Ginny then pulled a Rubik's cube from her pocket, checking carefully to see that it was set as Harry and Bellatrix had instructed. She then placed the cube in Harry's limp hand, both teens placing their own hands firmly atop the cube before Ginny spoke the activation word, "Trouble."
One gut twisting portkey trip later, the three appeared on a bench at a bus stop in Ireland. No one else was there.
"So, are we late or early?" Neville asked uncertainly, looking around.
"I don't know," Ginny replied as she nervously peered into the foggy night. She pushed Harry up so that he was sitting properly on the bench, conscious if only barely.
"Any chance of just dropping Harry off at his home?" Neville urged, glancing circumferentially into the forbidding darkness, clearly uncomfortable to be sitting out in the open, easy pickings for anyone in search of foolish prey.
Ginny shrugged, brushing Harry's unruly black hair away from his eyes, noticing for the first time a lightning bolt-shaped scar across the top of his forehead. "I'm not entirely sure where his home is."
"You were there!" Neville exclaimed with frustration.
"Well, yeah," Ginny retorted sharply, "but his crazy wife made sure we didn't have a clue where it was."
"Hey," Neville said loudly, trying to get Harry's attention. "We want to take you home. Is there any chance you can set this portkey to get us there?"
Tiredly, Harry stuck out his hand, wherein Ginny deposited the Rubik's cube. Harry looked at each of them individually and smiled. "Gin, Nev, you two are the best," Harry muttered familiarly, confusing the two teens who then watched as Harry slowly turned the cube, manipulating its face into a specific design. Harry looked at the cube as closely as his exhaustion allowed, then closed his eyes and held the cube out so all three of them could grasp it.
"Trouble," Ginny whispered.
.....
Bellatrix rummaged through the shelves of a Muggle drugstore looking for something to clean wounds. "Merlin save us from dimwits who get blown up by their own C4," she grumbled angrily.
"Singed," Rose cried out, propped atop on one of the druggist's stools and holding her head in her hands, "singed. I didn't blow myself up."
"If you were only singed, you would not be bleeding," Bellatrix said acidly, finding a bottle of something that advertised itself as a disinfectant. "Blood means that you blew yourself up." She walked down another aisle, found some gauze and medical tape, and added that to her collection.
"I'm still here, aren't I? That means I haven't been blown into bits." Rose shot back, sounding very miserable. "How was I supposed to know that it was going to be that big of an explosion? And what in the world does a pureblood know about bloody C4, anyway?"
Harry mentioned plenty about Muggle explosives, Bellatrix thought, recalling technical descriptions of desperate tactics employed by the Order during the conflict Bellatrix had come to think of as the Lost War. But I wish he'd tell me all of his secrets, she added, frustrated by Harry's ongoing reticence to describe the conflict in detail. Bellatrix then rolled her eyes in the darkness of the store, as much at Harry as at Rose, while berating the younger Potter daughter in the darkness. "Your boyfriend managed to avoid getting blown up," she stated drily. "Where has he gotten to?"
"I'm right here," Leo called, emerging from a bathroom in the back of the building with a bucket of hot water.
Leo then carried the bucket over to Rose, and was shortly joined by Bellatrix, who'd grabbed a few more things off the shelves. Leo watched with amusement in his eyes as Bellatrix removed the price tag from a washcloth before dipping it into the water. Rose still had her face buried in her hands.
"We cannot do anything until you remove your hands from your face," Bellatrix observed flatly.
Reluctantly, Rose moved her hands to reveal a bloody, bruised, blackened, thoroughly dirty face.
"Maybe we should take her to St. Mungo's," Leo worried aloud.
"I do not think that is necessary," Bellatrix replied as she began scrubbing Rose's face.
"That hurts!" Rose exclaimed, pulling away.
Again rolling her eyes, Bellatrix handed the washcloth to Leo. "Wash her up," she ordered.
Leo, working more gingerly with Rose, cleaned up her face in fairly short order. Bellatrix then used a few spells to extract some of the debris that the explosion had embedded into Rose's face, before Leo washed, disinfected, and treated Rose's wounds. When they finished, Bellatrix dumped all the medicinal supplies into a bag proceeded to the makeup counter, where she selected several more items for Rose's use. "You are going to need all the makeup you can get for the next week or so," Bellatrix advised Rose, handing her the bulging bag.
After leaving enough cash next to the till to cover expenses, Bellatrix grasped her wand firmly in her right hand before silently extending her open left palm before Rose. Rose regarded her with confusion for a few seconds until Bellatrix arched her right eyebrow and shook her head, whereupon Rose's eyes widened with recognition before she produced the Rubik's cube portkey Bellatrix had loaned to Rose earlier. Able to apparate, Leo had been given no cube.
"And the spare wands we lent to both of you, worthless though they may be," Bellatrix added, sending Leo and Rose rummaging through their respective robes for one of the poorly made wands Harry long ago purchased in bulk before storing, in charmed strongboxes, along with the cubes.
....
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