Chapter Five: Flying Over England
The next day, Ollivander had woken Mimi up at the brink of dawn. They had breakfast while the sun was rising and, just as they finished eating, Ollivander's door bell went off.
"Ah, that would be Ulysses!" the bony man declared cheerfully and went to answer the door.
A moment after, he came back to the living room, accompanied by a round fellow with a cheerful face and twinkling brown eyes. He looked the way Mimi would imagine Santa would without a beard.
"Well then, you're the famous time-traveler, are you?" he boomed good-naturedly as he leaned in towards the girl who was still munching on some waffles distrustfully, "You're the talk of the Ministry, I'll have you know. Everyone's eager to meet you."
"Did you happen to bring-"
"Ah, yes!" Ulysses grinned as he took a bundle wrapped in brown paper from the bag slung across his shoulder and handed it to Mimi with flourish, "This is for you, lass – a change of clothes so that you draw less attention on the street. They were my daughter's, but she's outgrown them."
"G-go change, my dear." Ollivander told Mimi as she took the offered clothes, eyeing the brown wrapping suspiciously, "We'll leave as soon as you're done. There's a paper bag in the kitchen for you to pack your things after you've changed out of them."
Mimi went to obey, but then she hesitated for a split second, before turning to Ulysses, crimson red in the face.
"T-thank you, mister." she mumbled out before dashing off into the bathroom.
"Heh, heh…cute little thing." the stocky man snickered fondly before turning to Ollivander, "Thank you for the sleepless night I spent outside your building, by the way."
"Ah…yes, sorry about that, chap." Ollivander replied while scratching the back of his neck ruefully, "I didn't want to take any chances…that wizard chasing her looked like a right suspicious character. Thank you for your hard work."
"No trouble, no trouble…that's what Aurors are for." Ulysses waved it off good-naturedly, "In any case, Dorian feels confident we'll be able to send the lass home today. I'll escort you to the train station where a special entrance has been prepared that will take you straight to the Department of Magical Transportation."
"Good grief, they've put a lot of effort and resources into this."
"Yes, well, it's not every day they get to research a real time-travel case." Ulysses chuckled knowingly, "Just a few answers from the lass could give them a ten years worth of research."
"Well…that is true…"
The bathroom door opened and Mimi patted out hesitantly, holding Patchy and a bundle of her own clothes to her chest tightly. She was now dressed in a lovely, pale-brown set consisting of a tweed jacket and a short skirt of matching material and colour under which swells of white, fluffy lace were visible and were making it slightly puffed up. Crisp-white shirt and stockings completed the image and, in absence of other footwear, Mimi had put on her own black, lace-up boots that kind of stood out, but not terribly.
"Ha!" Ulysses exploded into a single, loud chuckle, "Perfect! Now let's make tracks while the sun is low – gather round, gather round."
"Why?" Mimi asked as she walked over and took Ollivander's hand while the man clasped hands with the Auror.
"We're going to Apparate." the bony man told her, "It's a way in which Wizards travel."
"But I don't know how to- GAH!" Mimi got cut off by the feeling of a hook pulling on the middle of her stomach and nearly let go off Ollivander's hand in shock.
However, the man's bony hand squeezed down on hers securely over the feeling of being jerked roughly and rapidly from one place to another. Before Mimi knew her left from her right, clamor of the crowd and traffic exploded into existence around her and she opened her eyes to realize that all three of them were right on the stairs of the King's Cross train station.
The girl let go of Ollivander's hand to run around the two men a bit, mouth agape and huge, dark-blue eyes wide in wonder.
"Wh- did we-" she gasped as she looked around to ensure that they were really suddenly in a completely different place, "This is so cool!"
She dashed back to Ollivander and grabbed his sleeve, grinning and bouncing in place.
"Teach me how to do that!" she ordered excitedly, "Teach me, teach me!"
"They'll teach you that in school when you're old enough." Ollivander replied fondly, patting the top of the girl's excited head while Ulysses observed amusedly, "Now let's get a move on – we wouldn't want the Ministry to wait for us, now would we?"
They all walked into the train station and then up to an old, rundown telephone booth that had an "out of order" sign hanging on it. Ulysses came up to it and patted it with his wand exactly three times slowly and then four more quickly.
Tap – tap – tap – taptaptaptap.
Nothing happened. The Auror glanced down at his wand, looking perplexed.
"Bother, I told them this new system wouldn't work." he grumbled as he tried tapping the sequence again.
