Chapter 1
There was no warning when the obliviation squad descended on the remote laboratory in northern Ostania. Neither the security cameras along the lonely road twisting through the forest, nor the cameras dappled throughout the forest itself stood a chance against using a portkey. When the group of six wizards – three aurors and three licenced obliviators – unlocked the front doors and entered the building, they saw no resistance. Not any resistance that couldn’t be solved with a simple shield and a petrificus totalis, anyways
The next day was a regular Tuesday, and everyone at the University of Shellby’s northern laboratory arrived to work as usual, though there was a bit of confusion around practical arrangements. For some reason no one could seem to remember what lab they were working in at the moment, even though if you went to the break room you could see it right there on the calendar in Philip’s meticulous handwriting. They were working on testing the effect of a novel diabetes cure on mice, and had just finished an initial, rather disappointing round of tests. Without consulting their notes, no one could seem to remember any specifics, though... Several members of the team wondered anew why they had taken this job when they were specialists in child development, but ah, they’d had trouble getting grants and had to take what work they could, of course, how could they forget. It was a rather strange career choice in hindsight, but what could you do when research money was being increasingly funneled into weapons technology…
If anyone had vivid, reoccuring dreams about inexplicably floating furniture, unnatural sparks, or having their hair set on fire, they never spoke of it. They especially never spoke of it if their dreams were about children screaming, crying, throwing up, and begging to be let out of the electric stimulation device. They were only dreams, after all.
—
Eight years later, Anya was so so so excited. She was a little bit (or a lot a bit) sad before, saying goodbye to Becky, but right now the plane had arrived at Heathrow airport and she was so so so excited. Mama and papa and her were moving to London for a bit for papa’s super secret spy work! And Bond had visions of a huge castle, which meant they were obviously living in a huge castle! Papa always said he’d see if there was a castle on sale when Anya asked to live in one, and it looked like he’d finally found one! Anya couldn’t wait to write to Becky about her new castle, which was way way bigger than even sy-on boy’s mansion.
Anya was vibrating with excitement and impatience at the crowded baggage claim, which was taking way way way too long to spit out their bags.
“I want to live in a tower at our new castle,” she said to papa.
Her excitement turned to confusion as she heard his thoughts: “ Castle? The rent is certainly high enough, but it’s not that big. Surely she knows that not everyone in England lives in a castle like in her fantasy cartoons?”
Simultaneously mama thought: “ Aah I want to visit a castle… I bet there would be all kinds of interesting weapons in the armory… And torture devices in the dungeons…”
Simultaneously a man standing in front of them thought: “ Dammit, are all the employees here tortoises? I want a sandwich, ” and a woman standing nearby thought: “ Oh god just three hours until I see John again. I’m really overdue for a good pounding, ” and some old lady hummed a Christmas song even though it was summer: “...cares away / Christmas is here, bringing good cheer / to young and old…”
It was a little bit hard to focus on only what papa was thinking with all the people around, but Anya thought she got the just of it, and she was concerned.
“We’re living in a normal townhouse, Anya,” said papa, and Anya was devastated. “Only the queen lives in a castle in England, nowadays.”
Her wonderful imaginings of how life would be for the next however long it was going to take for papa to finish up his spywork in London were shattered.
It did not help at all that she could feel mama and papa titter with amusement internally, or that she could hear the old woman standing nearby silently laugh at her as she eavesdropped on their conversation. She knew the difference between reality and fantasy cartoons! She really did! She could hardly explain that her dog had seen visions of living in a castle in the future to anyone, though, so she stewed in disappointment and indignation.
Anya felt a bit less excited from there on. (But London was still cool so she was still a little bit excited, but just a little bit! )
“If we aren’t living in a castle, what’s that castle you saw, then?” Anya quietly asked Bond when they managed to rescue him from the mysterious internal workings of the airport. “And why were all the boys wearing dresses?”
“Bof!” said Bond, without an answer.
—
Anya tried super duper hard to concentrate on her show, but she ultimately failed. Bond had a vision earlier that day about her crying alone at the playground, and she was distracted thinking about what was going to make her cry. She didn’t cry that often, nowadays, because she wasn’t a little kid. Anya was also distracted by papa’s stressed out thoughts from where he was pretending to sleep on the couch. He was thinking very fast and with such focus that she felt like she would get lost in his brain if she didn’t specifically try to ignore him. A clatter from the dining room (“ Why are the loops still too loose? I thought I made them tighter than before!” ) distracted Anya extra much for a second, and papa’s stressed out internal monologue took over her mind.
