A Trip to the Ice Cream Parlor

Chapter 4: A Trip to the Ice Cream Parlor

I nearly missed Remus' call the next morning, thanks to a vacuum cleaner that could drown out any noise save that of an atomic blast. By the time I finally grabbed the phone, Remus was on the verge of hanging up.

"Sorry," I said, trying to untangle my feet from the electric cord and talk at the same time. "The landlord's evil vacuum is out to get me."

Remus chuckled. "Do I need to come over and save you?"

"Would you? You'd be my knight in shining armor." I sighed. "Don't you wish you could just wave a magic wand and your house would be clean?"

There was silence on the other end of the phone. I was about to check if we'd been disconnected when Remus spoke up. Even then, his voice sounded a bit odd.

"What time would you like me to come by, Kailin?"

"Any time's good if it gets me out of house cleaning. Around one, do you think?"

"One is good. See you then."

By the time Remus arrived, the flat was in good shape and so was I. I had showered and dressed, taking great pains with my makeup, even dabbing on some of the French perfume I'd bought on a whim.

When I opened the door, his eyes lit up at the sight of me. My breath caught in my throat, and when I opened my mouth to speak, nothing came out. I finally managed to find my voice and mumble a greeting, all the while thinking, I am totally, completely in love with this man.

"Hello." Almost shyly, Remus reached out to touch my cheek. Then, without warning, he swept me off my feet in a massive embrace. The man I knew to be so reserved, so undemonstrative, was hugging me within an inch of my life it seemed, and I was positively delighted. What did it matter if my ribs were crushed, if he was finally displaying his affection?

I was laughing by the time he put me back down. "What brought all this on?" I demanded.

The sparkle in Remus' eyes was a marked contrast to the sadness they'd displayed on Saturday when he called off the picnic. It occurred to me that right now was the first time I'd ever seen him look truly happy.

"May I come in?" he asked, glancing over the top of my head to the interior of the flat.

"Oh, of course. Sorry! Some hostess I am," I said, taking his hand and pulling him inside.

"Well, we were rather occupied," he said, with a boyish grin.

"That we were. Are you feeling better than you did the other day? I know you were upset about your friend."

"Much better," he assured me. "As you said, things don't improve overnight."

"Please, sit." I motioned toward the sofa.

Remus sat, stretching out his long legs and simultaneously reaching for my hand. "I missed you, Kailin," he said frankly.

"I missed you, too." I smiled at this. We'd already covered this ground in yesterday's telephone call, but it was worth repeating.

For a long moment, Remus studied me, his own smile beginning to waver. "I need to talk to you, Kailin. I know I've been terribly evasive sometimes, and it's not without good reason. But we can't go on this way. The thing is, I've fallen in love with you."

My heart threatened to burst out of my chest at his admission. "It's a good thing," I managed to gasp, "because I've fallen in love with you, too."

"I thought you had, although I could only be certain of my own feelings."

"What does this mean?" He looked almost as though he would have preferred me to laugh in his face. I was instantly uneasy. "I don't understand what you're trying to tell me. Is there something wrong with us being in love?"

"Well, nothing... but maybe everything..." Flustered, Remus jumped to his feet and began to pace. "Kailin, here's the thing: I love you, and I don't want to lose you. Ever. But there are things about me which will probably drive you away, things that are painful for me to tell and painful for you to hear. I needed to make certain of your feelings before I told you any more than what you already know about me. I couldn't bear to see you hurt."

We were back to his mysterious past, the stumbling block, which I'd sworn would not prevent me from caring for him. "Why don't you start at the beginning?"

"Before I start, I want you to know that the past month has been the most incredible of my life. I've enjoyed it more than you'll ever know. And if you decide that we shouldn't continue, I'll always have that wonderful memory."

I smiled and nodded encouragingly at him.

Remus took a deep breath. "I never expected to fall in love with you. That first day, at King's Cross, I was merely trying to be helpful. But when you looked up at me and smiled... I don't know, Kailin, something in me snapped. I wanted to get to know you. I didn't expect it to lead to anything but a brief friendship. After all, you were an American tourist. I thought you'd be home by now and I'd be on about my business.

"But you were still here, and when I was with you I felt almost normal. I've thought a lot about it while you were away the past few days. Finally, yesterday I had a long talk with Sirius."

"You what?" My stomach dropped smartly away. Sirius Black was dead. And what did he mean by feeling 'almost normal'?

"Don't you ever chat with your grandmum?" he asked me, surprised.

Oh. I caught his drift and relaxed again, the 'almost normal' part temporarily forgotten. I laughed. "I do, actually."

"Well, there you are. I had a long chat with Sirius. About you. About my life. I wish you could have known him, Kailin," he said fervently. "He was so talented and smart and funny. Any time there was a commotion, you could be certain that Sirius was in the midst of it. He was a ladies' man, a horrible practical joker, a bon vivant who loved life to the fullest. Even after his horrendous experience in prison, I think there was still much of the man he once was. Or could have been, given half a chance.

