It seemed to feel like forever until Toriel finally began to extricate herself from Frisk's arms. "I've missed you too, my child," she told Frisk. "But perhaps you should introduce us."
Frisk looked around and realized the professor was still there. She had a smile on her face, which was something Frisk had never seen in class. "Oh, right," Frisk said, "Professor McGonagall, this is my mom, Ms. Toriel Dreemurr. The skeleton here is Papyrus."
Papyrus went into a deep majestic bow at his name. "The great Papyrus is happy to meet an esteemed professor of Hogwarts!" McGonagall favored Papyrus with a single raised eyebrow. Frisk moved on quickly. "And that's his brother Sans, talking with Fred and George over there. Papyrus, Mom, this is my Transfiguration teacher, and head of house, Professor McGonagall."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Professor," Toriel said, giving a gentle bow. "Frisk has told me all about you and your class."
McGonagall raised an eyebrow, looking down toward Frisk. "Only good things, I hope."
"Actually," she said. "Frisk says she has a lot of trouble with transfiguration," she paused as Frisk's face turned scarlet. "But she says you're helpful to her."
McGonagall laughed. "It's not about talent. It's about practice, and Frisk puts the practice in. She may not be the quickest student, but she gets there, and that's the important part."
"I have seen her with puzzles!" Papyrus declared. "She wouldn't give up until the puzzle was solved!"
"The only class she's actually worried about is potions. She's written that that she doesn't think she's getting the subject well, but I find it more concerning is that she doesn't get the support from Professor Snape," Toriel said.
If Frisk had blushed before, she was mortified now. The young student did not want Snape to think she was complaining about his class. If he wasn't a good teacher, he would be at Hogwarts, right?
McGonogall was quiet, her eyes had fixed on Frisk with a steely gaze. "Don't hold it against Professor Snape. He has had a very difficult year for him so far." This was not the response Frisk had expected, and she looked up at the professor in confusion, but the stern gaze she got back told her she wasn't getting anything else on the subject.
Toriel wasn't as quite willing to let it go. "I wouldn't want to think that a professor is taking out personal issues on students..." she began.
"Professor Snape has had an additional time-consuming potion of his own the headmaster has assigned him to brew this term. It is an incredibly touchy recipe, and the extra workload has affected his mood," McGonagall said, primly.
"Frisk is equally good at solving people!" Papyrus told them.
While that didn't actually seem to satisfy Toriel, and McGonagall didn't seem happy about it either, it did provide the opportunity for Frisk to distract her by tugging her lightly at the hand. "Oh. I'm sure you're ready to go, aren't you, my child?" Frisk smiled and nodded, offering her hand for Mom to take. "Maybe we'll go for a walk, then have some lunch."
"hey," Sans said, breaking into the conversation. "i'm going to tag along with fred and george and see what zonko's is about."
"What's Zonko's?" Papyrus asked suspiciously.
"A joke shop!" said the twins responded in unison. "You can get all sorts of good stuff there," one of them added. Sans's eyelights glinted, and Papyrus groaned. Toriel tried to hide a smile by covering her mouth with a hand and disguising it with a cough.
"That's fine, Sans," Toriel said. "You can tell us all about it when we meet for lunch."
"I would suggest the Three Broomsticks for lunch," McGonagall said. "But let me remind you, Frisk will need to meet me back here at six for escort back to the castle.
"hm?" Sans asked, "frisk was capable of wandering through most of the underground with only me to keep an occasional eye socket on her. why the escort business?"
"Think of it as liability. We are, after all, a school, Mr. Sans," McGonagall told him. "And there are dementors patrolling around the grounds."
"I'll tell you about them, Mom," Frisk said, as Toriel looked puzzled, "can we go?"
"Thank you again, Ms. McGonagall," Toriel said, letting herself be pulled away by Frisk. "And please pass my thanks on to the headmaster for me."
