Find yourself
By Claus Holm
Disclaimer: I own nothing that is even remotely connected to Harry Potter's universe. I merely own the story, and the original characters within it.
As this story takes place several years after "Harry potter and the Deathly Hallows", the reader needs only know that there was another war with the dark forces 5 years later.
When
you find yourself
In some far off place
And it causes you to
rethink some things
You start to sense that slowly
You're
becoming someone else
And then you find yourself
-Brad Paisley
Malcolm Goodwin, affectionately known as "Mal" by his friends, put down the bag he had held in his hand, and looked out over the beach on which he had landed. He breathed deeply of the good air of the Mediterranean, feeling the salt on his lips.
He had arrived on Crete via port key, the fastest and most comfortable way to travel far – especially when over water. Apparition was somewhat unreliable over jumps between countries and across oceans – and there was no way he would fly his broom all the way down here. His ass would have gotten a permanent indentation from the handle.
The beach stretched out on both sides of him, and far in the distance, he could see a small village. He figured he could find a local bus to take him to Heraklion, where the magical consulate was located.
Mal waved his hand in front of his face. It was early morning, but it was already getting hot. He pulled off his robe, and slung it over his arm. Then he hitched up the bag, adjusted the broomstick that was tied to it, and began walking in the sand towards the village.
It had been one of those accidents you can never prepare for.
Mal and his partner, Tom Rockwell, had been investigating reports of a dark wizard causing trouble in Cambridge, apparently trying to make his own little order made of college students. He would promise them great grades, for only the sacrifice of a small bit of their blood – which he then used to make them his willing slaves.
Mal and Tom had managed to trace the wizard to his home, which unfortunately was on the Cambridge High Street. The duel in the house had been so loud and with so much collateral damage, that the house had been reduced to rubble, and 83 muggles had to be treated by the Obliviator cleanup squad.
Tom managed to elude punishment, since technically he had been unconscious at the time of the house explosion – it had been Mal's reducto-blasting charm that had blown the wizard clear through the wall and into the street, catching 2 cars, a bicycle and a kindergarten teacher with 5 kids in tow before he hit the ground.
Malcolm Goodwin, Auror for less than 2 years, was then summoned to the ministry of magic to explain this extraordinary breach of the magical secrecy act. Mal tried, but ultimately failed.
The result was as could be expected. As he had technically been doing his job and taken care of the threat, he escaped demotion – but was instead reassigned.
"Crete?" he had asked, looking at the minister, "but – I didn't even know we had a presence there. How many aurors are assigned to Crete?"
The minister smiled a thin smile and handed him the transfer papers. "Just the one. Good luck, Mr. Goodwin."
Heraklion was a chaos of a city, even worse than London. It mostly reminded Mal of when he had visited Cairo with Weaz a couple of years back when his friend had been on a dig by the pyramids. The streets seemed all to be one way, there were far too many cars for the available space, and the smell of petrol was heavy on the air. Mal, who was used to London's smells and traffic, could not help but feel slightly at home, as he moved through the city from the bus station and towards the address he had on his transfer papers. He sighed. London! Who knew when he would be able to return to England. The first tour of duty was assigned for 2 years, but it had been implied that this could turn into a very long-time position indeed – his predecessor, whom he was now going to relieve, had been here for 38 years.
Mal checked the address one more time, and consulted his small map he had bought before leaving London. He then crossed the large square, passed the museum of Minoan art, and headed into the narrow streets where only pedestrians could fit in.
After a long, hot walk he found the address in a small, dark alley. The door was blue and looked slightly worn down, and when Mal opened the door and stepped into a blessedly cool stairwell his feet made marks in the dust on the floor.
He climbed the steps, and found a door ajar, leading into a small office. Behind a desk sat a man with a long white beard, his feet propped up on the table. He appeared to be snoozing, his beard moving slightly when he breathed. His robe, which was green and white, looked like it was made from rough fabric, and he was wearing a small, black hat of the same sort Mal had seen many older Greeks wear.
Mal cleared his throat and knocked on the desktop. The man jerked, and made a resounding grunt.
"Who's there?" he mumbled, and slowly drew a wand from his robes folds. Mal sighed deeply, hoping his reflexes would never be that slow.
"Mr. Fidelius? I'm Malcolm Goodwin. I believe you've received word of my relieving you?"
Fidelius rubbed his eyes with the hand not holding the wand.
"Truly yes, my young friend…imagine that I was relieved…after so many years! How is England?"
A cold shiver ran up Mal's spine. "You've…not been back for all the years you've been here?"
