Chapter 8: 27th July 1991, Saturday: Part 8

A little time had passed and now George was jogging alongside Amanda and Ellie to presumably another restricted room to get the 'emergency supplies'. Enough time had passed for his brain to reset but he still wasn't feeling too good. Rather ironically, his plan to run away to Europe had been derailed by his foster parents' plan to run off to who knows where. The only major difference is the stimuli for running in the first place. Thirty years ago was well before the first wizarding war and Remus's heydays, so it was far more likely to be a muggle-related threat.

Ellie had spent over six times longer than George living with her parents and her expression would suggest that she had been just as shocked by today's events as he was. She didn't seem to have any more insight into what was going on than George, they were both in the dark. The trauma of it all had probably been the only thing keeping her mouth shut, but curiosity had finally gotten the better of her.

She looked at her mother and asked, "who was that man in the living room?"

Amanda didn't slow down but she did give Ellie a warm smile and explained, "I don't know sweetheart. But your father and I think he's a very bad man."

"Why would the bad man come here? Does it have something to do with George", Ellie said innocently.

"No no no, not at all. The man is here because of something that happened many years ago. Well before you or George were even born."

"Then why did..."

"Shush now. We're here and your mother needs to concentrate, okay?"

Now they were standing outside of the only distinctive door in this labyrinth of a house, it had its own unique high-tech combination lock. Coupled with the fact that the wooden panels were not quite the same colour or grain as the rest of the doors, something important had to be inside. George had initially thought that this is where Dominic had kept the keys to his expensive cars, but he wasn't so dense as to assume that now. Amanda typed in a nine-digit combination with trembling hands and the display lit up green. Then the sound of metal shifting and gas expelling came from inside the room before the door swung slowly outwards.

"Step back you two, this door is very heavy."

Amanda ushered the children to one side of the reverberating door as it started to automatically open. Once the door was partly ajar, George could see that the wooden panelling was nothing more than a facade. It was actually over a foot in width and appeared to be mostly comprised of steel, not too dissimilar from a vault door. This 'door', that could potentially stop a tank round, seemed a little overkill for protecting a few valuables. George had read about panic rooms before, perhaps this room could be the nuclear-apocalypse equivalent.

Before the fortress had even finished its grand opening, Amanda had already dashed inside. George decided to peek his head around the door and see how far this rabbit hole goes. What he saw didn't surprise him by this point, it was pretty tame by today's standards. It looked like a World War 2 bunker with all the basic living facilities four people needed to survive for a few days, maybe a couple of weeks at a stretch. There was a basic military-style bunkbed for himself and Ellie to share, the foster parents had their own too. Each bed had a bulging suitcase resting on the sheets, all of them were tagged with a member of the family's name.

At the far end of the cramped room, Amanda was standing in front of a table with a massive corkboard titled 'SAFEHOUSES' mounted above it. There was a series of pictures of houses pinned to the board with their addresses written below. They were scattered all around the world, there was at least one on every continent. Next to these pictures were hooks with keys resting in them, it was pretty easy to guess what they were for. Amanda was quickly taking down everything from the board and tossing them into a large rucksack leaning against the table. Sticking out of the half-open bag were a dozen different coloured passports and a few rolls of paper currency ranging from Dollars to Rubles.

Ellie ran past George and instantly homed in on the suitcase with her name on it.

She asked excitedly, "is this mine?",

After stuffing the bag with a handful of keys and a dozen addresses, Amanda zipped up the rucksack and answered her daughter with a reassuring fake smile.

"Why else would it have your name on it, silly? That's got everything you'll need inside so I want you to promise me that you'll look after it."

Ellie nodded her head and struggled to lift her suitcase off the wire-frame bed, there must have been a lot more than just clothes packed in there. Amanda put the rucksack on her back and pulled her suitcase down from her bunk with great difficulty.

"George, you're a strong boy. Would you be a dear and carry Dominic's case with yours for me?"

This must have been what Dominic meant by emergency supplies. His foster parents had clearly prepped for this get-away circumstance well in advance. He wondered how long after his arrival did they arrange for his bunk bed and accompanying suitcase. Months, weeks, perhaps within days? Maybe they had it all ready before he had even moved in. Thinking about his survival bag waiting in a ditch in the forest, George almost felt proud of Amanda and Dominic. The parallels in their escape plans were remarkably similar, that's about the biggest compliment he could give them.

George entered the room and quickly procured both his and his foster father's suitcases from their beds. They were just as heavy as Ellie and Amanda had made them look, but he could carry them under each arm without bother. His foster mother hadn't been wrong, George was extremely strong for his age.  He could lift nearly as much as Dominic and run significantly faster. The maximum extent of his strength had yet to be shown because George didn't want to give Amanda the excuse to take him on yet another tedious hospital trip. But, desperate times called for desperate measures and he doubted his herculean strength was on Amanda's mind right now.