Then they were, finally away. It was good to see Mom and Papyrus again, and she'd certainly catch up with Sans later, but there were people missing. "Where's Dad?" Frisk asked, as they headed off, vaguely in a direction toward the village. There was quiet for a moment, and Toriel got a distinctly unhappy look in her eye.
"Asgore was supposed to be with us. But he said that the Ministry of Magic had contacted him, and there was something he had to do. He would not tell us what that something was," Papyrus said.
"Asgore was supposed to be with us at Diagon Alley, too," Toriel said. The dark tone in her voice was unique to when she talked about her former husband. "He gave the same excuse then."
They'd reached the outskirts of the village. None of the shops had particularly caught her eye, though knowing Toriel's sweet tooth, she was pretty sure she'd end up in Honeydukes Sweetshop before the day was over. The streets were crowded with Hogwarts students, all reveling in their day of freedom. "So where should we go?" Frisk asked.
"We could go to see the Shrieking Shack," Papyrus suggested. "I have been told it is the most haunted building in Britain. Maybe there will be skeletons!"
Nobody had any objections, so they skirted around Hogsmeade on their way to the shack. "There's actually a number of ghosts in Hogwarts," Frisk said. She'd seen the house ghosts, and had the chance to introduce herself to Nearly Headless Nick. It might have been nice to figure out a way to get Napstablook a chance to meet them, but she wasn't sure any of them knew what a mixtape was, let alone having them enjoy it.
The Shrieking Shack was actually kind of disappointing, but it wasn't about the destination, it was about spending time with her family and friends. About the monsters attempting to integrate on the surface, Woshua had apparently gotten a job in the Ministry as a janitor, while Muffet was attempting to open a bakery. About people Frisk had met in Hogwarts, from Opal, to Ginny, to Luna.
Mentioning Luna brought up the interview that Toriel had done with the Quibbler. "It was kind of fun, actually," explained Toriel. "It was all the things I haven't been asked by the Ministry or the Daily Prophet. We got into a conversation about gardening, about cooking, about what it was like to have a child so recently adopted at Hogwarts. It's what prompted me to write to the Headmaster asking if there was a time I could see you." Frisk gripped Toriel's hand a little tighter, and smiled up at the monster.
They met up with Sans at the Three Broomsticks a little after twelve. "zonkos wasn't bad," he reported, "but seemed to cater more to the kids than someone with taste, such as myself."
"Taste?" Papyrus asked, "You?"
"i'm a bone-a-fied professional, Papyrus," Sans said with a wink.
Papyrus cried out in pain while Frisk and Toriel covered their mouths to hide the giggles. Each of them was treated to an order of fish and chips, Papyrus's had malt vinegar, Sans's had ketchup. Lots of it. Over the fish too. In fact, he probably would have emptied the entire bottle if Toriel hadn't interrupted his pour with a "We should save some for others.".
"Wait," said Frisk, coming to a sudden realization. "How can you eat human food? Doesn't it go right through you?"
"It's Magic," Sans said, winking again, and that was the only answer she got.
After lunch, there was (as Frisk had suspected) an obligatory trip into Honeydukes. But when they got in, she had to stare in amazement at the sheer number of types and flavors of candies and chocolates available. The half-empty shelves suggested that there would have been even more of they'd made it their first stop. Toriel loved every second of it. The quick discovery of "Chocolate Frogs" prompted an immediate search for "Chocolate Snails". Though that search, to Frisk's relief, ended in failure.
There were surprisingly few of Hogwarts students in the store at the time. One of them, though, approached Toriel while Frisk was elsewhere in the store. "Excuse me," she said. "You're Toriel Dreemurr, right? Frisk's adopted mother?"
Toriel gave a nod. "I am Toriel." Frisk stuck her head around the corner of a shelf, and saw Ron Weasely and Hermione Granger. Toriel must have recognized the insignia on the robes. "Ah, you are from Gryffindor, are you not? Are you friends with Frisk?"
