Sorry for the delay! I just hope you like this chapter! I plan on wrapping up this story pretty soon, since it's about to hit a pretty significant point in my time line! Please review if you like it! I could really use your encouragemnent right now!
The days moved fluidly for them, flowing from one day to another like a very simple dream. Cygnus started school with his siblings, Walburga forced Miranda to turn her hair dark again, she became Head Girl, and she and Brennan continued their relationship in secret... with Miranda's help, of course. Just a week before, on his graduation day, Brennan had given her a ring, making their engagment that much more real. She wore it at all times on a chain around her neck.
Walburga had gone out to have tea with Miranda, a week after the end of the term, but had been greeted by Brennan instead. He had laughed at her dumbfounded expression, "Miranda asked me to tea, stayed for five minutes and told me you were meeting her for tea too."
"Well, where is she?" Walburga had asked, looking around for her dark haired friend.
"She said she would be in the wand shop." Brennan said, kissing her cheek, "Come on, sit, she told me not to let you worry. She said we need time to talk...away from school." He said the last part like it was an afterthought.
There was something off about him, and Walburga noticed the difference, even if most other people wouldn't have. "Bren, are you alright?"
He didn't answer, he just kept looking at her face like he wanted to memorize every detail. "Brennan, what's wrong?"
He smiled, but it didn't reach his emerald green eyes, "Nothing you need to fret over, princess. I'll be alright."
Walburga grabbed his hand, pulling it close to her chest, closing the distance between them, "What do you mean that you'll be alright? Are you ill? Did you lose your spot with the company? Is your..."
"Burga, please, calm down." He begged, "I'm not ill, and the spot at the company is still mine if I wish it."
"If you wish it? Brennan, its your dream! You would give anything to be an actor! Why would you not want it?" She didn't understand his sudden hesitation.
He winced, he hadn't wanted to tell her...at least not like this, but his new friend, her best friend, had convinced him that she had to know now. Of course he hadn't meant to tell the girl about it either, but something about her just made words he didn't want to say fly out of his mouth. Miranda would just sit there, fiddling with that locket of hers and the words would come rushing out. He took a deep breath before breaking the news to Walburga as softly as he felt he could. "Because I might not be here to fill my spot."
"So you are ill!" Walburga cried, drawing some attention from other guests.
Brennan shooshed her and grabbed her hand, pulling her down to the Leaky Cauldron after tossing a knut on the table. Quickly, he purchased a room for three hours, assured that it would be at least that long until Walburga stopped trying to kill him. Once inside, he laid her down on the bed, crawling in next to her. "You need to listen to me very carefully because I'm not sure you'll understand what I'm doing. Before I say all of this, I just need to hear you tell me you love me."
"I-i love you." She said, more confused than ever, worry gnawing deep in her stomach. "Please, just tell me what's going on!"
"I won't be around for much longer. There's this war, in the muggle world, in my world, and before I leave it for yours, I'm going to fight for it. I'm enlisting, Walburga, in the British Navy." He said, watching her face closely for her reaction.
She stood stiffly, pulling herself from his arms, "I have to leave." She mumbled, grabbing her bag he had dropped by the bed and heading to the door, only to find it locked. She glared at him, "Let me out."
"No, Walburga, I won't let you out until I know you're okay with this." He said sternly.
She was livid, and knew her face was beginning to mottle red as the angry tears welled in her eyes, "Well I hope you brought something to eat because it is going to be a long time before I'm okay with this."
"Burga, it's not like being an auror! You don't have to worry about me at all! I'll be fighting against non magic folk! The second things get too dicey, I'll apperate right out! I'll hardly be in any danger at all!" He pleaded, trying to get her to understand.
She clenched her teeth and the ceiling lights shook, blinking, "Get out, Brennan."
"Burga..." He started.
"Out!" She yelled, pointing at the door.
He got cocky, that was his most fatal flaw. "Walburga, I've spelled the door. I'm not leaving until I'm ready to go."
She went oddly calm and he thought he'd gotten through to her. Until she pulled out her wand and slammed him against the far wall with a knockback jinx. "Don't try to stop me. I am not a child, and I refuse to be treated like one by the man I'm going to marry. This should have been a decision we made together!"
"You would have said no!" He protested.
Although he was probably right, Walburga denied it. "I would have listened to what you had to say. I might not have liked it anyway, but it would have been something I would have consented for you to do eventually."
She tried the spell on the door again and cold fear filled Brennan, "Burga, please, stop, don't leave like this. I love you. I'm sorry for not telling you. Walburga!" He shouted when she paid him no attention.
She turned and gave him an icy stare, "Don't call for me by owl, I won't answer. And don't you dare bother Miranda with your drivel. Unlike us, she is still a child. I need some time alone. I'll contact you when I'm ready." She swung the door open and broke down the hallway in a very unladylike manner, shoving past a wizard and his ragged female companion.
Walburga ran out of the pub and back into Diagon Alley, disappearing among the crowd as she headed to Olivander's. The few people who recognized her as she rushed past them were concerned, Walburga Black never caused trouble. She crashed into the wand shop and started sobbing hysterically, crumpling just in the door. "Good heavens!" Shouted the shop owner as he ran towards the girl. "Miss Black!"
