The Ugly Girl Who Didn't Know What She Wanted
Professor Temperance led everyone to the library, Selwin bewitched the cauldron to follow them.
On a shelf residing in the Charms section was a book about Practical Transfiguration practices. Professor Temperance pulled the book off of the shelf.
The front of the shelf and all the books slid to the side, resembling the slide of a curtain. Behind the shelf revealed a long stone passageway. It looked like a dungeon Minnie imagined would be inside a deep and dark prison. You could smell the mold and dank air as a mysterious air wafted from the tunnel.
Several Aurors walked behind the shelf, citing that it was of course magic hiding this passageway from sticking out the other side.
"Hickory is really a tight ass about her decimal system, so when I noticed a book was out of place, I knew he'd left a clue." Temperance chuckled as she flipped through the book.
"It's true, she's worse than Pince." Minnie's mother agreed leaning closer to Harry she muttered, "She's also a bitch, hopefully we find her, poor soul."
If Harry had an edge of laughter, it was never heard as he ordered sets of Aurors to go in immediately. They held their wands aloft, light emanating from their wands.
As Minnie and her mother began to follow Professor Temperance, Harry put out his arm, stopping her.
"Let me through Potter." Her mother groaned.
"No way, I said you can stay, but there's no way I'm letting you walk into Crawford's trap." Harry warned pushing her back.
"Potter-" Her mother began.
"And when Neville gets out, you can meet him here." Harry said "Myself and Burton will be staying back with you and Minnie. If anyone comes out, someone will need to administer the tea."
"Don't worry, we're going to bring Neville back." Temperance pat Minnie's mum on the back.
Her mum nodded but her eyes darted away to a bookshelf a few rows away. Minnie wondered if her mother had seen something.
"Of course." Said her mother with a curt nod of her head, her eyes didn't meet Temperance's gaze. She continued her distracted expression.
Professor Temperance followed the group, leaving the four who remained ready and waiting for people to emerge.
Minnie and Selwin set up a library table to finish the potion. In very little time it was ready to administer to anyone who emerged.
Minnie's eyes remained steady on the hourglass Hickory prized upon her desk. The sand fell slowly, counting to another half an hour before it flipped itself. No one dared speak, no one dared breathe.
Her mother's gaze rarely left the bookshelf her eyes had been drawn to.
"They should have returned by now." Selwin worried as the hourglass reached another half an hour.
Minnie agreed time had greatly passed.
"I don't think Crawford would make it easy on us." Harry warned. "I'll bet he has safeguards and traps, he's been smart so far, and there's no way he wouldn't have a few things up his sleeve."
"What if he were distracted?" Minnie's mother asked, her face still turned to the distant bookshelf.
"Samantha!" Harry said with a stinging look in his green eyes.
Her mother looked into Harry's eyes, her chin was lowered, "I'm not suggesting anything."
"If you were, I'd say don't try it." Harry nodded back.
Minnie was confused.
"I'm a bit restless, Minerva, walk with me through the library, this waiting is killing me." Her mother insisted standing up and gathering her cane.
Minnie stood and followed her mother as she walked through the shelves. It was odd to hear the clop of her mother's cane as she walked upon the wood floor.
They silently went through a few aisles of books. Her mother pulled out the Moly shaped pocket watch with great difficulty.
"I assume you knew about this?" Her mother asked into the silent library, the books and shelves preventing an echo.
Minnie nodded, "Of course."
"It was on my bedside table this morning." Her mother agreed bittersweetly running her fingers over the dials. Her fingernails tapping against the glass with every violent shake.
"Dad was excited about it." Minnie smiled a little, trying to see her mother's smile. "I told him you would love it."
"I love you baby girl." Her mother stopped her beneath a bookshelf, just out of Harry's view and kissed her forehead. "My brave Minerva, give your sister a kiss for me later please."
"You could do that yourself mum."
Her mother nodded quickly, making the curls around her face bounce. Her mother turned her bright blue eyes to a shelf right at chin level. Her eyes remained fixed and true, her eyes becoming more misty as she stared.
There were three books that had truly captured her attention. The three books were, Incendio, The Scars We Leave Behind, and The Flight of The Vulture, a book that Minnie's mum had written about Minnie's grandmother.
