Ch12:
"But you were the best for the job. You should have taken her then," Melody exclaimed.
"I should have but I did not. Had I been able to foresee the next events I would have never have left her," Emerald sighed.
"Don't fault your Great-Grandmother Mel. We all have mistakes we'd rather have not made. But the point is she did not forget Minerva," Edmund said softly.
"I do not blame her for it. I'm just glad she came back," Minerva replied.
"What did happen?" Hermione asked.
"Well Em felt horrible about what she said and just couldn't face Minerva. Minerva felt equally upset that Em did not seem to want her and spent all her time with Doré," Edmund explained.
"The cub right?" Ginny said.
Edmund nodded and continued, "Well Tom being the jealous brat he was loved the fact Em was gone. Hated the cub."
"We actually found out at the Ministry Christmas Ball that the cub had gone missing a few weeks ago," Emerald added, "Albus told us they thought it had run off. I of course knew that couldn't be true. If a Comet Sphinx Lion had run away from its owner it would immediately return to its pack."
"Comet Sphinx…but they're extinct!" Hermione exclaimed.
"And so are unborns and wielders," Emerald rolled her eyes, "Dear girl use your commonsense not books. Nothing is ever truly extinct unless you can verify it with your own research. Comet Sphinxes are only extinct because I will not allow my pack to speak in front of people anymore."
"This is true. Here is a riddle for you. A cub that does not leave her master is suddenly gone. Gone only when the girl left it alone. What happened?" asked the lion that had been sleeping by Emerald before leaving the room.
"Someone did something to it!" Athena asked thinking.
"Something horrible. I cast a locator and found no trace of the cub," Emerald explained, "Something or someone had killed it."
"Riddle," Ron and Harry said together.
"Could be. Never really had proof," Edmund shrugged his shoulders, "Just the same the loss of the cub really depressed Min as well as us leaving her. We got a few letters from Albus and even one from Dippit telling us how upset the girl seemed and how she had refused to go to class and even leave her room."
"I tried to ignore it. But the thought of her so alone and unhappy nagged at me," Emerald replied, "by January I had came to a very important decision. Little did I know that at the same time Riddle and his friends had decided to cure Minerva of her thoughts of the cub and me. Some how they had convinced her the cub may be in the Forbidden Forest. We didn't find this out till we arrived though…"