Incendio

Part 3: Samantha Fyre and All The Unpublished Words

Samantha ran through the streets of Diagon Alley, trying not to spill the hot coffee in her hands. They had arrived, her OWL scores. She'd been at the Leaky Cauldron grabbing a coffee for herself and her mother when the School Owl had arrived with scores for her.

Over the Summer to make some extra money, Samantha returned to working for her mum's shop. It was harder this year. Many shops had to close their doors and her mum couldn't find much help so there wasn't a lot of time off.

"Good morning Mr. Olivander." Samantha called as she passed him opening his shop. His shop was directly beside Belle's Designs, her mother's shop.

He stopped like he did every morning. "And a fine morning to you Miss Fyre. How is your ten inch, hazel with unicorn heartstring holding up?"

"Just fine Mr. Olivander." She insisted back in a hurry.

"Keep an eye on it, Unicorn hairs can be known to give out you know?" He chuckled.

She laughed, he reminded her every day, "I know Mr. Olivander. I've just gotten my OWL scores, I need to tell my mum."

"Oh ho ho!" He called excitedly. "I bet you will be seeing plenty of good grades young lady."

She hoped so as she barely stepped inside her mother's shop and opened her envelope.

"4 Outstanding, 2 exceeds expectations and two acceptables." Samantha revealed to her mum, taking a sigh of relief. "O's in Transfiguration, History of Magic, Charms and Muggle Studies. E's in Ancient Runes and History of Magic. I have the grades I need for Magical Journalism."

"What are the acceptable ones?" Her mum asked leaning closer to her and looking at the paper.

"Herbology and potions. I don't need them anyway." Samantha breathed a sigh of relief. "At least I passed everything I was taking."

"I'm so proud of you." Her mum kissed her forehead. "Almost as proud as I was when I found out you joined a rebellion at school."

Her mother had not let all of the trouble go unforgotten that Samantha had engaged in. Unlike most mothers, her mother spoke in great pride regarding her small bout of trouble.

"Back to work young lady. After we close shop I'll treat you to some of Florean's ice cream to celebrate." Her mother winked.

"Sticky Toffee Pudding?" Samantha asked with a large grin. "You know I can't resist Sticky Toffee Pudding?"

"Earl Gray Lavender for me of course, but whatever you like best." Her mother giggled as Samantha groaned excitedly at the prospect.

"Excellent, it will give me an excuse to show off my newest creation." Her mother exclaimed before twirling in her black sundress covered in silver moons. It was corseted at her waist so the skirt twirled as she moved.

Samantha went behind the counter and began the very tedious job of reading through her mother's inventory reports to ensure accuracy. Her mother moved to the center of the store, working to sew a new piece on the mannequin for one of her high end clientele. The store was quite incredible. Beautiful moving paintings on one side of the room. Landscapes of the American countryside and beautiful starry nights. The other side of the room was full of mannequins displaying her designs, like a beautiful forest of gowns and robes.

It was almost an expositional show to watch her mother work, that was why she chose to just do her work publicly in her store. It drew attention in an excellent way.

It was a little after noon when Samantha looked up from her work at the counter to see an incredibly familiar face walking up the alley to the store front. It was one of the last faces she truly wanted to see. She'd survived two weeks without it, even though she knew he worked at one end of the alley and had an internship at the other end. He was walking towards the store in a nervous manner. His dreadlocked hair was pulled back and his height towered over the few other patrons in the alley.

"Mum, I'm not here." Samantha ducked behind the counter as soon as she realized he was coming to the store.

"Why?" Her mother asked looking out the door then back behind the counter at her crouching daughter. "You can't hide from your problems Samantha."

"Shhh Mum, trust me, I'm not here." Samantha insisted rolling her eyes.

The bell to the store's door rang. She could see he truly had walked in by looking at the mirror behind the counter.

"Hello." Her mum said nicely greeting him. "Can I help you?"

Samantha recognized the voice that followed.

"Oh no, I'm just looking around. I've heard a lot about this place and I figured I'd stop by." Lee said looking around.

Her mum asked, "What brought you to Diagon Alley today young man?"

"I work over at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes." He nodded.

"Really? You work there?" Her mother asked in a higher pitched tone and Samantha dreaded the fact her mother had now realized why she refused to go over there to see the new joke shop.

"Well, for now anyway." He laughed. "I'm also doing an intern program at The Wizarding Wireless Network."

"Both ends of the alley, at least it isn't a hard commute between the two." Her mother commented slyly. "If you intern at the Network, you must like Journalism?"

"You could say that I have a love for it." Lee nodded. "I used to commentate for the Quidditch matches at Hogwarts."

