Chapter Seven – Scent of a Witchy Woman
"Why, what are YOUR shoes done with?" said the Gryphon. "I mean, what makes them so shiny?"
Alice looked down at them, and considered a little before she gave her answer. "They're done with blacking, I believe."
"Boots and shoes under the sea," the Gryphon went on in a deep voice, "are done with a whiting. Now you know."
"And what are they made of?" Alice asked in a tone of great curiosity.
"Soles and eels, of course," the Gryphon replied rather impatiently: "any shrimp could have told you that."
"If I'd been the whiting," said Alice, whose thoughts were still running on the song, "I'd have said to the porpoise, "Keep back, please: we don't want YOU with us!"
"They were obliged to have him with them," the Mock Turtle said: "no wise fish would go anywhere without a porpoise."
"Wouldn't it really?" said Alice in a tone of great surprise.
"Of course not," said the Mock Turtle: "why, if a fish came to ME, and told me he was going a journey, I should say 'With what porpoise?'"
`Don't you mean 'purpose'?" said Alice.
"I mean what I say," the Mock Turtle replied in an offended tone.
- Alice In Wonderland: Chapter 10 – The Lobster Quadrille
When Billy Stockwell was an old, old man living quietly in the outskirts of Boston at 'Tranquillity Acres' (or, as many of the locals called it 'Thorazine Acres') he became infamous among the youth brave enough to candystripe there for his story about the time he had a very great and fantastic adventure with an extraordinary and beautiful woman. He was always careful to point out that certainly she was not as pretty as his wife had been, but he always had a rather wistful look as he gave that polite and politically correct assurance. The young ladies simply smiled at Mr. Stockwell and laughed at the right times and gasped in horror at precisely the moments they knew they should as the gloriously imaginative and totally impossible tale was told. Mr. Stockwell was, after all, their favourite as he had lived in England for many years and had an air of the more antiquated English manners to him. He called them all 'dears' and 'poppets' and such, and they found it charming, no matter how the medical texts diagnosed his 'deteriorated mental condition due to extreme age'.
Whenever a new girl started the others would 'initiate' her by sending her to sit with Mr. Stockwell for the afternoon, and to listen to his story. The girls themselves never repeated what they had heard, even when asked; they just smiled at their new comrade and sent her to take Mr. Stockwell his tea and wait for him to start. The neophyte would always feel a slight trepidation at first, not sure what to expect, but inevitably relaxed once Billy Stockwell smiled up at her and his eyes twinkled through their cloudy age. And they would chat of nothing in particular for a while, getting used to each other; the girl always longing to simply ask the old man what his secret story was but not wanting to seem rude. But at last Mr. Stockwell would set his emptied teacup down, and tell his visitor in low conspiratorial tones that magic was as real as the nose on her face. And each new candystriper would give a little laugh, and ask him why he was so very sure of such an amazing thing.
And every time Billy Stockwell would smile widely and somewhat mysteriously, lean forward to the edge of his armchair so that he was right up close to his audience, and then whisper his response in that broken way very old men do.
"Because, my dear, it was real magic that turned me into a goblin, once. But I didn't mind that much, as it served a good purpose."
***
Griffin Black had worked his way slowly around three of the walls of the small room he was locked in before he started to feel more irritated than upset over his situation. He let out a huff of frustration as he glared at the old bricks inches from his now sweaty face, but managed to stop himself from actually kicking the wall. Griffin had found no hint of the pennwij Roarke was certain was inside the walls of the chamber holding them. He had succeeded in managing a light trance, but the only presences he clearly felt at all were his own and Billy and Roarke. He was beginning to doubt Roarke's suspicions that the pennwij could even be detected by a wizard at all, but decided to hold his challenge to her logic until after he had finished the last wall.
"Griffin?"
Griffin turned and looked over at Roarke. She was leaning against the far wall with her arms crossed, Billy standing next to her looking far less relaxed. They both seemed rather flat in the blue light cast through the room from the flame balls Roarke had conjured to follow Griffin about. Roarke and Billy had remained as far from him as possible the entire time he was working, not wanting to get in his way if they could avoid it.
"What, Firecracker?"