"They are not in the correct spot. This is the potions section." Her mother grimaced before hoarsely whispering, "Damnit."
Her mother pulled down the first book. She opened the book, finding an earmarked page near the back.
Minnie craned her neck to see what her mother was reading. A single sentence had been highlighted.
-Samantha felt oddly alone, for a moment, even in a room full of people.-
Without hesitation her mother pulled down and opened The Scars We Leave Behind, frantically flipping to another earmarked page, the sound of the book like a thousand running footsteps.
-Samantha had faced death enough times in her life that this moment wasn't as scary as she'd thought it would be.-
Her mother handed both books to Minnie before grabbing The Flight of The Vulture. As she grabbed the book, a thin opening slid aside as the one before had, to a dank and long dungeon like hallway.
There was a sentence still highlighted inside the book.
-But at what cost my Little Lion?-
A paper fell out of the book as her mother began to close it. Her mother's hands shook intensely as she looked down to it.
Minnie knelt down to look at the folded paper. It was an old Daily Prophet copy of her mother's article about the Battle of Hogwarts. Minnie flipped it over and recognized Crawford's handwriting.
Let's have a little chat and I'll give you what you want.
-LC
Her mother handed the book to Minnie taking the note. Her voice didn't tremble as she said, "Stupid Crawford with his stupid, stupid, stupid dramatics."
Minnie supposed her mother could have inspired less redundant words, being an author and all. Minnie put the books down so she could follow her mother.
Her mother went to step inside, but the door began to slide closed. She stepped back, making the door slide open again.
"Alone." Her mother groaned.
Her mother looked to the little dragon on her shoulder, "Duke, stay with Minnie. Watch out for her."
"Mum." Minnie whispered first as Duke refused.
"Please Duke." Her mother said making the dragon bow.
"Mum no." Minnie said louder making Harry and Selwin look over.
Duke flew to Minnie's shoulder as her mother stepped through the passage. It remained open until Minnie tried to step through behind her.
It closed immediately, leaving Minnie and Duke behind.
Minnie pounded her fists against the bookshelves, yelling at the top of her lungs, "Mum! Mum! Mum!"
Books began falling around Minnie. She could feel the pain in her wrists and palms.
Duke howled and cried at the top of his little lungs.
"Minnie." Harry grabbed Minnie around the waist, pulling her away from the shelf.
She kicked and screamed, wailing after her mother, "Mum!"
"Minnie, you need to calm down. Where's your mother?" Harry asked looking over the book shelf.
"He's going to kill her! Or worse!" All Minnie could think about was her mother walking around completely without a soul. "He said he'd give my dad back if she were alone."
Harry explained holding her back, "If we can manage to find a way to find her, we can get her back. He's obviously drawn her away from us, he's not down with his victims apparently. Your mum is trying to distract him."
"Are you sure?" Minnie begged as she stopped struggling against him.
"Of course." Harry said with an unconvincing nod. "Selwin."
"He has to have a way out." Selwin nodded, "One only he would know about."
Minnie felt Harry's arms leave her.
Duke was still crying by the bookshelf, howling like a wolf on his hind legs.
The trio began searching around the shelves, for any book out of place.
"Hey, isn't that one of Crawford's books? A Wizard's Ultimate History of Crime." Selwin cried from down an aisle.
"But this is the Muggle section." Minnie responded in confusion. She knew the book well. It wasn't ever in this section and it had always been on a reachable level. This book was on a top shelf on a seven tiered case.
"Potter, you don't think it's another one?" Selwin asked.
"I do." Harry said.
Harry climbed up the shelf with a nimbleness that impressed Minnie considering Harry's age. He pulled the book back causing one thin shelf above him to slide open. Minnie didn't see it open, but she could hear the wooshing sound.
Harry called down before propping the door open with his elbow. "It's where he has hidden the broomsticks and wands I think. There is a passageway behind them."
"Engorgio!" Harry pointed his wand at the passageway. "Damn!"
"What's the matter sir?" Selwin asked.
"It won't get bigger." Harry groaned.
Harry began grunting as he attempted to climb into it, "Damn my old bones."
"Not as compact anymore?" Selwin asked with an unprovoked laugh.
