Chapter 25-The Orphan Snitch
Jeremy froze and swiped his head to Carina who herself didn't make a sound. Her irises flashed between roaming through the tiny white spaces they were given on her eyes and swishing up and down the exterior of Jagobin. In the moment of his surprise, Jeremy had let his guard down and one of the goblins slashed through the air with an electrifying burst of magic. It hit him square in the chest and he flew back through the air, slamming into the wall behind him and hearing the crinkle of white wall paper as he slid to the floor. His head banged for a few brief moments before he regained himself and realized what had happened. He jumped back to his feet and felt a strange, slow feeling, like his joints had turned to taffy and his blood was running in thick syrup as if he was a tree.
Someone screamed. He forced his eyes to stay open and saw Mr. Wespurt slash curse after curse through the air as if they were nothing but stones in his hands. Five curses were already coloring the room from his wand in the three strides it took Myra Wespurt to reach the door and bolt out of the room.
He raised his wand to help. He had to help; Mr. Wespurt was so overwhelmed. He couldn't, though. He felt like he often did when he was left in the heat on hot summer days. Everything inside of him was running slower and he just wanted to lie in the cool grass.
Something exploded to his right and Lysander hit the ground, holding his shoulder as blood ran into his green Ravenclaw Quidditch robes and formed a dark splotch that grew larger by the second, green and red like Christmas. Lysander breathed and whined uncontrollably, even with all of his trips to the hospital wing, he'd never seen that much blood, had he?
Jeremy dropped to his knees to help him. He gathered as much energy as he could to mutter a spell to slow the bleeding at Lysander's arm, though he didn't know how to stop it.
Lorcan was still sitting on the hospital bed, confused and out of the world they lived in. Luna laid in bed, but he saw for the first time that Carina had positioned herself defensively on top of the woman to protect her. Why didn't she cast a shield charm? Why wasn't she fighting?
Maybe she knows something we don't, he thought. She was a psychic. Did she see this coming? No. She was just as surprised as he was when Jagobin said he didn't want the Living Pearl.
Nathan ran into the doorway, presumably after hearing the noise, and didn't even have time to take in the situation. A goblin stationed there attacked and he dropped to the ground in dead weight.
Finally, Leo's father went down. He was tied with enchanted ropes that squeezed tighter the more he struggled.
Jeremy watched as Carina got down from the bed and stood to look at the largest goblin. She was taller than him for sure, but he was a thousand times more menacing. He watched as Jagobin walked up to her and she stood patiently. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Why didn't she fight back? Fight back! But she did nothing but submit as the goblins grabbed her arms and led her out the door. She looked over her shoulder at him before they disappeared out of the hospital room door.
It wasn't long after that healers came. One woman sealed Lysander's wound and made him down a potion while a man removed the enchanted ropes from Mr. Wespurt. One of the healers shouted a revitalizing spell and Nathan came back to life, though still a bit strange from the goblin stunning curse.
The woman taking care of Jeremy took his face in her hand and looked into his eyes. She squished his cheeks and commanded he move.
"I can't move. I'm too tired," he said pathetically. "Let me sleep."
He laid on the ground and closed his eyes before someone kicked him hard in the side. Every time he tried to go to sleep, he kept kicking him. He hated it. Go away!
"You're pathetic!" Lysander shouted. "Don't you realize they just took your girlfriend?"
"She's working with them," he said, resigned. "Why else would she not fight them? She just went with them."
Lysander nearly laughed. "Fight them? Did you get a look at what happened to the rest of us? The skill those goblins had? They had us outnumbered, Jeremy. What could she honestly have done? She's a Hufflepuff. They're not famously known for their dueling skills. She left so we wouldn't be chopped to pieces."
"Honey, you have to move," the healer woman told him. "The only way to make the spell loosen is to exercise and get your heart pumping faster. Otherwise, it could take days for what they hit you with to wear off."
"Jeremy!" he shouted. Lysander grabbed Jeremy's Quidditch robes and hauled him to his knees. "If you don't get up and go after them, we may never be able to! Do you get that?! I don't know two things about that girl; I doubt the Wespurts even remember her at this point, but I'm going after her, even if you're not."
"Brilliant," he said. "Best of luck."