"Take a little break. You're doing just fine, but you look like it's taking a lot from you."
"All right."
As Griffin turned away again, he heard Billy whisper 'why 'firecracker'?' and Roarke reply in almost inaudible tones, 'I was rather headstrong as a child; now do keep quiet while he works as this is very difficult'.
Griffin closed his eyes and leaned his head in his arms against the cold surface of the brickwork for a long moment. He considered that by now, surely, word had reached his mum and dad over what had happened. Griffin managed a slight smile as he got a mental image of his father giving the Dahn-Senge representative at this scene a rather nasty curse; and then an extremely clear vision his mother forgoing magic completely and simply punching the Goblin Liaison Officer right on the nose. Griffin's childhood may have been rather wild and odd even by wizarding standards, but he never had a single doubt as to how very much his parents loved him, even if they tended to demonstrate it in rather unorthodox ways.
His father had literally thrown a fit when a note was sent home with Griffin at Christmas of his third year explaining that Griffin may very well have 'The Gift' and it was recommended that he be tutored to manage this talent in addition to the regular Divination classes. But the next morning Sirius had come down to breakfast all smiles and talking up a storm about how rare real seers were and Griffin should be very proud, utterly confusing his son who was now horrified by the idea that his dad might actually authorize more schoolwork for him. Griffin had looked at his mother for some sort of support, but Liz was simply busying herself with getting ready for work, not even looking up as Sirius placed a gigantic breakfast in front of her while he continued his dialogue. Liz eventually noticed the heap of food, raised an eyebrow at her husbands back, and then caught Griffin's eye and shrugged with a small smile. When she kissed Griffin goodbye that morning she whispered not to worry too much about it and to just have fun with his dad, pointing out that this would pass soon enough.
Sirius had proudly taken Griffin by the hand and together they went down to Diagon Alley and bought a mountain of books and tools for all forms of Divination. Griffin, flustered and rather taken aback by this development and still completely unconvinced about this 'talent' as Professor Kent called it, had tried to remain as hidden behind his father as he could manage while Sirius followed the owner of 'The All-Knowing Alchemist' around lecturing him not to try and push rubbish off on them, as Sirius bloody well knew better. The man grew even testier with Sirius after he pointed out loudly that Alchemists had nothing to do with divination, so what was the chap playing at? Griffin only spoke up once, to insist he did not want the rune set with the mother-of-pearl backing as it was obviously just for show. The shopkeeper had then looked at him with interest, and asked him to select his own runes. Griffin stepped up next to Sirius and fixed his eyes on the display case. It took only seconds for him to find a set made of hematite, and decorated with a simple starburst on the back of each. His father had grown almost silent after that, and they left shortly afterwards, but not before the crooked little man who ran the place gave Griffin a warm smile and told him to please come back some day and tell him how he was getting on.
Liz's only input to this manic adventure had been to gasp when Sirius told her the price of their son's crystal ball and to implore that Griffin please not break it doing something rash. For the rest of the afternoon, Sirius had sat with Griffin and told him all about his grandmother's seer abilities, which fascinated him as his father almost never spoke of his own parents. The afternoon ended with Sirius hugging Griffin tightly for a long while in silence, and then he let him go and informed Griffin that if he ever read anything more foreboding than Sirius would wake up the next morning and stub his toe getting out of bed, he was to keep such information to himself.
Despite the shopping spree, however, Sirius had not authorized any 'extra tutoring' for Griffin, stating that Divinations would be quite enough. Headmistress McGonagall had a faintly amused look to her face when she told Griffin of his father's reply to the suggestion at the start of the next term.
"Mr. Black, your father is of the opinion that Professor Kent should mind his own business, and has assured me that if the Professor in any way tries to convince you to do anything you are not wanting to do he shall personally come up here and," here the headmistress double-checked the letter in her hand, "ah – yes, and he shall do something rather rude to the fellow's tea-leaves. You may, Mr. Black, follow your own counsel on this, as your father has complete faith that you have more than enough wits about you to choose your own path wisely. Your father is quite right for demanding you not be pressured into any of this. I knew your grandmother well, and she was indeed a true seer. You may very well share that rare gift, but you are far too young for any of us to know for certain. But your grandmother was forced from an age younger than you are now to develop this talent and it made her quite unhappy. I will recommend to Professor Kent that he abandon any ideas of giving you extra attention, reminding him that I know Sirius Black far better than he does, and that I know better than to take his threats as merely colourful phrasing and that his tea leaves are, in fact, in peril. Now off with you back to the tower."
