Pack!

Chapter Forty-Two

Day Fifty Two

Harry didn’t hesitate, casting a Sonorus. “Everyone at the secondary site, back to the Great Hall, fast as you can, move!”  He pulled out his broom and scooped up Rafe. Sirius didn’t get frantic without cause, so Harry didn’t waste time, swooping into MPC #2 and exiting MPC #1, Rafe holding on for dear life. Sonorus still in effect as he flew, he shouted for everyone who could hear him to drop everything and get to the Great Hall immediately.

He didn’t stop at the front door of the Academy, just flew straight into the hall, screeching to a stop by yanking the broom handle upwards hard as he took in the scene, mind ticking over options. He cancelled the Sonorus and touched down, Rafe scrambling towards the crowd gathering in front of what looked like a tempest of visibly swirling energy. Its semi-amorphous shape was churning in a way guaranteed to induce vertigo in those staring at it for too long, causing Harry to swallow and do his best to take it in with his peripheral vision instead. It stretched from floor to ceiling in the back of the hall, rotating wildly and chaotically with streamers of deep purples, various shades of midnight, and a particularly toxic looking green. Random sparks jumped out, and the scorch marks on the floor were why everyone was staying well back. Furniture had been pushed aside haphazardly, table linens were flying around like angry ghosts in the frenzied winds, and the sounds of the storm were enough to drown anything but the loudest shouts.

What they’d been summoned for was clear. Over and above the strange existence of the storm itself, from the middle of the spinning haze of energy extended a stout rope, and everyone present and able to find space was hauling on it. Remus and his werewolf strength anchored the rope, coordinating the pullers’ efforts with repeated bellowed “heave!” commands. Harry took in the commotion. All the previously missing house elves were at the front of the rope and somehow managing to avoid the sparks. They must have been first on the scene. In addition, there were currently about thirty other people also engaged in the strange tug of war with more joining as they skidded into the room, those already on the rope shuffling to make room.

He looked at the broom in his hand, then at Jasper Higgens who’d flown in right behind him. Rafe had already found a place on the rope, adding his strength. Harry grabbed Jasper’s arm before he could join, steering him back to the end of the rope. Quickly transfiguring the bit of rope behind Remus into two thin but strong chains that melded back into the rope, he overpowered a sticking charm on the end of each, fastening the chains to each to his and Jasper’s brooms, then mounting and using the broom’s power to pull, motioning Jasper to do the same. Aisling Byrne had landed bare seconds later, quickly shepherding others who’d arrived via broom into following Harry’s idea. Soon they had a thick fan of brooms linked to the rope, slowly pulling whatever was on the other end through. Remus and a number of others on the rope had been forced to let go as the end of the rope rose in height once more brooms attached and pulled. Aisling had taken charge of the formation, coordinating the power so as not to burn out the brooms or strain the tethers too much, constantly barking adjustment orders to them, keeping smooth and even tension on the rope and chains.

Suddenly the line jerked then started moving faster, causing a few hauling on the rope to lose their footing before scrambling back into place.  Remus, seeing the increase in speed, roared at those on the ground who hadn’t found room on the rope to move to the sides and out of the way for whatever was coming through.

Aisling heard him, catching on quickly, passing the word to the broom team to ease up on the power, they didn’t want to splat into the far wall if the tension decreased suddenly.  Lennox Campbell reacted to that by throttling back the power as instructed and casting a just in case cushioning charm at the wall, Sassy Wiggins and Gerard Condon following suit. Those in the air included the teams for Puddlemere, Ballycastle, and Montrose, the latter two having been in the middle of a pickup game and Coach Byrne had drafted them into the unorthodox tractor pull on their arrival. 

