Be Our Guest
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Pansy and Blaise sprinted through the forest in the direction they saw Draco run off to. The forest was just that to them: a forest. They ran and ran, not knowing what direction they were in now and tried to stay close to not loose each other.
"Pansy?" Asked Blaise as everything went quiet for a while. Up ahead, he saw her figure and her short hair slowly blowing to the right. Cautiously, he approached not trying to trip or fall over anything- wood or animal- on the forest floor.
Water ran ever so coolly from the cave opening down fissures, feeding springs in other places. And in those moments without the noise or distractions of the world it was pristine peace. It was a cave mouth of impenetrable blackness, as they stepped in they watched their shadow dissolve into the surrounding darkness.
"Let's go back..." Blaise stuttered, turning around as the collar of his shirt was pulled.
"Come on you wimp" sighed Pansy and she grabbed a torch from the rock, lighting it with the small, candle-like fire on the wall of the cave. Walking through, the sound of a gushing river filled their sucked-in eardrums that pounded and pounded from the pressure.
"HALT!" Someone screamed to them. Panicked, Pansy dropped the torch, hearing it clatter and roll on the floor to splash! In the blue water tinted by the dark cavern.
"You're going to fall off the edge." The voice was gentle, soft, but somehow just as loud. The reason it sounded like a boombox was from the closeness the person was to the pair. His hair, flowing white from the top of his seven foot and even more head to the bottom of his robe (which flowed down the floor). Pansy had no idea which bits of hair was his beard or for the top of his head.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." He smiled at them, and had a twinkle in his eye that already agitated them.
Cautiously, Blaise edged behind Pansy, while Pansy took a step forwards. "Who are you?"
"We, are the Natives." He said, and then a woman stepped up behind him, then a smaller man, and another woman. Finally, a man that could be classed as a giant. She gasped, jumping back as the people multiplied.
What Blaise noticed the most was the group of redheads clumped together to the side of the man with the long, white beard. The resemblance not only in the hair but the height, the bone structure and the eyes to Ron's were uncanny. He wondered why Ron didn't live with them, too.
"How are you here?" Asked one of the people in the crowed. It was a man who had messy, dirty hair and a fake eye, using a cane to help him walk. Threateningly, the man stalked up to them, pointing his walking stick at Pansy's throat.
"That is enough, Alastor. You do not harm children!" Scolded a woman at the front. She was tall, her hair in a bun and straight posture.
Alastor grunted, walking off and mumbling something like 'I could've taken 'em'.
"Everyone, back to your daily routine." There was grumbling from the onlookers and everyone turned around but the tall woman and a man in a moon crescent, blue... dressing gown?
The man with the long beard walked to them, smiling down at them softly. "Greetings, young ones." The man said.
"Hello to you too..." Pansy eyed them both curiously.
"I am Albus, Albus Dumbledore. And this is-"
"Minerva McGonagall." She introduced herself and the man smiled- still. It was actually quite daunting that he was able to smile like that for almost the entire encounter.
"Could you tell us your names?" Dumbledore asked, hands placed atop his own.
Pansy and Blaise exchanged looks before Pansy answered for them both- Blaise still a step behind her. "I'm Pansy, that's Blaise. Could you tell us where we are?"
Dumbledore smiled and went to answer. "Why, you're in Neverl-"
Blaise coughed, stopping Dumbledore mid-word. "We know, sir. But what part of Neverland are we in, exactly?"
There was a calculating silence that followed. As if the man and woman were trying to decipher their motives.
0o0
A few hours later, Pansy was surrounded by girls and a few guys where she spoke to them about the fashion of Britain, the technology in Britain. They taught her how they dye their clothes, their traditional dance, and their customs. She especially liked the Patil twins. Blaise exchanged pleasantries with almost everyone, but decided to chat with the clan of red heads. Who he discovered were all called 'Weasley'.
"Why does Ron not live with you, too?" He asked the mother and father. She stopped faffing around with things in her kitchen and slowly came to sit opposite Blaise at their crooked table.
"We were going shopping for school supplies, and Ron wanted to stay with his grandmother. We let him, as he was too young to go to school anyway." Molly explained, tears shining in her eyes. It almost compelled Blaise to apologise and never mention it again. "There was an accident, we're still not sure what happened. But, this family and a few others, found themselves on the Neverland shore."
