Basilisk Eyes

Chapter 128: Crystal balls

"Who is Bill McCarthy?" Professor Lupin asked.

Around the table, the sounds of people shifting in their chairs, tapping nervously, and fiddling with teacups did little to mask the sounds of Aminah's mother working to bring her tears under control. Aminah seemed to be crying as well, though more quietly. A trickle of sweat made a chilling trail down Harry's spine.

Soon Mrs. Khan's breathing was steadier and after a few false starts she was able to say, "he's an American wizard who has been trying to get a hold of the deeds of the Khan family lands in Pakistan for decades. I never thought he'd do something like this, though. It is so very wicked. So dark. He's outrageously wealthy and powerful already—I've never understood why he's pursued this so relentlessly. The land, well it is valuable to Javad's family because it is their home, but it is remote and simple: goats grazing barren lands, farmers eking out a living. Nothing that you'd think a highborn American wizard would want—we even thought it might be a muggle thing like oil, but we can't find evidence of it."

"I don't get it, mum. How can making papa hurt me... how can that help him get the lands?"

"It's the way they are written. If the heir is proven unfit... if he commits a crime... it's not just that. He meant to break your father. I should have never believed him capable. To break our family. Oh, and I played right into his hands. It's so obvious now. Oh, Aminah. I'm so sorry I didn't believe you. I ... I didn't want to... hope... and then have to go through... oh, my heart. That... that... vile man... may he burn in Ahura Mazda's eternal flame. Oh! No! He didn't... oh, he knew. Oh!" Mrs. Khan's voice rose to a wail and a scream and then her chair clattered to the floor and she took some steps and then there was a heavy thud that shook the floorboards under Harry's feet. The room erupted in shouts, the screech of chair legs against the floor as they were shoved back, and the clatter of people jumping up and running over to Mrs. Khan.

Aminah was shrieking, "Mama, mama! What is it? Are you okay? Mama, where are you? What happened?"

Harry's heart had lodged itself in his throat and seemed to be obstructing his breath on its way to his lungs. He couldn't tell what was happening, but he could feel Aminah's fear zinging through the air on the current of her voice. He felt alone at the table and stood up, knowing that he'd just be in the way, but not being able to stand the isolation.

He hurried along, brushing his knuckles along the edge of a table and smashed his shin against something—a chair—he determined as he fell against it. He felt the legs of another table behind his back as he rolled over the chair. Then something heavy was rolling off the table and he tried to move out of the way, but he was in a tangle of chair legs. A shield sprang to life around him and whatever it was, struck the shield and bounded off, then thudded heavily across the floor.

"Was that a bowling ball!?" Harry asked in the direction of the footsteps that were heading his way as he ended the charm and grabbed at his shin through the legs of the chair.

Gemma's hand was on his arm, attempting to talk to him through signs he couldn't quite make out, but guessed that she was asking if he was okay. There was a flurry of swishing skirts, a frenetic jangling of bangles, the slapping of bare feet on wood, and a strong scent of pine resin. He guessed that Professor Trelawney was chasing the ball across the floor.

"Yeah. Just tripped."

He rocked back holding his shin and trying to extricate his other leg from between the rungs, the chair screeching against the floor. "Why didn't the shield come out before I ran into the chair?"

"Shield?" Gemma asked once he had extracted his limbs and she had access to his hands to sign.

"I guess it wasn't rainbow colored this time! It protected me from that bowling ball."