles have made their lives so much easier." Amelia admired. "In the wizarding world it would take going to at least ten different shops to buy all this."
"That's why they call it a supermarket, I think." Mary said as she hopped off the trolley. She looked to Cathy. "What are you looking for?"
"Whole peeled tomatoes." Cathy said. She finally spotted a can of the tomatoes and when she grabbed it, on the other side of the shelve was Thomas Riddle.
"Hey it's that Riddle fella." Fleamont said.
Thomas was taking something from his side of the shelf and was a suprised when he saw Cathy on the other side.
"Oh, hi." Thomas greeted.
"Hey." Cathy smiled. "Shopping too?"
Thomas held up a bag of chips. "Snacks for a film mostly."
"Ah." Cathy nodded.
"Hmm." Thomas cleared his throat nervously. "Well...I'll just...goodbye."
Thomas seemed to rush away and Cathy looked very much relived to see him go. Cathy sighed in relief and turned to place the can of tomatoes in the trolley when she saw Amelia and Mary's faces.
"Oh I cring just from watching that." Marlene said.
"What?" Cathy demanded.
"That was hard to watch." Mary said.
"Super awkward." Amelia agreed.
"What was I suppose to say?" Cathy said. "Enjoy the snacks, which movie are you seeing, do you think if our parents did it when they were together?"
"Ew!" James and Cathy said at the same time.
"Maybe lead the conversation with something more..." Amelia began.
"Normal." Mary finished.
"Yeah, talk to me when you run into one of your mothers exes sons." Cathy said as she placed the can into the trolley.
"Still maybe you should give him condolenses." Amelia suggested. "You know, for his father who just passed away."
"Or thanks." Mary added. "For the house."
"Speaking of the house, what the hell was that about?" Cathy questioned.
The three of them continued to walk forward.
"What do you mean?" Amelia asked. "You got a free house. If I were you, I wouldn't be asking questions."
"So you think it's perfectly normal and not at all strange that a man gave a house to his ex-girlfriends daughter that he's never met?" Cathy challenged.
"Oh no. That's weird as hell." Amelia quickly said. "But then again, I don't know how muggles really think. Mary? Is that normal behaviour? To give a house to a former lovers child?"
"If it is I may need to expand my dating pool." Dorcas said making the girls chuckle.
"It is not." Mary shook her head. The muggle-born witch tilted her head to the side slightly and looked deep in thought. "Wait! What if he still loved her?"
"What?" Cathy looked at her not really believing this theory.
Fleamont shifted in his seat and Euphemia looked visibly uncomfortable.
"Think about it." Mary urged them. "Tom Riddle Sr. dumps Cathy's mum, leaves with another woman and then afterward runs back to the village regreting his choice. Then he spends the rest of his life getting married and divorced and having affairs until the day he dies, all because he couldn't get over his first and true love."
"Unlikely." Cathy said. "And mildly disturbing."
"Good girl." Fleamont nodded in approval of Cathy's response.
"Bear with me." Mary told her. "As his health deteriorates, he tries to find his one true love--"
"Please stop referring to my mother as his one true love." Cathy interrupted. "It makes me ill."
"Fine." Mary relents. "As his health deteriorates, he tries to find...Wait. What was your mums name again?"
"Euphemia." Amelia piped up. "Or Mia for short."
"Thank you." Mary told Amelia. "He tries to find Mia. Sadly by then she's already dead."
"End of story." Cathy stated.
"No. Not the end of the story." Mary said. "He finds out that Mia had two children. A boy and more importantly a girl who is only a few years younger than his own son."
"Why is that more important?" Cathy asked.
"I'm getting to that, stop interrupting." Mary said sounding snippy. "He decides to name you in his will to bring you to meet his son so you'll fall in love as a way to rewrite his tragic romantic history with your mother."
"Well thats..." Cathy looked lost for words. "...a theory, I suppose."
"Sounds like a Hallmark film." Lily states.
"A what?" Cathy questioned.
"Nevermind."
"A really good one." Amelia nudged Mary. "The motive's a bit desperate and creepy but the rest of that sounds so romantic."
"Right?" Mary grinned. Mary nudged Cathy with her hand. "So your mum really never mentioned Tom Riddle or anything at all?"
Cathy shook her head. "My mum and I were not close. At all."
As the three witches walked past the shelf and toward the cashiers Cathy caught sight of Thomas having his items priced. Amelia pushed their trolley to an empty cashiers station and Mary began to place their shopping items to be priced.
Cathy helped Mary with the items when the sound of the doors to the supermarket opening made her get a strange look on her face. The camera adjusted and showed four men covered in dark cloaks enter.
