So Far Away
Chapter 3
Scotland
Hogwarts
Poppy Pomfrey was by no meter an old woman compared to the current Transfiguration Professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She was, however, and old friend of the two and one of the few who knew the basic facts about the relationship between the Hogwarts Transfiguration Professor and Headmaster.
She liked to thing herself a good judge of character and a person with a good head on her shoulders. Many thought she was a Hufflepuff, when in actuality; she was a Ravenclaw while in school. Her motherly attitude for a few patients with her healing touch brought out a Hufflepuffiness in her. Her mother was a badger's child while her father a mentor of sorts in the raven's line as was she.
But both of her parents knew from the beginning that she was born to be a healer from the beginning. Though she had an odd fascination with her Astrology class while in school from the first time she had stepped into the room that had been certified as an astrological wonder room.
Anyways, she had always found herself a good judge of a person, and got odd hints from before she even found out that the Headmaster and Minerva had in fact been married for years. Despite her love for the stars and the fortellings they might hold, divination was not one of her better subjects. She was in fact horribly worse then most were because of her grandfather's old nightmares and a memory that she had Obliviated years back.
So, she could never have really thought of witnessing the taller married couple literally running to the Hogwarts medical area. A brief thought came that just maybe the flu was out. But she ignored because, well, both Albus and Minerva were running at her with these incredibly happy-yet-odd, on their faces in public, smiles.
She leaned against the door, quietly contemplating what was going on in the 2.4 second it took for her eyes to land on the couple two feet from her. The horrible man with the lemon drop addiction was nearly jumping like a first year with too much pepper-up potion and the twinkling blue eyes that seemed to unnerve everyone were at record levels. In fact, they almost look silver.
Minerva's hair was out of the traditional bun and in fact almost messy.
Okay, now she was getting suspicious. And curious. Can't forget curiosity.
"Minerva, Albus, so good to see you, and why may I ask are you grinning like happy new parents."
Minerva blinked, and the healer's eyes mentally widened at the thought of them being new parents. But again, they were disregarded when she remembered that, in fact, they had had four children together and her colleagues would not be new to parenting whether they had children or not, considering their jobs.
The globe in Dumbles's hands jumped out of his hands and she showed it to her almost as a child would a new favored toy or pet or even a small butterfly, and she had to stand up straight, though she wasn't all that tall, especially comparing to her two colleagues in front of her.
"We found 'em! We found 'em!" Albus was chanting aloud, and she couldn't help but, yet again, to compare him to a child. He did after all, have the mentality and thoughts of one.
"What?" She asked, clearly confused to what he was talking about.
"Well, short version, I'm older then you'd think, and this globe was directed to locate any with our blood, but has remained dull, until now. So this means one of our grandchildren, erg, do you think it's a great grandchild!" She was almost bouncing up and down now to and Poppy Pomfrey had to keep herself from getting the twitchy hips of the traditional Ravenclaws. She hated not being in the loop, and now she was just getting confused. Her-a Ravenclaw.
But, then again, this was after all the Headmaster and the woman that had agreed to marry him and pass on his genes, so perhaps her fellow house mates would forgive her…
They were still standing there jumping a moment later, and then they both started talking to her!
"I used to-" -Albus
"-We haven't sent-" -Minerva
"-Do you think he-" -Albus
"-maybe the kids is a girl though-" -Minerva
"-Can you-" -Albus
"-If you-" -Minerva
"-Help us around to finding-" -Albus
"-know it will be of a help-" -Minerva
"QUIET!" She yelled aloud making her elders both shut up and still in less than a breath. When she saw this, she glared. In a moment of realization, Minerva tucked her hair back in the pin as quickly and thriftily as she could to make her look presentable.
Unfortunately for Minerva's appearance, her husband was still acting as giddy as a school child with a new video game or maybe a new puppy... Poppy decided to ignore those scary thoughts and pushed them over to the sides of her mind that were rarely inhabited.
