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Chapter 9 - Mahalo

/Utro/. Is morning.

"Dobro /utro/, good morning!"

The sun shines hot - it dries me.

Fog is good, keeps me wet, keeps me safe.

Tarsia Kemp. I'm looking for Kemp.

Where is Kemp?

I wait for Kemp.

)O(

Five days into their Hawaiian holiday the Granger-Weasley-Potters were enjoying a beautiful morning on Waikiki beach when Harry felt an impending sense of dread - he looked around trying to assess the threat but couldn't see anything obvious.

"Hermione?"

"I feel it as well, and the kids are getting nervous."

He spotted Amber, the magical concierge, coming from the Rainbow Tower walking toward the beach with apurposeful stride.

Harry jogged up to her and took her by the shoulders.

"What is it, Amber?"

"Feels wrong, just feels wrong. Where are all the birds?"

Harry looked around and sure enough, the tiny zebra doves were nowhere to be seen. Normally the sidewalks were well populated with them as they tried to steal crumbs from each other.

Amber paled, "Oh Goddess, Tsunami. . ."

Harry shouted to Hermione, "We've got to get everyone to higher ground, now!" He turned to the island girl, "Isn't there an alarm or siren?"

"Yes, but it's centrally controlled."

"What if one siren goes off?"

"The others will follow."

"Where's the nearest one?"

"In the open air lobby, c'mon!"

Harry and Amber ran to the lobby where she pointed out the horn.

"What does it sound like?"

"A warning is two long blasts, followed by two short blasts, repeated for fifteen minutes."

Harry nodded, concentrated his magical core on the siren. He felt the circuits, following the wires to the central controlling station, and soon every tsunami siren on Oahu began to bleat a warning - at 130 decibels.

Tourists looked around worried, some laughed nervously until Amber got on the PA and said "Please proceed to the evacuation points in an orderly fashion, it may be a false alarm but we don't want to bet our lives on that, do we?"

AHAB activated, usurping local television and radio broadcasts, instructing people to seek higher ground.

"How high?"

"At least ten meters!"

The Americans in the group looked lost.

"Bloody Yanks!" Harry muttered under his breath, "about thirty feet up! It's an easy stroll up the slope of Diamond Head!"

Within fifteen minutes the hotel staff had all the guests evacuated. Harry did a scan and made sure no one was sleeping through the emergency and went to join Hermione on the mountain overlooking Waikiki beach. He found her surrounded by English and French speaking tourists who were trying to find out why the beachfront areas were being evacuated. Later, when asked why they were asking her in particular, most people said, "Because she looks like someone who would know."

Harry looked back at the four towers of the Hawaiian Village and sighed, it had been such a nice holiday.

Movement. Harry spotted people walking near the base of one of the towers.

"Bloody tourists!" he grumbled, looking around surreptitiously, all eyes were on the Pacific Ocean. He crouched down and silently apparated to the base of Rainbow Tower.

"You need to get to higher . . ."

He stopped as he recognized several of the faces in the group. All native Hawaiians, Lanikai and Kaleo seemed to be leading them.

"Its okay, Kahuna Harry, were here to make sure the water doesn't damage the foundations of the towers. We will be the anchors that will keep the towers, the livelihoods of all our families, from leaning - or worse."

Harry noticed that some of the group looked nervous.

"But who will be /your/anchors?"

Kaleo smiled, "we believe that all Hawaiians came from the ocean," then he shrugged, "sometimes the ocean takes us back."

"Let me help. I don't know why and I don't know how but I know I can help."

"This is not your duty, Harry."

"Isn't it?" he asked, "Lanikai, what does your sight tell you?"

She looked past Harry allowing her peripheral vision to sense his aura.

Then she looked deeply into his startling green eyes.

"That you will always choose life, but never your own first. That you listen to the magic, but do not try to bend it to your will. You let it do as it will."

She found it difficult to turn her gaze away from his.

"And you are /very/stubborn."

He grinned, "Y' think?"

She knelt and directed Harry to do the same.

"Join hands."

Kaleo took his right hand, Lanikai his left. The other kanes and wahines took theirs as well forming acircle.

"Join your magic so that together we may keep the land from returning to the deep this day. Let the water be content to honor its boundaries with the land."

Harry heard Kaleo take a sharp breath and looked in his direction, the kane was looking at Lanikai as though she were completely crazy.

"Focus, everyone,

feel the wave,

it is restless.

It wants to run free.

It wants to climb the land just to see what is there.

Feel the spirit, the heart, the mind,

the soul of the wave in the water."

Harry could feel incredible energy just beyond his senses, like an impending eruption. He wanted to see what a ten meter tall wall of water would do to the land. Would it wash the stain of humanity away?

"Feel the land,

earth born of fire and water,

risen from the ocean,

its roots still deep within the water.

Feel the land."

This time Harry felt the immovable object and he knew what to do.

"We can do this!" Harry shouted.

"Do you believe, Kahuna Harry?"Kaleo asked, looking pale.

"Yes."