"So, if you don't mind my asking, we have a referral program and I'd like to know who you heard about us from?" Her mum asked and Samantha cringed. There wasn't a referral program, her mum was just snooping.

"Samantha Fyre." He nodded. "She said she worked here over the summer. It's her mum's store."

"Well she does work here, I'm her mother." She laughed.

"Good to meet you Mrs. Fyre." He shook her mother's hand. "I'm Lee Jordan."

"Good to meet you as well Mr. Jordan." Her mother shook his hand back looking him over. "I've heard your name a time or two."

He nodded and looked around a bit embarrassed, "Hopefully, only the good stuff. I was hoping to catch her. I got my NEWT results and I wanted to celebrate with her. She was my study partner during exams."

Her mum replied, "I hate to disappoint but my daughter is not here."

He nodded.

"She is next door at Ollivander's getting her wand checked. Unicorn hair, it gives out you know?" Her mum lied. "Then, she was going to get some Ice cream from Florean's to celebrate her OWL grades. If you were to go now, I'm sure you would catch her at the ice cream shop." Her mum insisted before leaning in and whispering. "Her favorite is the Sticky Toffee Pudding. She can't resist it."

Samantha started grumbling.

"Mam, I wasn't," He started but didn't seem to find words, "well, I was, but I didn't think, I'll be going to Florean's then."

Her mum nodded and laughed. "Off you go now."

"So that was the famous Lee Jordan?" Her mother asked looking Lee over as he left.

Samantha popped her head up from behind the counter. "Yes, mum, that's Lee"

"He's not a bad looking fellow and he's got a nice personality." She observed. "I see why you got detention for him."

"Mum." Samantha laughed uncomfortably and her mother gave her that, 'Mother knows everything' look.

"And you broke up with him because?"

"Because he finished Hogwarts." Samantha insisted. "I told you that."

"Long distance, very difficult." Her mother agreed. "He's not really long distance if he is working on the alley though is he?"

Samantha nodded. "He also helped me get into loads of trouble."

"I know, it's healthy for you." She put her hands on her daughter's face and briefly squeezed her cheeks.

"He would get jealous all the time."

"I mean you are talented and smart, not to mention you got my stunning looks. What self respecting man wouldn't?"

"I don't know, he was talking about our future, and I don't know if I'm ready for that." Samantha said uncomfortably.

"He is a fair bit older than you, I'll give you that." Her mum laughed.

"I need to focus on my future." Samantha shrugged, "Dumbledore and McGonagall even said so."

"You also need to focus on being a teenage girl." Her mother reminded.

Samantha nodded.

Her mother put her hands on Samantha's shoulders. "It is nice to talk to you about normal things sometimes. With the way the world is, it's hard to remember that you are still my little girl. Still growing up and navigating things. You turn sixteen next month and after that you only have a year of childhood left. Enjoy it please."

Samantha smiled at her mom.

"Now that poor young man is waiting at Florean's with a big scoop of Sticky Toffee Pudding just for you." Her mother remarked before letting go of Samantha's shoulders.

"That's your fault by the way." Samantha noted before looking down to the papers she'd been organizing.

"He sure looked a little lost without you." Her mother interjected with a feigned sigh. "He just wanted to celebrate his NEWT scores, much like you wanted to celebrate your OWL scores."

Samantha rolled her eyes.

"Do you still like him?" Her mum asked again.

Samantha wasn't sure, she missed him, his friendship more than anything. She shrugged her shoulders. Maybe they really could just be friends. Maybe she wouldn't mind if they went back to the way things were. Maybe she missed him. Would it really hurt to grab an ice cream with him? She felt a small smile creep across her face.

"You can't hide behind the counter forever." Her mum laughed heartily.

Samantha laughed along, "That was ridiculous of me." She cleaned up the papers quickly before reaching down to fetch her bag.

"Samantha get down behind the counter." Her mother said strongly, a totally different vocal expression coming from her. Samantha noticed her mum had her wand out and she was locking the door. "Now."

Samantha looked up and saw people appearing outside the store. They were wearing black robes and striding towards the shop. She did as her mother asked and ducked down. Her mother followed her, taking her hand.

"Get out your wand." Her mother instructed in a hushed whisper. Samantha retrieved her wand from the back pocket of her dungarees. "If they come in here, I want you to give it all you've got, do you understand me?"

Samantha nodded, her mind cycling through each and every spell or jinx she knew. She couldn't get the body binding jinx out of her head, Potter's voice was in her mind yelling, "Concentrate."

That was when the cracking started. Glass shattered and she worked very hard not to cry. She prayed they weren't coming in to the shop. A few more pops and cracks followed. There were also booms and bangs. She looked up to the mirror, the front window had been completely smashed. They weren't coming to them, they had gone next door it seemed. She watched them take someone away.