"No, Mr. Goodwin, of course not. There has to be an auror on the island at all times, and I could not very well leave without a replacement, could I?"
"I…suppose not."
"But now, I'm going to go back and see it all again. Tell me…has anything happened while I was stationed here?"
Mal considered for a moment telling the man about the three wars with Voldemort and how he himself had been part of the third one up close, but then bit his tongue. Better to let the guy find out on his own.
"Nothing much…everything is pretty much as always."
"Have the ministry set you up with a place to stay, Mr. Goodwin?" Fidelius was going through his desk drawers and digging out personal effects that he collected in a big canvas bag.
"Not really, no…I expected to stay at the consulate while I was looking for one but…" Mal glanced around the room, "I don't see any place I would fit in."
"You can take over my house" Fidelius said, closing the bag after stuffing a framed icon into it. The office now looked positively empty. "It's up in the mountains, very small town. You'll like it, I'm sure."
"Well, thank you Mr. Fidelius…" Mal began.
"Of course, it might not be so clean anymore…see, I haven't gone up there for a few years…I just stayed here, where I was needed!"
"Needed in what sense?"
"You always have to prepare for that moment when you're called into action, Mr. Goodwin. Didn't they teach you that in Auror school?"
"Yes, they did. And how often have you been called…into action?"
Fidelius patted him on the shoulder.
"There are different kinds of action, lad. Now – if you'll Apparate alongside me, I'll take you up to the house."
They appeared on a small rocky path, leading in a slanting curve up to a house on the top of a hill. The house was made of stone, built in the old Cretan style, and only had one floor. Fidelius went up the path humming, while Mal followed, dragging his bag.
"I've pretty much cleared this out already", Fidelius said, "I brought all my personal effects to the office a few years back. I never really…felt so comfortable up here. Preferred the city."
He brought out a key and opened the door to the house. Inside, it was even dustier than the office they had just left. Mal swung his wand and said "lumos". The wand tip lit up the room, which consisted of a table, a bed, 2 chairs, a bookshelf and a cabinet with glass doors. The kitchen was small and off to the side, and the only other door led to the smallest bathroom Mal had ever seen.
Fidelius handed him the key.
"There you are! I hope you'll be very happy on this island, Mr. Goodwin – it's a marvellous place, once you get to know it. Did you know, for instance, that the palace of Knossos was actually built by an ancient order of wizards?"
"Um…no."
"Well, how else do you think they managed to put such an elaborate construction together? Muggles just doesn't think that way. Besides, you would think the picture of 3 wizards levitating a bull and the woman with the twin snake wands would have been a clue…"
"I never was big on European history, Sir."
"Well, you will be soon. Over there in the bookshelf are a few good books on the island. Study them well – you'll be better prepared that way."
Fidelius shook his hand.
"And now, I should go – I'll catch the 6 o'clock ferry to the mainland! And I have so many goodbyes to make first." He smiled. "Take good care of my island, Mr. Goodwin!"
"I will, Sir." Mal said, his voice carefully polite.
Fidelius swung his wand and Apparated away. Mal said down on the bed, and looked the room over. He pulled out his wand and pointed it at the bedclothes.
"Scourgify!" he muttered, and the dust vanished from the sheets and pillows, leaving it clean and white.
"At least I can clean easier than the muggles!" he said to himself, and began the cleaning.
Later in the day, as he had finished the cleaning of the house, and had unpacked his bag to the few shelves and drawers he had to choose from, Mal decided to head into the town and look around. He also needed to purchase some food and basic essentials. He had never been good at this, as he had grown up with a mother and 2 house elves taking care of such mundane things as making sure there was clean underwear, a new toothbrush or a fully stocked pantry. When he had moved to London while attending the Auror training program, and had lived in Intern Alley, he had Diagon Alley latterly at his doorstep, and as his dorm room had no kitchen, he never cooked, but ate all his meals at one of the restaurants. Now, he had a feeling things were going to be a bit different in his life.
The village was not big, but it wasn't as tiny as some he had driven through on the way to Heraklion. The streets were not paved, but were packed dirt – and the dust hung in the air for minutes after a car had passed by. Mal's boots made a soft crunching noise as he walked down the main street and headed for what he assumed was the grocery store in the centre of town.
In the houses he passed, he could see people look up and follow his walk with their gaze. It was very hot still, and most people were in the shade, sitting or lying and apparently having siesta. Mal felt glad he had taken off his long robe, and opted for a more mundane muggle attire of black pants and a white button up shirt. His wand, which he always kept in a special spring device inside his sleeve, sat on his right wrist.
When he reached the store, which turned out to be a combination of a small pub or restaurant(a taverna, he thought to himself, I think they call it a taverna here) and a store, he entered cautiously.