"Not nearly." Harry said as he began to carefully climb back down. "If it's his escape plan, it should lead directly to him."
"And to my mum." Minnie nodded curtly.
"You are fairly small Minnie." Harry suggested as he jumped back down, "You could probably crawl through there."
Minnie looked at herself. She wasn't small, especially after the breakfast she'd had, three eggs and a muffin. She wanted her mother back, so she wasn't going to argue, and if she could do it, she was going to try.
"I think I could manage." She blurted out nervously.
After handing her a watch and notepad, Harry knelt down entangling his hands for her to climb up. "Come on Minnie. Once you get there, send Duke back, write down every turn and how long it takes. Wait there. We will try and match it up with the other passageway."
"Ok Harry." Minnie put her foot into his hands, she pulled herself up easily.
She climbed to the shelf and pulled the book opening the passageway. She pulled herself inside.
It was stone and it smelled of mold. There were broomsticks lining the entrance and a pile of wands. She recognized her dad's.
"You heard me right?" He asked, "You wait there and don't engage."
"I heard you." Minnie called down as Duke flew up beside her. "Do you want these wands and brooms?"
"Yes." Harry responded as Minnie began handing them down. She was careful but fast.
"Now go get your mum, please Minnie, be safe." Harry begged now from below her.
The air was dank and the stones were cold as she crawled. She caught her sweater on a few more jagged stones.
Duke flew beside her, with just enough space for the both of them. If it weren't for her breathing or the beat of Duke's wings, everything would be easily silent. She occasionally scribbled down the time and the amount of turns she took.
After a while she swore the tunnel was going on for a lifetime. She wondered if this in itself was a red herring, was she to be doomed to crawl until her demise?
"Come now Fyre. I'm a reasonable man I reckon." Crawford's voice was unmistakable, deep accent and everything. He sounded like he was underwater.
Minnie crawled towards his voice a little more frantically.
"I just want my husband back." Her mother's voice greeted her as she rounded another bend. Her tone reminded Minnie of when her mother would bargain with Alice to do something. Minnie continued crawling towards the light. She came to the end where there was a large caged door with a gargantuan latch.
She stayed back so no one could see her, but close enough she could see them. They were in a large circular room with brightly lit lanterns on the walls. The walls weren't stone like the tunnel, but covered in bookshelves, like in Minnie's home.
Her mother and Crawford were circling each other. Her mother's cane discarded to the other side of the room. She had her wand at the ready, prepared to duel.
"Oh that's right. That fellow in your room was your dear old sweetheart." Crawford's voice was much deeper now. "Such a shame you married such an ugly fellow."
"He isn't dead right?" Her mother asked, her face fire red.
"Never imagined you'd be a real Buckhead Becky. Always reckoned on your own you'd be a woman married to her career."
Minnie's mum practically hissed as she uttered, "Is my husband alive?"
"I didn't make him suffer." Crawford said making Minnie's stomach lurch.
Her dad was dead. Minnie wanted to scream and cry. Duke wrapped himself around her face, preventing her from crying.
There was a flash of red and a scream while her mother attempted to attacked Crawford. They fought with flashes of colors, neither really getting a good hit.
Minnie took her notepad and wrote a message to Harry. She handed it to Duke, who seemed unwilling to leave upon sight of his mistress.
"Duke." Minnie whispered before patting his head, "I'll take care of her."
Duke took the letter into his mouth before flying down the pipe. Minnie watched him as the flashes of reds and greens outlined the little dragon.
"Poor little Sammy Fyre." Crawford mocked as they reached a break in the fight, "All the power in the world, and you were a slave to it."
Her mother taunted back, tears flowing from her eyes, "Come on Crawford, you didn't do all this just to mock me."
He rubbed his chin. "The Dementors do pay well of course, always have. They want revenge but so do I of course, you could say it's a win/win situation for me."
"Why get revenge now?" Her mother lifted her chin.
"Circumstance, and honestly, I've had to get in line, everyone's tried to kill you." Crawford laughed, "You make plenty of enemies don't you?"
"I bet Cuffe never made this many enemies." Her mother said in a snarky tone normally reserved for Alice.
"I'm shocked you didn't prepare better, you knew I was at the Prophet."