("... improbable that this is a case of WISE purposefully being led astray, given the source, but there are at least five parties that might want agents distracted and out of the country, and the option can’t be ruled out, especially with the search going this badly. It is also possible that the point of origin was already raided by…”)
Clutching her head, Anya came up with a course of action.
“Let’s play a board game with mama,” she said. Papa needed a distraction. Or else Anya needed a TV in her room where the distracting papas were further away and thus easier to ignore.
“I… give me a minute, Anya,” papa replied, pretending to wake up. That was good enough for her. Anya set off to the kitchen to get mama, who was practicing knitting in the dining room (“ I think I’m supposed to pull this loop through there? Probably? Nope. Not that at all, ugh,” ).
“I should have a TV in my room,” Anya said, plopping into the chair next to her.
That was when the doorbell rang. Anya could feel that papa was immediately on guard; they hadn’t been expecting any visitors. Mama was curious, and Bond was just annoyed by the doorbell. Anya tried to listen to the thoughts of whoever was behind the door.
Terrifyingly she failed.
Now Anya was on triple mega guard too. She had never failed to read anyone’s thoughts before.
She knew her powers were working because she could still hear papa’s thoughts (“...don’t know of any rival factions that would have been alerted by my subtle inquiries, but the landscape of the black market here is ultimately foreign and thus bound to have some surprises in store, however…” ) and mama’s thoughts (“ I wonder if it’s one of those salespeople that has an interesting vacuum or something…” ) and Bond’s thoughts (“ You should make them change the doorbell sound, Anya.” ). If she tried really really hard she could even hear the thoughts of the people next door ( “...buy more pastrami yesterday? I think…” “...wish it would rain down *dun!* down on me / Oooooohhh yes… ” “...my bloody lower back. Ughhhhhhh…” ). She could read all their thoughts like normal! So why couldn’t she read this new person’s mind? She could kinda feel there was someone outside the door, but it felt like their mind was covered by a big metal dome. Were they a sentient robot!?
“Be careful mama, it’s probably a robot,” Anya said seriously, as the pair stood up to go see who was at the door.
Mama was just puzzled by her comment, though, not taking it for the warning it was. There was no telling about the allegiances of a robot, so they were inherently more dangerous than a random person.
Papa opened the door, and when Anya and mama rounded the corner, Anya saw that the robot on their doorstep was doing a very good job of looking like a smartly dressed older woman. Papa’s brain was on fire with theories of who this person could be, missing the obvious robot explanation.
Meanwhile mama smiled sweetly and said: “Hello, there.”
Anya really wanted to warn papa about the robot, but she couldn’t, because it would be bad to tip her hand in front of the enemy. Mama’s analysis on how she could take the robot out – the same she did for any person she met – and papa’s automatic suspicion made Anya feel a bit better, though.
The robot continued to not have any thoughts.
“Sorry to disturb your evening,” it said, “I am professor McGonagall from Hogwarts. I would like to discuss an educational opportunity for your daughter.”
Papa was confused. There was no school called Hogwarts. He had done research on all of Britain’s top schools. What was this woman’s objective?
Anya was also confused. Who had realistic robots like this? Was there a secret school for robots? Was she secretly a robot?
Mama, however, was delighted. She wanted the best education possible for her dear Anya.
Before mama could ask the robot “McGonagall” about the school, papa thankfully cut in and said: “We appreciate the consideration, but we have already enrolled our daughter in St. Paul’s Girls’ School.”
“I apologize, but I really must insist,” said the robot “McGonagall”. “You see, Hogwarts is no ordinary school. It is a school for witchcraft and wizardry, and your daughter is a witch.”
Mama, papa and Anya were united in their thought of: “ What?”
“I know it sounds improbable, but I assure you that I am completely serious. I can give you a demonstration of magic, if you would allow me to step inside,” said (the robot? witch?) McGonagall.
As papa started to answer, Anya could suddenly hear a thought from the robot-witch-McGonagall: “ I would appreciate it if you stopped trying to read my mind, miss Forger.”
Anya froze.
This woman could tell that she could read minds. That was why Anya couldn’t read her mind.