6 men sat around a table by the counter, playing what looked like backgammon. Mal felt in his pocket for his wallet with muggle money. He had visited the Gringott's bank before he left London, exchanging a large sum of money into the currency of Euros that he was informed was the currency on Crete – indeed, in most of Europe except England. He had found it a bit weird that England had their own currency – but then again, he still had problems doing conversions between pounds and galleons. Better to have the goblins do it for him…and since he had no idea about when he would be able to get more, better safe than sorry.
"Excuse me…" Mal said, clearing his throat, "I'm new in town. I just moved into the little house up on the hill…pleased to meet you." He looked at the man behind the counter in particular, but let his eyes sweep over all the men.
All of them looked up from their game, looked at him in a way that said that they were merely politely acknowledging his presence, and then they returned to their game. The man behind the counter was more jovial.
"Welcome!" he said in a thick accent, "I am Niko, and this is my taverna. Would you like to sit down and have a glass of ouzo on the house? As a small welcoming present?"
"Thank you…don't mind if I do." Mal said. "My name is Malcolm Goodwin. And it would be very nice with something cold to drink – it's quite warm outside."
Niko smiled. "This? No – not hot at all. Wait till end of July. Then, you will feel real heat."
He poured a reddish liquid into a small shot glass, and put in front of Mal.
"Yiamas, Mister Goodwin."
"Call me Mal", Mal said, and picked the glass up and raised it to his lips. He had downed the content in one gulp before the taste actually filled his mouth.
Mal had drunk firewhiskey, he had tried his fathers vintage cognac, and he had developed a taste for red wine in his older years. But this was beyond any of those things – and not in a positive way. Only his willpower kept him from spitting the drink out onto the table again. His eyes watered and his face turned red as the swallowed again and again, trying to clear his mouth of the taste.
The sound of laughter filled the room, as Niko and the 6 men all looked at him, eyes squinting in laughter.
"I am sorry, Mal…" Niko said, his eyes watering, "it is town custom…consider it a test of manhood of sorts…"
He pointed to the bottle of Ouzo in his hand. "This bottle 80 years old. We only give out one glass at the time…just to see if you can handle the Greek drinks." He put the bottle down and poured another glass from another bottle, as well as a glass of water. "Here. I must say, I am impressed. Not every day I see someone who no spit it out."
Mal took the water thankfully. "It…wasn't all that bad…" he said, his voice having acquired a strange hoarse quality.
Niko laughed again, and said something in greek to the other men. They laughed with him.
"I was actually looking to buy some food and drinks…maybe even toilet paper and such?" Mal said.
Niko nodded. "Sure…you go find what you need and bring up here."
Mal went into the back of the store, hiding behind the shelves before he coughed into his hand soundlessly until he finally had gotten the taste completely away.
It was early evening before Mal returned to his house, walking from the village up the hill. He could smell the flowers in the early summer air, the smell of the trees and the ocean mingling into a sweet scent. He took a deep breath in the twilight, filling his lungs.
He had spent several hours in Niko's, joining the backgammon game and even beating 2 of the older men. Only Niko spoke more than a few words of English, so he had acted as an interpreter. The village was outside the normal tourist routes on the island, so the inhabitants had not felt the need to learn a lot of foreign languages. Mal had found out that the village, Ay Galini, was on the south coast and mostly consisted of local farmers and fishermen. A few, like Niko, had interests on the north coast, where he owned a restaurant in Rethymnon. "But I prefer it here!", he had told Mal and gestured towards the countryside off his porch, "who would want to leave something so beautiful, no? Besides, my wife and our family is here."
Mal had nodded – it was a very pretty landscape, but he had felt a longing towards London at that moment. He had always been close to his own family, especially his sister Catherine – and now they seemed far away, almost unreachable.
He had found the companionship of Niko and the other men more pleasant than he would ever have thought. In a strange way, it felt like a lot of the stress he had felt in his job in London – the urgency, the need to protect the population against a threat that could come at any minute – was gone here. On Crete, he had found, the attitude was kindness and patience. None of the men had been bothered by his language problems, and he had not even felt annoyed himself, when he failed to make himself understood, or when he lost a game. It just felt…like he had relaxed a muscle he didn't know was tense.
Mal walked to his front door, turned around and looked out over the village in the twilight. It looked so beautiful that he almost gasped – the little lights all over the mountain, the shape of the houses against the darker shape of the ocean. He again breathed in, but this time let it out with a small sigh.
"Maybe…I'll like it here after all". He spoke, almost but now quite to himself.