"There were four of us together at school: me, Sirius, James Potter and Peter Pettigrew. We called ourselves The Marauders, because we were all rather hell-bent on mischief. Well..." Remus chuckled. "Sirius and James were, at any rate. Peter and I were more or less along for the ride. I was the law-abiding, boring one who didn't want to make waves."

I laughed. "Is that a bad thing?"

"Of course not. But I realized yesterday that if Sirius were alive now, he would box my ears."

"Why?"

"Because he'd remind me that life is too short to spend it deep in regret. That rules are made to be bent or broken. That taking a chance can be the greatest gift to yourself. And that in general, I've been a great bloody prat." Remus searched my eyes for understanding. "Kailin, the things I need to tell you are complicated. Very complicated. Today I'm going to tell you some basic information. There are other things you need to know, but those will have to wait a bit longer. Just rest assured that if you can accept... that is, you will find out everything in time."

I nodded. What happened next was completely unexpected.

"I'm a wizard, Kailin."

I burst out laughing. "I don't understand. You mean you're in a fraternal order... or something?"

"No. I mean that I can perform magic."

"You – you pull rabbits out of hats?"

"No, those are illusionists. Muggle entertainers," Remus said quickly. "I'm talking about real magic."

"There's no such thing as magic," I pointed out, my smile beginning to strain at the corners.

"Magic is real," Remus stated. "There is a entire world of witches and wizards and magical creatures that co-exists with the Muggle world."

"Witches?" My smile was completely gone by now. "You mean, like devil worship or something?"

"Not at all. Magic has nothing to do with that. You see, about one in every fifty thousand or so people are born with magical properties. They're talents, just like any other unique abilities people may have."

Except that the talented people I knew played the piano or did watercolor painting. "So if this world exists, why doesn't anyone know about it?" I said acerbically.

"It's kept well hidden from Muggles."

"What in the world are 'Muggles'?" I asked crossly. I didn't like this conversation one bit.

"Muggles are non-magic people. You're a Muggle, for instance."

"I'm a Muggle."

A nod.

"Witches and wizards are real, and they can do magic."

Another nod.

If only Remus would leave, I thought, I could have a good cry. I needed a good cry. Why was it that other women could find perfectly wonderful men, while I found the one who was crazy as a loon?

"I think," I said unsteadily, "that you should probably leave now."

"Kailin, if I were in your shoes, I would be reacting the same way. Will you allow me to prove to you that what I said is true?"

I just looked at him. "You can't possibly prove it. It's not real."

With that, Remus reached into his jacket and pulled out a wooden stick about a foot long. He handed it to me and waited for my reaction.

I fingered the wood, completely nonplussed. "What is it?"

"It's a magic wand. When we talked earlier on the phone, you said you wished you had one to clean the flat, remember?"

"It's a stick of wood," I said flatly, turning the 'wand' over in my hands. Remus was smiling at my response, and I found it completely infuriating. I wanted him to remain the perfect man I'd believed him to be, not some lunatic who thought he possessed supernatural powers.

"I'm afraid it is a real wand, dearest. A wand has no power in and of itself, of course. It's simply a conduit for the wizard's power. They come in all varieties of size and flexibility, depending on the wood from which they're made. But each one has a magic core, such as tail hair from a unicorn, or possibly phoenix feathers."

Unicorns? Phoenixes? My jaw took a very undignified plunge. He fed me this line of bull and then had the nerve to call me 'dearest'?

"Fine," I said coldly. "If this is a real wand, do some magic for me."

Remus' smile faded. "I can't. I'd be fined for using magic in front of a Muggle. There are laws about such things, and frankly, I can't afford to pay the fine. It's a tad steep."

"Then it's time for you to go," I said angrily.

"Kailin..." He took a deep breath. "You said you were in love with me. Please, if you truly meant it, would you trust me for one more hour?"

"Why?" I asked suspiciously. "What would that prove?"

"I want you to go with me to get some ice cream."

I blinked. Ice cream?

"It's a very special ice cream parlor," Remus continued. "Most people don't even know that it exists."

I'll bet they don't, I muttered inwardly. I wanted to say, forget it. Forget everything. Forget the wonderful times we'd shared in the past month. Forget us.

But something stopped me. Maybe it was the earnest look in Remus' eyes. Maybe it was the fact that he had never given me cause to mistrust him. Maybe it was the fact that I desperately wanted to believe he wasn't insane.

But to go with him to this supposed ice cream parlor? They'd probably find my body in a dumpster and I'd be tomorrow's headline in the Times. Still, it was daylight and the streets would be crawling with potential witnesses. And if nothing else, I'd know for a fact that Remus Lupin needed to be heavily medicated.

"All right. I don't believe any of this, but I'll go with you. Where is this place?"

"It's in a shopping district called Diagon Alley," he told me.

"I've never heard of it," I pointed out.

"You wouldn't have. It's the wizarding shopping district."

"And I wouldn't know about it because I'm a Muddle."

"Muggle."

"Whatever."

