Chapter 190: Home & Dark Reunion (1/2)
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The link is also in the synopsis.
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”The medi-healer's diagnoses said that if you follow his potion regime, you'll have your eye back in ten days,” said George West, staring at his grandson's black eyepatch, ”he also suggests that you rest for a couple of weeks to help the recovery; which I completely agree with.”
Quinn nodded while tapping his finger on the armrest of his chair. Ever since he had returned from Hogwarts (which was yesterday), he had been treated like he had come close to losing his life.
”I've no strenuous plans in the recent future,” he replied, ”though I'll need to leave to go visit my friends — I already got anxious letters from them; it looks like they won't be satisfied if I don't visit them.”
”Hmm,” paused George, contemplating, ”you'll have strict time curfew imposed on you. Cross them even once, and I'll have you grounded here for the entire summer break.”
Quinn held back a sigh and nodded, ”I understand. I will abide by your rules.”
”Good,” said George, ”now tell me, what do you think about Dumbledore's sudden announcement of the Dark Lord's return.”
”What do you think?” answered Quinn with a question.
”I don't want to believe it, alas Dumbledore is anything but a daft fool who would propagate such a severe thing if it was not a lie,” said George, ”though I can't say the same about the boy. What do you think of the Boy-Who-Lived — are his words trustworthy?”
”Harry Potter might not shy away from attention and fame, but I'm don't think he will lie about something of this magnitude. Also, from the time I spent with him in the hospital wing, I don't think he was lying.”
”Did you.. . peek?”
”Ah, I could've done that, couldn't I?.. . but the missing eye had me off my game there.”
”And yet, you engaged a Death Eater,” said George.
Quinn's one eye twitched, ”I ambushed the Death Eater. He had his wand aimed at Ivy Potter; if he didn't want to get taken out by Headmaster Dumbledore or Auror Potter or both, he wouldn't have pointed his wand at me — I was completely safe in that scenario.”
George didn't look satisfied with Quinn's explanation, no matter how much sense it made. ”.. .. So it's safe to say that the Dark Lord has returned?”
”It seems so.”
George sighed. This news wasn't faring well — plus, it was terrible for business. ”I'll send out for definitive news of the Dark Lord's return. I'm sure someone from the Dark Faction would be more than happy to pass along the information.”
Quinn nodded. There was always someone waiting to brag.
”Alright then, let's move on. How did your OWLs go?” asked George.
”Ah, the OWLs,” said Quinn, ”I almost forgot about them — they were exhaustingly easy.. .. I was tempted to go sleep after an hour of writing. Fortunately, practicals are a quick affair — it was quite simple to impress the external examiners with some basic nonverbal casting.. .. All-in-all, I'll pass with rainbow-colored Os with beyond hundred points.”
”That's great to hear,” nodded George, ”what about Ms. Fleur Delacour, are you two.. . .”
”You don't beat around the bush, do you,” sighed Quinn, expecting a little tact from his grandfather, but it seemed that a parent's curiosity was strong with George West, ”I'm not involved with Fleur. That was just a one-time, brief.. .. thing.”
”You can be honest with me, son. There's no need to be shy.”
The grandson and grandfather stared at each other for a good few seconds before Quinn graced George with an answer,
”.. .. I am being honest with you, grandfather,” Quinn enunciated every syllable that rolled of his tongue, ”I do not have any sort of intimate relationship with Ms. Fleaur Delacour.”
”I see.. .. if you say so.”
”.. .”
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- (Scene Break) -
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”35.. . 36.. . 37.. . 38.. .”
The sudden loss of vision in one caused multitudes of problems for Quinn. Besides being blind on one side and having terrible spatial perception, Quinn had to suffer through balance disorders, decreased visual clarity, eyestrain, headaches because his other good eye was stressing itself by compensating for its missing partner.
After just one Muay Thai training session, Quinn had come near to throwing up because of nausea. By the end of that session, Quinn had decided to suspend Muay Thai till he got his eye back and elected to only do physical conditioning.
The lack of daily hitting, punching, and kicking the crap out of the heavy bag bummed Quinn out, so he chose to take on a new challenge and thus altered the way he performed conditioning — he started to do every exercise much slower than his usual speed.