He went inside and shut the door.
When
you make new friends in a brand new town
And you start to think
about settlin' down
The things that would have been lost on you
Are now clear as a bell
And you find yourself
Yeah that's
when you find yourself
-Brad Paisley
Mal was sitting on Niko's porch, a glass of Ouzo in his hand and an empty plate in front of him.
"I really should stop eating here, you know" he said to Niko, who came down to clear the remains of his meal. "I'm probably gaining weight from it, and I really should practice my cooking. Then one day, I might actually invite YOU over for dinner."
Niko laughed. "First of all, the diet of Crete is the most healthy in the whole world. Why do you think we all live to such a ripe old age? And secondly, I like having you here, Mal. So does Diona, by the way."
Diona, Niko's wife, had taken a liking to Mal at once, and had set about teaching him to speak Greek. In the last 4 months, she had been tutoring him a couple of times a week.
"And last, but not least" Niko said, wiping the table and lifting Mal's glass, "I think we all remember what happened when you tried to make bacon and eggs that first Sunday?"
Mal grimaced. He was lucky he hadn't burned his house down, and there had been a unpleasant smell around his house for days afterwards. It had been the source of much amusement in the village.
On the street, Dareios passed by and lifted his hand in a wave to Mal and Niko. Today he was on foot, but he was one of the people in the village who travelled up north for work. He owned a large car that he prized above all else, and Mal and he had gotten to know each other in the most unflattering of all positions for a car owner: In the ditch.
Mal had been walking down for his breakfast when he had come across Dereios cursing and trying to push his car out of the deep ditch next to the road. Mal had offered to help him, and had put his shoulder to the car's back when Dareos had asked "Have you not brought magic stick?"
That had shocked Mal, who for a moment thought he had said or done something to break the secrecy act again. Seeing his face Dereos explained quickly that Fidelius had been known by the entire village as a wizard, and that they all had assumed Mal had been the same way when he moved into his house.
Mal had swallowed, but then nodded and told Dareos that he indeed was a wizard. He flicked his wrist and the wand shot into his hand from the spring on his wrist. He waved it in the air and spoke a spell – and the car slowly lifted itself into the air and glided back on the road.
Dareos had been most grateful, and bought him round after round that night in the Taverna, and Mal felt like he had gained a friend. Indeed, he felt he had gained several in the time he had been here.
It felt like he had spent an eternity here already, and yet the time seemed to stand still. He didn't have a set schedule, he had nobody to report to, and he always had time to help someone who needed a magical helping hand, play a game of backgammon or checkers, or sit in the shade with a cold drink or a sandwich and talk to a pretty young girl. The village's children and teens had English in school, and found the communication easier than their parents, although Mal had found it amazing how far you got with sign language. The children liked him as well, and several of the girls in the late teens had attracted his eye – although he still felt enough of an outsider that he hadn't asked them on actual dates yet.
Mal, who had always resented country life in Nottingham where he grew up, and always longed towards the city, now felt the simple joy of watching the fields grow, smelling the grass or the trees and walking home in the evening and hearing the sea hitting the shore far beneath him.
Niko refilled his glass. He was humming, and Mal smiled that it was "Rule Britannia", which he himself enjoyed humming when working. He had rubbed off on Niko as much as he had on him. For one thing, his English had gotten better.
Mal dug into his pocket and pulled out the only important thing he had brought from the office in Heraklion: The assignment list. At first, he had Apparated in there every morning, sitting in the small office and sweltered while he tried to hit a dart board on the wall with levitating thumbtacks. But soon, the heat and the smog in the city had begun to get to him. For some reason, even though he had loved the smell of the city in London, and indeed had felt like the petrol smell was the only thing that was homely, he could not stand it now. Finally, he had simply put a catterwailing spell on the door, so that he would hear it if anyone entered the office – and he could then Apparate in there. Until then, he saw little reason why he could not run his office out of his house, or more often, Niko's porch.
He thumbed through the list, and made little checkmarks by all the things he had already done.
"Examine the Venitian harbour in Chania for mermaids..check. Must be an old list, there's far too many people for mermaids to come in there."
"Make sure no vampires or inferi are in the cemetery in Rethymnon…check."
"Patrol Knossos and Phaistos…check for this week. And good thing too, I'm tired of the tourists."
"Check on the cursed objects in the Heraklion museum…check."
"Patrol Labyrinth…"
He looked up. "Niko, I thought the Labyrinth was Knossos – did I miss something?"
Niko sat down across from him, and poured himself a glass from his bottle, and clinked it against his "Yamas…well, the Labyrinth sort of is the palace at Knossos. But there's also a labyrinth in a quarry in Messara. The Germans used it during World War 2, and they bombed it when they left Some say that was the original one from the myths."
