Chapter 29: Dream Rune, Part 5: Fallout

So they did get married, in the spring. Because Hildegard had no family and Erik wasn't really interested in his own after Agneta had expressed suspicion about Hildegard (Hildegard being so honest compelled Erik to do the same), they decided to keep it simple. Dagmar made for an adorable ring-bearer, and she held Hildegard and Erik's hands in the Ministry courthouse while they said their vows. There were a few witnesses, but Erik alone would grasp the full significance of Hildegard saying she wanted to grow old with him.

There was documentation to take care of afterward. Hildegard legally took the Ramstad name. She was frustrated anew at the fact she still couldn't regularly share a bed with Erik. Dagmar wasn't ready to go it completely on her own. Hildegard stayed with her until she fell asleep, and then headed over to the master. Dagmar made it through the night alone about half the time. The other half, she came to wake Hildegard up. Hildegard would finish the night in Dagmar's room in those cases.

Other than that, Dagmar continued to flourish. She was every bit as smart coming up on six years old as Narcissa knew of her later on. Hildegard not working outside of the house meant that Dagmar's education—and Hildegard's by extension of the world at large—became the top priority. The three of them travelling a handful of times a year for Erik's work was like putting an extra light in Dagmar's head.

Erik had an office at home as well, although he didn't use it very often. Curiosity as to why he was in there one day drew Hildegard in.

"Oh, hey." He lit up when he noticed her. "Up to anything?"

"Nei, just thought I'd see what you were up to."

"I was going to find you, actually." Erik had some papers in hand. "I need you to sign some things."

Hildegard joined Erik at the desk. "What are they?"

"Estate stuff," Erik explained. "It'll put your name on the house. You'll be my next of kin if anything happens to me."

It'd been a while since the last time a conversation like this came up. Hildegard still hesitated, unsure.

"We're married." Erik sat on the desk's edge. "It changes things. If anything ever happens to me, I want to make sure that you and Dagmar are taken care of. This is our house. It's our money. The paperwork ought to reflect that so that it's recognized by law."

"Hm."

"Do you want to read everything over first?" Erik held the papers out.

"Ja, maybe."

It was probably more about adjusting to the idea than seeing what she put her name to, Narcissa thought. Hildegard looked through it all anyway over the next week. When she and Erik came back together about it, Hildegard had everything signed.

Erik flipped through all the parchment to see that nothing had been missed. "I'll give all this to the advocate, then."

"Before you do," Hildegard said, "I have some paperwork I'd like your help with."

"What is it?"

Hildegard went to her purse to grab the envelope worth of forms she'd picked up from the Ministry earlier that day. When she returned to the office, she closed the door behind her. It piqued Erik's interest that this was something Hildegard wouldn't risk Dagmar overhearing.

"I never got around to registering with the Ministry," Hildegard said as she pulled herself back to sit on the desk. "Not myself or Dagmar. It's been a little tough to fill these out because there's so many things I don't know how to answer. I can't provide my parents' names. I wasn't born somewhere that can be pinned down with a location name. That's all the same for Dagmar pretty much, but I had a thought while looking at hers. I'd like to put you in as her father."

"Okay."

"It's like you said, right?" Hildegard returned Erik's smile. "These are things that already are. The paperwork would just agree."

"True, but for me it's a tad different." Erik put a hand on Hildegard's knee. "This is essentially an adoption."

"Ja," Hildegard agreed. "If anything happens to me, I don't want there to be any murky legal water. She would stay with her dad."

Erik filled out everything that he needed to and Hildegard submitted it, concreting her as a citizen of magical Norway and Erik as Dagmar's legal father. Life carried on for them. Dagmar turned six in August. Another Christmas marked Bjorn's fifth birthday passing. January made four years without him. The excitement of pinning Magnus down in Paris had long faded. There were no hints of him yet to follow. Erik suspected that if Magnus intended to stick around in France, seeing as he bothered to learn the language, he likely picked somewhere rural to masquerade as a single dad. As easily as Hildegard left out certain details of her life while registering with the Ministry, so too could Magnus if he started fresh with a different name.

Although things were otherwise good at home, Erik started reminiscing more about his family.