Concernedly, Ollivander patted over to help.
"Are you sure everything's alright with your wand? Let me look…"
As they fiddled with the machine and Ulysses' wand, Mimi sighed and turned around with her arms around Patchy and her bundle of clothes to look at the crowd. She could hear the sound of trains arriving or leaving or simply passing through in the distance and sighed wistfully.
"I'd never been on a train…" she said to Patchy softly, ignoring the two wizards who were intently focused on the old machine behind her, "I wish I could travel somewhere like all these people…"
Somewhere like Eastern France for example. Mimi sighed, thinking how exciting it would be to go chasing after the mythical unicorn and the secrets he may hold. Glancing back at Ollivander who was still busy with his friend, the girl frowned a little.
"I wonder why he's so stubborn about not finding the unicorn…" he said to Patchy ponderingly, "he wouldn't even hear me out. I know that, if it were you and me, we'd…"
She trailed off as a curious group of people suddenly appeared from behind a corner nearby. Three man and a woman were all dressed in bizarre, floppy kind of long, brown overcoats and were hauling huge cases of luggage and long items wrapped in brown paper whose shape suspiciously reminded of brooms. One especially large piece of luggage towered over them all, a big, long box covered in a brown sheet that was securely tied down. It moved on its own after the bizarre group.
They seemed to be lost, looking around while arguing among each other vigorously. Mimi snickered to Patchy softly.
"You know, I think I'm getting good at recognizing wizards and witches…"
Though she wanted to go up to them and ask a billion questions, the girl reluctantly turned away from them, back to the two wizards who were still fiddling with the phone booth. They seemed to be trying to use Ollivander's wand to open the entrance now.
However, despite her best intention to stay put and keep her nose out of other people's business, Mimi couldn't help but whip around with a gasp when the woman of the group she'd just seen cried out in frustration, loudly enough for the girl to hear her.
"Oh for Pete's sake!" she snapped, "If you can't even find the right platform, we don't stand a chance finding that unicorn!"
At that moment, a female voice came, not through the speakers but from everywhere, echoing throughout the station and only Mimi and the strange group of people seemed to be able to hear it, while the Muggle-folk kept obliviously on their merry way.
"7:30 train for Montigny-le-Roi, France will depart in ten minutes from platform seven and 2/8s," it declared, "7:30 train for Montigny-le-Roi, France…"
The group looked relieved at the declaration and rushed towards the said platform enthusiastically. Mimi frowned a little, trying to wrap her childish mind around something. She was never very good at geography, but wasn't there some kind of water mass between England and France? The only way a train could get there would be if it were…
"A magical flying traaaaain!" Mimi uttered, instantly starry-eyed at the awesomeness of the very idea. But wait…that meant…
"They're going after the unicorn!" Mimi gasped in shocked realization, "Oh! Oh! We have to- I- um- ack! …MR. OLLIVANDER!"
She ran over to the bony man, grabbing the edge of his coat.
"Mr. Ollivander, Mr. Ollivander, I just saw some wizards and-"
"That's nice, dear, but keep your voice down, we don't want Muggles to hear." the wandmaker replied absentmindedly as he and Ulysses were now trying to open up the telephone booth and figure out what was wrong with it.
"N-no, you don't understand, they're going-"
"Mimi, dear, we're trying to work here." he interrupted her sternly, "Be a good girl and hush down until we're done."
"B-but…" Mimi breathed helplessly, constantly glancing over her shoulder so that she could see where the group of wizards was going. When they ducked behind a corner, her dark-blue eyes flashed angrily and the girl stomped her foot and tossed the bundle of clothes she was holding to the pavement before unceremoniously dashing after them.
Ollivander and Ulysses didn't even notice she left, as they were now shoulders-deep inside the machine, discussing on how to fix it.
Mimi ran after the bizarre group until they reached platform seven and ducked behind a large rubbish bin to better observe their next move.
"What in the world are they doing, Patchy?" she whispered, squinting at the odd group as they gathered around one of the supporting pillars next to the railway, "There's no such thing as platform seven and-"
She trailed off in awe as, one by one, all of the wizards walked straight into one of the walls of the pillar and disappeared from sight. A dumbstruck moment later, she grinned and dashed out of here hiding place and towards the invisible passage.
"Magical wall, magical wall, magical-!" Mimi shouted excitedly as she too ran into the brick barrier and disappeared through, leaving the Muggle side of the world none the wiser.
