The Mystery of the Frozen Heart

1925

1 “So what’s the plan here, Nana?” Celestia and Nocturna were in the crummy flat’s kitchen, and the former was watching the latter brew some tea. It was the next morning, and everyone else was…well, somewhere else. Sleeping? Celestia had no idea and no intention of asking. The less she knew, the better – the safer for everyone involved. “You bust me out of MACUSA prison with a lot of fanfare, put a giant target on my back, and now we’re all fugitives from the law. How is that in any way helpful?” Even though she had slept rather well thanks to magical help, she felt knackered; her body was still recuperating from the injuries she’d suffered. She pulled up a chair and sat by the ratty kitchen table. It looked like it had been nailed together from driftwood.

Not that it mattered. She told herself to stop being such a snob. It was obnoxious and ungrateful. Old habits were hard to kick, though, especially if one was descendant from the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. That was some weight to lug around. Again, she told herself to quit whining, even if it was only inside her head. There was absolutely no reason to complain about who she was and the choices she’d made so far. Her life was her own and so were her decisions. No-one had forced her to be as she was or to choose as she had. She had done all of this by herself, and would not push the responsibility on anyone else, least of all her family.

“We were” – Nocturna handed her sister a mug of tea and settled down with one for herself – “well, advised to get you out of there.”

Celestia gave her a pointed look. “By your ally.”

A very small, but entirely passionate smile tugged at the corners of Nocturna’s expressive lips. Was there a twinkle in her eyes? There certainly was a flush of colour to her usually pale, freckled cheeks. Nocturna had always taken more after the Prewett side in the looks department than Celestia. It suited her. “Yes. By our ally.”

“Did he or she perchance tell you how to proceed? Because I’m rather convinced that we shall be caught in the very near future.”

Nocturna wiped a wayward strand of her carroty hair from her forehead and made a face. “Did you take notes from Alastair about how to use dramatic speech in everyday situations?” When Celestia just raised her eyebrows at that, Nocturna raised one hand in a typical hear-me-out gesture. “Look, I understand that all of this must be very confusing to you, now, and that you are sceptical. I promise that you’ll soon understand.”

Why had Nocturna felt the need to bring up Alastair right now? Celestia felt a nasty pang in her stomach, cradled her tea mug, and looked past her sister at nothing in particular. “His time is running out, Nana – Alley’s, I mean. His and his family’s – my family. I have to get going. I have to save them.”

“I really don’t understand why you’re so attached to those Fawleys. I get your attachment to Alastair, but you don’t know his parents and brothers and whatever all that well, do you? Not to mention that insipid minister, but I suppose he’s not closely related enough to your bunch to matter, anyway.”

Celestia made herself face Nocturna. “Divorces aren’t a taboo in our social circle, but they are rare. My marriage was political. There’s nothing wrong with that, but after a while, I realised that I had a choice: I could either do the right thing or risk everything and do what I actually wanted. The Fawleys supported me throughout the whole process. They didn’t judge. They didn’t oppose. They just accepted.” Her thoughts returned to her daughter. Her throat constricted, and she felt that hated, tell-tale tickle at the tip of her nose. For a moment, she closed her eyes. “How could I not be devoted to them? I jumped into the abyss, Nana, and now everything I still have is at risk. If I don’t succeed, they will die. That would be the end of me.” She sniffled, bit her tongue, shook her head. “I don’t think I could take losing them – losing him. It feels like he’s trapped at the other side of the universe, and I can only watch him slip away further and further, until he’s too far gone to be rescued.”

“You gambled, and now you feel that you might lose it all,” Nocturna said, and the warmth of her tone gave Celestia the guts to look up again. “But never think that the Fawleys are all you have left. Your family loves you, and even if they are too proud to admit that your happiness might outweigh the importance of their machinations, you still have me. I will never turn my back on you. I will never leave you.” She smiled. It crinkled the skin around her eyes. “You’re my little sister. I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Celestia said, mopping at her eyes with her right thumb, glad she wasn’t wearing any makeup. “We still need to find a solution to our predicament, though.”

“We do, and we will. You need to have faith.”

“That would be considerably easier if I knew more about what’s going on and what isn't.”

Nocturna’s smile turned impish. “All in good time, little sister.”

“Well, it is safer this way; I’ll not argue that. In fact-” Celestia interrupted herself as an idea came to mind. She stared at Nocturna, eyes wide. “What if I turn myself in?”

“What? We just got you out!”

“The MACUSA people don’t know I’m on your side. If you scramble my memories a little and then let me go, I can let myself get caught by them, have them question me, and then use their resources to get closer to my…I mean, our goal. The way Mister Graves, the chief security guy, was talking, I could tell that he and his friends know more than we do. We can use them, Nana.” She rested her elbows on the greasy table-top and leaned slightly forward. “It’s the best way to get them off your back, too.”