"You mean…where the Minotaur was kept?"
Noko laughed. "Relax, Mal – if so, it has been dead for many, many years."
Mal
nodded. "If so…then why do I need to patrol it?"
When he went back to his house to pick up his cloak – he barely ever apparated anymore, going up and down the hill was a pleasure for him – his thoughts kept returning to the Minotaur. If it had been there, it was in the days of ancient Greece, and should have been dead long ago, that was true. But there were Minotaurs, and he didn't know how they bred. He suddenly wished he had paid a bit more attention in magical creatures class in school.
He opened his door, and walked to his dresser, pulling his cloak around him, when suddenly he felt the air grow thick and cold around him – a sign that someone was arriving by port key. He turned around and blinked when a figure appeared with a pop and a flash of light, holding on to a typical ministry port key – an old shoe. The figure straightened up and looked at him with stern eyes. "So this is where you've been hiding out?"
Mal swallowed.
"Amy?"
Amy Hardbottle put her hands on her hips and looked at him, her eyes taking a quick tour around the room.
Mal's mind was full of wonder. He and Amy had dated for over a year in school – their first real relationship for both of them. Mal had actually begun to believe that they would be one of those couples that stayed together after graduation, but in their 6th year she had broken it off, claiming she could not be emotionally involved with someone who risked his life in the way Mal did. She had been upset about his part in the Death Eater plot to bring back Voldemort, even though his secret correspondence with Rudolphus Lestrange under a false name had given him and the rest of his friends some of the clues they had needed to unravel the plot. When she had found out that he had gotten involved with the Knights of Walpurgis in the 6th year, and was planning to go against the ministry's new oppressive regime, she had cornered him one day, and laid things out for him: They could only be together if he would cease trying to be a hero all the time. He had looked at her, shaking his head.
"Amy, I am a hero, or at least I suppose what I do is heroic in some way. This is who I am, and I can't just change that. "
"Then I guess this is over" was the answer she gave him. She turned around, tears in her eyes and walked away slowly – the kind of walk you walk when you want to be stopped. But he could not stop her, he could not change himself for anyone.
At least he had thought so back then.
"So, you're transferred for breaking the international rights of secrecy, you leave England for parts unknown, and then – you drop off the face of the world. What's that all about?"
He smiled at her, his old winning smile. "Well, it's not like you and I have spoken a lot in the last couple of years, Amy. In fact, I don't think I've seen you since graduation."
"True. But you haven't written to anyone except your parents and your sister – and they're keeping the letters to themselves. And since I was going to be in the neighbourhood anyway, I decided to check up on you…well, actually, Gwen and Weaz told me to."
"You were in the neighbourhood? What possible business could you have on Crete?"
Mal suddenly felt angry, like he used to feel if his mother had decided to come in and clean his room while he was out playing in the yard.
"Actually, I was checking up on a trial against 2 ottoman wizards in 1593, and needed the original records held in Rethymnon. I'm a barrister now."
"Well – I'll be happy to give you access to those", Mal said, "but right now, I'm actually kind of late for an important assignment."
"Oh, really? What?"
"If you must know, I'm setting out for the Labyrinth to patrol it."
Amy's eyes widened. "Really? I've always wanted to see it! Do they still keep a Minotaur there?"
"I don't know, but I doubt it", Mal said, his voice trying to be dismissive. He felt strangely hostile towards Amy – more hostile than would normally be required by confrontation with someone you had slept with previously. It felt like she was somehow violating the peace he had felt for the last couple of months.
"Well...since I'm here now…and I'll need your authorization to get those court transcripts out, do you think I could go with you and see it for myself?"
Amy's face was actually hopeful. Mal leaned on the table and sighed.
"Why did you come here, Amy? Seriously? There must have been some easier way for you to get transcripts than to go all the way here."
Amy looked at her feet for a moment, and then brushed her hair out of her eyes. Mal could se that she was trying to phrase her words the best way she could.
"I…well, your friends were worried about you. And I talked to some of them, and…then I got concerned, Mal. I wanted to come and see you and make sure you were all right. Is that enough of an answer for you?"
He smiled. Knowing Amy as well as he did, he knew she was not adept at expressing her feelings. When she said she was concerned it meant she had actually been worried for a while.
"Okay. Come along, take my arm, I'll apparate us there."
They appeared on a rocky hill close to the water. Mal had consulted his map, so he wasn't teleporting blind – apparating into an unfamiliar area could be a bit risky.