***
And so Griffin became the only Gryffindor in possession of an extremely fine crystal ball, which he kept on his dressing table and used to prop up a few pictures and his perpetually dying venus flytrap, as the poor plant tended to list dramatically to one side. Natural curiosity did lead him to read a few of the books, and Griffin explored is own interest in Runes and shamanism over the years. Scrying and tea leaves remained, in his opinion, utter rubbish and his feelings towards astrology were still not set.
Griffin started on the last wall now, trying not to let his growing negativity affect him too much. Sure, a few times he had seemed to simply sense what was going to happen, but he always attributed that to a fine natural sense of self-preservation that benefited anyone prone to adventuring. Despite this, Griffin was totally unconvinced that he would be able to 'sense' the pennwij any more than the others could themselves.
Forcing a loud huff from his lungs, he started to bring himself back to a light trance and turned the corner to address the last wall. As he focused his breathing, he glanced once more under his lashes at his companions. Billy continued to gaze at Roarke in a rather stupid fashion that amused Griffin despite the situation. He decided that the poor Muggle had either simply snapped or Roarke had zapped him with a few cheering charms when he wasn't looking. Roarke looked as she usually did; intense, closed and deceptively laid back. She caught him looking though, and raised a hand from her crossed arms just for a second to point at the wall and nod.
Griffin placed his hands against the stonework once more and began to move slowly forward, dragging his hands along the stone. Everything felt cold, save for the distant warmth of the two others with him. His concentration began to break though as he reached the door, and he almost missed it. He was just about to kick the door once he reached it, and started to turn and opened his mouth to yell at Roarke in frustration when he literally felt a jolt go up his arm. He froze, his mouth hanging open in astonishment, and gave a slightly strangled gurgle. Roarke was next to him in an instant, as he knelt and spread his hands out against the bottom of the door, feeling an odd warmth in his fingers.
"Bloody freakin' hell!"
"What is it, Griffin?"
"I…I…something is in there! I don't goddamn believe it!"
"What does it feel like?"
Griffin shook his head and pressed his hands closer to the wood and metal work of the door, leaning in so close now he almost pressed an ear to the spot, half expecting to hear something too.
"Griffin?"
"This is so weird! I really do feel something!"
Roarke gave a small laugh, and Griffin turned to look at her in astonishment over his shoulder.
"Hey, you got the gift, what can I say?"
"Sure thing….But so what? There's something in the door, but I can't tell you what. For all we know;" here Griffin frowned and turned to look at the door again, "it could just be a goblin on the other side keeping an eye on things," he now whispered.
Roarke took out her wand and shrugged. "Easy enough to tell. Back off, Black."
She said an incantation and as Griffin pulled his hands away she swept her wand along the crack under the door. There was a faint yellow glow as she did this, but nothing else happened. Roarke smiled at him.
"Nobody there to get burned feet, it would seem. I guess it makes sense that the lock would be in the door." She stopped talking and looked pensive for a long moment.
Griffin stood up and leaned an elbow on the wall next to the door. "So now what?"
Roarke took a moment to respond. Just before she rose herself, though, she gave Billy a very quick glance. Billy took a step forward, but Roarke turned to face him fully and gave a huge smile.
"Hang on a moment, would you?" she said in very sweet tones that made Griffin smile. Then she turned to face the opposite wall and waved for Griffin to turn too.
"You charmed that one, didn't you?"
"Don't be ridiculous. He's in shock and I don't need to do anything else. Look; have you ever gone down into the Gringotts vaults with your parents?"
"Um, no actually. Mum does all the banking on her own."
"Well, most of the vaults the goblins use take those keys everyone has. But, there are some vaults that don't take keys. I spent a few days with Bill Weasley once, as he was showing me around Gringotts. Some of the vaults have no locks, but the goblins open them by tickling them."