"Okay, Minnie, what the heck is going on!" Poppy made sure to demand these answers as topiss offand assure Minerva of her seriousness,"Why is Albus acting like someone changed the Lemon Drop flavors-"
"Why would someone change my lemon drops? They're perfectly fine the way they are." You could hear Albus ask that if you were listening, but Poppy had the patience of a Ravenclaw at a new gadgetty puzzle-and as this was some kind of puzzle under her very nose- Poppy Pomfry's curiosity was making her itchy to knowknowknow!
"Minerva! Now." She said firmly, allowing the Transfiguration professor of Hogwarts take the explanation floor as the obviously out-of-place headmaster that would fit right in at the St. Mungo's Insane ward flitted right on. A right teeny attention span he had. "Explain."
"We found a person of our blood, mine plus Albus's. The glow lit up, I got pulled through the floo, and here we are." Poppy didn't bother to question why Minerva was talking so…blasé-important.
Poppy rolled her eyes though and replied awkwardly, "You came through a floo to come here?"
"Not directly." The old man replied behind the women's backs. He was promptly ignored.
"Poppy-we found one!" Minerva then shouted and stomped her foot on the floor in front of her like a Ravenclaw know-it-all proving a point well earned. Poppy stared.
This was going to be a long day. She sighed, rubbed her hand, and trued dealing with her colleagues that had, for some as of yet unknown reason, gone premature and illogical. Well, Minerva at least. She wasn't sure that ALbus Dumbledore had ever grown up.
Over twenty minutes later, after she got a calming draught down into the usually mild-mannered Transfiguration professor and the bouncy ex-Transfiguration-Professor-turned-Headmaster, well, the man was still bouncing from foot to foot and McGonagall had an odd smile on her face.
After all, she may call herself an old friend of the two, but she was only thirty-six, give or take a few years. But she wasn't old and would honestly have no real estimate on the fact of whether or not the two had ever acted like that, twenty-four-seven.
The nurse, Carina Samson, moved up and down the usual walls on the daily routine that she had gotten used to for a while. When she got to the last door, she entered to find a bed. An empty bed. This of course, was unusual. As the young girl usually in the bed had been out cold for a while. As in, years, a long while.
The nurse never really questioned why there were still presents that showed up, and yet, no visitors. There hadn't been for years according to her fellow gossiping nurses. They had all died out. As she hadn't been to Sunnydale for more then two weeks when the girl first came up in the gossip, she had actually questioned the length of time she had been at the hospital and sleeping. The years just didn't add up of course.
Apparently, the girl had been a 17-year old girl who had been expelled from high school just hours before falling into a coma. Why, no one knew. How, no one bothered looking after all of these years. It was their job to feed them and make sure nothing was wrong while being pleasant. The girl's first doctor had died over eighteen years ago for Christ's-sake. But eventually she got used to it too. No one questioned the regularly odd things that went on in the small town that wasn't as sleepy as neighboring towns would think.
Mortality rates had spiked and fluctuated regularly and was always almost 'proud' of the fact. Though it bothered her, she had dealt and was still here two years later with plenty of memories to file through on a rainy day and then 'misplace' as the town liked to say.
Back to the empty bed; it was EMPTY. She walked over, took a look around the room, and her eyes caught what was odd. The room looked the same, save for one thing. The bed was empty. She sighed and went over and pressed the 'Alert' button on the bed to request assistance as she headed back to the station. It was a weird town and the metaphorical 'WARNING' button in her head had greatly heightened its level bar of when to be pushed. So she ignored the odd feeling in her insides that said something odd about the town.
Where am I?
She was running now, that was all, she didn't know what she was doing or where she was but she was running away from the white dark place that smelled bad. Her back ached and her skin felt clammy. Her eyes hurt and her ears burned from disuse. Though why she'd have them and not use them was a mystery to her.
Were they new?
No, her mind told her that it was impossible and another whispered magic while yet another voice, one she found herself pushing away from told her that it was her that had done it. But she lost the train of thought again whatever much of it was still there wondered what was her fault.
Her feet hurt. She was in white-why was she in white? The clingy material stuck to her skin and her toes were numb as they stepped on wet mud. It was dark where she was and she suddenly stopped. Her eyes were closed now. Her breath almost non existent. She wouldn't really know why it still captured her until she regained a little sense back.