The rocks were white limestone, and they stretched up in a rugged landscape. There was no sign of houses anywhere near them, and Mal kept his wand out.
About 50 meters up the slope was a large collection of boulders and rocks piled in front of what could still be recognized as a cave opening.
"Is that it?" Amy asked, "why is it covered in rocks?"
"Because it was used as an armoury during the muggle world war. The soldiers blew it up when they left it. But it doesn't matter, we're not going in that way."
He pointed to a path leading up the hillside.
"According to my plans here, there should be a small entrance up here, mostly used by spelunkers and the like. We'll go that way. I hope that clothes can take a little dirt?"
"Well…I didn't exactly plan on a cave exploration, if that's what you mean, but anything that a cleaning charm can take out is fine."
"Great. Come on."
Mal led the way up the path and they found the small entrance easily enough. Mal moved a couple of the rocks with his wand, so the hole was a bit bigger and sat down in a crouch.
"I'll slide down first. Then I'll get the lay of the land and I can catch you if there's a drop."
Amy started saying something, but he had already begun his sliding descent. He pushed himself forward feet first, and in less than 30 seconds he felt the hole end and his feet hit the ground.
Waving his wand, he said "lumos" The tip glowed brightly, and lit up a long corridor carved in the rock. The air was cool and slightly clammy, with a smell of dirt and mud.
"I'm down, and it's ok. You can come on down."
A few moments later, Amy appeared. She got to her feet quickly, but Mal could not help but notice her figure under her robes as she had been on her back. She had changed quite a bit from the 16 year old girl he had dated.
He held out his hand but she got to her feet by herself. He looked around, and in the light of his wand her eyes shone with curiosity.
"The real Labyrinth!" she said with awe in her voice, "When I was a girl, my dad would read me stories of this. Did you ever read about Theseus and the Minotaur?"
"Only briefly. Enough to know I didn't want to meet it."
"Well, they supposedly sent a group of people in here very year to feed the Minotaur, and they would walk around the corridors until they ran into it – and it would eat them. But Theseus got a ball of yarn from princess Ariadne who had fallen in love with him, so he could use it to find his way out."
"Why did she give him that? Wasn't it the royals who threw people in here?"
"Because….she was in love with him."
Amy suddenly looked away into the darkness. "well – should we patrol the place?"
"I suppose so. I wonder if we can find out way back, though. I haven't got a map."
Amy pulled out her own wand. "Pyrrhocoris", she said, and gave the wand a little twisting flick.
A small glowing light appeared at her wandtip, and drifted to the floor, where it lay still, glowing brightly."
"Firebug spell. My friend Phoebe invented it, because she always gets lost. We'll just follow theese little guys back to the opening."
Mal grinned. "Good spell – you should teach me that one. Let's go. I'll light the way, and you light the bugs!"
They moved into a larger chamber, the ceiling above them vanishing in darkness. Their footsteps in the soft earth gave no sounds, but small squeaks, rustling and flapping sounds led Mal to believe there were probably bats somewhere over them.
He moved the wand around, trying to take in as much as he could. It was a sad sight, as most of the walls had been damaged by the explosion 50 years ago. But when he walked close to one of the walls, he could see writings on them. Looking closer, he saw they were names…a multitude of names, tretching into the cave.
"Wow…look at this, Amy…1957…1848…1791…people have been coming here forever!"
"And they signed their names on the wall, like a guestbook", Amy nodded.
"I wonder if this is why they want me to patrol it. To make sure nothing happens to the signatures, I mean. Maybe there are some famous wizard's names in here."
"Maybe…" Amy agreed.
"Let's find out. Come on!"
Mal led the way deeper into the cave, while Amy put down firebugs every time they turned a corner or changed corridors. It was a good thing, as the cave apparently hadn't earned its name for nothing. There seemed to be endless numbers of corridors, stretching away into the mountain. Everywhere was the rubble, the smell of wet earth…but sometimes some other, more unpleasent smell seemed to linger. Mal could not identify it, but it made him hold his wand firmly and keep his eyes open.
Then, on a wall by a corner, he saw a name on the wall that made his heart skip a beat.
"Amy…look!"
Written in what was obvoiusly a wand tip producing fire, stood the words:
Merlinus Ambrosius AD 583
"I…I don't believe it…" Mal whispered. "Merlin himself…stood right here and signed the wall!"
Amy didn't answer.
"Look at it!" mal exclaimed, "I wish I had one of those muggle camera things so I could take a picture of this home – this is incredible!"
"Mal…" Amy said behind him.
"Yeah, I know…I suppose we could cut the wall out and take it, but…"
"Mal…"
"What?" he turned around and looked at her, light from the wand falling on her face.