“I don’t know about this,” Nocturna said, her brows knitted together. “It sounds very risky.”

“You already have a man or woman in there. Let me go back and find out what I can. Two insiders are better than one. Besides, I really do believe it’s our best bet – maybe the only one.”

For a moment, neither said anything, but then, Nocturna nodded slowly. “All right. Let’s do it your way. But the moment things get risky, I’ll have our insider get you to safety. I’m not losing anyone else, least of all you.”

Celestia tried to give her a reassuring smile, but was fairly sure that the attempt failed. She’d never been too good at faking her feelings apart from smiling blandly at social functions; Nocturna would not be fooled, anyway. “You won’t. It’ll be fine. We’ll all be fine. If you want me to have faith in you, then you must show some in me.”

“I’ll try,” Nocturna said, smirking. “Fingers crossed, then.”

2 She apparated close to the MACUSA headquarters tottering, dishevelled, disoriented, and nauseous. Not being of the too foolish variety, she’d chosen a side-alley, so as to prevent a grand entrance in front of many Muggle eyes. Luckily, there wasn’t a single one in sight at the moment. Not a minute later – they must have set up an alarm in a perimeter around their HQ – a young woman apparated right in front of Celestia. She had straight, chin-length brown hair and a serious but pretty face, and she was wearing a no-nonsense grey suit and a long trench-coat.

“Celestia Prewett, you’re under arrest. Don’t resist,” the young woman said, grabbed Celestia by the arm, and started towing her along toward the building in question. Once they turned a corner unto whatever public square this was, there were tons of Muggles bustling about, but nobody even looked at them twice.

Why they couldn’t just apparate to the HQ’s front door and save themselves the legwork was a mystery to Celestia. Well, all right, she knew that Muggle eyes needed protection from everything magical, and that they must not see a witch appearing out of thin air right in front of them, but it was still silly. This whole song and dance felt less like it was protecting the wizarding community and more like it was shielding the Muggles.

“Please, you have to listen to me,” Celestia said through clenched teeth, because everything hurt: walking, talking, breathing, thinking. Getting crucioed by her own sister had not been particularly fun. Also, she couldn’t quite remember what Nocturna and whoever else had been present had told her, either. The spell was working, then – splendid. “They’re insane. They want to kill everyone.”

“Tell your lies to Mister Graves, but he won’t believe you, either,” the woman replied, all business and no sympathy. She got Celestia inside the building and took her down to the same little grey office that had been blown into pieces a little over twenty-four hours ago. “You Grindelwald supporters are all the same. You don’t care about anyone but yourselves.”

That was a bit rich, coming from one of these pompous, self-important people, but Celestia knew better than to antagonise strangers she needed as allies. Besides, she was way too busy not tripping over her sluggish feet as she let the woman drag her along. Little later, she was sitting in the same chair again as yesterday, waiting for the man in question to arrive, whilst the auror lady stood behind her. They were certainly on high alert, now, clearly more so than they’d been before the attack.

When Percival Graves marched into the room, serious as a heart-attack, he nodded curtly at the auror, said, “Goldstein,” and sat down opposite Celestia. He looked at her with an unreadable expression on his face. “Why did you have your friends come get you, causing unbelievable damage, and then just waltz right back up to our front door? That makes no sense.”

Her head was pounding sickly, her innards were roiling, and she felt like lying down and sleeping for an eternity. “I had no idea my sister was in town. I can’t tell you how she knew where I was, but the attack seemed too well-planned to have been spontaneous. My presence here was a coincidence, and besides: I came back because I refuse to work for those fanatics.” The auror lady – Goldstein – had cuffed her hands behind her back, so instead of motioning to herself, Celestia just looked down and then offered Graves a wry smile. “I told my sister the same thing I told you: I’m not political. I refuse to get involved. Her friends didn’t like that. She had to act quickly to convince them she’s still on their side.”

His dark eyebrows shot up. “Your own sister did this to you?”

Celestia broke off eye contact. “She said something about the greater good.”

“Grindelwald’s motto,” Goldstein piped up from behind Celestia. When Graves just looked at her in silence, she awkwardly added, “Sir.”

He focussed his attention on Celestia again. “So I’m supposed to believe that you were coincidentally rescued by a bunch of Grindelwald supporters, tortured by your own sister upon refusing to cooperate with them, and that you then voluntarily surrendered yourself?”

“I was gone. You had no idea where I went. I could be anywhere by now, looking for the frozen heart. If I’m on their side, why did I come back?”