"No," Ron admitted. "But my brothers say good things about Sans... and Papyrus," he added quickly, as the taller skeleton walked into view. "Papyrus managed to tame one of the monster books in the store," he told Hermione, who looked impressed.
Frisk walked to join Toriel. Hermoine gave her a hard look for a moment, then looked up at Toriel and seemed to make a connection. She looked at Sans next and broke into a smile. "I wish my father could meet you."
"why?" Sans asked.
"He's a dentist. He'd love to see such a perfect set of smiling teeth," Hermione explained. She then introduced Ron and herself.
"It is good to meet you, Ron, and Hermione. But, perhaps you could help me?" Toriel asked, "I would like to buy some treats to try, but there are so many, what would you recommend?" For the next fifteen minutes, Toriel had a grand time taking recommendations from the two older students. Frisk was dubious about a candy advertising itself as 'A Risk in Every Mouthful', no matter how much Ron recommended it, but the Fizzing Whizbees did sound tasty. "You can have some extra," Toriel told her adopted daughter, "It'll make good gifts for your friends that couldn't come.
Hermione and Ron looked at each other. "That's a good idea. We should get some for Harry," Hermione said. And after a few more minutes of gathering, Hermione checked her watch. "We should go, Ron, if we want to see the Shrieking Shack before it's time to go back up for the feast. It was nice to meet you, Mrs. Dreemurr."
Frisk, who knew to look, saw a dark look pass over Toriel's face, but the monster didn't complain. After paying for their own purchase, they left the candy shop. "Is there anywhere else you'd like to go?" Toriel asked.
Something had occurred to Frisk after Toriel had suggested taking extra gifts back to the castle, "Actually, there is. Does Hogsmeade have a pet shop?"
"A pet shop?" asked Papyrus. He looked at her curiously, "Do you want some company at school? You seem to have made a collection of friends."
Frisk shook her head. "No, but there's a cat that I think could use a friend,"
"Of course we can find a pet shop," Toriel said, "Then maybe another walk before we have to walk you back up to school."
Six o'clock came far too soon, but it came. Toriel, Frisk and the skeletons headed back up towards the castle grounds, where Professor McGonagall was waiting to take her the rest of the way. With another request to thank the Headmaster for this opportunity, some final hugs, Frisk said goodbye to Toriel, Papyrus, and Sans, and started to make the long walk back up to the castle. In her bag, she had a fresh supply of Mom's new favorite cookies.
"Where were you today?" Ginny asked as Frisk sat down next to her at the Halloween feast. "I checked the tower, the library, and most of the grounds. I thought you might want to join me, Opal, and Luna for some flying lessons."
Frisk stared down at her plate. She didn't want to lie to Ginny. "I'm not supposed to say," Frisk mumbled. Ginny gave her a 'You're not being serious look' that just made Frisk feel worse. She stirred the food without eating any. "Do you," she whispered, "promise not to tell anyone?"
"Opal and Luna know you were missing," Ginny said. Then she lowered her voice conspiratorially. "But I think we can keep it to the three of us," she said. Ginny's eyes were wide with excitement.
Now Frisk was afraid of disappointing Ginny. "No, it's nothing like that," Frisk admitted quietly. "Mom, Sans, and Papyrus came up to Hogwarts, and I was allowed to go into Hogsmeade with them. Please don't be jealous... it's because..."
Ginny put her hand on Frisk's shoulder. "Because you didn't have time to spend with them before. I'm envious that you got to leave the castle, but you deserve it after what you went through. But what's Hogsmeade like? I've never been there!" They spent the rest of the dinner discussing Hogsmeade, sharing Honeydukes sweets, and talking in general. After dinner, they joined the tail end of a throng of Gryfindor students heading up to the tower. They came to a screeching halt just at the top of the seventh-floor staircase.
"What's going on?" Ginny asked. "They can't all have forgotten the password, can they?"