"Deatheaters." James stated.
The one leading them was Lucius Malfoy. His eyes scanned through the supermarket before they stopped at Thomas. The muggle young man noticed the wizards gaze and looked to meet Lucius' eyes.
"Not good." Sirius said.
Narcissa looked at Lucius and he looked void of emotions as he stared at himself on the screen.
Lucius smiled darkly. "Thomas Riddle?"
"Uh, yes?" Thomas answered sound uncertain.
Lucius silently raised his hand that held a wand and aimed it at Thomas' head. Thomas' face looked confused. Lucius shot the killing curse at the muggle.
"Not good!" Peter cried.
The screen moved in slow motion as Thomas' eyes widened in surprise. Before the curse could make contact with Thomas, Cathy slammed her body into his, making them both fall to the floor and the miss being killed.
"Lucky move." Remus said.
Lucius and the Deatheaters that accompanied him were thrown off guard. Before any of them could react, Amelia and Mary shot spells of their own at the group, knocking one of them out.
The cashiers and the rest of the staff and customers seemed terrified and confused. Many of them screaming and running away or watching from a distance.
"That's not good." Amelia said as she watched the fight unfold.
Cathy scrambled up to her feet and pulled Thomas up to follow her. The muggle was as confused and startled as one could believe him to be but his body obeyed and followed Cathy. She pulled along and as Lucius shot another killing curse at Thomas, this time she blocked it with a red shield.
Lucius and the two remaining Deatheaters seemed to collect themselves and started to go on the offense against Mary and Amelia. Both witches followed Cathy's idea and retreated into the supermarket.
"Handle those witches." Lucius commanded the two deatheaters. "I've got the muggle."
"Wait! The muggle's the target?" Alice asked. "That's odd."
The three of them went their two routes and the camera followed Cathy and Thomas as they made it to the end of the aisle and pressed their backs against the shelves.
"W-What was that!" Thomas exclaimed. "What the hell was that?"
"Deatheaters." Cathy answered as she tried to calm her breathing and her rapid heartbeat.
"Deatheaters? What the hell is that?" Thomas demanded.
"To sum up, evil wizards."
"Wizards?" Thomas looked at Cathy incrediously.
Mary and Amelia arrived at the end of the shelves two aisles away from Thomas and Cathy. The two of them aimed for the deatheaters and fired spells at them.
Thomas stared the three of them in shock. "What are you? Are you like them, are you wizards?"
"No. We're much better." Cathy turned and grinned at Thomas. "We're witches."
Cathy immediately moved from the end of the shelf and face Lucius Malfoy who was walking toward her. Lucius immediately fired a spell Cathy.
The brunette witch shielded herself and batted the spell away.
"I don't know who you are but I suggest you leave now, little girl." Lucius warned her. "Before you get hurt."
"Oh this is gonna be good." James said as he munched on a handful of popcorn.
"Bring on the beating!" Fabian and Gideon shouted.
Lucius just covered half his face with his hand and looked at the screen in defeat.
"The only little girl here who's about to get hurt is you, princess." Cathy smirked.
Lucius looked annoyed and raised his wand to cast another spell. Lucius had a strange come to his face and looked at his wand and hand. Red wisps of chaos magic were wrapped around his hand and held in tightly in place.
The blonde deatheater looked at Cathy in disbelief and the girl just winked at him before sending a blast of chaos magic at him. When the blast made contact with him, it threw him backward and then started to curve upwards.
Cathy's chaos magic made Lucius rise high off the ground and slam painfully against the high ceiling before it fell and landed on the floor unconcious.
"So predictable but soooo good." Dorcas said.
The scene on the screen moved to Mary and Amelia fighting their deatheaters. The cloaked wizards began to walk towards the two witches, blocking and deflecting their attacks.
Mary caught sight of the items that were on the shelves. Hair spray. Mary pointed her wand at the cans and sent a bright red flame toward it.
When the spell made contact with the cans the deatheaters were right next to them. The explosion that engulped them completely buried them in flames for a few seconds. When the flames subsided, the two deatheaters were screaming in agony before falling to the floor.
"Well done, Mary." James compliment the muggle-born witch.
"Thanks." Mary said.
Cathy, with her hand tightly grasping Thomas' hand, rushed over to Mary and Amelia.
"Whoa." Cathy said. "Are they dead?"
"I-I think so." Mary said catching her breath and calming down.
"We should go." Amelia said. "Wait. What is that?"
Loud sirens were blaring and sounded like they were getting louding with each passing second.
"Fire trucks." Thomas answered.
"Yeah." Cathy nodded. "We should leave."