"Why don't you talk to them?" Hildegard asked one evening. "It's been a while. Agneta makes me nervous, but how else would you find out if she's had a change of heart about me? I think Dagmar would like having something to do with her cousins again."

Erik chewed on his bottom lip while he thought about it. "Maybe I'll start with Håkon."

He didn't want to rock the boat by addressing Agneta's behaviour with Håkon, so the two of them just passed owls back and forth about other things. Ella and the boys were doing well, and Håkon still worked as a charter fisherman. After a couple months of correspondence, Håkon offered to take Erik, Hildegard, and Dagmar out on Oslofjord.

Hildegard hesitated against it, but not for the reason Narcissa would've expected of her.

"Why don't you go with just Dagmar?" Hildegard suggested. "Spend some one-on-one time with your brother. Ella and I could go another time, if she's not already committed to it."

"Are you sure?" Erik asked. "I'd love to do that, but you're not just backing out because you think he doesn't like you or anything?"

"Nei." Hildegard's smile was genuine as she playfully pushed Erik's shoulder. "Us having a relationship with your family starts with you and them. Go have fun with your brother."

Håkon's boat was meant to stay out on the water for multiple days at a time, so what had started as a simple fishing trip ramped up into something more resembling an expedition. Erik expected them to be gone for a full week, from Friday to Friday.

Dagmar got nervous as the trip came closer. "Mamma, why can't you come?"

"I can, but sometimes it's important for us to spend time with other people," Hildegard reassured her. "Daddy's going to write me a letter every night. You could write me too."

"You'll write me?"

Hildegard nodded with a kiss to the side of her head. "There'll be an owl for you every morning."

Dagmar still wasn't very moved. "What if I get scared?"

"You'll have Daddy."

Although Dagmar didn't outwardly resist, she still wasn't very warm to the whole thing. She started crying when she had to say goodbye to Hildegard.

"Ohhh, I love you." Hildegard squeezed Dagmar so tightly that her restricted breath put a cap on her gasped inhales. "I'll miss you, but I'll see you next week."

Hildegard waited until Dagmar was gone before she had her own cry about being separated. It was the longest they'd ever spent apart, maybe in all the lifetimes they'd been together. Erik had made a good point when Hildegard brought up separation anxiety that this was something they needed to start whittling away at if they expected Dagmar to attend Kapsferd the summer she turned eleven. If they didn't adjust to this now, spending months at a time apart would be beyond agonizing. For Dagmar, it might even be traumatizing.

It was definitely tough. Hildegard grew bored nearly immediately. Her days normally revolved around Dagmar. She decided to reach out to friends for something to do, and ended up going for a massage and dinner with Janne Dyrdahl and a few other ladies. Going home so relaxed led to a kip. When Hildegard woke up, an owl was waiting for her in the owlery. Erik wrote that Dagmar was still pretty sad to be away from her and from home, but that she was having fun in the cracks between. She'd even managed to hook a cod on her rod, although she couldn't reel it in by herself.

Dagmar wrote about that as well on the second piece of parchment brought by the owl. Hildegard replied with congratulations to the boat's littlest fisherman and hopes that everyone was having a good time. She said she missed them, but she had fun with her friends at the spa and her favourite restaurant.

Hildegard was anxious the second day to hear how Dagmar had slept without her. Dagmar was apparently so exhausted and a little bit seasick that she conked right out. She only needed Erik to shake her enough out of a nightmare for her to roll over and fall back asleep. When Dagmar was bored with fishing, she helped Uncle Håkon work on cleaning up their crisp and sweets supply. Viglaug and Påske had brought building blocks to play with. The little town the kids put together in the cabin had come to some sort of life, although it was one riddled with constantly-pending disaster. The enchantments on the pieces interpreted the rocking water as geological tremors. The kids were very busy putting measures into place to help the miniature citizens of Svimmelby adjust to their unsteady environment.

Hildegard enjoyed all the time she had to herself as well, but she was very excited when Friday came. Her owl sent on Thursday night entailed fully of expressing that. Hildegard was eager to hear what Erik had to say about the trip. He'd written in his parts of the letters that he and Håkon had had a great time with a couple good brotherly heart-to-hearts. Hildegard anticipated the details to come later.