The leading edge of a very large something came into view, nearly half the width of the hall and maybe fifteen or twenty feet tall, black in a way that swallowed light and tricked the eye into thinking they were seeing a void and not a structure and what looked like static discharges running across the visible surface.  Harry had his head craned around trying to see more when Oliver verbally slapped him, reminding him that a splat against the far wall was a very real likelihood if Harry didn’t pay attention to his broom and position. Harry stomped on his curiosity, Oliver had been correct, and he knew the rebuke had been made out of worry, not anger. He nodded to the man in apology, accepting Ollie’s return nod of forgiveness.

 Remus had also heard Aisling’s warning and from his position on the left hand wall of the room, he shouted instructions to Sirius, Bill, and Charlie, who’d all cleared off the rope to stand alongside him, to get in there and attach a much shorter rope/chain set and have Aisling set a second broom team on it before the first ran out of space. 

The first team had been within a scant and nerve wracking fifteen feet of the wall before they were told to cut loose, the second team being in place.  They eagerly peeled off and turned themselves around, not bothering to land.  They watched the cube ease the final few yards forward, breaking free from the storm. Remus hastily shouted up to not stop, that there was another length of rope behind it.  Remus, Bill, and Charlie maneuvered around the first cube as it gained enough distance from the storm that they could get in behind it without being scorched by the sparks, quickly attaching another conjured chain set to the second rope. The first broom team headed back in to pick up a lead, ready for another round of hauling.

Once they were firmly connected to the second rope and chains, Remus waved Percy Weasley forward and he stepped in and quickly cut the first cube away and snagging several nearby people to organize a synchronized levitation, moving it as far forward and out of the way as possible, others rapidly shoving aside or lifting tables and benches further out of the path. 

While the great hall was large, at forty by one twenty it wasn’t as large as all that and having a twenty foot cube with what was probably another one coming in was tricky for team hauling out the second cube. They were currently still able to pull straight out, but now they had a reduced available distance to work in.  As the side of the second block showed itself, a second short chain with multiple tethers was quickly attached, additional broom riders connecting themselves, allowing those on the longer rope to fall away.  Those without a broom were being encouraged to move outside the hall until they could tell if there would be further cubes.  The cubes themselves were too large to fit through the entrance, they’d just have to juggle with the geometry and hope for the best.

*-*-*-*-*-

Thirty minutes later, the broom teams were all landed and clustered at the front of the hall, staying well away from the boxes that were still arcing with static discharge. The atmospheric storm looked like it was in the petering out, having weakened considerably in strength and having wispy bits peeling away and fading. Remus, Bill, and Percy, along with a few people from the WTF team were congregating on a spot near the blocks to discuss the situation, Taddy and Deesy breaking away from the group of elves to join them.

There was a great deal of conversation and gesticulating that seemed to be taking place amid that group, Harry and the rest of the players avidly watching while the crowd at the doorway was peering in, with anxious interest the predominant expression and more than a few were interrogating the nearer to the action congregation of players as to what was happening. Taddy seemed to have a great deal of information about the situation if the amount of talking and arm waving he was doing was any indication.  Harry suspected the current circumstances had more than a little to do with why the elves had been absent for the last several weeks.

Remus glanced over at Harry with a speculative look in his eye that had Harry wincing in advance of whatever Remus was wondering about. Remus knelt to quietly ask Deesy something, and that had Deesy looking at him, too.  Harry felt a muscle under his eye involuntarily twitch. Deesy nodded at Remus, then trotted over to Harry who was standing with the rest of the Puddlemere players. Half wishing he could instead hide behind Oliver and Jasper, the closest two, he sighed and stepped forward to meet Deesy halfway. 

Deesy stood on tiptoe to whisper to him and Harry bent down in response, supposing Deesy must have been asked to keep the conversation private.  Harry understood why when Deesy relayed Remus’ request; could Harry ask if his cube of the day was able to absorb the electrical energy on the surface of the boxes?  Harry knew that somewhat recently Sirius and Rocksanne had spent a great deal of time together working out a task for her that Sirius refused to elaborate on but said she seemed quite enthused about, if the amount of jiggling correlated to excitement. That being said, he was still somewhat wary of her and wasn’t in the habit of carrying her with him at all times. If Remus thought a cube was the answer, Harry was currently the only option on hand. Harry wasn’t sure he wanted to be outed in this regard, there would inevitably be questions asked that he’d be obliged to answer; there was no telling what the response of the community would be.