"Ugh!" Lysander dropped him to the ground and got to his feet. "Useless! He's out. Not that it matters. We have no idea where the goblins are anyway."
"Oh, but we do."
The entire group, healers and all, looked over to Luna Scamander getting up from bed. Her hair was a wet, matted mess from the half-year she'd spent in her state. Jeremy could clearly see the light blonde hair at her back gradually turn white as it neared her scalp. The whites of her eyes were glazed in crimson and in her white gown and pale skin; she looked like some unhuman ghost of a woman, walking the Earth again after so long away.
Luna Scamander stood up as straight as she could and looked around the room.
"I know exactly where Jagobin's hiding."
While we are in the hall of St. Mungo's, they shove a bag over my head and tie a rope around my neck so it stays on. Then, I am transported to one place then another until I lie on my side, I know not where. The rope about my neck is extended down to bind my hands and feet so that I can't move a single appendage without affecting every other one. I'm bent on the floor in a crescent shape, my spine curving backwards awkwardly. I hate it, but I haven't fought a moment of any of this. In fact, it's getting rather late and I think I might go to sleep soon. The sun is descending towards the horizon.
I know Jagobin is dangerous, but the instant I met him, I felt as if we'd all overestimated him. He is a terrifying being, larger than most goblins and his face is contorted from genes and scars, but I was more afraid of him when I didn't know what to expect, when I'd never seen him, when I didn't know how he would strike, when I didn't know why he wanted the Living Pearl. Now, it is obvious. He doesn't intend to use it on himself. He knows that would harm him just as it has Leo, with his sudden violent misogyny and paranoia, and Baxg, with his extreme pride.
The bag is whipped off of my head and my bindings are cut. They don't think I am dangerous though I doubt that has anything to do with my self-restraint when it comes to fighting back. I would have if I'd wanted to get away, but in truth, the attack was providential. I wanted to be caught. I needed to know more about he who was threatening my friends and me. And I found him. Or he found me. It all depends on who's telling the story. In any case, I am a young witch, never the type of person to be regarded as especially dangerous and I suspect this is why I'm allowed to move freely where they've taken me. I'm easy to control.
I look around and see a dank, grey room built of concrete. Light streams through tiny windows at the top of the walls in the giant area. The plain but tall structure reminds me of a Church. I walk to the corner and run my fingers through gossamer rags that come apart in my fingers. The webs extend all along the walls, so I somehow doubt they use this room often. In fact, in the dust, I can see the footprints of the goblins that have come through here just today and other human prints of different sizes alone in strange places throughout the room, covered in a thinner dust layer. It tells me this is where they usually keep their prisoners. Whoever they were weren't very interested in tidying up or at least weren't in here long enough to. Then again, they could be like me. I should leave clues for the next person trapped in this space. Even if I can't help him to escape, I can give him something. I walk to an open space and lie down on my back. Then, I wave my arms and legs back and forth on the ground, sit up, and write Honeycomb in the spot where my back arches up and didn't relieve the ground of its dust.
"What are you doing?" His voice makes me shiver uncontrollably and I instantly jump to my feet. I don't know why. I can't help myself. I'm not afraid of him. I keep telling myself I am not and I don't feel afraid, then why I am I acting so?
"Making a dust angel," I say. My voice waves and is high. I sound like a little girl. I suppose I am a little girl. I'm only sixteen, after all. I just sound smaller than I expected to in the massive structure around me. Perhaps my voice just sounds small and weak beside the likes of his.
"Imbecile," he mutters. "What a retarded thing to do." He throws around some curses under his breath and hunches his back. Why, I can't say. He seemed to have very good posture when he first walked in. The entire thing seems so odd to me. He seems so odd. He is giant for a goblin, yet shorter than me. His face has the usual gnarled characteristics of a goblin, yet his eyes widen far more than any of his race.
"You're a half-breed," I say and the words echo through the giant hall.
"SHUT UP!" he screams, running suddenly towards me. He feints not a meter from my face and I fall to the ground without being touched, dust rising around me. His face is contorted and he squints his eyes and hunches more so he looks like a wizard playing goblin, his face spattered with makeup. "Shut up! Shut up! Vile wretched thing!"