"Come again?"
"The goblins open these vaults by running their hands over them, honestly. Mr. Weasely showed one to me; he ran his hands all over it and nothing happened. I asked him how the door was opened, and he explained that these vaults could only be opened by the goblins. Okay, we didn't really talk about it then, but now that I am thinking about it…I think these doors must have the pennwij inside them, and they only recognise the goblins!"
Griffin made a derisive sound. "So what? Great – we can't open the door? Is that what you're telling me now?"
Roarke turned to look at him and gave a positively wicked grin. Griffin actually took a step back.
"Listen to this idea, Idiot Boy. I'm probably going to break a few laws here, but Sirius can handle the repercussions, I'm sure. Involves a little bit of tricky transfiguration, but I think it will be okay." Roarke jerked a thumb back in the direction of their hapless Muggle companion. "Griff, remember in transfiguration when you learned about Muggles? About how they can be as easily transfigured as, well, hedgehogs and the like…?"
***
Actually, Griffin's moment of second sight he experienced in the bowels of London was more attuned than he knew at that time, as there had been a bit of a scene at the Black household when the Ministry and Goblin officials arrived to 'explain the situation'. Only he was still a little off (but it was only to be expected from one so young yet). The actual Goblin hexing had been done by Draco Malfoy, and Sirius had managed to grab Liz's hand in time before she got her left around to hook the Goblin Liaison Officer
Once the officials had settled into talking details over what was being done with Liz Black, Sirius Black had excused himself for a moment and, as soon as he was out of sight of the others, ran back to his study. Once there, he had (completely against his better judgement) agreed to an insane plan with Remus and Draco Malfoy to get his son and Remus' daughter back. Certainly he had heard nothing from the officials that was more comforting. Once he agreed, he went back out to the front hall to give every appearance of being a well-behaved and law-abiding citizen. He accepted the assurances of the Ministry and Dahn-senge official that this was their top priority and that his and Mr. Lupin's children were certainly not in any real harm and would be home soon. He even managed to smile as he sent them out into the night, resisting the urge to slam the door. However, once the door was shut he stayed there a moment and considered how he was going to break the news to his wife that they had a plan.
"Sirius, I'm going to the Lupins this instant to be with Katie."
Sirius spun and started to say something, but Liz held up her hand to stop any comment.
"Don't make me an accomplice in anything. If you and Remus and Draco screw it up, I'll need to remain on this side of a holding cell with Katie so we can settle it ourselves."
Sirius shut his mouth and nodded. Then he glanced around the front hall and frowned.
"Where are Annie and Gary, Lizzy?"
Liz looked about herself for a moment, then shrugged. "No doubt gone to be with Katie, since they gave their version of events. As to that disgusting, evil little…."
"Draco sent him to his house. Sent him to Narcissa."
Liz actually managed a laugh and started to move towards the stairs.
"I almost pity the wretch. Is there anything I need to know?"
Sirius considered this a moment, then shook his head. "Tell Katie we love her very much and will be home soon. All of us."
Liz gave him a large smile and blew him a kiss as she turned on the landing and made for their parlour.
"Certainly. It's been a while since us old folks had such an adventure! I love you too, you lunatic."
Sirius laughed as he followed her up the stairs and went in the opposite direction. He spun on his heels as he walked and called out "isn't Remus the lunatic of this outfit?" but Liz ignored him as she vanished, on her way to Dartmoor.
Sirius came back into the study and slammed the door. Remus had left, no doubt to go and start to examine the alleyway with the goblin gate. Draco Malfoy remained, but did not so much as flinch and looked at Sirius expectantly.
"Right, Malfoy. This is insane, but I want my boy back. And if Remus gets into trouble…."
Irritably, Draco pulled his cloak back over his shoulders and said "Why would I want Remus in trouble?"
Sirius sighed and crossed his arms to hold himself back. "You don't. I know that. We've never gotten along, but I know you don't want…. This is insane, you know that?"
Draco hesitated, then smiled at Sirius. "Indeed it is. But good lord, Black; this is about Roarke and …and Griffin…." He added softly. He stopped speaking as Sirius groaned.
