A Stray Curl
Part 1: Samantha Fyre and The Grand Rescue
-September 3rd, 2004
Samantha Fyre had only ever taken three real breaks in the six years since she had dedicated her life to being the Editor-In-Chief of the Daily Prophet. The first was for a really bad case of Dragon Pox. The second was a for her Grandfather's funeral in America. The last was to attend the five year anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts, and even then, she spent the whole event writing about it.
Other than her minimal emergency breaks, she only officially left the office in her Creative Director, Fritz Weaving's hands once a year. Normally, it was when she attended the month long Annual Magical Publishing Editors and Contributors Convention. She had things in place for business to run smoothly, but her entire staff found themselves in utter confusion when she came striding out of her office on announcing to her assistant Gerta that she planned to leave for a month, effective as of that afternoon.
"Are you taking a holiday?" Her copy editor, Herbert Midgen asked as she stopped by his desk.
"Sort of." Samantha didn't want to reveal her true motives for her trip, but didn't want anyone thinking she wasn't dedicated as to her office, "I just realized I forgot about AMPECC." She lied, AMPECC wasn't for another two months.
"Was that, what that scream was about?" Rosalind Carter, her blonde and tall advertising manager asked as she handed Herbert a layout of the evening edition's advertisements for him to print.
Samantha held the paper up to the light and examined it, "Yes. Couldn't believe I had forgotten." She lied again and Gerta gave her an understanding look.
"It's a shock she doesn't forget more things." Gerta said putting her hands on Samantha's shoulders, making Samantha laugh, "I was sure it would eventually happen." The older witch with gray hair and a stout figure was one of Samantha's favorite people in the office, often acting as a grandmother to her.
"Yeah," Samantha said only sort of listening, she noticed a blotch on the edge of one of the ads, "There is a blotch in the corner of Column D. I don't want the copy and printing department doing more work than they have to, so fix that first."
Rosalind nodded before walking away with the layout, "I'll have it fixed immediately."
Herbert smiled, realizing his department was just spared extra work that day.
"Thanks Ros." Samantha called to her.
"It's a shame you aren't taking a holiday. Of all people who should be allowed to take the extended holiday pay you instated, it's you of course." Herbert shrugged.
"One of these days, I will take a real holiday. Today is not one of those days." Samantha rolled her eyes, she didn't have to use holiday pay, she was paid a handsome salary by the Ministry. She didn't feel like explaining that though.
"I have to go and see Fritz, is he in yet?" Samantha asked looking up to Fritz' empty office.
"Yeah, but he just left to grab coffee from the Leaky Cauldron." Herbert shrugged, "Should be back soon."
Samantha nodded. Coffee sounded good, she'd spilled her coffee upon reading her letter from the Minister of Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt. She finally had news of her brother, after over six years of searching, she knew he was alive.
Her brother, Jack, had been seduced during the war by Death Eater, Hilda Burke who had taken him away from their family. After Hilda's death at the Battle of Hogwarts, Jack had been missing. Samantha had only taken the very demanding position she had, in exchange for his safety if he were found. She would be allowed to find him and bring him home before the Auror's office did. The letter said he was seen in Arizona, at The Dragon Rehabilitation Ranch of America.
She looked below Fritz' office window to a small desk where a fidgety man had knocked over a small cup of pens beside his typewriter. It was Rolf Scamander, her recent hire as the Chief Consulting Magizoologist. "Hey Gerta do you mind alerting the other departments of my temporary departure and then see if you can get me a ticket for travel to Arizona."
"Your regular flight I assume?" Gerta asked.
"Of course, but don't worry about creature travel, I think I'll leave Artie this time." Samantha responded before walking over to Scamander's desk.
He nervously looked up before standing quickly, knocking the cup of pens back over. "Oh hello Miss Fyre." He looked down and fixed his pens, "What can I do for you today mam?"
"Scamander what do you know about The Dragon Rehabilitation Ranch of America?" Samantha burst out.
Scamander chuckled a little and fixed his tie, "Well, it's in the Petrified Forest National Park, they mostly work with infant dragons that have been abandoned or adult dragons who have been abused. Do you remember that Dragon Harry Potter rode out of Gringotts the day before the battle?"
Samantha nodded. During the war she helped run an illegal radio station giving news that the infiltrated Daily Prophet wasn't providing. Working for Potterwatch had been the hardest job of her life, working at the Daily Prophet's Editor-In-Chief was a breeze in comparison. She had been the one who had written the report on the escape.
"It now lives there." He smiled, "Poor thing, you could tell it had been abused, Gringotts tried to get it back, it was quite the scandal."
"Yes, I remember that scandal now. " Samantha said crossing her arms. She had helped write that story too, "I remember the dragon was secretly transferred by Charlie Weasley's team to America where Gringotts had no rights to it. I never thought to wonder where it resided now. You seem to know a lot about this ranch."
"I bloody should, my family owns it." He chuckled, "My second-cousin runs the place. Brilliant with dragons he is."
"Who's your cousin?" Samantha asked with a raised eyebrow. She wondered if his cousin was Kingsley's contact.
"Kai Jones." He said and suddenly Samantha could see the resemblance. She knew Kai Jones, or at least she had met him a few times. Her mind floated to the Battle of Hogwarts where he had stared his bright blue eyes into her's after she had taken count of the casualties. He could read minds, and she was sure he had heard every horrifying thought she'd had that day. Her hand began twitching at the memory. It always twitched when she remembered anything particularly horrifying from her past.