Erik and Dagmar were due back mid-afternoon. In last night's letter, Erik had mentioned that he couldn't wait to eat something other than fish and junk food. Hildegard started getting dinner ready with plenty of vegetables and a fresh reindeer roast. She ditched cutting potatoes and carrots in the kitchen as soon as the fireplace whooshed in the great room.

Her grin slipped away as she came to a stop. "Is everything all right?"

"Ja, it's fine," Erik said, although it clearly wasn't. Seeing him upset was a rare occasion. Dagmar didn't look happy either, although she squeezed Hildegard as tightly as she could when Hildegard bent down to one knee for a hug.

"Why don't you go upstairs and get ready for a bath?" Hildegard told her. "I'll be right behind you. Wait for me to start the water."

"Okay."

Dagmar headed off with her bag toward the foyer. While her footsteps carried up to the second floor, Hildegard's heart sunk as Erik's eyes started to shine. She pulled him into a tight hug, rubbing the back of his head. A sniffle sounded by her ear.

"What happened?" she asked. "I thought everything was going well."

"You won't believe what Agneta did."

Hildegard's brow furrowed. "Agneta?"

Erik nodded against Hildegard's shoulder. "She was at Håkon's house with Flor when we got there last Friday, so we visited a bit. She was there again this morning. Suggested we let the kids play while we all have a cup of coffee. I got ambushed. Apparently before we left, she took one of Dagmar's hairs or something and got some test done. She found out that me and her aren't related."

Hildegard's mouth briefly fell open before her jaw set.

"It all became about how you're lying to me." Erik's voice trembled. "I felt like I was outside my body, listening to her. It was such a good week, you know? Me and Dagmar don't spend a whole lot of time alone together. Never for that long. I felt like we really bonded, and then I get hit with that. Complete kick in the balls."

"It doesn't mean anything." Hildegard pulled back enough to look Erik in the eye. "You know that, right? It's never mattered."

"Ja." Erik hastily wiped an eye before laughing mirthlessly. "Fuck, I never cry. At least Agneta made sure the kids were outside before we talked. I went off a bit. Thank god Dagmar never heard anything. She could still tell I was mad, though. I hate that it made her nervous. And Håkon just sat there. He didn't say anything as Agneta was laying all this out. He denied it when I asked him if this was why he invited me over. I think it was, and then he felt bad after we spent the week together. And they wonder why I never visit, or why we never come anymore on the holidays."

"I'm so sorry that happened." Hildegard squeezed him again. "I'd be furious too. Well, I am. I'm already thinking about a letter I wouldn't mind sending them."

"It's not worth it. They can just fuck off. I'll talk to Dad when I have to about estate stuff, but I don't think I can ever trust them again. Not after this, and not knowing that the next time they see you and Dagmar they're going to look at you differently."

"I'd certainly look at them differently."

"Me too. Assholes."

Erik headed upstairs along with Hildegard, intent for a shower to get the smell of fish and sea air off him. Hildegard wished she could stay with him, but Dagmar needed her wash too. She waited in the bathtub, her knees pulled up to her chest and her head rested on them.

"Oh good, you remembered a towel," Hildegard commented. It was something Dagmar forgot more often than not.

Dagmar nodded as Hildegard ran the taps. "Is Daddy okay?"

Hildegard hesitated. "He'll be okay. He just had a fight with your auntie."

"How come?"

"She hurt his feelings."

"Why?"

"Sometimes people just do." Hildegard held her hand under the water, waiting for the temperature to come up. "She was rude."

"Didn't she say she was sorry?"

"Maybe, but Daddy's still hurt," Hildegard replied. "Do you remember that time Einar hit you on accident when you two were playing? He said sorry, but your arm still hurt for a while, right? It's like that, but just Daddy's feelings."

"Aw." Dagmar's little brow wrinkled. "Poor Daddy."

"Ja, he doesn't get sad very often." Hildegard put the plug down. "It makes me sad to see him sad."

"Me too."

"So you had fun on the boat?"

Dagmar was easy to distract. Hildegard was very happy regardless of everything else to have given Erik and Dagmar an unintentional chance to get closer as father and daughter. Still, that made it even sadder that Agneta had ruined the trip overall. Hildegard expected better from Håkon.