If it was a pushup, Quinn would do every single one very slowly, making his muscles hold the weight for much longer — the same went for pullups, squats, and any exercise he could introduce it into. Furthermore, he tried out isometrics into his new routine because it didn't stress his vision.
”O-Oh-ho, I have to make Eddie do this,” panted Quinn mid a slow pushup, ”this feels exhilarating.” The base physique of a body-magic user mattered when it came to the elevation provided by magic, albeit only in the basic versions of body magic — a fit body was required even at the advanced levels, but it no longer affected the productivity of the magic.
Even without that initial reasoning, now Quinn had fallen in love with martial arts and physical fitness. It made him feel good, and working towards his ideal physique was a rewarding feeling.
And as Quinn got some work in, the door to the training hall busted open with a bang.
”Quinn, I heard you lost an eye!” Lia West, freshly home from yet another trip outside the country, announced herself with full vigor.
The older sister glanced down to see her shirtless baby brother doing a pushup over a puddle of sweat beneath him with sweat dripping off his body. She could see him from the side — the side which was blinded.
”Huh, Wah! Lia is that you?!” she heard, ”damn it, that scared me! Ugh, I can't see you properly.”
Quinn got up and turned his entire body to the door to finally get a complete look at his sister, who, for some reason, had her wand pointed at him. ”Why do—” before Quinn could ask her, Lia waved her wand, and he found all the sweat vanished into a puff of vapor.
”Ah, thanks,” he said before smiling, ”hey, Lia. Welcome back, sis. How're you doing? Brought me any gifts? Any exotic and exciting books.. . .” He tried to talk his way out of getting scolded, only to trail off when he couldn't pick a scolding on Lia's face.
”That eyepatch looks needlessly cool,” said Lia.
”Thank you?” he said, judging the vibe, ”you also look good. New haircut?”
”No.”
”It doesn't matter; you're glowing.”
Lia stepped ahead, walked towards Quinn, and grabbed his face by the cheeks. ”How is the treatment going?”
”I've only been back one day, so nothing major,” said Quinn with his cheeks being kneaded, ”the potion tastes bad, and the eye drop burns when I put them in.. .. the empty eye socket.”
”You've been busy — organizing quidditch tournaments, commentating, hosting.. .. playing knight in shining armor and kissing Veelas.”
Quinn fought down the intense cough that overcame him and settled to loudly cleared his throat, ”Why are all of you so interested in it? It was only a one-time thing.”
”Because it's interesting,” replied Lia, now pinching Quinn's hurting cheeks wide, ”there's only so much that goes on here.”
Quinn finally couldn't take it anymore and released his now red, hot cheeks out from the torturous pincers. ”You're not going to scold me?” he asked directly.
”Not really,” shrugged Lia, ”people make mistakes. I made a lot of mistakes, mostly small — I don't do big mistakes — during my starting years, it took me a lot of time to get in the groove of things.”
Quinn, for the umpteenth time, suppressed a groan. It bugged him a lot that everyone thought that it was his mistake in magic that cost him his eye.
”.. .. I will take more care moving forward.”
”Good, that's the correct attitude,” smiled Lia, ”now get some clothes; we're going out to the non-magical world to have some fun.”
Quinn grinned, ”Wicked.”
Not only he got to go out because George would let him go out if Lia was accompanying him, but he also didn't have to listen to a long lecture.
”You're paying,” she said.
”Glady,” he was feeling generous today.
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- (Scene Break) -
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It was the night of the 26th of June, 1995, just two days after the night of the third and final task of the Tri-wizard tournament. The night was clear, with the valley of stars shining in the inky black.
And beneath that sky, standing in a wide clearing with no civilization in sight, just the embrace of nature, stood Dark Lord Voldemort, staring up at the sky with his dull, black, bottomless eyes.
”Wormtail, it's time to bring them all together,” he said, removing his eye from the sky and turned to the man who looked like a humanized version of a thin-rat, ”it's time for my friends to gather to greet me, congratulate me.. .. and finally face me.”
”Yes, My Lord,” said Peter, stepping forward while pulling his robes' sleeve past his elbow, revealing the vivid red tattoo — a skull with a snake protruding from its mouth: the Dark Mark — the symbol that struck fear into the hearts of all British magical society.
”It's clearly back,” said Peter softly, ”they will all have noticed it. .. and now, we shall see. .. now we shall know. . .”