The heiress was incoherent, her entire body revolting as she sat sobbing and shivering on the dusty floor. "M-miranda?" She mumbled, and Olivander stood just above her, wondering what he was supposed to do.
"Miss Black, Miranda just went on an errand for me, she shan't be back for another hour." He said, hoping the girl would hear him. She sobbed louder, and he felt an odd stirring in his chest.
He had never seen the Black girl like this. She had always maintained her cold exterior while in his shop, but sitting on the floor like that, she was just as fragile and childlike as his own Miranda. Reassured, he pulled the girl to her feet by her shoulders, and allowed her to lean against him as he helped her into the back room of his shop.
She had protested weakly, but he had soothed her quickly, "There, there, Miss Black. Let's get you out of the public eye. No doubt you don't want to be seen like this."
He placed her in the chair he kept next to the fireplace, draping a knitted quilt from his late wife across her lap, and set about heating some water to make the girl a special hot cocoa brew. Once he was done, he curled her thin fingers around the warm mug and sat in the chair across from her. "Drink, Miss Black, the chocolate will help, I promise."
She was no longer sobbing quite as loudly, but she was still in a sad state. "Tha-nk you." She whispered, sipping from the floral mug.
Xander Olivander smiled kindly at her, "It's no trouble dear. I've always told you, a friend of Miranda's is a friend of mine. She'll be back soon but would you like me to Floo call your mother?"
"No!" The girl yelled, her face turning pale, "She wouldn't understand."
"But my Miranda would?" He asked gently, afraid to startle the young witch back into conniptions.
She nodded against the lip of the mug, staring into it's brown depths, "This stuff is...lovely."
He took the mug from her as she began to drift to sleep, "A recipe my dear wife used to make when I had trouble getting to sleep. You needn't make your self sick. You have school after all."
He pulled the quilt up to her shoulders and returned to the shop. A half hour later, and Miranda skipped into the shop, her faithful yet bedraggled elf in tow, clinging to her skirts, "Olivander! I'm back!"
He smiled weakly at her, "Hello, my dear, you've a guest in the back room. Miss Black, she was rather upset. I gave her a bit of cocoa and a special sleeping draft. She'll be waking soon."
"Walburga!" She cried, Miranda dropped her basket and ran to the back room, shaking off her elf.
Claudius the elf had become almost as familiar to Olivander as the mysterious Riddle girl, "Nice stroll, Claudius?"
The elf smiled, "Tis never a stroll with Mistress, always a race." They stood in silence for several minutes before the elf spoke again, "Is a wonder how things have changed, isn't it?"
The wizard nodded, watching the bustling crowd move past his window. "Yes, it is. It seems like just yesterday she was a carefree little girl running into my shop with you clinging to her dress." He laughed, the corners of his crinkling, "Although that hasn't changed too much, has it?"
The elf glared at him, "Mistress loves you, so Claudius won't curse sir."
"She loves me? And here I thought she just came for the wands!" He sobered, looking at the picture he had framed of her from her fifteenth birthday. She had insisted he be there. In the photo, she had an arm around the shoulders of himself and her Papa. She was laughing, one of her joyous buoyant laughs that brought a smile to even the Dark Lord's face. "I love the little one too, like she was my own granddaughter, my own daughter perhaps. I know my Cynthia would have too. Sometimes I wish Gellert would just leave Miranda with me. Surely I can protect her. I would adopt her in a beat."
"Master has plans for Mistress." The elf said, and Olivander felt his gut twist. Something in the big eyes of that elf showed a deep seeded disapproval of his Master's plans. Given the relationship Grindelwald kept with his elf, that was a very bad thing.
"I'm not going to like his plan, will I?" Olivander said quietly. He felt very old all of the sudden. In his head this girl was his granddaughter, and he felt an immeasurable fear for her.
"No, Sir, not at all." The elf whispered, causing the wizard's heart to clench.
Miranda discontinued any further conversation, walking into the room supporting her sobbing friend, "I'm going to take Burga home."
"Is Miss Black alright?" Ollivander asked.
She nodded, although the movement was a bit unsure, "It's just girl stuff. Nothing you two need to worry about. I'll take care of her."
"I'm sure you will." Olivander encouraged, noticing the glint of something gold in the Black girl's shaking hands on the end of a silver chain about her neck.
Miranda caught his gaze. She looked at Claudius first though, "Tell Papa I'll be spending the night at Grimmauld Place." She brushed a quick kiss to Olivander's cheek, "I'll be back tomorrow." She said, silently promising to explain.
She looked very grown in that moment, her sapphire blue eyes lighted with a steely glint, and for the first time it dawned on him that she was almost grown. As childlike as she appeared, in a few short years, she would be a fully fledged adult. In that realization, Olivander felt a deep sense of loss.
He forced a smile to his face, hoping it covered the emotions in his eyes, "Be safe, Miranda."
She smiled at him before apperating from his shop with her heart broken friend, "Always."
He only wished he believed her.
Dunh duhn duhn...
Review!
-Jenn