She was pointing at the ground at his feet. "Look…"
He looked down. At his feet were the marks of cloven hoofs, pressed into the floor. They were about 3 times as big as his own feet, and from the depth of the imprint, he would guess the creature to weigh in around 400 kilos.
He swallowed and looked up again.
"It's…", he began.
And then the horned shadow that fell over her from behind made his tongue stick to the top of his mouth like glue.
When
we go through life
So sure of where we're headin'
And we wind
up lost and it's
The best thing that could have happened
'Cause
sometimes when you lose your way it's really just as well
Because
you find yourself
Yeah that's when you find yourself
-Brad Paisley
"Let's get out of here before it finds us!" Amy said, her voice low.
"I think that's too late, unfortunately." Mal kept his voice just as low, "it's standing about 6 meters behind you."
Amy's eyes were full of terror, as she slowly turned around and looked over her shoulder.
The Minotaur was huge. Its head seemed hover just under the corridor's ceiling. Its horns were about half a meter long, and looked to have points sharp as razors. Its large muscular frame was that of a giant man, but the head was the furry head of a bull, and it's feet were a peculiar cross between human feet and hooves. It had a golden ring in its muzzle, and wore a loincloth around its waist. The eyes were red, glowing embers.
Amy made a small frightened sound.
"Are Minotaurs intelligent?" Mal asked, still keeping his voice in soothing tones.
"I…I don't remember."
"Well you're the one who aced magical creatures class, don't you remember anything?"
"I did my paper on niflers! I never read about…"
The Minotaur made a rumbling sound in its chest and took a step forward.
"Amy – on the count of three, you run to the left and try to get past it. Keep running, no matter what. Run towards the exit, follow your firebugs."
"What?? What are you going to do in the mean time?"
"Distract it."
"With what?" her voice was now getting a bit of the edge he had fallen in love with so many years ago, the one that didn't take crap from anyone, not even Mal Goodwin.
"Don't worry", he said, and suddenly smiled, "I've got a plan!"
He felt the exhilaration rush through him, the same feeling he had felt when duelling death eaters in his classroom years ago.
"You know why I was sent here to this island, Amy?"
She nodded, then shook her head, a little confused. "What…do you mean?"
"I found out how destructive a blasting charm is when used in a confined space. And our horned friend here is about to find out the exact same thing!"
He lifted his wand in an almost casual movement and got to his feet.
"One…ready, Two…set…THREE!"
Amy moved the left, and the Minotaur turned his head, following her and stepping forward to grab her.
Mal pointed his wand to the ceiling over the Minotaur. "REDUCTO!!"
A blast of energy leaped from his wand, hitting the already unstable rock over the Minotaurs head. With a rumbling and a crashing, the ceiling collapsed onto the two pointed horns, driving the giant to its knees.
Amy feinted and jumped right past the shoulder of the creature, and then was lost in the dust that filled the tunnel. Rocks kept falling down, blocking the corridor off completely, and burying the Minotaur under them. Mal didn't wait to find out if the Minotaur could handle a few tons of rocks, he turned around and ran.
Mal told himself that he was lucky to have a wand with a never ending supply of light. Had he been carrying a muggle flashlight, he would have to worry about it burning out. As it was now, he only needed to worry about starving to death, or being eaten by the Minotaur if it had survived the cave-in.
The corridors all looked alike, and he had no idea how he could get back to the part of the Labyrinth they had already covered. He hadn't seen a single firebug so far, and without them he realized it was next to impossible to find his way back to Amy and the opening.
At least he was sure she had gotten out. She had been well past the falling rocks when they started falling, and she was a good runner. Without the monster at her tail, she could get out easily enough – and then she could send someone to find him. Of course…then they had to actually find him.
While he walked the dark corridors, he suddenly thought of something Amy had said earlier.
"She gave him a ball of yarn…to find his way out of the Labyrinth…because she was in love with him…."
He had no yarn, but…
He swung his wand. "Inanimatus conjurus!" he said, and in his hand appeared a small ball of string.
He held onto the end of the string, and pointed the wand at the ball.
"Oppognu Amy!" he said, and the ball of string flew from his hand and into the darkness, trailing a thread behind it.
With a bit of luck, the string would fly out of the Labyrinth and reach Amy. Even though the spell actually ordered the string to attack her, he doubted she would feel threatened by a small bit of string – and that she would understand what it was.
He began walking faster, holding his wand in one hand, and his hand curled around the string with the other.
When he finally stuck his head out through the opening, night had fallen on the countryside.