"I'll find out," Frisk volunteered. The smaller girl agilely ducked and dodged between the crowd of larger students until reaching what should have been a portrait of the Fat Lady covering the entrance to the Gryfindor common room. She stared at the horrible slashed, ripped to shreds canvas she found instead.
Frisk had wanted to talk to Dumbledore before he left the main hall, but he departed so quickly and purposefully that she didn't have the chance. Instead, she took a sleeping bag from the cluster, and went looking for Luna, Opal, and Ginny, to take advantage of this rare advantage to sleep with her friends in the other houses. Any envy the non-Gryfindors had felt over Frisks temporary release from Hogwarts had been quickly smoothed over by the candy gifts.
"Who's Sirius Black, anyway?" Frisk asked, keeping her voice low, so as to not disturb anyone actually trying to sleep.
"He was one of the followers of Voldemort," Luna told her. Opal and Ginny both flinched as she said the name. "He murdered a number of Muggles, and Daddy said he was responsible for the death of Harry Potter's parents."
"Please don't say that name," Opal said, weakly. "It's bad luck."
"Oh, sorry," Luna apologized. "I didn't know."
Ginny had gone white, and she clutched at the sleeping bag with her hands, hard.
"Ginny," Frisk said, "are you feeling OK?"
It took a few seconds for Ginny to come back to herself. "I am now," Luna looked understanding, but Opal and Frisk were only confused more. "Last year," Ginny began, "I was possessed by a memory of you know who," and she proceeded to tell them the entire story around the Chamber of Secrets, ending in the basilisk's defeat.
"I feel sorry for it," Frisk admitted.
"Feeling sorry for what?" Ginny asked in astonishment, "the memory?"
"No," Frisk said, "for the basilisk. I wonder if it even could control its power."
"With a creature like that," Ginny said, "It's kill or..."
"It's never kill or be killed, there's always a chance. A choice," Frisk said, unable to keep the sadness out of her voice. "Flowey asked me once, what would I do if I met a relentless killer. I'd die, and I'd die, and I'd die..."
"Surely you'd only die once," Luna said.
Frisk's eyes went wide for a moment before she tried to cover it with a smile. "Flowey liked to emphasize. But I never did meet a killer. If the creature hadn't been controlled by the memory of..." she cast about for an alternative, "the Big V, maybe things could have been different."
"I don't want to ever have to find out," Ginny said coldly.
There was an awkward silence for a few moments. "Do you want to practice flying tomorrow, since we didn't do it today?" Opal asked.
"Please? If you two don't mind," Frisk said.
"Sure," Luna said. And after another minute, Ginny agreed. Then they also agreed that it was a good time for sleep.
"Thank you for telling the story, Ginny," Frisk said, "It can't have been easy to share something so personal."
"You're welcome, Frisk," the older girl told her.
Frisk tried to sleep, but the story Ginny told her, the idea that a murderer had tried to get into their tower, and the general excitement of the day kept her awake. She was unsure of the time when she heard footsteps enter the hall. She looked up, saw the headmaster, and quickly pushed herself to a standing position to go speak with him. Percy must have spotted her, she could hear him hissing to get back to bed.
The headmaster looked around at them, and moved to intercept. "Headmaster," Frisk said, "I apologize, but I wanted to know, is the Fat Lady OK?"
Dumbledore, his face illuminated by the ghosts hovering overhead, smiled kindly at Frisk. "We did find her, and she will be fine." He turned to address Percy as well, "When she calms down, I'll ask Filch to restore her." He turned back to Frisk, "Is there anything else, Ms. Dreemurr?"
"Do you think she'd mind if I went to check on her tomorrow?" Frisk asked.
"I think that's a very kind idea," Dumbledore told her, his eyes twinkling.
"And thank you," she glanced at Percy, "you know what for." Dumbledore smiled at Frisk, and Frisk retreated back to her sleeping bag. This time, she was able to sleep.