Erik had done a good job while away making sure that Dagmar's hair didn't get too knotty. Hildegard had Dagmar condition it while in the bath so that it would be silky afterward. Her brush only hit a few snags before Hildegard could braid it for her into a plait. Erik found them sitting on the edge of Dagmar's bed.

"Feels good to get all cleaned up, huh?" Erik smiled at her, leaned against the door frame.

"Ja," Dagmar replied. "Mamma said that your feelings got hurt."

Erik glanced at Hildegard. "They did."

"What did Auntie do? Or say?"

"It wasn't what she did or said, but how she did it." Erik skirted around it. "It's okay, jenta mi. I feel better just knowing you and Mamma care about me."

He stuck around after Hildegard turned down his offer to pick up where she'd left off on dinner preparations. Hildegard wanted to do it for them, although it turned into a family affair when Dagmar decided she wanted to help too. She wasn't big enough to help cut vegetables, but Erik supervised her washing lettuce for their salad. She helped him mix the dressing for it as well.

The weekend was quiet with lots of kips between the three of them (plus Grim, who had made it his mainstay to sleep on Dagmar's bed). On Monday when Erik went back to work, Dagmar went out to the greenhouse with Hildegard. They watered everything together and moved some sweet potatoes over to larger pots. Dagmar went into Erik's office after they came back inside and she'd washed her hands. Erik had set up a little desk for her in the corner, where she kept all of her parchment and colouring materials. She came out to the kitchen with some sheets, ink, a quill, and her tongue poking out in concentration not to drop any of it.

"Mamma, will you help me?" she asked.

"What're you doing?"

"I wanna make a book for Daddy to make him feel better." Dagmar put her ink up on the kitchen island first among her things. "But I don't know what kind of book."

Hildegard hummed in thought before the two of them brainstormed on it. In the end, Dagmar came up with the idea of putting together a list of her favourite things about Erik. Hildegard suggested that each page have one of those points, along with an illustration. The project became more than Dagmar could do in one day, and it became a secret between the two of them for the week. Dagmar was too excited to keep it completely to herself. She talked about it not-so-discretely in front of Erik, although didn't give what exactly it was away. Erik played along after asking Hildegard what was up, trusting Hildegard when she said the surprise would be worth it. Everyday he came home from work and Dagmar wasn't finished yet, his curiosity burned a little brighter.

Dagmar put the finishing touches on it on Friday, and then she and Hildegard figured out what order the pages would go in before Hildegard stuck them all together. It was only mid-morning. Dagmar whinged a bit around lunch about wanting to take it to Erik at work, but Hildegard saw the value in Dagmar learning some patience and the gratifying nature of a big payoff. Dagmar put it on the coffee table in the great room. She'd go off and do something else for a little while before coming back and asking Hildegard how much longer until Erik came home. Hildegard had to put her back to Dagmar when she lounged dramatically on the couch, for a fit of giggles came over her.

Erik stepped out of the fireplace a little after five. Dagmar had sat up properly when the time came close. She held her book against her chest with a grin. Hildegard sat there with her. She wanted to see Erik's reaction too.

A slow grin came over him as he looked between the two of them. "What's this?"

"I have something for you," Dagmar stated.

She hopped up and held her book out to him. Erik set his briefcase down but didn't bother removing his jacket before coming over to the couch to sit. He pressed his lips together and cleared his throat as he looked at the front page and title.

"You made this all by yourself?" Erik asked her.

"Ja." Dagmar leaned her head on Erik when he put an arm around her. "It was Mamma's idea I do the drawings, but that's it."

Erik laughed, but his humour faded into warmness as he read through the book. He had to keep wiping his eyes. When he reached the end, he squeezed Dagmar in a sideways hug and kissed her temple.

"This is quite possibly the sweetest thing anyone's ever done for me," he told her. "I love it, jenta mi. I'll treasure it forever."

After soaking up her praises, Dagmar headed off to play. Hildegard was in the kitchen working on dinner when Erik found her after changing out of his work clothes. Without needing a word, Hildegard brought him into a tight hug.

"She really came up with that on her own?" Erik asked.

"Ja." Hildegard chuckled. "Why, you think she wasn't capable of it?"

"Of course she is." Erik sighed. "Always known she was sweet, but sweeter than I knew, apparently."

