Chapter 30: The Room of Inquiry
Daisy sat alongside Albus, Eliza and Jonathan in the Headmistress' office. Daisy had never been to McGonagall's office before, but she imagined that under normal circumstances, it wasn't so crowded.
The four chairs that the freed prisoners were seated in, as well as the chair McGonagall sat in, were the only ones that had already been present upon their entry. The other strange variety of chairs, some with armrests, some completely of wood, and some with no backing at all, had come from various aurors or teachers that had quite literally drawn them up.
One of the Hogwarts nurses was there too. He was allowed to stay to do some kind of health scan on Albus and Eliza when many others were ushered out.
"Surely you have better ways to spend your time!" McGonagall had squawked at the extra aurors. "And this is not the time for news interviews, Miss Weasley, how did you even get in here. Out, the lot of you!"
Daisy recognized the girl, Dominique Weasley, from her time at the Burrow that Summer. Dominique moved aside for the aurors to walk past her, still holding a quill and pad of paper, looking expectantly of the students.
"Miss Weasley," the gruff voice of one of the aurors said. He placed a hand on her arm and directed her out.
Dominique looked back at them with frustration. "I'd let you read through it before I published!" she insisted. "I could wait a few days for your approval, but the public should know -" Dominique halted her protest after she caught the eye of her uncle Ron. She allowed herself to be escorted out.
Left behind were those seated at the desk with Daisy, along with Harry, the nurse, Malia guarded by Ron Weasley, and McGonagall herself. Moments later, Jonas entered the room, Professor Flitwick at his side.
"I know you may be tired," McGonagall began.
Daisy looked out the window. It was dark out, but not so late that the students should have been ready to sleep, although, Daisy realized that the Headmistress had probably been addressing Albus and Eliza, not her.
"But," she continued, "we need to piece together this story as soon as possible."
The students nodded. Daisy tried to turn her head discreetly to get a glimpse of Malia, the only student not seated around the desk with them. The older girl was sat slumped on a stool, her hands tied in her lap, eyes downcast and nearly completely hidden by her hair. She had only just woken up from being stunned, and had not yet attempted anything that would cause trouble.
McGonagall talked a little bit more about what was already known, and then she indicated for Eliza to speak, as she had been the first taken.
"No," Arianne interrupted. "I know almost everything about this," she hesitated. "Experiment. I'll tell it."
Malia made a sound resembling one a cornered cat might make, but Arianne didn't look back or in any way acknowledge that she had heard her sister.
"This all started years ago when our mother fell ill. We were told she had cancer, a disease that wizards are known to be resistant towards. It's something only muggles are supposed to get, apparently, and therefore, little magical research has been done on it. We were forced to resort to using muggle treatment, and it failed."
"Failed is a light way to phrase that," Malia interrupted. "We should have known better than to go to the muggles! Their methods of killing cancer hurt the patient as well. And even after all of that, nothing good was accomplished! They only made things worse!"
Arianne proceeded without changing her story to include the outburst. "None of us, not either of my parents, nor my sister were ready to face the fact that we could be losing a piece of our family. Dad reacted by going back to St. Mungo's, begging the doctors there for help, and for a while, Mum stayed there. For a while, that was enough. The cancer was removed. But it came back, again and again, so she convinced the doctors to let her live her last months at home. With us."
Arianne took a deep breath, and brushed a hand over the bridge of her nose. "Dad and I accepted that it was the end, not knowing that Mum had another plan. I still don't know how she acquired it, but I do know that Unicorn blood was supposed to keep her alive, not destroy her. She worked every opportunity she had trying to combine the blood in a potion that would keep her alive completely, not just living a half-life like the stories say. Maybe you've guessed by now, but she failed. Yes, she's still alive, but she's been deep in a coma for more than a year now."
Flitwick murmured sympathetically, while others around cast their eyes away to avoid meeting Arianne's or simply adopted deeper frowns onto their faces.
"Malia knew about Mom's experiments before we did, though," Arianne continued, "and when the first draft of the potion didn't work, she decided she would be the one to fix it. She took the remaining samples of unicorn blood, and started trying to finish the cure that our mother started. Last term, she acquired the phoenix and somehow lured it into that room, which apparently is resistant to its magic, because it never left."
"Phoenix?" Harry asked. "There wasn't one when we searched the room. Was it hidden in a sideroom?"
Arianne stared, wide-eyed. "No, it was in a cage out in the open. If it wasn't there… that meant it could have left whenever it wanted to. Malia," she gasped, "It could have left, but it stayed, what…"
Malia's eyes widened in surprise, and her mouth curved downwards. "Impossible.."
"Nevermind, we'll get back to that," Arianne said. "Back to how Malia found The Room of Inquiry in the first place. She wasn't the one to find it - Jonas was. I don't think he remembers anymore."
Everyone looked at Jonas to had his fingers pressed to his temples, eyes clenched tightly.
"I think some of it's coming back now that you've reminded me," he said at last. "That's why I was talking about the houses. It was for History of Magic, Malia and I were doing an extra project on the Room of Requirement. We thought it was created by Helga Hufflepuff. And if both Slytherin and Hufflepuff created secret rooms in the castle -"
"-Why wouldn't the other House founders?" Eliza .
Jonas nodded. "So we went looking, and I found the portrait. It had been in the restricted section of the library before, of course, that's why not too many students went to talk to it. When the library was partially redesigned after the Battle of Hogwarts, the restricted section was moved slightly, and the portrait now visible to anyone who would venture into that cozy corner in the back of the library. People don't pay attention to portraits much. There are so many that people just get used to them, but if you really look, you can tell that the background looks like it could be the Ravenclaw Common Room, and after talking to the woman in the painting, I noticed a book on the shelf that was written by Rowena Ravenclaw herself."