“It begs the question, doesn’t it?” He looked at Goldstein again. “Go get your sister. We need the best in order to find out the truth.”

“But sir, you’ll be alone in here with her, and that’s against regulation-”

“Don’t quote regulations at me, Goldstein, and just do as you’re told. Go on.”

“Sir.”

Celestia heard Goldstein’s steps clanking away and saw her leave and shut the door from the corner of her eye. “You can use legilimency on me, as well; that’s what the lady’s sister is supposed to do, right? Look into my head, make sure I’m telling the truth? It’s not necessary to get an interrogator. I am telling the truth: I didn’t know Nocturna was here. I had no idea she planned to attack this place. I’ve never even met Gellert Grindelwald. All I want is to find the frozen heart and save the Fawleys.”

“We’ll see,” he said, eyeing her serenely. “Your mother’s family are famous for believing in wizard superiority, aren’t they?”

“I’m not responsible for what my family believes.”

He uttered a wry little chuckle. “Indeed, you’re not. So, what do you believe?”

“Mister Graves, are you giving me the opportunity to tell the truth before you have someone read my mind? That’s honourable.”

“I’m just curious,” he said, his voice calm and even somewhat friendly.

She told herself to stop projecting, already. Still, it was hard to shake the impression that he didn’t have a personal problem with her despite recent events. “I ask you to please keep in mind that my feelings are not to be judged, only my actions.” He briefly inclined his head in acknowledgement, and she nodded slowly. “All right. Well, the truth is that I often doubt the wisdom and necessity of the Statute of Secrecy.”

“Why? Because it’s inconvenient?”

There was no sense in lying, especially if they were going to use legilimency on her. Besides, admitting to an inconvenient truth would probably go a long way toward convincing these people that her desire to help them was genuine. “Yes, that, too, but to me, it’s a matter of principle above anything else: why should we hide? The Muggles would not do us the same courtesy. In fact, they haven't – not ever. How many of us had to pay the price for their hatred and intolerance and jealousy? How many of our children were consumed by obscurials for no reason other than the self-loathing that was beaten into them by those who did not even try to understand? Why should any of us bow to them? We’re better.”

“In what way?”

It was her turn to arch her eyebrows. “Every way. Compared to them, we’re all but divine, and we have to putter around in the shadows, hide our true natures, shield them from the terrible shock that are their own shortcomings? Keep from them fact that they are not the most powerful species on Earth? And for what? Who are we really protecting by keeping our heads down? Ourselves? Hardly. We’re protecting them. I don’t have much love for their kind, and I believe many of us feel angry at how we’re forced to mollycoddle them.”

If it hadn't been for the wretched Statute of Secrecy, the whole debacle that might very well end up being the death of the man she loved would never have happened in the first place.

Not taking his eyes off hers and not betraying anything but calmness, he said, “Forgive me if I’m mistaken, but you sound like every Grindelwald supporter I’ve ever met.”

“Have you met many, sir?”

The question made the corners of his mouth twitch ever so slightly. “I’ve met my share.”

“So what now? Do I end up in a dungeon? Do I get executed? I know you people still have the death penalty.”

A moment passed during which he didn’t react at all. At length, he slowly got up from his chair, circumvented the table, pointed his wand at her wrists, and disintegrated the cuffs. “I believe,” he said, as she looked up at him in confusion, “that all you did was what you thought was best for those you love. I can’t exactly fault you for family loyalty.”

“And your family are the wizards and witches of North America. I remember.” She rubbed at her sore wrists, still warily watching him.

“Make that all wizards and witches,” he said, smiled a little, and returned to his seat. “I have no desire to see you harmed, Celestia. I know that you’ve never done anything to endanger our world.”

“You do seem to possess an unusual amount of biographical information about me.”

“Occupational hazard. The point is, you’re not a traitor to the wizarding world. Your biggest fault may be your complacency up until now.”

She frowned slightly at him. “Complacency?”

“Yes. Most of your life, you’ve stayed out of politics, never getting involved in anything, never taking sides. Now, you have the perfect opportunity to change that, to make a difference. You can help your brothers and sisters the way you’ve never even imagined.”

How was she supposed to have any idea what to make of his words, of his demeanour, of his strange civility? This was probably just a ruse, just a manipulation tactic, but that wasn’t the vibe she was getting. He really seemed sympathetic. This was strange. Then again, it might be perfectly ordinary. Many people worked for governments and upheld laws they didn’t necessarily agree with. Besides, Celestia did have inside information, and killing with kindness was always a better tactic than using brunt force.

“What do you want me to do?”

The subtle smile returned. It was, she had to admit, a very attractive sight. “I want you to be my agent.”