"She really is." Hildegard cupped his jaw, stroking his cheek with her thumb. "She adores you."

"I feel it."

Life kept on. Hildegard turned twenty-five, followed by Dagmar turning seven in August. What would've been Bjorn's sixth birthday came up right before Christmas, and years kept ticking on. All of a sudden, Dagmar was nearly five feet tall and self-conscious because she started puberty. She became mercurial in temperament. Not only did she say she didn't need to sleep with Hildegard anymore, she didn't want to. Only Grim was allowed on her bed past bedtime.

Shortly after Hildegard and Erik celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary, an owl arrived for Erik. Hildegard didn't pay it much mind until she realized that Erik hadn't come back inside from the veranda. He sat out there with his pipe, looking off into space. He glanced at her when she joined him. His face was long and he held the rolled up letter in his free hand.

Hildegard squeezed his shoulder. "All right?"

"Håkon wrote me," Erik replied. "My dad died."

Face growing similarly long, Hildegard sat down beside him. "What happened?"

"Just natural, or whatever." Erik sniffled. "Dad stopped replying to letters, so Håkon and Agneta asked Enid Keene at the advocate office in London to do a welfare check. He was in his bed."

Hildegard hugged Erik sideways and sat with him until he was ready to go back inside. Johannes' death was the first one they ever had to tell Dagmar about, but it didn't go so badly since Dagmar didn't know him very well. She pulled herself out of her regular moodiness for Erik's sake, feeling bad that he had lost his dad.

Erik went alone to the celebration of life, intending just to put in an appearance out of respect for his father. He made another trip to Oslo a few weeks later for a family meeting regarding the estate. His eyes were unfocused when he returned home. He dipped upstairs for a kip before dinner.

The days were long again in the way of sunlight, so Erik and Hildegard sat outside together later in the evening.

"Enid brought over Dad's will for the meeting," Erik told Hildegard. "Dad wanted all of his money donated to schools, hospitals, the dragon reserve. . .things like that."

"That was lovely of him," Hildegard replied.

Erik nodded mindlessly. "Nobody volunteered when the question came up of who wants to mind the manor."

"That would mean moving to Britain, wouldn't it?" Hildegard crossed her legs. "If everyone's comfortable and tied here, I'm not surprised. It sounds like a slog of a job."

"I'm thinking about it."

Hildegard's eyebrows jumped. "You are?"

"I wanted to talk to you first." Erik tapped his teeth against the pipe's mouthpiece. "I think we've gotten everything we wanted out of my job at the Ministry. There isn't anything there about Magnus, and mainland Europe hasn't been as giving as we'd hoped. It's still possible that Magnus took Bjorn to Britain. He obviously didn't tell anybody about him, otherwise they would've already tracked you and Dagmar down. But maybe that's where he chose to hide. If not, it's not like minding the estate is very hard work. We'd still have opportunities to travel and all that. More even, maybe. Money certainly wouldn't be an issue. We'd sell this place and not have to buy again. There's a house on the property."

"I'll go if you want," Hildegard said. "Dagmar will be a tough sell. She has friends here."

"She'll still get to see them at Kapsferd."

Hildegard made a sound in her throat. "If we're moving down to the southern parts of Britain, I wouldn't want her that far away. Besides, if Magnus is in Britain, Bjorn would be going to Hogwarts. Not that I'd tell Dagmar to keep an eye out, but we could prod at her about whether or not she saw him."

The conversation went back and forth over the course of a few months. This was a bigger move to consider than Tromsø to Bergen because it also entailed learning a new language. Erik spoke English, but Hildegard and Dagmar didn't.

Erik quit his job at the Ministry and told the family that he would make the move to Britain. Hildegard and Erik did it slowly for Dagmar's sake. They went back and forth between Bergen and Ramstad Manor, alternating weeks. Dagmar got comfortable at the manor, set up a bedroom, and had started to familiarize herself with the manor house's two libraries. Because she hadn't caught on yet, she made an effort to learn English. She liked to pretend that she helped Erik sort through everything in the office. The books in the house all became puzzles in need of translation and understanding.

"Herregud, this place is a mess," Erik told Hildegard at one point when he spent another frustrating day organizing the office. "If my dad had a system, I couldn't tell you what it is. And I learned about two new accounts today that Dad neglected to write anything down about anywhere."