So far as Harry knew, only a few people were aware of Bubbles, mostly due to her actions during the storm, and fewer yet knew about Kazoo, despite being an unusual and noticeable broom ornament.  No one had even blinked at him until his introduction to the WTF group, and he didn’t think any but he, Sirius and Remus were aware of how many cubes he had. Well, Moppy also knew, now that he considered the matter. And although he’d never mentioned more than Bubbles and Kazoo to the WTF group, he supposed it wouldn’t have taken much thought to guess there was more to the story than they’d been told. Kazoo was, as he’d been from the moment he’d first been set there, still attached to his broom and when Harry turned his head to look, Kazoo pulsed a faint red.  Harry took that as a definite no, Kazoo was unwilling to let go.  For a moment Harry pondered if “his broom” meant belonging Harry or belonging to Kazoo before he hauled his runaway thoughts back to the moment at hand.

Sighing, he reached into the cargo pocket of his trousers and pulled out Pongo, drifting over to Remus and his group, Deesy walking with him. Pongo’d been named for his bright white coloration studded with black dots, and Harry hadn’t found any defining characteristic for him, other than he was agreeable to just about anything Harry proposed.  Want to go for a fly?  He’d sit where Harry set him on the broom and detach without fuss later. Need him to try eating things?  He’d take a chunk out of just about anything, unlike Doodle who’d turned up a metaphorical nose at anything wood based, or Pebble, who would only eat rocks. He rode contentedly (Harry hoped, anyway) in a pocket or occasionally on his shoulder, once Harry had confidence he wouldn’t eat his hair.  He was still missing a patch of both hair and shirt from his mistake in trusting Iggy.

Twenty minutes later Pongo had stretched himself transparently thin around the first cube at Harry’s request and was now and just kind of hanging out, not responding to Harry’s attempts to recall him, Remus and the WTF team were again huddled up, questions flying as they tried to determine the reason for Pongo’s unwillingness to reshape.  Harry told them it was very unlike Pongo, who was normally quite easygoing and adaptable, and that Pongo must have his reasons.  As a result, each of them was helplessly looking at the others, at a loss as to what to do. They couldn’t get to the first crate until Pongo let go, and they couldn’t get to the second at all as it was still snapping discharge arcs over the surface.  Since that was more dangerous than Pongo being uncooperative, Remus sent Harry off for a second cube to deal with the second cube.

Harry returned with Doodle, who he could at least be assured wouldn’t eat the presumably wooden box. Quickly stepping back as Doodle all but leapt at the sparking box, he heard a rapid tap-tap of heels and Harry winced in anticipation, turning his head to meet the glare of Ms. Anderson, staring at him with the cold and death promising eyes of a Mako shark.

She began with a very frosty “Mr. Potter-“, and Harry winced harder, his toes curling in his boots but making a resolute effort to keep his spine straight and not immediately moving to cower in fear. “Mr. Potter, I do believe I had words with you regarding your assets.  Did I fail to make myself clear to you?  Because I can use smaller words at a much higher volume, if you believe it would aid your understanding.  Do let me reiterate.  From the moment we met in Diagon Alley, it was established that you now have Gnomes, and that we, said Gnomes, oversee your finances and assets. We will have discussions before action is taken. You. Do. Not. Give. Your. Assets. Away. Are we quite, quite, clear on this point?  Because should you continue to do so, you will have no assets, and as we are your Gnomes, that means we will have no assets.  Mr. Potter, I will not be reduced to working for someone who needs to live on Ramen noodles and budget for air.” Her tone had become more menacing than any Harry could remember ever hearing, and that included hearing a televised Hannibal Lecter through his cupboard door. His spine began to sag, despite his earlier resolve. “Mr. Potter,” and here she pulled nearby Gnome Kjell Holmberg over, “You and Mr. Holmberg here are going to return to your room, where the two of you will walk through and itemize every item in your possession. Said list will be duplicated, a copy going to every Gnome in your employ. Woe betide you, Mr. Potter, if I find any item on that list outside of your immediate control without my knowledge or approval. Do we understand each other, Mr. Potter?”