I sit on the ground with wide eyes and watch him walk away from me. He doesn't seem so powerful anymore. Not when I've instantly found his insecurity. We are the only two in the room, but I can tell he wouldn't have had such a reaction if I'd said that with his gangsters nearby. They all admired his giant and menacing qualities. I could see it just being in the same room with Jagobin and his followers. But Jagobin isn't proud. He uses his abnormalities to his advantage, even if he hates every one of them. I can't say how I know that. I just suspect it.
"Are you jealous of wizards?" I ask him.
"I hate wizards down to my very core," his cruel voice intones. His human eyes glimmer in the paling yellow light from the windows.
"So you wish you were a goblin," I say.
"I am a goblin," he tells me. I thought he would lash out, but he doesn't. He's fighting his own urges to maintain control of himself, though I don't know why. We're alone and I am his prisoner. He can say and do whatever he likes. Unless he's trying to manipulate me somehow. For what, I am clueless.
"Will you tell me why you brought me here?" I ask.
"You know," he says simply.
"Indeed I do not," I say. In truth, there is something to what both of us are saying. I know that he's discovered I'm somehow different, but I don't know how, in what way, or what he intends on using this information to accomplish. "Please explain it to me."
"You know," he sneers. "Don't pretend otherwise."
It's time to play dumb to find out what he knows. I sigh and try to roll my eyes convincingly. "So many creatures think they know me and just fail to. Everyone has a different opinion on what I am. I can't possibly just happen to know what yours is, especially when I've never met you before. Must you make things so difficult? Contrary to popular belief, I can't read your mind."
I must have done well for his expression seems genuinely put back. I know then that his information isn't from a magical source which would describe me accurately. It is from some creature. Honestly, it could come from any animal I have encountered, yet most of them don't know anything about my psychic qualities. The only beings that do are Darius and Sloane and I don't think it's them at all. Not only don't dwarves normally associate outside of their own kind, but why would they bother helping me? Their only goal is settling safely and living quietly. That is all any dwarf wants, save Dallen Ruby. I know that's a flimsy thing to base trust on, but the fact is that their presence is just too obvious for them to be spies and I've grown to trust them, even in the short time I've known them. I don't think it's them.
I think about Leo who knew of me first and banish the thought from my mind. Absurd. Scorpius is certainly devious enough to do so, but it isn't in his nature to go so far. Then, I realize. My mind dives back to the conversation I had with Scorpius just yesterday.
Leo stood in the center of everyone who'd stayed in the girls' changing room of the Quidditch stadium. They all listened as Lysander and Nathan relayed the events that had occurred. When they had entered the tent, before they told the group everything, Nathan had pulled Leo aside to tell him about his mother.
"Convenient that they couldn't tell me a thing," Leo sneered.
"They were trying to look out for you," Nathan told him.
"They have a funny way of doing that."
"Leo—."
"Don't defend them. If they really do care for me half as much as they claim to, they would have found a way to tell me everything that was happening. Carina did everything she could to keep me away from her so her secret wouldn't be discovered, but the minute she found out I would be endangered by doing so, she told me everything, even at risk to her own security. Say what you will about her, but she at least has some idea of respect."
By the time the two boys completely displayed the events to the people in the tent, Leo could hardly process what it all meant.
"And my father?" he asked.
"Gone with Mrs. Scamander to drop Jeremy off at the hospital wing."
"What happened to Jeremy?"
"Hit with something that knocked him right out. It was the lesser of the goblin attacks, but he'll be sleeping for the next couple of days."
Leo smirked. Carina didn't want to get him involved and now he wasn't. He couldn't help but wonder if this had anything to do with how she was connected to the Pearl and the Pearl carved out destinies. He didn't want to believe anyone could be so powerful, but if it was true, he was glad that power belonged to Carina and not someone like Jagobin.
"So Jagobin is using Carina to get Leo to hand over the Living Pearl," George reasoned.
Rose shook her head. "No. Carina said that Jagobin doesn't know how to remove the Living Pearl and has no reason to suspect we do. Leo wouldn't turn himself in to be killed and have the Pearl taken."
"It's because she's connected to the Pearl," Leo said. "He doesn't want to operate the Pearl himself because not only doesn't he know how to remove it, but he knows that it emphasizes bad qualities."