He looked at all the faces in the circle.

"We don't need to fight the power of the water, or pit the land against the water. We only need to give it an easier path. That's all. Just an easier path."

And all the Hawaiians knew exactly what the Kahuna from the other ocean meant.

They all concentrated on the wave, still many kilometers out to sea, and nudged it, just a little push to the side so that the main mass of the energy would pass far to the east of Oahu.

Seven brave souls who would forever after be remembered in story and song as forces of nature knelt, and bound their majiks to the Kahuna from the East. The sea level rose gently, spilling over onto the walkways and lawns, and yes, the open air lobby of the Hawaiian Village Hilton.

But rather than a ten meter wall of destruction, the waters just offered a gentle reminder that nothing in and around the deep is permanent - the Hawaiian Islands are on loan, not owned by those who choose to live there.

Fifteen minutes later a long, unwavering, "all clear" sounded and the tourists and tradesmen of Waikiki came down from higher ground, grumbling.

"So that's a tsunami, huh? I'm not impressed."

Lanikai smiled benignly. She was one of only a handful of people on the island who understood the magnitude of the force that had passed them by.

)O(

The next day Harry and Hermione were packing her massive wheeled luggage, most of the space had been reserved for presents to bring back to friends, neighbors and co-workers.

Arthur Weasly would be getting asmall, spring loaded, grass-skirted hula doll and ukulele.

"I just hope he doesn't take them apart while were standing there!"

Molly would be getting half adozen muggle cookbooks along with all the ingredients to make mango tarts and macadamia nut biscuits.

"I always feel as though I need afew days off after coming back from holiday, y'know? Time off to rest up from our time off. . ."

There was a gentle knocking at the door. Hermione opened it expecting room service; she wasn't expecting Lanikai dressed in ceremonial attire, complete with plumeria crown.

"May we come in?"

Harry joined Hermione at the door, along with all three children, who gaped at the beautiful island priestess and her attendants.

"Of course."

Harry felt more than a little uncomfortable when the entire entourage knelt at his feet.

"Please don't. . ."

"Hoahanau Harry," the priestess interrupted "Kahuna from the Islands of Britain, you are preparing to leave Hawaii, but know this, these island are, and will ever more be your home. Someday soon your heart will be drawn back and when it is, we, your /ohana/, your family, will be waiting for you."

Harry knelt before Lanikai and said, "I must say that I have been more at peace here than anywhere else."

The native priestess leaned forward and kissed him on each cheek, when she drew back Harry felt a slight weight on his chest. He looked down and saw a thin gold chain, from which hung a native turtle symbol.

"Mahalo, Lanikai."

She bade Hermione kneel with them, and kissed her likewise.

"Your wahine, Hermione, is also hoahanau, as your lives will ever more be entwined."

When the girls leaned back Hermione had been gifted with a set of matched pearl earrings in tiny gold plumeria settings.

"What is hoahanau?" Hermione asked, reverently.

"It is family by blood, cousins."

"But we're not. . ."

The priestess pulled a great white shark's tooth from the string on her left wrist and used it to slice her palm. Then handed it to Harry who copied her before handing the tooth to Hermione.

She sighed and said, "Why is it always blood?"

Lanikai interlaced her fingers, first with Harry, than with Hermione so that their palms touched.

"Now there will always be alittle English Island blood in my family, and a little Hawaiian Island blood in yours."

The ritual done, Lanikai rose gracefully to her feet, as did Harry. Hermione accepted a little help up. The priestess bade them hold out their palms. When they did she kissed the shark tooth cuts - healing them without the trace of a scar. Harry did the same for Lanikai.

"May I speak with you for just amoment, Harry?"

He nodded and let himself be led into the hallway by the island girl.

Hermione intentionally didn't listen to the conversation but could tell it was getting interesting as his head and neck suddenly went bright red and the Priestess kissed him a warm farewell.

"Ever going to tell me what that was all about, Harry?"

"Um, no."

Hermione smirked and ushered the kids off to bed.

"But it's early!" they whined.

"It's early here but much too late to be up back home."

"Awwwww. . ."

They protested all the way to bed, drank from their sippy cups and were soon asleep.

We'll carry them through the portal around two AM local time, that'll put us back at Heathrow around tea, then we can see our in-laws.

"Molly and Arthur will be over the moon."

Harry chuckled and kissed Hermione on the cheek,

"Thank you so much for coming."

She gathered him into a fierce hug and said, "Wouldn't have missed it for the world."

)O(

Paul Kemp woke up in his own bed. He smiled and settled back into the duvet.

"No bloody big head this mornin'."

He had a quick shower, enjoyed coffee, eggs, beans and toast while watching the telly.

"That's it, I'm takin' the pledge, I don't want t' see another drink until my wedding day, an' that'll be to toast the bride!"

He stepped out of his front door, reveled in the smell of fresh air and the warmth of sunshine on his face and, smilingly, stepped into a curtain of red, stinging tentacles.

Paul's face contorted in pain but his agonized scream was silenced as he blacked out.