"I'm going to transform, I need to see that it's all over. Baby, stay here. If I'm not back in five minutes, get to the Portkey in the back." Her mother insisted before kissing her forehead.

Before Samantha could protest, her mother had transformed into a vulture.

It was a long four minutes until her mother returned. She felt herself begin to hyperventilate. Her mother transformed before pulling her daughter back up. She held her tightly.

"I'm here baby, it's over. Please breathe." Her mother began insisting.

"What happened?" Samantha begged.

"There were two groups. The first one took Ollivander." Her mother gasped out. "The second-the second, they took Florean."

"Lee!" Samantha didn't think, just ran out of the shop. Her mother transformed again and followed. She could hear her vulture wings beating.

Samantha's feet had never moved faster, she hoped he was alright. She made it right outside the ice cream shop, the glass windows had been shattered. Several outdoor tables had been turned over. There was one solitary table left, atop it was two bowls of ice cream. Her mother landed on the table.

Samantha's heart sank, why didn't she just say hello to Lee? Why did she hide? He could have just stayed with them while the attack happened.

People were gathering, they mumbled around her. The guilt seeping in more and more.

"Sam!" A voice she knew, called her name.

She breathed a sigh of relief and turned around to see Lee running up to where they were. She ran and grabbed him into a hug.

"Are you ok?" He asked. "I heard Ollivander's had been attacked and I thought you were there."

"I'm fine." Samantha insisted after letting go of him. She noticed the side of his head was bleeding. "Are you ok?"

He nodded. "I got grazed by the explosion. When I woke up, they said the attack had been here and at Ollivander's so I went to see if you were there. Are you and your mom ok?" His eyes widened as her mum transformed into a human behind her.

Samantha wrote everything down. First she wrote down her account, then she wrote her mother's, followed by Lee's account. She then compiled it into one big article. She spent a month and a half completing and perfecting it. The Daily Prophet had reported their disappearance, but nothing about the attack. She wondered if maybe they didn't know.

She stood in front of the Daily Prophet's door. Holding her article, nervous about submitting it into the big mail box in front of her.

She pushed the article through the box and breathed a sigh of relief. It was submitted. She decided if it didn't get published by the Prophet, she'd give it to Luna to see if the Quibbler would be interested. She wanted people to know that it had been an attack, not merely a disappearance as reported.

"Hey, you submit the article beautiful?" Lee asked from behind her.

Samantha rolled her eyes, "Yes, and don't call me that. I'm not your girlfriend anymore."

"I know, I know, I only call it like I see it." He joked at her as she stepped away from the doorway of the Prophet.

"Just wanted to remind you." She quipped back as they walked down the alleyway. He'd offered to take her out for lunch on this particular summer day. Samantha felt like she couldn't tell him no after the attack nearly a month ago. "We're supposed to be focusing on our futures you know."

"I've been thinking about that a lot actually." Lee revealed as they made their way to the Leaky Cauldron. "I've been sitting on this crazy idea, you know, since I started my internship."

Samantha nodded.

"I want to learn everything I can with that. I just feel like maybe if we all go into hiding or something, we might need a way to communicate safely."

"That's actually brilliant." Samantha smiled.

"I might need help." He looked at Samantha with an odd look of beaming pride.

Samantha wasn't sure what to think. She agreed they worked together well, and if something did happen, she knew it would be something she'd want to do.

"I don't mean it as anything more than a business partnership." He looked down, "I know you aren't interested in continuing what we had, but you've gotta admit we work well together."

She smiled, "We do."

They shook hands on it.

"So now that we have business out of the way, this is for you." Lee said as he finished. He handed her a tiny box, it was shaking a little bit. "I saw you and Ginny looking at them when you visited last week."

Samantha had met up with Ginny at the Joke shop when they came to Diagon Alley for their school year shopping. They'd poured over the little Pygmy Puffs and all of the Love Potions. Fred and George had first interrogated Ginny about her love life, before turning to Samantha. Both proclaiming that if Lee wasn't her cup of tea anymore, they'd both take the job. Samantha had laughed them off before Lee turned green behind them. She knew they were just trying to get his goat.

Samantha now looked down at the box trepidatiously. Inside was a tiny pink ball of fluff that was squeaking and rolling around. It was a Pygmy Puff.

"Oh my." She exclaimed.

"Her name is Artie, short for Article. Ginny named her Puff Arnold, so I thought Artie would suit her." Lee revealed nervously.

"She's adorable." Samantha laughed with glee.

"Happy Sweet Sixteen Samantha." Lee smiled and kissed her cheek.

They agreed to write each other, and to refer to their secret project only as the R.P. incase their letters were intercepted. They also agreed that their relationship should be strictly professional from that moment forward.