That was bad.
That was bad bad bad.
She was probably about to tell papa and mama, and then they would know her secret, and then they would hate her. This was the end of everything and Anya couldn’t breathe and her heart was beating way way too hard and she was probably about to die.
“ I’M SO SORRY PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DON’T TELL,” Anya mentally screamed toward the woman. She had never tried to speak into someone’s mind before, so she went really loud to be sure it would work. “ I DON’T WANT THEM TO GET MAD AT ME AND DISOWN ME I LOVE THEM AND I NEED THEM AND I NEED THEM NOT TO KNOW AND PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DON’T TELL THEM I CAN READ MINDS,” she mentally begged. She had no idea if the woman could hear her.
Anya felt tears pooling in her eyes even though she tried super super hard to fight them back. If mama or papa asked what was wrong that was too good of a segue for the woman to tell them. Anya had to change the topic, but her throat was tight and she couldn’t think of words and she wanted to curl up into a ball and now there were tears rolling down her cheeks.
“ Miss Forger, there’s really no need to– ” the robot-witch-woman thought to her, but Anya couldn’t pay attention.
She was crying and she couldn’t show her face to papa or mama. Anya couldn’t be here – there was no hope any more. She needed to be gone gone gone gone gone gone gone– and she felt a strange squeezing and she realized her wish came true.
—
The beat of shocked silence in the wake of Anya’s disappearance did not last long.
“What. Did you do to my daughter,” Twilight asked the woman who claimed to be a witch – the enemy operative. There was a weight to his voice that almost made her take a step back, and fear was creeping into her body language.
He had been wrong to humour this woman for even a second. He had almost invited her in, thinking he would still have the upper hand in his own house, but evidently all she needed was an open door to kidnap Anya!
Anya was just suddenly gone. His daughter was missing. One moment she was there, and the next – crack – she wasn’t. Was teleportation possible? Did the British have such technology? Or was this a different faction? Who had it out for him enough to take his daughter? To use the extensive resources that such a trick surely required. Or was it just a trick of the light? Was she disintegrated and gone forever? No matter what the case was, he needed information.
Twilight took a deep breath. It didn’t help as much as it usually did.
“There’s no need to–” the operative started to say, but Twilight moved faster than she spoke. In the blink of an eye he had her pinned against the wall, his gun held to her head.
“Who do you work for. What did you do to my daughter,” he repeated, his voice flat, completely devoid of humanity.
He noticed movement in her right hand, but before he could react, it was pinned to the wall by a knife. Where had that come from? He looked back at Yor, and saw that her hand was extended, as if she had just thrown a knife. He could think about that later. In any case the stick the operative had tried to aim at him (and what kind of weapon was a stick?) fell to the ground, useless.
The woman looked quite panicked, now. What had her plan been? How could she have expected any other outcome, after kidnapping or killing his daughter?
“I can help you find her!” she pleaded. There was desperation in her voice. She must have been a pawn, unaware of the greater plan she was a part of if she was reacting like this. Or else she was a novice. “She shouldn’t be far! She was just overwhelmed and it caused her accidental magic to flare up! I swear that is all! She is probably somewhere she considers safe! Like her room!”
There was no trace of a lie in her voice. This woman was either a good actor or insane. Was there something or someone waiting in Anya’s room?
“She could be a useful hostage,” Twilight said. “We’ll tie her up in the living room.”
Yor nodded and went inside. She pulled one of the kitchen chairs to the living room, along with some sturdy rope.
Twilight patted down the hostage, pulling a few pouches and a letter out of her pockets. He pulled the knife pinning her hand out of the wall and saw it had gone deeper than he had expected. He walked the hostage into the house. In the foyer she made a funny sidestep, and as Twilight reached out to stop her from escaping, there was a loud “crack!” and she suddenly disappeared into thin air.
Twilight waved his hands where the woman had just been. There was nothing. His mind warred against the idea that teleportation was possible, but he couldn’t deny such direct evidence. The question was where to go from here. How do you find someone that can teleport?
He ran out the door and looked at the buildings nearby. There was no outward sign that any of them were harbouring a teleportation device, which would probably be large ( the sheer amount of energy you’d need to break the laws of nature like that!) Remembering a comment “McGonagall” had made earlier, he next made a beeline for Anya’s room.
“Did she get away?” Yor asked as he passed by the living room door.