"Stop it! Yes, I want my boy back and my firecracker back more than anything…but don't you think you and I are a tad too old for this sort of nonsense?"
Draco, to Sirius' astonishment, burst out laughing, and took a while to recover. Absently Sirius processed the fact that he had known Draco for going on 30 years practically, and had never once seen the man laugh like this. Finally, shaking his head and wiping his eyes with the heels of his hands, Draco managed to stop laughing as he moved to the fire.
"Sorry. Really, sorry, Black. We are old enough to know better, but I can't for the life of me seeing that stopping us. A actually agree with you that essentially our going down there is madness; I mean, for the past decade I, you and Remus have been the models of respectable aging wizards. You with your law practice, Remus with his volumes of scholarly books, and I with my teaching. How very dull we have become! However, as I told Farcourt, extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary actions. Clearly something far beyond a little squabble is going on with the goblins, as I said, and they may have… plans for the children. Why would they have taken them otherwise? Tell me one instance when a goblin did anything without purpose." Here Draco raised a pale eyebrow at Sirius, and Sirius gave him a dark scowl back.
"Exactly. Now, to the griffins. Just a moment…." Draco stepped to the fireplace and tossing some floo powder in, called for Peliah. After a long moment she appeared, looking somewhat frazzled. Draco frowned.
"My dear, everything alright?"
Peliah scowled at him.
"Your mum has gone mad, Draco. The moment that goblin fell out of the fire into her card party. Did you know you she had guests this evening? You have the top Death Eater Widows in the land currently hexing every corner of this house. They accidentally turned Quack into a sea slug; I've fixed him, but you know house-elves tend to have delicate constitutions. He's pulled his jumper over his head and is squatting in a corner of the kitchens moaning in a very pathetic fashion."
"He'll come round. Look, do me a favour will you and get my broom and bung it over to me, will you?"
Peliah's head gave him a hard look, but vanished. Sirius watched Draco simply stand there and tap his foot as they waited, then a broom came out of the fire and Peliah reappeared.
"What are you up to, Draco?"
"Nothing you need know, my love. Keep the house intact, won't you? Shall I alert the Ministry?"
"Don't be inane. Send Malcolm if you can find him; he'll be enough to scare some sense into them and will keep his mouth shut." Peliah now looked around the room and it was clear she saw Sirius. "Where's Remus?" she asked curtly.
"Busy with something; we'll meet up with him shortly. Do be good."
"You are telling me to be good? Shall I tell you to act your age?"
"Black and I have had that debate, so no. See you soon."
Peliah gave him one final odd look, and then vanished. As her head went from view, Sirius thought he heard some muffled cries of both goblin and female human origin from the fire.
Draco stepped back and took the edge of his cloak to wipe down his broom and remove the soot from the fire. "Where's your broom, Black?"
"Bugger my broom," said Sirius, looking at Draco's exceptionally fine German racing broom. "Hang on."
Sirius ran out to the stairway, and went up the stairs two at a time until he reached the top flight where his son occupied the house. Sirius and Liz had given him the entire floor, seeing as they had far more room than they needed, and now Sirius ran from room to room looking for Griffin's broom. Despite his son's utter loathing of flying, Sirius still insisted he have the very best broom there was. But finding where the boy had stuck it was another thing. It didn't occur to Sirius to turn on the lights until he smashed into something and heard several loud crashes.
"Lumos!
Griffin's crystal ball and three picture frames lay in shards on the floor. Sirius cursed himself for insisting Griffin bring the damn crystal ball home with him each break, and tried to convince himself Liz wouldn't kill him when she considered that this accident had occurred while Sirius was under great duress, but most likely he was in for it. And Griffin would be furious as well, considering that one of the pictures that had been damaged in the crash was his favourite one of he and Annie.
But Sirius noticed Griffin's broom standing in a corner at this moment, and simply grabbed it and ran back down the stairs. Draco clucked when he saw it.
"You've an Icarus GL V6?"
"It's Griffin's," replied Sirius irritably. Draco looked even more sarcastic at that.
"Griffin hates flying and you get him…."
"Yes, Malfoy, that will do," yelled Sirius. "What now? Flying to Hogwarts…."