"The Legillement right? With the little dragon?" She asked pulling her shaking hands behind her back to hide them.
"Oh, you know my cousin?" He said, as his shoulders reached his ears. "That makes sense since you know the Weasleys pretty well."
"Yeah, I met him through the Weasleys during the war. I haven't seen him in years." She chuckled a little. Ginny Weasley, now Potter, had been her best friend since childhood. She had recently persuaded Ginny to come on as Sports Editor as she looked to retire from her professional Quidditch career after the birth of her son, James. On the other hand, Kai had worked with Charlie Weasley, the now famed Dragonologist and was pretty close with him.
"Did you want to have a story on the ranch or something?" Rolf asked tilting his head at her.
"No," Samantha tried to think of a lie, "AMPECC is in Arizona this year, and I was looking for something to do between conferences."
"Oh." Rolf said squinting his eyes, "It may not exactly be somewhere you would like very much. Miss Lovegood told me you have a fear of Dragons."
Samantha crossed her arms as they stopped shaking, "She said that?" Samantha had recently discovered her very good friend, Luna Lovegood held a small flame for Scamander. Luna was another school friend and one of the oddest people Samantha had ever known. She was an absolutely wonderful human being. She worried about Luna, that she could have her heart broken, or worse have someone who wished to squash her oddity.
"Yes, while we were in Albania last year with my Uncle Newt for training." Rolf said with a shrug, "Some of the first words out of her mouth when she saw the Welsh Green, was how confused she was that anyone could be scared of such majestic creatures. She really has such passion. She finds beauty in even the ugliest of beasts, like Thestrals, they are horrifying, but she finds them to be elegant. Sometimes the most beauty can be found in the oddest of places." The longer he continued about Luna, the more Samantha realized he was fully besotted.
"She's pretty amazing." Samantha nodded before patting Scamander on the back. "I'll keep your suggestion about the ranch in mind though."
She noticed Fritz enter the office and watched the lidded coffee cups whizz through the room and land upon several desks. He was a decently handsome man of about thirty with curly hair and short shoulders. He was originally appointed by Kingsley about five years ago after working for him at the Ministry. He had been very good over the years as her second in command. He had a less stringent attitude about his own personal schedule, but it was easy to look less stringent next to Samantha.
She went to greet her colleague and asked him to come with her to her office.
He sat down and Samantha nonverbally closed the door behind him with her wand.
"Am I in trouble?" He asked as she sipped her coffee.
"Of course not." Samantha chuckled. "I just don't want the whole office hearing. I'm leaving the office for a month at the longest. I'm leaving to pack as soon as Gerta brings me my travel information"
"Alright, bout bloody time you took a holiday Fyre." Fritz said with a large smile growing on his face.
Samantha wished she was. "It's not a holiday. If the office asks, I am gone to AMPECC."
"AMPECC isn't until November." Fritz sat back into his seat and crossed his legs.
"You and I both know that, but I'd prefer to keep what I'm doing private." Samantha said rubbing her neck and taking off her hat, she looked down at Kingsley's letter.
Fritz nodded, "Your brother?"
Everyone and their bloody aunt knew what had happened with her brother. All thanks to a world famous article she had written about the Battle of Hogwarts. She had written it in the heat of the moment, when she thought her life was going to end. After the battle, Kingsley had her finish it and take count of the dead. It was then sent it off to every paper in the magical community. It was the first and most accurate depiction of the battle and Voldemort's defeat. She had detailed her brother's whole story and the death of his seducer, regrettably, at Samantha's own hand. He'd been searched for, for years.
Samantha gave a small honest nod, "No one is to know Fritz. I am asking as your boss and as your friend." This was a task Samantha felt she needed to do alone. She didn't want anyone else being troubled with his return. She also knew too many Aurors who may judge her decision to try and give him safe passage home. Two of her best friends' husbands were in The Auror department for goodness sake.
Her parents also weren't as young as they once were, and she wanted them to finally have some peace regarding the child they had been searching seven years for. She also knew her muggle father could be in the most danger, and she knew he would insist on coming along.
"No one?" Fritz asked, "You and I both know there is only one person we will have to worry about if you are keeping secrets. I can convince the office, your friend, Mr. Jordan may be a harder sell. "
Lee Jordan was a radio personality with his own show on the Wizarding Wireless Network and he was the appointed contact for the Prophet. She and Lee had a very long history at Hogwarts. It had started romantically, but eventually morphed into a business partnership during the war. Potterwatch had been primarily Lee's idea and after the war they stayed in close professional contact. She was his stepson's Godmother and she suspected that the honor would be repeated for his child on the way. He had hinted at it enough times.
"You especially can't tell him." Samantha shook her head aggressively. "Not with his wife being so close to her due date. He needs to be here, not on some adventure with me." She looked down to her right hand, an old scar still visible saying: I Will Not Rebel. She had received the scar defending Lee and they shared similar scars.
"He will know you aren't at AMPECC." Fritz reminded. "We both know he will figure it out."
Samantha sat, stumped for a moment. She looked up at the curl that had fallen from her hat. "You know how to brew Polyjuice?"
His eyes bugged out of his head as she proposed her solution.