The trip to Diagon Alley meant a long trip on the Tube. Remus kept shooting me encouraging smiles, while I responded with a stony silence. How had I let myself get taken in by this man, anyway? I was an intelligent woman...

We exited the Underground at Charing Cross. While we walked, Remus told me that he had been educated at a place called Hogwarts, a training school for witches and wizards. I listened only half-heartedly. He lived in a marvelous fantasy world, and it was breaking my heart.

Finally, we stopped and Remus took my hand. I started to pull it away, but he held it firmly.

"Do you see the bookshop across the street there?" he asked, pointing down the block.

"Yes," I said stiffly.

"Do you see the shop next to it? What does the sign say?"

"It says 'The Leaky Cauldron'."

Remus withdrew his hand from mine. "Do you still see the sign?"

"Yes. So?"

"What's written on the sign?"

I started to retort that it said the same thing it had said two seconds ago, but a second glance stopped me.

The sign was blank. I frowned. It had clearly said 'The Leaky Cauldron' the first time I looked. Or had I been looking in the wrong place? I searched the stores, looking for the Leaky Cauldron sign. It wasn't there.

"Kailin?" Remus' voice prodded into my thoughts. When I didn't answer at once, he took my hand again.

The words 'The Leaky Cauldron' appeared, plain as day, on the store sign next to the bookstore. And then, Remus released my hand once more and the words were gone.

"Is this some sort of optical illusion?" I asked uneasily.

"No." He smiled at me patiently. "It's magic."

"Remus! Hello!" A woman's voice caught my attention.

Remus waved to a plumpish, red-headed woman heading in our direction. "Glad you could make it, Molly. I appreciate it."

The woman, who looked as if she'd walked blindly through a thrift shop and donned a bit of everything she could grab, beamed at me. "This must be Kailin."

"It is. Kailin, this is Molly Weasley, a good friend of mine. I asked her to meet us here."

I wanted to say "Why?" but then assumed that the woman was probably there to help dispose of my body.

"How do you do, Kailin?" She stuck out here hand enthusiastically. "I'm so pleased to meet you. And I'm so pleased for Remus. I think it's wonderful that he's found someone special. If there's anyone more deserving, I don't know who it would be. And Remus, you didn't tell me that she was so pretty?"

Remus was blushing crimson. "I believe the word I used was 'beautiful'."

I eyed the woman's hand with suspicion, but finally managed a polite enough handshake. "How do you do, uh, Molly, is it?"

"That's right. Molly Weasley, dear." The woman turned her attention to Remus. "You know, Remus, Arthur would have been simply delighted to help you with this, given how much he adores Muggles."

"I know, but I can't very well ask him to leave work for it. Besides, if there are any repercussions, I don't want to jeopardize his position at the Ministry." Remus nodded in the direction of the mysterious sign. "I was just showing Kailin the Muggle protection wards on the shop."

"Ah." Molly nodded knowingly. "Effective, aren't they? You'd never notice the sign, would you, Kailin?"

She took my elbow, and I found that immediately I could read the words 'The Leaky Cauldron' once more. So this wasn't just some trick Remus had concocted... Before I could reply to her comment, Molly had begun to propel me across Charing Cross Road.

"Shall we go in, then?" she continued.

I looked back helplessly at Remus. He was following behind us, and it occurred to me that, just possibly, he looked slightly less insane than I'd thought several minutes ago.

"But what is the Leaky Cauldron?" I asked helplessly.

"Famous wizarding pub," Molly answered cheerfully before Remus could respond. When she reached the door, she pushed it open and headed straight in, tugging me along behind her. "Now never mind what you see, dear," she said cheerfully. "I know there are some rather odd customers here from time to time, but everyone is mostly quite normal."

The room was dimly lit and rather smoky; evidently the smoking bans that were becoming commonplace hadn't hit here yet. As my eyes adjusted to the lighting, I became aware that the clientele looked absolutely nothing like the people I saw at the pub down the street from my flat. It was a sea of pointed hats and jewel-bright colors contrasting with lots of black. Eyes turned to look at me, and suddenly I understood what it felt like to be the black sheep in a field of white ones. Remus must have sensed this, because he stepped forward and placed a protective arm around my shoulders.

"'Afternoon, Mrs. Weasley," the barkeep said, glancing up at our little entourage. "Can I get you folks anything?"

"Maybe later, Tom," she told him. "We're headed out back to do a bit of shopping."

He nodded and turned away. We walked through several rooms of the tavern, and then we were outside in a small, dead-end courtyard. Abruptly, Molly whisked something out from under her poncho and I was stunned to see that she, too, had a wand much like Remus'. She tapped several of the bricks in front of us while I watched, bewildered.

The bricks slowly rearranged themselves into an open archway.

Once more, Molly charged ahead, but all I could do was stand there and gape. A brick wall had just opened itself up because this strange woman tapped it with a stick.

Unless... it really was a magic wand...

I felt sweet relief sweep over me in waves. Remus wasn't crazy. There was no other reason for the brick wall to vanish other than...

Magic.