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With the cases in hand, everyone hurried to leave the bunker. Amanda pressed a red button on her way out and the vault door automatically closed after a few seconds elapsed. The way back to the living room was significantly slower now that they were encumbered with at least three hundred pounds of chocked full cases. The lengthened journey back did provide George with ample time to think.

Who were Dominic and Amanda? He had no idea. The past eleven months had been fully occupied with the preparations to join Hogwarts and to blend in with the other students as seamlessly as possible. That required him to become a convincing eleven-year-old muggle-born child, all of which he had no experience with before the orphanage. He couldn't afford to waste a second, every day had been dedicated to learning via books or from his fellow primary school classmates. If his disguise was seen through by any of the professors or the students, his patron would subjugate him to a fate worse than death. Failure was never an option.

During those months, George had not learnt anything about his foster parents' past. He never asked and they never brought it up, everything was in perfect balance. To George, they were just a rich couple who had retired early and felt like adopting some kids. He didn't question it since Amanda made good food and Dominic indulged his neurotic reading habits. Before he would know it, George would be at Hogwarts and the Linwoods would be in his rearview mirror. They were just a tool to accomplish his goals, nothing more.

Clearly, George had been wrong about them, their happy and welcoming personality was just a facade. He still barely knew anything but from what he had seen today, they had a lot more in common with him than he had initially thought. It seemed that they were equals in their desperate struggle to escape their past. George felt it was a shame that he couldn't have known Dominic and Amanda better. He would have honestly considered travelling with them to learn more about their former lives but his patron definitely wouldn't approve. It was for the best that he separated from them before leaving the country or risk the benefactor's wrath befalling on them as well.

The two exhausted girls and a mildly out-of-breath George arrived back at the living room to find Dominic with an even grimmer expression on his face. He looked like a man who had lost his job, been evicted, and been diagnosed with a terminal illness all in the same day. What could he have possibly found on Remus that could have elicited such a negative reaction? Dominic heard them reenter the room and locked eyes with George, his foster father's cold glare sent a shiver down his spine. He then marched up to George and grabbed him by his shoulders, pinning him in place.

It was fair to say that George was more than a little scared of an impending blooded fist coming hurtling toward his face. What was he meant to do in this situation, fight back? A fat lot of good that would do, Domonic was still stronger than him and was obviously a better fighter. George hadn't so much as thrown a single punch in his life, he'd neither the need nor the motive. His patron would have cut his arms off if he had ever tried retaliating and 'blending in' meant no fighting at primary school. The only combat knowledge he had was a karate book he had skimmed through five months ago. In other words, he was screwed.

Contradictory to his furious expression, Dominic didn't hit George. Instead, he interrogated him with a great deal of urgency in his voice.

"Have you ever told anyone about the house!?"

After seeing her husband's erratic behaviour, a concerned Amanda dropped her suitcase and rucksack before running over to George's aid.

She shouted from behind him, "what the hell do you think your doing!?"

Dominic completely ignored her and continued his questioning, "answer me, George! Maybe a stranger at the park or someone at school. Did you tell them about where we live, where we sleep!? Anything at all that might..."

George had no idea what Dominic was going on about. He had talked to no one besides his family and rarely the teachers at school but that was it. He was a loner and didn't say anything that didn't need to be said, the house never came up in the few conversations he had. Luckily for George, he didn't have to deal with this shake-down any longer because his other foster parent had come to the rescue. Amanda didn't hesitate to slap Dominic right across his face, the resulting clap echoed through the vast room.

Dominic instantly let go and staggered two steps back whilst cupping his reddening jaw. Amanda then advanced in front of George and pointed threateningly at her husband with an enraged fire burning in her eyes.

"We agreed to NEVER blame the children! This is OUR mess, OUR responsibility! They have NOTHING to do with this!"

Amanda's chest was now heaving up and down with her laboured breathing as she stood like an insurmountable wall between George and Dominic. Her outrage was still unabated but she appeared to be trying to rein it in. She took a deep breath before continuing in a slightly more composed voice.

"If you dare to put so much as a finger on either George or Ellie again..."

She hesitated while glancing a the frightened Ellie before saying, "you already know the answer."

The living room was then consumed by an awkward silence. The clock on the wall sounded as loud as a rock concert in comparison to the atmosphere between George's foster parents. Amanda was still clearly fuming and Dominic acted like a convict which had just been given the death sentence. Ellie looked more scared than she had been all day, her wide eyes were on the verge of bursting with tears. George however was feeling great knowing that at least one of his foster parents was on his side. To be fair, Dominic wasn't completely in the wrong since it was almost definitely George's fault for Remus's appearance. But no one needed to know that.

The Mexican standoff was abruptly ended by an unexpected voice coming from behind Dominic.

"I hate to interrupt what is surely a very sensitive matter... but I would be ever-so-grateful if someone could hand me my wand."

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