CHAPTER 35
Dinner wasn’t just good, it was excessively so. Mam had prepared, with some help from me, a meal that consisted of just about every traditional ingredient she could fit onto the plates, and plentiful in terms of quantity as well as variety. By unspoken agreement, pudding was left for teatime. Beer and wine were not.

Dishwashers are wonderful.

Webster’s dictionary defines Speed as the fallowing: the rate of change of position along a straight line with respect to time over a set distance. In other words, the quicker you can get from one place to another. The question is what do you, do when your family has spent the last two generations in search of ways to accomplish this goal faster and faster. Would do you do when the family business is the search for more Speed. For Robert ‘Robby’ McGuire the answer is easy. You grab your sister and strap on a pair of Formula One racecars then go for broke.

In February 267 Raben returned to Mazbar. Business for Corvus Construction was booming. It had attracted the best architects and engineers, work was done correctly, with good materials, on time and on cost. It had become the premier builder in the vicinity of Rome. Treatises were written on engineering and architecture with mathematical tables to figure out loads and spans for various materials. Formulas for different types of concrete were recorded. The books were copied and sold by Corvus Scriptorium.

I stood there and stared at him as Simon Leapfoot the younger looked around the small community, then noticed that I was there.

There was grace and confidence in his every step, the man knew the world around him in ways that I didn't yet.

He stopped in front of me, noting my interest in him, and spoke, "I am Simon Leapfoot the younger, I'm looking to meet with Will Tinker."

I nodded at him, showing a weak smile as I said, "That would be me, Mr. Leapfoot," then waited to see what would happen.

Rae studied the 3D rendering on her lab computer. The face was hers, but with small alterations. It was younger, more feminine, and subtly vulpine. The hair was the biggest difference. It was the same foxy fiery red that she often dyed her own dark blond hair. It had foxy ears, and no trace of regular human ears.

Harry Potter and the Trouble With Neurotypicals: Book Four.
Or, "Autistic Potter and the Goblet of Fire."

Notes: I do not own this. J. K. Rowling does. This is just fan fiction. No money is being made. Not by me, anyway.

There may be a few bits and pieces lifted word-for-word from the canon material. I tried to do that as little as possible, though, but there's a lot more in this one than usual because it was unavoidable. Still, lots of details are changed, so don't skip by familiar parts or you might miss something.

CHAPTER 33
I couldn’t fault Ellen in regard to her sentiments, and that served even more than before to show me how strongly the team held me in its collective arms. Candice had commented on my persona at the beginning: “Don’t touch me!”

The fair wound down on the following Saturday night, with the final visitors to the fair leaving just after midnight.

Dad had firmly but politely told off both Allison and I for not having gone to bed already, then said we had better get there rather quickly. As the simple thought of one of dad's 'punishments' is not something I look forward to experiencing, I was soon in our RV and in my bed.

The crowds had been no bigger over the last two days of the fair than they had been before. In fact, they might have been smaller.

The land around the south shore of Lac Leman had been settled by the Celtic Nantuatae tribe including up the upper Rhone river valley to the point it narrows just above Monthey. The rest of the upper Rhone valley had been settled by the Celtic Seduni tribe. The area south of Geneva at the western end of Lac Leman and east of the Rhone was settled by the Celtic Allobroges tribe. All three tribes had been conquered by the Romans during the times of Julius Ceasar and his successors. The tribes were not supplanted by the Romans, and after their initial conquest, stayed on the land in relative peace.

The massive influx of people was too much to absorb on the limited lands of the province Alpes Graiae Et Poeninae, more farmland was needed. With the purchase of the Roman Senatorial Estates, Raben now owned most of the land of the Seduni and the Nantuatae. To expand his land he set out exploring the land to the west of Barmaz and south of Lac Leman, what remained of the Nantuatae an that of the Allobroges. Many of the farms were subsistence level like he had bought in Barmaz. The better farmland was owned by absentee Senatorial landlords. Raben knew he could deal with the subsistence farms as he had done in Barmaz. The tougher deal would be to buy out the Roman Estates.

CHAPTER 32
We went into overdrive that morning, most of the team joining with CID and uniform to carry out a fingertip search of the open stretch of grass that contained the circle, but there was absolutely nothing for us. Candice and Lexie took the lead with the young couple, and then, once the search was done, Jon and Ellen, Blake and Rob, in pairs, went to the hospital. Sammy had been very clear I wasn’t to go anywhere near what we were assuming were the shooter plus two. My boss took me to an interview room once everyone was off and running.

“Just need a quiet word, mate. A few things you should be aware of. Bring your tea”

Dinner more than lived up to its promise. I ate some Cornish Lobster that was out of this world. Mary, on the other-hand played safe and ordered a ‘Rack of Lamb’. This was all washed down with some of the best wine I’d ever had. Mary just licked her lips as she savoured each glass.

As the meal wore on, my mind turned to the task ahead.

“The last week or so has really been a rollercoaster. Did you ever think we’d end up here?” I asked Mary after our dessert plates had been taken away.

Mary as ever brought the scene down to earth with a bang.

“Well, if we don’t catch this monster then we will have an awful lot of egg on our face.”

Warning: I haven’t touched this story since...maybe...2006 and there may be some issues with spelling (more so than most) and some scene shifts. I’m just trying to see if the story can be completed. It’s about two love triangles (or perhaps parallelograms?) that may end happily ever for one couple or for opposite members. I’m not too sure yet.