Amy sat close to the opening, holding the string in her hand. Her eyes looked like she had been crying, and as soon as she saw him emerge, she jumped to her feet and ran to help him up.
"Mal…oh thank Merlin you're alive!"
"I don't think Merlin had much to do with it. He's the reason we got in trouble in the first place. No, it's thanks to you – telling me that story about Theseus and what's-her-name."
"Ariadne."
"Right. And I thought if a ball of yarn worked back then, maybe it would do so again. Are you okay?"
Amy surprised him a bit by suddenly locking her arms around him in an embrace so tight he had to hold his breath.
"Wow…it's okay, I'm alive and well…no harm done to either of us by the monster."
"Mal…I was so worried about you when you were in there, and when I saw that string, I just thought…"
"What?"
"Well…I thought you might have caught on to what I said earlier."
"I did. That's why I cam up with it."
Amy sighed.
"Oh, men! You can be so infuriating sometimes."
"It's a gift…but what are you talking about?"
"Mal – I cam here to the island to tell you I can get you out of your contract here. I've been going over the case and I've compared it with some other sentences that created precedence. Actually, you should be able to go home to England within the week! I'll probably be able to get your job back, if you want it."
Mal looked at her, dumbstruck. "How…how could you find that out?"
"I worked on it for about 5 months, every day after work."
"Why…why would you do that, Amy? I haven't seen you for years, and then you show up like this…?"
"Why do you think?"
Suddenly, her eyes were very large and very dark. Mal still had her arms around his neck, and now he found his own had crept around her waist.
She raised her head, and he lowered his. The sound their lips made as they met was drowned out by the sound of a flock of bats that exited the cave and flew into the night sky.
When
you meet the one
That you've been waitin' for
And she's
everything that you want and more
You look at her and you finally
start to live for some one else
And then you find yourself
That's
when you find yourself
-Brad Paisley
"Good morning sleepyhead."
Amy opened her eyes and blinked at the clear sunshine that came through the window.
She sat up, realised that she was naked under the blanket, and held it in place with one hand.
From the kitchen, Mal stuck his head out and grinned at her. He was wearing a bathrobe and his hair looked as tussled as always – but this time she supposed it was natural instead of the carefully casual look he always created.
She inhaled and smelled bacon and eggs, coffee and tomatoes.
"You made breakfast?"
"I did. Second time I've tried, actually. The first time, well…it's a local legend. If you get up, we'll see if it's edible."
She reached for her robe which lay tossed over a chair.
"I must admit, I didn't come down here do declare my love for you in just that fashion, Mal."
"Any fashion is a good fashion." Mal sat down at the table and poured orange juice from a large pitcher. "Here – try the juice. Cretan oranges are the best in the whole world."
Amy sat down after throwing her robe loosely over herself. She sipped the juice and smiled. "Very impressive!"
"They're actually from a farm here in the village. Stefanos got me a crate…he's one of my friends here, he's the barber."
"You've really gotten to know people, mal. That's so strange. I would never have expected Mal Goodwin of Slytherin house to live in a hut like this and press his own oranges."
Mal smiled, and took a mouthful of bread.
"You know, neither have I. But I'm glad it happened. I thought about it while you were asleep, and…I don't think I want you to get me out. Maybe just make sure there's another Auror assigned to the island so I can go back home and visit people without leaving the island alone. That way, I can still go home, I can have great adventures with all of my friends…and I can come home here afterwards, eat at Niko's and take a walk on the beach."
Amy's jaw dropped.
"You're serious, aren't you?"
"As serious as you've ever seen me."
She nodded. "Well…I think that could be arranged without too much trouble."
"Thanks. I really feel like I came home to the home I didn't knew I had when I came here, and to be quite frank I don't want to leave it again. Once you spend a few days here, you'll understand what I mean."
Amy smiled a coy smile. "A few days? Aren't' you taking things a bit too fast? Who says I want to stay?"
Mal smiled. "Unless you've changed a whole lot more than you let on, you're not the kind of girl that jumps into bed with any handsome wizard just because he flashes his wand. I think you've been thinking about this for a while."
Amy bit her lip, unable to answer. Her cheeks blushed.
"But you know what?" Mal continued as if he hadn't noticed, "I am glad that you did. Because if there is one girl I ever thought was the one that got away, one I regretted it being over with…it's you. So…would you consider staying? Maybe be my Ariadne?"
Amy smiled. "Ariadne was already married, and Theseus left her and found someone else."
Mal coughed. "OK, bad example then. But…would you?"
Amy leaned over the table and kissed him, tasting the orange juice in his mouth and her own. The taste of Crete.
"I would."