"And if there's anyone with bad qualities, it's a goblin chasing down a sixth-year wizard for a piece of jewelry," George smirked.
"He's planning on using Carina to operate the Pearl because of her abilities. She's its true owner. The Pearl chose her. It won't harm her the way it will everyone else and besides she's already a psychic. That in itself could be useful to him."
"She's what now?" Lysander asked.
Nathan patted his shoulder. "This was explained earlier. You weren't present. I'll fill you in later."
Lysander cursed. "Leaving me out. I hate you bloody faggots."
"So what do we do now?" Rose asked. "How do we save Carina? We have the Pearl. That ought to be of some help."
"The Pearl is useless without Carina," Leo said. "We'd need to remove it." All eyes went to Scorpius.
He looked around. "I am not telling anyone how it's removed without a plan for what we're doing."
"Oh, c'mon Scorpius," George complained.
"No. Carina and I had a deal and I don't intend on backing out of my portion. She said that if all else fails, we remove it. All else has not failed. We've barely even developed a Plan B. Criticize me all you like, I'm not telling you a thing about how to remove the Pearl."
"We need to remove it now so we can pass it off to her when we meet with her," George told him.
"Which will do nothing! We're not removing it solely for the sake of feeling like we're doing something instead of just sitting here. Like it or not, she trusted my judgement on this one and the Pearl stays with Leo, at least for now. That was the deal."
"What deal?" George asked. "If your part for her was the Pearl, what was her part for you?"
Scorpius and Patricia looked at one another.
"We can't say," Patricia said.
Nathan looked between the two. "Hold on. Something happened back at St. Mungo's."
"A multitude of things, in case you'd forgotten," Lysander said snidely.
"No, listen, Mr. and Mrs. Wespurt didn't want to tell us why Leo's mother had been turned into an owl, don't you remember? It was the one thing they refused to speak about. Here and now, Scorpius and Patricia have a singular thing they refuse to tell us about. Carina already told us that everything here is connected."
"Meaning whatever Leo's parents are hiding is probably the same as whatever you two are hiding," Lysander finished. "And since they refused to talk, I suggest you spit it out."
"I'm not sure it's our secret to tell," Patricia said.
"Damned if it's not," Scorpius told her. "I've never wanted to keep this to myself and telling Carina was the best thing I ever did with this damned secret. I don't care if it hurts Frieda. She's annoying anyway."
"Frieda?" Rose asked. "What's this to do with Frieda?"
"Maybe you should ask her," he said, but then suddenly turned about and scanned the room.
"She's gone," Patricia said.
"Does that honestly surprise you?" Scorpius asked. "At least she has shame. There's a sign of humanity."
"Don't say things like that."
George shouted, "Would somebody explain what's going on before I curse someone?!"
Scorpius sneered. "It was all Frieda's fault."
"Would you tell me what happened?" I asked.
Scorpius smirked. "You know how much I hate the Potters and Weasleys. I was trying to dig up dirt on them and I ended up finding some on a different family entirely. Tell me, did you know Frieda was an orphan?"
"Yes. What about it?"
"Well, she was never adopted. Where do you think she stays over the summer?"
"The Scamander estate," I shrugged. I assumed everyone knew that.
"The Scamander estate?" George repeated disbelievingly. Everyone looked to Lysander and Lorcan.
Lysander shrugged. "We never speak much to her. We've never gotten along. We don't much see her either. She stays in a cottage we have in another country in the middle of nowhere. Our mother often goes there to work and just keeps an eye on Frieda. I've never been there myself, nor am I allowed to ask why she's there."
"She's stays in a shack in the middle of nowhere?" George asked. "Merlin, that sounds like torture for Frieda. She hates being alone. She even makes me go to the bathroom with her."
"Too much information," Albus said.
"The point is the very description sounds awful."
"It was," Scorpius said, spraying the floor with cleaner and scrubbing at it with the toothbrush in his hand. "She hated that place, but didn't have much of a choice. She had to stay there over the summer. They had to keep her out of the way."
"Out of the way?" I asked. "From what?"
"From who, more like."
I paused before I made him continue. "How do you know all of this?"