Her mother rolled her eyes, "Of course I've known you've been using that ridiculous alias. Warlock Glass, get serious Crawford, Voldemort was better at hiding his anagrams."
"Not to mention your dear sweet friend Mrs. Potter shares your undying detest for me." Lark chuckled. "On the other hand, Mr. Weaving had no idea we even knew each other, I'm surprised you never ratted me out Fyre."
Minnie hadn't considered that her Godmother could have been in danger.
"I never thought you'd be capable of this." Her mother said with a crack in her voice.
"You should have, because although you trained Blythe well, but he is possibly more naive than even you were Fyre." Lark exclaimed. "You can't write the stuff he handed to me. He gave me your daughter and a way into the castle, all on a silver platter."
"Stay away from my daughter."
Lark cackled like boiling oil.
"I mean it Crawford, if you so much as come within a few feet of my daughter-" She tilted her head, her face lit with a red twinge.
"Oh Fyre." Lark clicked his tongue. "Do you really think I'd hurt a pretty little thing like her? You can ask her, I didn't hurt her."
"I just know you have a penchant for enchanting young women into your bed." Her mother said with a growl.
"Still holding a grudge? I thought at first that I wouldn't need to work so hard." He chuckled again. "But you were a tougher nut to crack than most. Could normally use an enchantment to get a woman to do whatever I wanted, I figured I could ride you out, right to the bank. Maybe I'd marry you and when you decided your career was over because we had a rugrat, you could make me your replacement. I'd have had enough power to get the Dementors back in their rightful place and no one would have known the wiser. Never did figure out how you broke my enchantment."
"That's my business I think." Her mother rolled her eyes.
"Whatever, I shouldn't have underestimated your ability to ruin my plans." He began circling her mother. "I suppose this is your feeble attempt now?"
Her mother said nothing else. She nonverbally began dueling Crawford, with him parrying her every strike.
Spells flew past.
With every crack and whiz Minnie hoped her mother could hold her strength.
Her mother was doing her best, almost in the way of an intricate dance. Crawford followed well, matching her every step.
Minnie's breathe hinged as she watched her mother's wand fly from her hand.
"Crucio." Crawford called, pointing his long wand at her.
The moment passed like a whip as her mother began writhing upon the floor.
Crawford was hurting her mother.
She couldn't just let him hurt her.
Minnie needed to stop him.
She couldn't think of a spell. None that would be powerful enough.
The sound of the grate opening was shrill as she threw herself down onto Crawford's back.
Her wrist felt hot as she hit him.
Crawford's muffled surprise hit like her sharp elbow against his shoulder.
He smelled like sweat and aftershave. She tried to keep her grip upon him.
Her wrist was becoming numb.
He muttered something.
Her mother yelled her name.
She kicked against him and pulled her wand to his neck.
Everything became blurry as her head felt a sharp crack.
The world was yellow, then green, then black.
Then there was nothing.
Minnie's eyes fluttered open as she heard her mother release the same shrill cry. She writhed again like a bubbling potion upon the floor.
She was crying and screaming, her mother's eyes looking into Minnie's with the life slowly burning out of them.
Minnie gathered what little strength she had and peeled herself from the floor. She grabbed her mother's wand from beside her and yelled, "Stupefy!"
The force of her own spell caused her to fall backwards.
It felt like she was underwater.
Everything around her was rippling like the waves in the pond at her gran's.
A silver stag stood above her, bowing its head majestically. Beside the stag stood a lion.
She couldn't remember casting a Patronus.
Maybe she was dead.
She didn't feel dead.
Her wrist still hurt and the smell of the damp stone floor felt too real.
Maybe the animals were there to lead her to whatever lay beyond?
Would she see her dad in the beyond, or had they saved him?
Would her mother be alright without her?
Would Alice be fine without her?
Would Cas remember her?
Would her friends mourn?
Would she be missed?
The lion lay down beside her. The beast rested its neck against her chest. She tried to lift her palm to pet the creature, but her wrist felt numb.
At least if she were dying, this was a fine final sight.
She allowed her eyes to shut.
Maybe her world was over.
Maybe the world was better without the ugly girl who didn't know what she wanted.