"Mum!" A voice called from outside their house. It wasn't very spacious downstairs, but Blaise supposed they were a close family. "The Lost Lot are here!" One of the twins burst through the door, panting heavily.
"You need to exercise more." George said, breathing as heavy as his brother. (It wasn't so difficult to tell them apart- Fred always spoke first, and then George explained.)
"So do you!"
"Never – hah – said I didn't." Limply, George patted his brothers back.
When the twins closed the door, Molly wiped her eyes with a handkerchief. Blaise offered her one that was in his pocket, she smiled, thanked him, and dabbed her eyes.
When Molly left the house, Blaise dusted off his trousers and stood from the rickety chair. "It's not something we normally talk about." Arthur Weasley appeared at the stairs slightly startling Blaise who covered it up quickly by wiping down his shirt.
"Yes, I can gather why." Observed Blaise, greeting Arthur with a nod.
Arthur walked closer, so he and Blaise didn't need to shout across the room for a conversation. "You couldn't believe our... well, our shock when we saw Ron. It had been possibly a year, maybe two or three since we last saw him and it was so surreal.
"But," He sighed, resting against one of the wooden kitchen counters, "he, Harry and Hermione were inseparable. It took a while for us to really talk to him and rejoice that our child was back with us."
"If I may," Blaise started, "Why are you telling me this?"
Grinning, Arthur walked over and patted his shoulder, "You're a good kid. And everyone here knows already." He shrugged, like telling a complete stranger a traumatic life story wasn't something ridiculously out of the blue.
Outside the house, everyone was crowding the Lost Lot and Ginny, Luna and Colin. In the centre, Harry rested on a withering stump with his head in his hands.
Pushing their way through the crowd, Pansy and Blaise stood tall. "Where's Draco?" Demanded Pansy, like this was a good cop/bad cop scenario.
Trying a gentler approach, Blaise began, "He went looking for you, did you see him at all?"
It was like Blaise screamed bloody murder by all the looks he got.
When they finished, Pansy and Blaise thought it was no surprise Draco left for the pirates. Potter brought them here under false pretences. Maybe Pansy and Blaise weren't even meant to come with him! Grabbing Pansy's hand so she didn't smack Harry, Blaise set his face to a wall of stone. "You brought him here, tricked him into believing-"
"I didn't trick him into anything!" Shouted Harry, his jolly, somewhat oblivious demeanour gone. "I wasn't thinking of the prophecy when I saw him, OK? I was thinking he would like it here. That I wanted to spend time with him."
"Yet you failed to mention a certain destiny? And where would he go for this anyway? Do you know anything about this prophecy?" Snapped Pansy, clenching her fists.
"No." Harry seethed, running a hand through his hair, "But it's got something to do with Skull Rock. Nobody that's ever gone there has ever come back." Around them, people hung their heads, complete silence even from the forest.
"There are more Dementors. Than ever." Solemnly added Fred.
They suck out souls, feasting on happy memories, turning us into them." George explained.
"And there are Boggarts." McGonagall interrupted, her authority doing something to calm Pansy's anger. "We don't know how they came about or how they're multiplying in numbers, but they take your most horrific fear and show you. Why, their apparitions are so realistic someone could hardly tell the difference."
"Then, there are the Sirens, taking over the Ocean." Dean said. "They kill mermaids, turning them into cold-blooded monsters with enchanting voices. Whilst they may look like a deity, but they tear through a Mermaid's tail like... like a sword can tear through skin."
"Plus, the tree we fairies live in is producing less and less pixie dust." Ginny transformed into her human form, looking different to the other fairies with them because of the crown atop her head, like a weave of golden flowers. "Every time a Siren kills, a Boggart murders or a Dementor devours, the tree starts producing less pixie dust, the thing that keeps this Island alive. The heart of Neverland."
"And Draco's the only one that can stop this?" Blaise asked, looking directly to Harry - on the floor, head in his hands with tear tracks - for an answer. "Have you not tried anyone else? Another way around this?"
"We've tried, Blaise." Hermione reassured them. "Don't you think if there was another way we would have found it by now?"
"I'm going back to the Hideout." Harry declared, using his hands to smack his knees and stand up.
Ron started, "I'll come with-"
"No," Harry snapped, then took a deep breath and cast him an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, Ron, really. I shouldn't have snapped. But, I want to be alone for a while, if that's OK?" Looking at Ginny, she flicked her wrist and dust sprinkled over Harry's body.
Without Draco, Neverland was doomed. Apparently.