Harry folded like flimsy origami. With a weak “Yes, ma’am,” he about faced and trudged toward the Room of Requirement, where he and Kjell spent a humbling number of hours going through his trunks, quite a few of which he’d completely forgotten about. Harry hadn’t yet decided on where he wanted to live full time, so he, along with about two thirds of their community, were still holding on to their spaces in the room of requirement.  He figured he’d wind up at Site Two, but Puddlemere hadn’t yet gotten around to discussing living quarters. They’d been firmly focused on the horses and ponies, their future livelihood depending on them.  He’d been allowed to send a note to Remus and Oliver, telling them that he was in his room if they needed him, but despite rampant curiosity coming back to the fore after having been shared scitless by Ms. Anderson, Kjell refused to let him leave to get an update on what was going on in the main hall. “They’ll let you know if you’re needed, and you’re not setting foot out of here while Ms. Anderson is on the warpath, Harry.  She may not kill you, but she will decide you have unnecessary body parts if you annoy her again.”

He and Kjell both looked about Harry’s room.  Harry liked Kjell, finding him relatively easy to talk to and willing to sit down with him and explain things until he could at least claim a vague understanding of whatever financial topic regarding his gold that he was being asked to weigh in on. If he had to be stuck with this exercise, at least it was Kjell and not Monty; Harry was half convinced Monty was a vampire in hiding. He was feeling vaguely frustrated about the whole situation. Since he’d completed the trading of most of his gold for land, he had naively thought the days of looking over his shoulder for Ms. Anderson had ended.  Clearly, he’d been wrong, and now thanks to Ms. Anderson’s orders, all the Gnomes would be focused on him. Kjell had once told him that even the other Gnomes found her low key scary. He thought he might as well engrave Dante’s quote over the door to any space he lived in from here on out; “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here”, and he probably would never be able to use the phrase “his stuff” ever again as it all it was probably going to be listed as on loan to him.

Casting for a starting point, he saw one of the cubes in their pen twinkle at him, so Harry decided to start there. Rocksanne, Bubbles, Pongo, and Doodle were all in a “not here” status, and Harry figured he could get away with considering them no longer his responsibility, especially Rocksanne as he’d given her to Sirius. That left ten present, if he included Kazoo. He leaned his broom into the corner nearest the playpen, so Kazoo would be in roughly the same location.  “Want me to just start naming all the loose stuff off now and then hit the trunks?” He sighed, they were going to be at this for a while. And at some point he had no doubt there would be a conversation about “his” broom and who owned it; not even Ms. Anderson was going to budge Kazoo from the broom.

*-*-*-*-

 Kjell had long since given up on giving Harry sad and accusing looks at the volume of trunks that kept getting unearthed from the interior of other trunks. After the first trunk was opened to show more than a dozen shrunken trunks in just the first layer, his jaw muscles had visibly clenched and he grumpily shook out his hands to loosen them before picking up his portfolio and pen.  He had Harry apply sticking charms to numbered parchments, then Kjell slapped one onto each trunk, his scowl getting heavier and the slapping of parchment sounding tougher each time.  Forty three numbers later, they finally got started on the actual items they held.  The first five trunks had been trunks containing previously emptied trunks and were quickly consolidated into one trunk set to the side, remaining open for further additions. Harry had then been tasked with levitating items out of each trunk for Kjell to count and record.

Trunks six through seventeen were trunks containing the vaults the Gnomes had sent to him from Gringotts’s teller room.  Harry point blank refused to go through them, defiantly shrinking and stuffing them in a drawer he firmly closed.  “Ask me again in a year,” he told Kjell, who only sighed and nodded in understanding, adding notes to his numbered list.