He didn’t answer. If there was someone in Anya’s room he didn’t want to alert them to his approach. He paused by the cracked door and readied his gun. He burst in suddenly, to catch anyone inside off guard, but found no one. Nothing in the room was out of place, and there wasn’t anything nefarious hidden in any of the most common hiding places.
Yor entered Anya’s room as Twilight was finishing his search.
“Did she disappear into thin air too?” she asked.
“Yes,” Twilight answered. What more could he say.
“I’m going to check nearby buildings for a teleportation device. Check the woman’s belongings for clues and radio me if you find anything of interest,” Twilight said. He pulled a pair of radios out of a secret compartment in one of their little hallway shelves and handed one to her. Then he ran out the door.
He didn’t get far before he noticed someone following him. He twisted around to take a defensive position, but it was just Yor.
“I’m coming too,” she said, a sharp look in her eyes that he had never seen before.
“It could be dangerous,” Twilight countered. “And there might be clues in her belongings that we’re missing if one of us isn’t looking through them.”
“I don’t care about the danger,” Yor answered. “Anya needs help.”
Twilight wasn’t sure how he could convince her not to come. After all, she thought he was a civilian just like her.
As he was considering this, wasting precious time, Bond barreled onto the street.
“Bof!” he said.
“Go back inside,” Twilight said firmly, but he did not obey. Usually Bond knew how to listen to instructions.
“Bof!” he said again, gesturing his head in the opposite direction from the one Twilight was heading in. It somehow felt like he was giving Twilight a significant look.
“I think he’s trying to tell us something,” Yor said.
Twilight stopped and considered. He felt ridiculous even considering taking advice from a housepet, and Bond had never shown any aptitude for tracking. He was a dog, however, and thus theoretically had a nose capable of tracking Anya down.
“Do you know where Anya is, Bond?” Yor asked.
“Bof! Bof!” Bond answered excitedly, and set off down the road. He looked back to make sure they were following.
Twilight and Yor looked at each other for a moment, and followed.
Honestly, Twilight’s original plan wasn’t that much better anyways.
—
Anya was curled up in a ball in a tunnel at the playground, her tears still not listening to her and continuing to roll down her face. It was the exact scene that Bond had envisioned earlier that day.
Some annoying little kids tried to bother her for a bit, but luckily they went away. The rest of the kids knew she was there, and they left her alone.
Anya picked at the peeling paint of the metallic tunnel. She didn’t know what she was going to do now. The robot-witch-lady probably told mama and papa about her mind reading, so they wouldn’t want her back, and she didn’t know where she would go. The magic school the lady talked about might take her, but the start of school was months away, and she had no plan until then. Maybe mama and papa would take pity on her and let her stay just until school started if she promised to stay out of the way…
The thought of avoiding mama and papa, and looking into their eyes and seeing only disdain, made Anya’s tears listen to her even less.
She didn’t know how much time passed alone in that tunnel, but eventually, among the stupid little thoughts of random children, she could hear mama, papa and Bond.
“ Anya, I’m here! ” Bond thought, while Anya very specifically tried to not read mama’s and papa’s thoughts. She couldn’t bear to hear what he might be thinking about her.
Anya dug her face into her knees as they got closer. Bond continued to think nice things to her, and it was nice that he would always love her, even with her secret. She hoped she got to keep him when mama and papa abandoned her.
It didn’t take long before the big ball of fur known as Bond was barrelling into Anya’s side. When he started licking her face, Anya protested: “Eww, Bond noooo.”
That might have made Anya open up a little bit, but she curled back into herself when mama and papa appeared at the mouth of the tunnel and awkwardly tried to crawl in side by side for a moment, before ultimately deciding to just sit next to the tunnel, leaning their heads in because it was too cramped. She very deliberately ignored them and their thoughts as hard as she could and pressed her face into Bond’s fur.
“Anya are you okay?” Yor asked. She sounded genuinely worried.
Anya couldn’t help herself and peeked into her thoughts a little bit. She was hit by a torrent of worry. Papa’s thoughts were the same, full of ways she might be hurt, and were they being watched, were they still in danger, and was she okay.
For some reason that just made Anya want to curl into herself even more. It sounded like the robot-witch-lady hadn’t told them yet. If they knew her secret they wouldn’t be this worried about her.