"So, he opened the room, showed Malia, who then showed me," Arianne continued.
"But she wouldn't let me tell anyone about it," Jonas said. "I thought that it was okay. We could have the room to ourselves, for a little while at least, but after Christmas, I thought that she'd had enough time. I told her that I was going to tell a teacher, and that's when she snapped. She asked me to meet with her in the Room of Inquiry - is that it's official name now?"
Arianne shrugged.
"So, I went, and she didn't let me back out again until the day you found me, I guess. I didn't remember anything until now, and most of it's still pretty clouded."
"And the other students?" Harry asked, eyes briefly settling on his son. "Why were they taken?"
"For the phoenix," Arianne whispered. "Malia couldn't get it to cry, so she brought in Eliza and Albus because they're both well known for their bravery and defense of others, as well as Albus being your son."
Daisy saw Harry wince at the Albus being his son part, which confused her before guessed that the emotion she had seen was guilt.
"That makes sense," McGonagall said. "It's sad that you felt you had to resort to such methods to keep your mother alive, Miss Carver. I doubt a phoenix would be brought to tears so easily, though."
Malia didn't breathe a word, and kept her eyes definitely upwards.
"It's not just my mother," she said, at the same moment Arianne said, "It definitely wasn't easy. Ariane's frame diminished and she pulled her clenched fists into her lap as her sister spoke.
"Phoenix tears are rare, but unicorn blood can be gotten more easily. And if the effects of unicorn blood could be restrained by only a few tears, several people could have been cured from something that only would have helped one. I could have created something remarkable, something that could have cured almost anything."
"Or you could have killed two people," Arianne whispered, "and have only an injured unicorn to show for it."
"Killed two people?" Ron's voice jolted out of the blue. "What exactly happened down there. I mean, those two look fine, but if they could have been killed…"
"I never would have killed anyone, I swear," Malia protested. "I had antidotes for every magical plant, potion, and poison I could get access to."
"Because the draught of living death is predictable and you were absolutely sure your antidote would work," Arianne said.
A shocked silence rippled out from her words.
"I was never planning to use -"
"Miss Carver, I'm astonished - no, not after all of this, I can't say I truly am," McGonagall sighed. "50 points will be taken for your treatment of your fellow students. For this severity of rule breaking, more points would be taken, but for the sake of being fair to your house, whatever the ministry decides to do will serve as a consequence. I think it's time that you were escorted out, unless anyone has anything else to say about what you have done."
No one moved.
Ron began to walk towards the door with Malia at wand point, when she stopped.
"You didn't see what they had done to her," she snarled. "Those muggles have no idea what they're doing, half killing a person to give them only a chance at life! I could have created something so much better!"
"That's enough," Ron said, and raised his wand higher.
Malia looked at her sister one last time, lips pinched tightly together, eyes blinking rapidly to avoid spilling over. Then she turned and walked swiftly out.
"Now we need to hear about how you escaped," Harry said to the rest of them once Malia had gone.
"That was thanks to Daisy," Albus said. "It's thanks to her our wands were returned to us."
Eliza nodded. "It was amazing. She cast a levitation charm without her wand! Got a wand to move close enough to me that I could grab it and free the rest of them."
"Really?" Harry asked, amazed.
"That's quite a gift," McGonagall agreed. "Professor Flitwick -"
"I'd already planned to help her with it as soon as the students were found."
"It wasn't just me," Daisy said, even as she nodded. "Arianne put the wands there. It looked like she did it deliberately. She's the only one who had seen me use wandless magic before."
Arianne nodded in confirmation, although Daisy figured that if she really hadn't intended to help, she would have nodded anyway. One more reason for the adults to put her with the good guys and skip the harsh punishment Malia would surely be receiving.
"Then we dueled," Albus continued the story, aiming his words at his dad, "and you turned up in the middle of that."
"Thank you for your statements, all of you," McGonagall told them. "We may have more questions later, but for now, I think that it is time for you to get some rest. All of you will be going to the hospital wing -"
"But professor," Jonathan said, "Daisy and I - and Jonas - aren't injured!"
"And we can't have you going back to your common rooms where the other students will badger you for information, of which they will gossip and talk about until it is miles from the truth. It can't hurt you to spend one night undisturbed, and where adults can keep an eye on you." McGonagall's eyes settled on Arianne. "You helping in the escape effort does not erase the fact that you helped in their capture in the first place. You will be stripped of your duties as prefect, and 50 points will be taken from Hufflepuff. You will have to serve a punishment, which can be decided on at a later time.
But, those of you who helped us resolve this conflict deserve a reward as well. Jonas, Ravenclaw will receive 60 points for your miraculous discovery of a room that will contribute much to magical research and Hogwarts findings. Miss Dursley and Mr Claviss will be given 50 points for their skills in finding and freeing their classmates. 50 points will be Awarded to Gryffindor for Eliza's quick action, bravery in withstanding whatever treatment Malia had given her, and dueling. 45 points go to Slytherin, since Albus also dueled Malia in their escape and faced her cruelty."
"Only 45 points?" Albus asked incredulously.
"Your imprisonment was due, at least partially, due to you wandering the castle out of permitted hours. 5 points were removed for this. Now," she referred to the rest of them again, "All of you will be escorted up to the hospital wing. Hurry now, lest you be bombarded with interview questions from a certain Weasley."
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