"More handshake deals?" Hildegard asked.

"Ja." Erik sighed. "Maybe I'll take Lucius up on his offer after all. I figured I had this all under control, but that was just dangerous thinking."

Hildegard chuckled.

"He has a wife, if you're interested in meeting her," Erik said. "And they have a son Dagmar's age. Maybe we should invite them over for dinner rather than go straight to business."

"Sure," Hildegard agreed. "We ought to get Dagmar some friends before she goes to Hogwarts. It might help her English to have more conversations. She reads enough, but. . ."

Narcissa's heart skipped, for she remembered that dinner. It was very strange to see herself from Hildegard's perspective. Dagmar was every bit as nervous about it as Narcissa had suspected when she greeted her for the very first time. Draco's quietness was more to do with him sulking about having to be there. The look Draco gave memory-Narcissa when she prompted him to say hello to Dagmar made Narcissa snort. There was truly no telling at the time that the two of them would one day wind up engaged.

Narcissa remembered as accurately as Hildegard that the two of them clicked that night—Lucius and Erik too—even if the kids didn't. Lucius came around Ramstad Manor a few times after that to help Erik sort things out in the estate. Narcissa saw herself with growing frequency since she'd asked Hildegard after that first dinner if she was interested in tea with some of the other ladies she knew. Hildegard had plenty of experience by then as a socialite, and blended in perfectly with Narcissa, Rose Parkinson, Luzia Zabini, Deidra Nott, Clare Greengrass, and Helene Bulstrode. Having children the same age had cultivated the small group, especially as all their kids came up on the age where future arrangements in marriage would start being discussed. Narcissa herself had started watching closely how Draco acted around Pansy, Daphne, and Millicent.

Since Hildegard didn't know about those yet, her preoccupations remained elsewhere. It was a little disheartening for her that Dagmar had a hard time fitting in. Pansy, Daphne, and Millicent had grown up close as cousins, and turned cliquey toward an outsider. Dagmar stayed quiet too because she was still shaky with her English.

Dagmar got on pretty all right with Blaise. He was a quiet child too at that age, more interested in books than anything else. If a tea ever happened at Ramstad Manor and Blaise came with Luzia, he'd usually amble to the main library knowing he'd find Dagmar there. Dagmar either sat with her mum at anyone else's house, or else just whined enough to stay home with Erik.

As summer loomed, Hildegard, Erik, and Dagmar spent less and less time in Bergen. Hildegard and Erik started talking to Janne and Filip Dyrdahl about selling their house to them. That meant the time had come to drop the other foot on Dagmar. Hildegard certainly dreaded it, so she and Erik decided to let it wait until after Dagmar's birthday. Turning ten was a big deal to her, and Hildegard didn't want to infringe on that.

Dagmar was upset about the move, but not too terribly so. There were some tearful goodbyes with her friends the last time they all saw each other in Bergen. The real meltdown came after Hildegard received confirmation from Dumbledore that Dagmar would be able to attend Hogwarts next September.

Hildegard and Erik held tight through all the screaming and crying and yelling. Once Dagmar had that out of her system, she took to ignoring Hildegard and Erik's existence. She refused to come out of her room. Dagmar didn't eat for three days. When Dagmar broke her hunger strike for pickled herring, she was beyond rude.

"Cut it with the attitude, young lady," Hildegard finally snapped. "You're going to Hogwarts."

"It's not fair!" The yelling and tears immediately started again. "I don't want to! I wanna go to school with all my friends!"

"This discussion is over."

Dagmar fled the kitchen, trying as hard as she could to stomp her feet on the stairs. Her bedroom door slammed and Hildegard was pretty sure she heard a crash. With a sigh, she ignored the instinct to check and see what had just been broken. Her guilt returned. Hildegard didn't want to cave if she went up there, for it wouldn't change the circumstances anyway.

Erik came out of his office. "What was that about?"

"I put my foot down about Hogwarts."

"If she's that upset, maybe we should reconsider it."

"We have considered it," Hildegard said. "It's for the best. It wouldn't hurt her to learn either that sometimes we just have to do things we don't want to. Things we don't want to happen, happen. Not everything can be negotiated."

"Ja." Erik paused. "I just hate seeing her like that."

