(So I meant to make this clear with the first chapter but completely forgot to. This story is something of a cathartic process for me, as I'm using it to write through some of my own demons and past experiences in here. Please pay attention to the top section now, as I will post warnings of possible triggers here. This chapter is fairly light with it, but there is a slight kidnapping trigger here, so please keep that in mind.)

Chapter 2: Grounding

Once the children were finished feasting and taken out to their House Towers by the Prefects, the Professors also began to retire for the night. As the time difference was finally starting to settle in her bones, Professor McKinney found herself blinking frequently to stay awake as Hagrid went through the grounds of the castle and where the rooms were located on a map.

"And this here would be your room in the Castle, just down the hall from Headmistress McGonagall's room and -" Hagrid paused as he saw her suppressed a yawn. "Ah, it is getting late I guess. I can take you on a tour of the grounds when you have a break in your classes. Are you gonna be alright?" he asked, leaning forward to be certain she wasn't about to fall off her chair.

"Oh, yes! I'm sorry Hagrid, I swear I'm not being rude." she jolted in her seat as she blinked widely again, desperate to stay awake.

"No no no, you had a busy day of traveling. I get ahead of myself sometimes; or at least that's what Headmistress tells me." he said with a dry chuckle. "Come on, I'll take you to the hallway I mentioned, it'll be easier that way. I'll try not to ramble too much along the way." he finished with a gentle pat to the table top and stood up.

As Lindsey followed along in tow to Hagrid, her mind began wandering as he carried on with a small tour of most of the mechanics of the castle. Foggy in her tired state, her mind repeated the earlier part of the day as her feet carried her automatically now.


"Right, the background check is done now; though we knew it would clear you. Security lately has been almost at a paranoid level within the higher ranks of the Ministry." Percy sighed as he finished up the necessary documents and gave them to another officer.

Just as the officer left the room, Harry and Ron stepped in and smiled at Percy and Lindsey.

"Ah, perfect timing, that." Harry extended his arms to Lindsey and quickly embraced her, receiving her signature beaming smile as gratitude.

"It's been too long, Harry. Thank you for taking care of everything at this end, the MACUSA greatly appreciates this cooperation." Lindsey said and began slipping back into her pea coat.

"Of course, this operation is vital to the entire world; not just the Wizarding World. And you are the key player in all this, now." while he had tried to manage a sympathetic smile, he found it difficult to keep that going and placed a hand to her shoulder. "Though, that's not something to celebrate; as we both know."

"No, you're right..." Lindsey trailed off a moment before meeting Harry's gaze once more. "Uhm, but, anyways - The kids make the train alright?" she switched, now wrapping her scarf round her neck, starting to walk from the room with Ron.

Following beside her, Harry nodded. "Yes, though now we'll have to find you a different ride. I had a feeling getting the Floo Networks setup for both you and Professor Wulfgard would take up a majority of the day's work, though. So let's see if our backup plans are set to go now." he then pointed down another corridor.


Unfortunately, Lindsey came crashing back to reality as Hagrid had stopped to open the doorway for the Professors' living quarters.

"Oh Gods! I'm so sorry Hagrid!" she blurted out and retracted her arms to her chest in embarrassment.

Chuckling at the sight, since he had barely nudged forward from her bump anyway, he waved it off. "No need to worry, I can take far harder hits than that." and teasingly winked at her with another set of chuckles.

Relieved, Lindsey chuckled as well and this time paid attention to the route to her room. Adorned on her door was the Ilvermorny Pukwudgie crest, bringing a soft smile and nostalgic expression to her face. Hagrid beamed a proud smile in return; as it was his idea to adorn the door with the crest. As she opened the door, she was greeted by a black flash of a body and fell back with a loud grunt.

"Kerberos! Shush!" she commanded, instantly getting the muscled, black Staffordshire Terrier to sit down and silence his whines; tail wagging wildly still.