The moon showed, blood full in the town of Sunnydale, California like it did once before so long ago when she killed her love. The part that was still sane inside of her said something about a wolf-man changing; man becomes wolf not on a blood moon.
The bright shining chunk of rock lighting the sky passed her up and let the huntress hide. Her muscles flexed, the brave new light seeming to rejuvenate her and as her skin returned to the tanned sun-kissed skin she was famous for, and only few of her kind seemed to come by.
Her parched skin killed with filmy hospital medication returned with a new vigor. She didn't need food yet, and didn't for herself, but her muscled had moved and she had detected why she was running from the caging place of whiteness.
Her arms crossed over her flat stomach and she couldn't remember really. Her mind was too far gone currently to search. But she needed some place safe to recuperate and protect herself from the outside.
And then it hit her; the stench of rotting flesh.
They had finally gotten it out of their mouths what was going on. Oddly enough, it required a complex series of totally simple healing spells to find whoever was connected by the end of the bolt inside.
And Poppy Pomfrey, the Healing witch for Hogwarts, was almost exhausted by the ordeal of trying to piece together the pieces. Her being a Ravenclaw showed that she had the conscious thought for it, and was satisfied, though getting sleepy.
A plan formed and then they were ready to set off. Of course, things being the way they were, and a war on the loose, something had to happen. The doors to the hospital wing opened and, sadly, admitted in Professor Trelawney. The seer had been working here for only a year before. Here in her second year, many had switched to or from the class. It seemed completely easy, but totally bogus in Minerva's POV. The elderly witch fought a sneer that became a frown and a glare when she saw who it was and wondered again why she was ever hired before remembering that no one else had applied to the job. The woman gave her the heebie jeebies and the glasses made her look like a bug, though the cat in her was totally disgusted and fought the instincts to eat her.
Though if she ever found out if her Animagus form was really a bug, perhaps a grasshopper, she'd be happy to play with her. Dissection of bugs was not usually one of her most favored hobbies, but she'd make an exception.
There was a gash on her arm and she was running up to them.
"Oh, Poppy-don't leave! I had a little accident and I knew I had to run if I was to catch you. The sock transportation went back in a pocket slowly as the giddy man in the room eyed the woman with polite loathing. Much to the students' ideas, he did not want to hire anyone like her, though he wondered if she did have any little power in her chosen career to begin with. His lip twitched as he saw his wife's face.
The doors opened yet again to admit a familiar student by the name of Remus John Lupin. Unlike the ugly tard in front of them, Minerva thought, at least the boy showed a bit of talent for Divination, though she abhorred the subject.
He came in and nodded in acknowledgement as he noticed the odd behavior, though he didn't show it.
"Now young Lupin, what are you here to talk to the good madam?" His eyes were shining as if on a joke that only he could know the whole thing to. Which, in actuality, might have been. Though Minerva had a deep love for him, there was a part of her that was still baffled with many of the things that he did and said.
He stared, blinked, and then his mind stopped and let him catch up. "Uhm, actually, you know that feeling in the back of your mind, a forewarning," he paused and directed his eyes cautiously over to Divinations professor that tended to scare him for some baffling reason. "Well, I tend to get it, and it tells me that, wherever you're about to go," Dumbledore fingered the port key in his pocket, "I'm suppost to go with you."
Dumbledore eyes him for a minute, took him for his word and motioned him over to avoid the creepy Divinations lady, eyed her, and then turned to do his technical talk that he was known to baffle everyone with.
As Pomfrey patched up the creep- erg, the spirited lady with the odd glasses, she couldn't help but think that it was going to be a long day.
A/N: I am writing randomly here with a small bit off idea planned out. That is all. PS-aren't you proud. –SMILES-
A/N2: Both of my barely working computers have viruses and I am unable to really do next to anything. And as a warning, This will be on hold until I do-I mean, a WIP.
A/N3: There is a santa virus going around from the IMs or something. I heard on the news, so be careful and don't accept any emails if you don't know who they are from.