Trunks eighteen and nineteen were pet supplies that should have been turned over to the inventory team weeks ago.  And seriously, why did he have ninety-eight cat sweaters in there?  Kjell noted the two trunks as candidates for donation, pending approval from Ms. Anderson. “Seriously, Harry, you bought all of it with your money, not money someone lent you to buy for the community.  Which, by the way, was also your money, so Ms. Anderson figures she’s already extended you a lot of latitude in letting that part of things go. You’re just going to have to bite the bullet on the rest of this.”  Harry resigned himself to the inevitable. If he made a fuss, she’d have one of the Gnomes assigned to him 24/7 to babysit, best to sit on his temper and get on with things. Trunk twenty was his school trunk that he added to the trunk of trunks. At least with the number on it, he’d be able to find it again if he ever needed his textbooks or school robes. 

Trunks twenty one through twenty six were a complete mystery to him. He sort of remembered Sherri Johnson shoving a bunch of stuff at him as they were unloading the last loads before she had to return the van, and suspected these trunks were the stuff in question. He supposed she thought he’d know what to do with the pile, but, well… here they were. Twenty one and twenty two were trunks of 50 lb flour bags, five hundred bags in each.  Twenty three was sewing notions that included 1,012 zippers, 4,488 spools of thread, 773 packages of needles, 352 thimbles and 32,346 buttons. Kjell had been annoyed enough about the cat sweaters and the spools of thread had him grinding his teeth. After having had to count the buttons, Harry could see he wasn’t in the mood to say anything that wasn’t a curse word. Twenty four was fabric, twenty five was pens.  Seriously, the entire expanded trunk was nothing but ball point pens. Kjell all but hissed and with a muttered imprecation that might have been “oh, screw it”, he slammed the lid shut again, not even bothering to count them. Harry bit his lips to keep the laugh in, deciding that all else had failed so he was just going to have fun with it. Twenty six had to have been someone either seriously sleep deprived or playing an amazing prank because the interior had been transfigured into a forty foot square, five foot deep ball pit, complete with multicolored balls filling it to the brim.  Kjell just momentarily closed his eyes and sucked in a deep breath. Harry stifled a grin at Kjell gently closing the trunk lid while deliberately not counting the balls, watching in amusement as Kjell opened his eyes and with a stony face noted the previous five for possible donation, the sixth was marked as recommended to be rented out for parties.

Twenty seven through thirty was the machinery from Lloynds. Fortunately, the invoice and packing list were in an envelope on top of the equipment in the first trunk. Kjell noted the trunks as a business opportunity available for sale. Thirty one through thirty nine were the contents of his personal vault, minus the gold that the Gnomes had already reclaimed.  Kjell confiscated those trunks, there wasn’t enough room in Harry’s room to pull out the items for a thorough inventory.  He’d take them to Gringotts and go through them there, telling Harry he’d get him a memory copy of the inventory held at Gringotts to ensure there was no fraud.

The last three, forty through forty three, were Dorea Black trunks. The fourth was still under the outside table at site two where he and Rafe had working this morning.  Considering that the contents of that one had been all the buildings he’d picked up, and that most of those buildings had already been … reallocated, he vowed on the memory of his parents that he’d never reveal he owned that trunk and in fact he should tell Ollie it was his, Ollie owned it, Harry had given him the trunk, wait, no, better yet, Harry had no memory of ever having owned that trunk. He’d have Ollie memory charm him at the first opportunity, because otherwise Ms. Anderson might find out and just... no. 

Abruptly feeling done with all this, He told Kjell to take those three with him for later inventory as well, feeling anxious to get back to the Great Hall. It was getting on towards evening and Harry had missed lunch, no chance he was going to miss dinner, too. Opening his door and waving Kjell out, Harry followed him into the main room closing the door behind them.  His first thought on glancing around was “Wow, the Room has really, really good soundproofing.”  Because dear lord, what?