With a chuckling huff, Lindsey slowly got back to her feet, dusting herself off before rubbing her dog's large head affectionately. Hagrid smiled and nodded to her, walking up to the dog and also giving him an oversized head pat.

"I can see you're in good hands now, I'll leave you be. Good night Professor, and I hope your stay here isn't as wild as this pup is." and then the towering half-giant began to walk away for his own residence.

As Lindsey shut the door for her room, she looked around and found her two cats had already taken ownership of the bed and were sleeping soundly. The room was vast for just one body to take it up; there was an upper loft that looked out onto the Forbidden Forest with a small kitchen inlet against the left wall. There was another door across from the kitchen, presumably to her own personal bathroom. And below the loft in its own cozy nook was a large wooden post bed with dark navy blue and black sheets.

As she took her coat off, she flicked her left hand towards her luggage; levitating the coat towards it as it open and produced a standing coat rack just in time to meet the coat. Books also began to float forth from the other trunk and line the partly empty book shelves. A large desk at the corner of the room moved effortlessly against the far left wall, and documents and maps now floated up against the wall to be taped down. As her clothes began to be sorted into dressers, and her pets' food dishes moved up to the kitchen inlet, the complex map on the wall was finally finished with a final picture added in the middle of it all.

Rubbing her right shoulder with a wince, she walked to the ornate chair of the desk and stared at the picture with hardened eyes. The man in the picture had a slender jaw line and pale skin. The sides of his head were shaved with a swept back look on the top of his head in platinum blond locks. His eyes, though, were an unusual sight; one a light grey and the other a deep brown color. While the other pictures surrounding the picture moved, his was stationary and unenchanted. Below the man's picture was the name Gellert Grindelwald.

Almost steeling herself to the man's gaze, she flicked her wrist again and summoned a large tapestry of the Ravenclaw banner over the documents. Even with the picture covered, she still stared at the same spot on the wall before finally moving towards the bed. Before her rump hit the mattress, the bigger of the two cats picked his head up with a very soft mewing noise, followed by a great yawn and stretch.

"Oh, sorry baby. Didn't mean to wake you up." she cooed to the light grey tabby, who began rubbing his head up against her arm and then her hand as she offered it to him. "I'm glad you aren't sick from the Floo ride, though. That was everyone's big concern." the loud, rumbling purrs sounding through the large cat seemed to prove that he was feeling fine, however.

As she began untying her high tops, Kerberos trotted over to her and sat beside her, giving quite the forlorn look. Once one shoe was off, she looked over at him, his floppy ears perked forward on top of his head at her gaze.

"Yes? Can I help you?" she asked, and received a soft whine and his one completely white paw on top of her knee.

Studying the dog for a moment more, it clicked in her mind what he was trying to convey and she snapped her fingers.

"Oh, I'm sorry bud; you musta been bored all night long. Here-" and snapped her fingers again, opening one of the trunks again.

This time, a large dog bed appeared as well as several hollowed out bones and one very large, black rubber ball. As soon as Kerberos saw his bed floating in the air, he hopped over and began jumping at it in the air, playfully growling and nipping just under it; tail at hyper speed now.

"Ey, no biting your bed." Lindsey commanded and moved her hand in a gentle sweeping motion; a soft white fog surrounding the dog to gently keep him in place while his bed found it's spot at the foot of Lindsey's.

And with that, he was freed and ran over to his bed and rubbed his face along the interior of it, then sat down proudly and looked at his owner quite satisfied.

Giving a snort of a giggle, she returns to taking the other shoe off and sighs once both feet are freed and lays back on the bed with a groan. Looking up at the smooth stone above her bed, she began to run through plans in her mind of what she was tasked to do while teaching at Hogwarts. While she absolutely had been trying to teach abroad at her sister school, she also had a secondary task assigned to her while here.