"Me too."

Tense quiet fell over the house. Hildegard and Erik decided to leave Dagmar alone and let her come back around at her own pace. They were eating dinner the next night when Hildegard heard Dagmar's bedroom door open upstairs. Dagmar came into the kitchen looking tired and pouty. She peered at what was on top of the stove and then glanced at her parents before pulling down a plate. She fixed herself some and went back upstairs. Hildegard had been hopeful she'd stay, but it wouldn't be for a couple more weeks yet that Hildegard happened to be in the library when Dagmar came in.

"Hei, Mum," Dagmar quietly greeted her.

"Hei, jenta mi. All right?"

"I broke some ink and it's all in my carpet."

Hildegard followed her upstairs. The ink had long dried, but it was just as easily vanished with a quick wave of the wand. Dagmar still kept her head down, her bottom lip poking out. That she asked her mum for help with the mess rather than one of the house elves meant something. Dagmar made no sweeping move to shoo Hildegard from her space, either.

"Can we talk?" Hildegard asked.

Dagmar nodded and headed over to the couch and chair. She sat on the couch, which Hildegard interpreted as an allowance to sit beside her. She hugged Dagmar when she did. With a sniffle, Dagmar hugged her back.

"I know you're upset," Hildegard told her. "I know you're sad and mad and everything else under the sun. It's scary to move away from everything and everyone you know, especially when the people here don't speak the same language as you."

"Ja." Dagmar's breath hitched.

"Your dad and I aren't making you do this just to be mean. You live in Britain now. You have to go to British school."

"I know. I'm just scared."

"I know, jenta mi. But we're only an owl away, and you'll be safe there. The headmaster Dumbledore seems very nice. You'll be very safe at Hogwarts." Hildegard kissed her hair. "Did you know they let you take an animal?"

"They do?" Dagmar looked up.

Hildegard nodded. "Your dad had an idea that maybe you'd like Grim to go with you. I don't think he'd like sleeping on your empty bed."

Although Dagmar cried a little more, it seemed to be more out of relief than sadness. She said she was sorry about being mean the last little while, and then asked a few other questions about Hogwarts before heading down to the library for something to read.

It heartened Hildegard to see Dagmar start trying to adjust. Her reading and writing in English excelled, although Dagmar lagged a little comparatively in speaking. She was still shy if her path ever crossed with Pansy, Daphne, and Millicent.

Dagmar grew anxious as fall turned to winter, then winter to spring. With summer came her eleventh birthday two weeks before the Hogwarts Express would pull out of London. To help make her feel better, Hildegard let Dagmar choose if she wanted to do what shopping she could in Bergen. She was able to get everything but her books and uniform there.

September first arrived on a foggy morning. Dagmar was beyond quiet as she apparated into the train platform with Erik. She looked torn about keeping on holding his hand. With all the other Hogwarts students there, she decided against it.

Hildegard gave her a tight hug, fighting against tears. "I love you, jenta mi. Write to me tonight and let me know how the train ride goes, ja?"

Dagmar's cheeks were wet. "I love you too."

Erik squeezed her next. "You'll do great."

"Ja." Dagmar didn't sound so sure.

She held Grim's basket in her hands while the three of them stood together. He didn't like the confined space. Grim meowing made Dagmar sigh.

"I guess I should go," she said. "I hope he'll be allowed out on the train."

"I don't see why not," Erik replied. "He's a good cat. He'll stick close to you."

"Ja."

Dagmar still hesitated to leave them. A girl came up to them then with bushy brown hair and large front teeth. Dagmar took a double-glance at her, nervous as to why she was being approached.

"Is that a Norwegian forest cat?" Hermione Granger asked in a bossy tone. "He's massive."

Dagmar looked back at Hildegard and Erik. Hildegard smiled encouragingly. "Go on."

"Ja," Dagmar said quietly to Hermione as they took a step together toward the train. "His name is Grim."

"I've read all about magical creatures, of course, and. . ."

Whatever Hermione said faded away into the crowd. Hildegard wiped her eyes anew, and sighed when she saw Dagmar smile in response to something Hermione said. She looked at Erik when he put an arm around her.

"She'll do just fine," he told her. "All anyone ever needs in this world is one good friend."