Over at the telephone booth a tall shadow fell on the two wizards who were now both elbow-deep in the machine, trying to fix it or at least communicate to the Ministry that it was out of order.
Snape glared down at them with a bitter scowl on his face. He'd done a bit of scrying over the night and was now sleep-deprived and annoyed at having found out that these two bumbling idiots were respectively the past versions of the history's most accomplished wandmaker and high official of the Order of Phoenix.
And, looking at the very familiar pile of discarded clothing on the pavement, they were also the very same bumbling idiots who found the stupid girl he'd been chasing for far too long now.
When another minute passed and the two wizards failed to notice Snape standing menacingly above them, the black-haired wizard cleared his throat pointedly, causing them both to jump and whip around to face him.
"Where is she?" Snape growled darkly, his pitch-black eyes daring them to pretend they didn't know what he was talking about when Mimi's peculiar clothing lay in a heap at his feet.
Ulysses immediately pointed his wand at Snape.
"Stay where you are!" he shouted, making Snape twitch angrily since he sure as bloody hell wasn't planning on leaving until he found the stupid child.
"Put that down before you hurt yourself, you spectacular imbecile." he snarled at the Auror, "Listen, the stupid girl's parents sent me after her – I need to bring her back before she messes up the past, not to mention that she's got a powerful magical artifact in her possession that is not for children to play with. Tell me where she is."
Ollivander gulped nervously, especially since Mimi was nowhere in sight. He glared up at the intimidating wizard, mustering some courage.
"W-why would we believe you?" he demanded, albeit a bit timorously, "She's scared to death of you a-and let's be honest – your appearance doesn't exactly inspire confidence."
"Well your appearance-" Snape began to snarl but stopped himself before blurting out that there was no way in Merlin's wide world he could link the stuttering, bumbling coward before him to the world's greatest wandmaker and war hero, "Gh- never mind that. Observe."
He reached into his coat and drew his own wand before pushing between the two men and stepping up to the telephone booth. Shoving shoulder first inside, Snape pushed his wand into the coin slot. A split second later the phone pinged and a female voice came from the receiver.
"Level Nine Ministry clearance." it said, causing Ollivander to gasp in shocked realization.
"You…you're with the Ministry?"
"Obviously." Snape growled curtly before yanking his wand out, "The identification system dates all the way to the 17th century and can detect even wands from the future if they have the Ministry seal. Now will you listen to me?"
Ulysses hesitantly lowered his wand, his round face still suspicious.
"If you're not a Dark Wizard," he said, "Then why's the poor girl so desperate to get away from you?"
Snape hesitated awkwardly before muttering something incomprehensible, making Ollivander blink and lean in politely.
"What was that, sir?"
After a blood-shot glare, Snape gave up.
"She thinks I want to murder her stuffed doll." he ground out before quickly adding, "Now where-"
"Why does she-"
"Because she is a stupid, stupid child with an overactive imagination that's had me chasing after her through two dimensions and her parents worried sick, can we disregard the lunacy for now?" Snape finally snapped, sobering up when both men gaped at him in shock, "Er…herm. In any case, I'll ask you one last time – where is Mimi Huggins?"
Ulysses blinked with a start, glancing around fruitlessly.
"Seriously, where is she?" he wondered before a snarl coming from Snape startled him and he got grabbed by the collar by a livid, eyes-blazing wizard who got into his face menacingly.
"You are not trying to tell me you've lost the girl, now are you?" Snape hissed down at him furiously, "You are not seriously, honestly trying to tell me that you've LOST-"
Ollivander suddenly gasped in horror before hissing at the two men frantically.
"SHHHHHH!" he shushed them, "Listen!"
"7:30 train for Montigny-le-Roi, France is departing from platform seven and 2/8s presently."
"Montigny-le-Roi…" the wandmaker uttered in shocked disbelief, causing Snape to do a confused double-take at him.
"What are you-"
"MONTIGNY-LE-ROI, can't you see!" Ollivander hollered up at the confounded Snape, "She's gone to chase the unicorn! She's going after it, oh – MERLIN, she-"
"Make sense, man!" Snape ordered with a sinking feeling in his gut, "Are you telling me the stupid girl left for France?"
"Yes!"
Ashen in the face, Snape took a step back in shock.
"France." he said blankly, "…she's gone to France."
Ollivander gulped dryly as the man slowly turned around towards him.