He might not go directly for Hogwarts, first. Especially since Dumbledore has passed on. she mused, wriggling her way further up on the bed until her head was rested on one of the pillows. If anything, he might try to infiltrate Durmstrang first to get that grudge sorted out and try to find sympathizers there. I'll have to send out Reno to see if Viktor has turned up anything there. His last report was about two months ago, should be enough time between to see if he found anything new yet. A drawn out yawn interrupted her thoughts as her vision began to blur slightly from exhaustion.

Gently slipping her glasses off her face, she found a carved out spot in the wall that seemed to act as a bedside table to place them on. As she settled underneath the plush sheets of the bed, the lights of the room slowly dimmed and were extinguished just as her two cats found comfort on either side of Lindsey. Gentle purrs from them helped her relax enough in this new room to find herself sleeping quickly; though peaceful was not guaranteed.

While most of the students and faculty probably dreamed of splendors and of their future aspirations, Lindsey seemed doomed to repeat her past behind closed eyes. Most events more so than others, which was true for tonight's playing of events.


Remembering the cold of the floor and wall, the dull pain in her head accompanied with the burning in her right shoulder and mid back. Her arms heavy and held up in chains beside her head. Through labored breathing, she opened her eyes and tried to focus through her pain to see a figure walking towards her. Her breath hitched with every step he took until he was a foot from her, and then kneeled down and studied her.

"Quite amazing." his voice was soft and gentle, almost coddling her, even. "They greatly misuse your talents, pet." as he drew closer, her hands clenched to steel herself firmly against the wall. "There haven't been many people that I consider equal; but you most definitely are. The strength of your spells for someone so young is undoubtedly impressive. I know that you enjoy shining brightly against others; that praise and admiration are your ultimate goals." as his face was before her own, mismatched eyes staring right through her, she found her last bit of strength.

Inhaling sharply and quickly, she exhaled in a shriek with a small gust of wind to push his face back; though it wasn't strong enough to knock him back fully. The pain in her shoulder ripped through her nerves and made her body contort to flee from it, while he looked on with a knowing smirk.

"You know the magic sound to make it stop, pet." he whispered over her groaning and whimpering; smiling fully as tears began to stream down her face. "Go on now..." and just like that, she let out a scream and cried fully; and then her pain stopped.

Slumping against the now slick with sweat wall, her energy gone just as much as her voice was. Her vision wavered momentarily, then watched as his hand gently reached for her cheek. So soft, so tender was his touch that it barely took anything to move her to face him. He stroked her face with a loving smile, his thumb brushing away her tears as he spoke.

"That's it, that's all you had to do to make the pain stop. I'm sorry pet, you know how I do love to see you cry. But your scream is far better." he slowly dropped his hand from her face and moved up to her shackled hand.

As he touched her fingers, he brought his lips to them and planted a light kiss atop them and then stepped away.

"Well, that's the second month without a straight answer now. We'll try again tomorrow to see if you've changed your mind." as he opened the door across the room, he lingered while looking at Lindsey.

With a final smirk at his captive, he walked through the doorway and closed the door behind him.


The sound of the door slamming jolted Lindsey from her sleep, grabbing at the air and forming fists with her breath caught in her throat. Looking around the room that was painted in very soft, early morning rays of light, she relaxed as she heard another door somewhere down the hallway close as well. Grounding herself, she finally remembered where she was, and where she no longer was as well.

Taking in deep breaths, she held her head in her hands and began laughing in futile despair. Tears falling onto the bed sheets as her face was twisted by too many different emotions, she continued to ground herself in reality. I'm not there anymore. she told herself, her tears slowly subsiding as her face relaxed. I'm... Not his anymore. her hands ran through her hair gently, cupping the very back of her head as her body finally let go of its anxiety and relaxed. Finally, she looked over towards the tapestry on the wall, and felt her nerves harden and her mind find its purpose again. Bringing her hands together, she rubbed a ring on her left hand and felt stronger still, finally moving to step out of bed to get ready for the day.