"My family owns several estates around Europe. I haven't even been to them all. Over the summer, though, I went to one in Italy because, as I said, I was trying to find dirt on the Potter and Weasley families and I know they have a summer cottage there. Instead, I found Frieda. She had discovered all the children that spoke English in town and made steadfast friendships with them."
I smiled. "Sounds like Frieda. That also explains why she's so fascinated with muggle things."
"Well, I found out that even though the name was under the Potter's, it's mostly used by the Scamanders."
"I didn't know it belonged to the Potter family. I just know Frieda stays there because she has nowhere else to go. It's much better than an orphanage."
"True, but didn't you ever wonder why there and not with one of her friends? Didn't you ever wonder why the Scamanders are harboring her in the first place?"
"I've asked her many times," I said truthfully, though Frieda doesn't remember. It was in my vision. "She never wants to tell me. She's good at steering conversations where she wants them to go. I'm guessing now that you didn't wait for her to tell you. You found out yourself."
"The Scamanders are holding her for her real family."
I stared wide-eyed at Scorpius. "You'd better have some good proof for what you're about to say next."
"Trust me, I do."
"We can't tell them!" Patricia stopped him. "It isn't our secret and if we're wrong, we'll be the laughing stocks of the school."
"Then I assume responsibility for what's said from now on," Scorpius told her. "After all, I'm already a laughing stock."
Nobody said a word, but some string inside Leo played a single-noted tinge of guilt.
"Freida is Mrs. Wespurt's niece," Scorpius said. "Leo's mother has a sister who got involved with a pretty shady wizard. From what I hear, he ran a lot of black market business in the magical community. Not a very big name, but dangerous nonetheless. When he found out his mistress had his baby, he killed her."
"And spared Frieda? Why?"
"She was hidden, I suppose," Scorpius shrugged. "But the Wespurts have never been rich and couldn't afford Frieda."
"So they just left her in an orphanage."
"They put her in foster care until they could come back for her."
"But of course, they never did."
"It would've been a bit too much responsibility for the free-spirited Myra Scamander, taking care of a second child with the shame of that child being the bastard daughter of a criminal," Scorpius spat loathingly.
"I'm sure there was…" I was about to create some feasible excuse, but it was then that I realized Leo's mother ran off herself and left him and her husband.
"There's no excuse for the way those people act. Reason why they've got such a screwed up son."
"Watch it," I warned him. "Leo is an ambitious and intelligent wizard. Even if some of his views are skewed, he's a Gryffindor at heart and will fight for what he knows is right. It's who he is."
Scorpius stuck the toothbrush in my open mouth and sat back as I spat and clawed at my tongue.
"Why did you do that?!" I asked.
Scorpius smiled. "Because I want you to remember that taste in your mouth when you realize you can't see through people and one day you're going to get let down by someone you believe in."
"Leo is a good man," I repeat. "He is."
"Keep telling yourself that. Yep. Everybody's good deep down. Even me."
"I don't like the way you talk. Tell me how you found all of this out."
"Well, first, I thought she was a bastard of Harry Potter since his was the name on the estate Frieda stayed at, but eventually I discovered that wasn't the case and I just, sort of, kept trying to figure out where she came from. Patricia eventually found out and she helped me connect her to Leo before long. You have to admit, they're a lot alike and not just in looks."
He was right. Leo looks more like Frieda than he does his own parents, which is strange considering they're only cousins and different genders, but thinking about it then, I couldn't believe the connection didn't come to me sooner. They can both make friends with just about anyone and have very obvious prejudices against certain groups. Finally, it made sense why Frieda and Leo could both see me. It isn't random. They must both possess a common family trait.
"They are," I admitted.
"Then, when I tried to press Leo on it, he seemed clueless. I don't think his parents even bothered to tell him about her. To think the Scamanders put up with taking care of her for their friends just sounds disgusting."
I sat there for a long time and thought about that, but the more I did, the more everything Scorpius said sounded right on target.
And now that I sit on the ground in front of this man-goblin and wonder how he knows so much about me, I realize that all this time I've treated Freida the same as every other witch and wizard in Hogwarts when I should have been treating her like my friend. I underestimated her and for that I will pay the price for I realize now that she is the one who told Jagobin everything about me.