"Er- maybe we should-"
"I'VE CHASED HER THROUGH TWO DIMENSIONS OF SPACE AND TIME," Snape hollered at him furiously, "AND NOW SHE'S GONE TO FRANCE?"
Before either Ollivander or Ulysses could respond, he whirled around and sprinted off in a dramatic swirl of his black robes.
The wandmaker blinked confusedly but then Ulysses grabbed him by the collar and shouted in his ear.
"After him, you daft tit!"
Meanwhile, Mimi edged along the new platforms, labeled in fractions rather than whole numbers and watched in awe as the wizarding population scurried about her unabashedly, everyone rushing towards their trains.
"Unbelievable!" she gasped out, hysterically breathless, "Patchy, there's hundreds of them! Wizards and witches and- er- whatever those are…"
She said the last bit as she stepped back so that an ugly little goblin-thing could push a cart full of stacked chests past her. It gave her a sour glare as it went by.
It was an all-around amazing place! Vibrant, people dressed in colourful robes and pulling along trunks and suitcases that often jumped and struggled as though they were alive. A stocky fellow was pacing nervously in front of stacked-up cages full of all sorts of owls who hooted and flapped their wings as they blinked disapprovingly at the outside world.
"Richard, get back here right now!" a female voice shrieked just a split-second before a giggling boy zipped past Mimi, riding a very small broom. His angry mother followed instantly and Mimi grinned as they disappeared into the crowd. Just as a group of young men popped out, singing raucously.
"Take a man's hand and he will be grand,
whip him about and he'll give a shout,
but cause him to pass on a wizarding lass
and he'll go – alas, alas, ALAS!"
They burst out laughing as they rushed off towards one of the trains and Mimi couldn't help but giggle herself.
"What a silly song…" she remarked before her ears pricked up, finding something familiar in the noise of the crowd.
"Montigny-le-Roi, Montigny-le-Roi, last call for Montigny-le-Roi!" she heard somebody shout from a distance and gasped.
"It's leaving, we have to hurry!"
Just as she was about to run, a deep voice roared behind her, making her blood curdle in fear.
"MISS HUGGINS!"
"The Plushie-hater!" Mimi gasped as she whipped around just in time to see Snape striding towards her furiously.
Without hesitating a second, she spun around and bolted, even as she heard Snape snarl in anger behind her.
"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!" he shouted and Mimi distinctly felt something cold approaching from behind. Instinctively, she swatted at it with Patchy and it disappeared into nothingness.
Snape froze in his tracks with a gasp as, once again, a force knocked his wand out of his hand. He was forced to go chasing after it through the crowd while wondering.
"What in the world is in that doll…" he muttered as he finally managed to pick up his wand.
His black eyes sought out the familiar sight of long, whipping, black hair but it had become lost in the crowd.
"Curses!" he grumbled and set off after her once again.
Mimi could hear his distinctive, heavy footsteps even in the crowd and looked around wildly for anything that could slow him down.
"Please, something – I need something to-" she thought frantically, not even noticing that she was squeezing Patchy tightly to her chest while running past the stacked cages of owls from earlier.
She just passed them when she thought she felt a faint pulse from inside her toy's straw body and then the sound of dozens of snaps came behind her, followed by a whirl of feathers, wing-flaps and hoots that made her skirt fly around her legs.
Glancing over her shoulder as she ran, Mimi gasped when she saw all the cages wide open and Snape trying to shield his eyes with his arms in a thick whirlwind of angry owls.
After a speechless second of shock, the girl burst out laughing hysterically as she ran along.
"Oh my God, Patchy, look at THAT!" she screamed as she giggled, but there was no time for triumph now.
Platform 7 and 2/8s was right ahead, she could see the number on one of the supporting columns and the conductors were just shutting all the doors, priming the burgundy passenger cars for departure.
"WAIT!" Mimi screamed put every ounce of energy she had into running even faster, but the train began grinding away.
Just as she was about to give up and stop, something grabbed Mimi by the collar and yanked her backwards. The girl screamed as her feet left the ground and she was pulled onto something narrow and securely against someone's bony frame.
Wait…bony?
"Mr. Ollivander!" she screamed and giggled and cried all at one as she whipped around and looked up at the man's ashen, but grinning face, "We- we're flying on a BROOMSTICK!"
"Q-quite right," Ollivander affirmed amusedly, even as he cringed at Snape's angry holler from bellow – something to do with breaking his bones he was sure, "A-and if we hurry we might just make it so hold on!"