“It’s okay,” Yor said, and tried to pet her head, but instead fell over onto papa because she was in such an awkward position. It was good that she failed, because Anya didn’t want to be touched by her anyways.
“We’re here, so you’re safe now,” Yor reassured.
“Are you hurt?” papa asked.
Anya shook her head weakly.
“Who took you? Are they nearby?” He asked.
There were so many thoughts in papa’s and mama’s heads, and they were just so so worried about her.
“There wasn’t anybody,” she said into Bond’s fur. It came out all muffled and sad-sounding
Mama and papa looked at each other.
“How did you get here then, Anya?” mama asked. carefully.
That was something Anya actually hadn’t thought about overmuch, distracted by the crying and end of her life and all.
“I dunno,” she said. “The robot-witch-woman probably did it.”
Mama and papa seemed not to have any idea either. Anya being safe, and in a playground of all places, threw his theory of an enemy faction with a teleporter out of the window. Anya smiled a bit when she saw bits and bobs of the robot-witch-lady from mama’s and papa’s memories. She couldn’t believe mama impaled her hand!
“Was it scary?” mama asked. “I’d be scared if I suddenly teleported somewhere.”
“No,” Anya replied. Did they think she was crying because she was scared like some little kid?
Evidently they did, because they weren’t convinced even though she told them no.
“It’s okay to be scared, you know,” Yor said. “I’m scared sometimes too, like when… uhhh” “ when I’m heavily injured and I’m not sure if I’ll make it home,” “ when at work I mess up, and I think my boss might yell at me.”
“I’m not scared,” Anya said forcefully. They were so full of sympathy, but their loving concern just annoyed her. A few minutes ago she was sure they were going to disown her. They would be disowning her right now if the robot-witch-lady had told them her secret. They should be disowning her right now.
“I’m crying ‘cause you’re gonna disown me,” Anya said. It was impulsive, but to hell with it all. “‘Cause I can read minds.”
She raised her chin defiantly, she had been living with a shoe hanging over her head for years, and it was finally time for it to drop.
Mama and papa looked at each other, confused.
“ There’s no way,” papa thought. “ That’s simply not biologically possible. Would that mean the woman was telling the truth? That would mean she knows I’m a spy, and that… ”
“ Does that mean she can hear what I’m thinking right now? ” mama asked herself.
“Yes I can hear what you’re thinking about right now,” Anya answered. “And yes, I know.
There was a beat of silence, and Anya buried her face in Bond’s fur again. He was thinking reassuring thoughts again, but it didn’t help because mama’s and papa’s minds were whirring. Anya could hear it all, and she knew that soon they would think it all through and be disgusted with her. It was horrible and she hated it, but it was almost comforting that it was finally happening.
“ Say ‘red’ if you can hear my thoughts, ” papa thought.
“Red,” anya said, and that was the thing that made him finally realise she was for real for real. His thoughts froze as the implications of her powers sunk in. Now he was thinking carefully, deliberately.
“Do you know how you’re able to read thoughts?” papa asked, theories, each more improbable than the last running through his head.
“I dunno,” Anya replied, because she really didn’t. “Always been able to.”
“Do you read thoughts all the time?” he asked again.
“Well, yeah,” Anya replied. “It’s hard not to, like I have to try super hard to not hear thoughts, and it makes my head hurt.”
“So you always know what we’re thinking?”
“Yeah.”
That made them think about all the things they’d done, and thought about over the years. For example their secret lives, and sex, which they would have done a good job at keeping secret from her if she couldn’t read minds. It was a little bit awkward when mama and papa thought about having sex, or remembered having sex randomly throughout the day, but really Anya was used to people constantly thinking about sex so it was fine.
Then things took an unexpected turn.
“We won’t disown you just because you can read thoughts, Anya,” Yor said. “ God knows I have my own secrets,” she thought.
Anya was flabbergasted. Why didn’t she hate her?
“But I know all your secrets!” she protested. “That’s creepy and weird!”
“But you’re still my daughter,” Yor said. “ I love you,” she thought.
“Nothing has to change just because we know now,” Twilight said (while he thought that there were some things he would try to think about only when he was elsewhere ). “You’re family, and that will never change.”
Anya started to tear up, for different reasons from before.
“ I love you,” papa thought, and Anya started bawling.
She never would have expected things to go this way, and it was the best thing she could have asked for.