Draco shook his head and took out his wand.
"Don't be daft, Black. It's far to long a trip to fly to Hogwarts. We're going to Apparate to Hogsmead, and then fly into the Forest to find Charles and Elvira. Honestly."
Sirius growled, and took out his own wand.
"Shut up, Malfoy. Apparate!"
***
Annie and Gary had not gone to the Lupins. They had, without anyone noticing, followed Sirius back to his study amidst the hubbub and hovered outside in the corridor, listening to every word of the adults' plotting. When Sirius had come back out to return to the front hall and see off the official party, they had flattened themselves against the wall in the shadows and remained very still.
They stayed there without talking, as the rest of the running about had gone on. They saw Liz appear at the far end of the corridor and vanish herself, telling Sirius she was going to the Lupin home. Then heard Sirius and Professor Malfoy talking and arguing in turns, watched Sirius run upstairs only to reappear with Griffin's hated broom in one hand, and then the house fell silent after a few more moments.
Gary leaned forward to peer through the crack of the door into Sirius' study to make certain Sirius and Professor Malfoy were in fact gone. He took Annie's arm and moved forward once he was certain the coast was clear, and they moved into the study themselves.
Annie spoke first.
"They are insane!" she said angrily. "Honestly! Daddy still thinks he needs to save the universe or something! And Sirius letting him!"
Gary stared off into space and seemed to be thinking about something. Annie was not happy he gave no response to her observations.
"Gary!"
"Annie, it actually isn't such a bad idea…."
"WHAT? Don't be mad. We've got to get mummy. She will explode….."
"Hang on, Annie; you do that and your mum will stop them. But…well, they are right; they will have much better luck and certainly faster results doing this on their own."
"Gary Weasely, you have lost it. I don't care how amazing daddy and the others were when they were younger! Sirius himself pointed out that they have spent the last decade or so puttering about….."
Gary laughed, and Annie glared at him.
"Annie; listen to you. Your dad would be very hurt to hear you call him so decrepit, I think."
"Daddy is NOT decrepit! He IS a …a… he's a werewolf, Gary! He can't run about like this! You don't understand!" Annie looked as if she might cry again, and looked around the room helplessly.
"I know what Remus faces; I know he wouldn't do this for anything less important. So do you. I guess….I guess the question is what can we do to help?"
Annie thought about this for a few moments, her hands on her hips as she chewed her lower lip nervously and tried to not cry. Finally she sighed.
"You know there's a reason the hat put me in Ravenclaw, you clot," she said irritably. "I don't want anything to happen to my sister, or to Griffin…." She hesitated and Gary smiled at her.
"No, nor do I. Well, as a Gryffindor, may I make a suggestion?"
"Why do I feel this doesn't involve getting any more grownups?"
"Because you know me well. We can't, well, do anything as that will get the Ministry on us. But, we can keep an eye on things. If anything gets really out of hand, we go straight to your mum or my Uncle. How does that sound?"
Annie considered this. "By keeping an eye out you mean…?"
"We know where that goblin gate is. We hang out there, and make sure Remus, Sirius and Professor Malfoy get in it, as they think they can. If it looks like anything goes wrong, we go right to the Leaky Cauldron and summon help."
"Sounds alright. But we need to be really careful; if we get too close, Daddy will know. He can smell us, remember. And another thing; it's a while until this happens. Where do we say we're off to? My mum is probably already looking for me."
"So's mine. We try an age-old dodge. You tell your mum you're at my house, I tell my parents I'm at yours. Considering all that is going on right now, we should be okay for a while with that."
Annie gave a laugh. "Gary, when trouble hits the first thing my mum does is a head count. I'm not there, she knows it."
"Well, then, we go to your house and you look her in the eye and tell her you're going to be at my house. Think that would work?"
"No. But what would work would be to be very close for a while, then fade into the background while she's busy with other things. You come with me, so if Hermione and Ron ask, she'll say that you're with me."
Gary grinned. "You have spent too much time with Griffin, haven't you?"
Annie didn't smile, and only said quietly "not nearly enough. Come on, let's get back to the house and set up an alibi. So much for quiet Ravenclaws."
***