Only now did Mimi think to look ahead and gasped as she realized they were zipping along, just above the crowd in pursuit of the accelerating train.
People screamed and ducked as they flew over their heads but with all the speed they were mustering, the train was still steadily increasing the gap between them.
"How is that possible?" Mimi shouted, trying to be heard over the whistling wind and screaming people.
"M-magical train travel!" Ollivander shouted back, "How else would you get to France in two hours? We need to catch it before it goes into the sky tunnel!"
Mimi mouthed the two last words in awe before looking up at Ollivander with excited, cobalt eyes.
"Well we'd better because I want to see a SKY TUNNEL!" she screamed and Ollivander chuckled ruefully before the broom buckled under them and shot through the air even faster.
"This is a one-time chance, Mimi – get ready to ju-" Ollivander began to holler as they surged through the air at whistling speed, but Mimi waved him off as she braced a foot against the broom below her.
"I'm way ahead of you, just bring us close!" she screamed excitedly, "Closer, Mr. Ollivander!"
No time to wonder why or how he was obeying this order, Ollivander squeezed his eyes shut and just blindly steered the broom towards the sound of the running train.
"Oh, Merlin - oh, Merlin - oh MEERLLLIIIINNN!"
He felt a small hand grab his collar and then the weight of, say, an eight year old girl, pulled him sideways. Equilibrium gone, Ollivander just screamed until he felt his shoulder hit something hard – a floor. Wonderful, solid, rumbling floor. Then inertia kicked in and he tumbled across it gratefully.
"Oof- ow, gh- Mer- gah!"
His head hit something and the tumbling was over so the bony man finally dared open his eyes and look around. He found that they landed on the very tail of the train, on the small veranda in the back of the last car. There were metal chairs and tables screwed into the floor where the passengers could sit and enjoy the fresh air and the view during their trip.
"M-Mimi?" he gasped out, suddenly remembering he was missing something, but one wild glance found the girl at the rail. She stood there, holding onto the metal bars, her pitch-black hair whipping behind her wildly as she stared at the beautiful countryside landscape…far, far belo- oh, MERLIN!
"Mimi!" Ollivander half-choked, half-shouted, "What are you doing, get back here!"
He struggled up to his feet while clutching to the door handle.
"Get over here this instant!" Ollivander hollered in panic, "You're going to fall!"
Mimi glanced at him over her shoulder and the bony young man was startled to see her grinning full out.
"No!" she shouted back excitedly, "You come here – you have to see this!"
"We're in a Sky Tunnel, for Merlin's sake! We're not even supposed to be outside!"
"But we're FLYING over England!"
"EXACTLY, WE'RE FLYING OVER ENGLAND!" Ollivander hollered back, "Come on, hold on to the rail and slowly come over!"
With a despairing sigh, Mimi rolled her eyes and then turned them back to the sun-bathed fields, now partially obscured by blushing morning clouds.
"He doesn't get it…" she whispered to her stuffed scarecrow, "…but look, Patchy. We're…we're flying over England."
"MIMI!"
"Alright, alright, I'm coming!" she shouted back impatiently and then slowly edged her way along the safety rail until she could reach out and take Ollivander's extended, trembling bony hand.
The moment she did, the young man exhaled with relief and pulled her over, hugging her fiercely.
"You are one troublesome child, Mimi Huggins." he half-choked, half-chuckled as he pulled her into the car and shut the door behind them.
Mimi just grinned back when he released her to stumble back and lean on the wall, paling horribly.
"But Merlin, what have I- I mean, I've never- the breakneck flying and- oh my…my heart is…"
"You were brilliant!" Mimi cut him off determinedly, with a huge grin plastered all over her face, "And now – you're going to France to find that unicorn!"
Ollivander gulped as he looked up blankly.
"I'm going to France to find that unicorn." he uttered with a nervous laugh, "…and I don't have a ticket
~~~End of Chapter 5
Next Time:
Another blast came, this time from the door Mimi and Ollivander had come through.
"We're surrounded!" Mimi gasped, glancing up at Ollivander helplessly, "What do we do?"
"Mr. Ollivander, we have to run!" Mimi insisted when the lanky man looked torn, "We have to tell someone what they're doing!"
She felt herself flying through the air, hand outstretched but her fingers closed around nothing where the metal bar should've been.
"I missed…"
