Episode Forty
McGonagall asked Gwen to her office yet again. Gwen knew the interior of this room better than any in the castle. She'd spent much of her summer here chatting casually with her godmother. She knew the moment she stepped into the room.
"Hello mother." She said. Her mother was sitting on the edge of McGonagall's desk gazing at her daughter. Minerva had her arms wrapped tightly around herself, standing stoic in the corner.
"Hello Guenivere. How are you doing?"
"Well, considering all the death threats and scary visions I've been having, I'm actually pretty good."
"That's good to hear. But the death threat you received wasn't real."
"You sent the black dot?" Gwen said, deducting her mother's meaning.
Her mother smiled. "I needed you to be on your guard. You can act cavalier all you want but when you received that letter you started being more cautious."
"So what are you doing here?"
"I wanted to check in on you."
"You heard what Aunt Minerva said. It's dangerous for you to be here. And it's dangerous for me."
"There's something else I wanted to talk about with you." Her mother said.
Gwen rolled her eyes. "What is it with you?"
"What do you mean dear?"
"I mean that every time you come here you tell me a little more of the truth. Why all the lies? Why can't you just come out with it and tell me everything you know about what happened seven years ago?"
Minerva stirred in her corner. She wanted to restrain Gwen for fear of what she might do, but she remained where she was keeping a close eye on both women.
"I know the death eaters were after me. We've discussed this before. I want to know why."
"And I told you, I don't know why."
"But you knew they were coming?" Gwen asked.
"How could I not?"
"What about dad?"
"What about your father?"
"Did he know? Did you bother to tell him that they were going to kill me?" Gwen suddenly became livid as a bizarre image came into her mind. Her mother laughing as he father lay dying. "You knew. You knew that they were after me and you hid me with Aunt Ann and you used dad as a decoy. How could you? How could you?"
Beorc looked on coolly. She couldn't reply to her daughter's accusations. It hadn't quite sunk in yet what she was really saying.
"How could you?" She whispered.
The ceiling had just caved in on Gwen's world. She felt her body give way beneath her and her head slumped over on her chest into a deep unconscious. She had fainted, but had not fallen back. Instead her body remained standing, floating two inches above the ground.
When the haze finally lifted Gwen knew she was in the hospital wing. Minerva was at her side, holding her hand and Madame Pomfrey was swarming around tending to other students with injuries. Apparently some students had been fooling around in potions and the result was that the hospital wing was almost full of students with boils and burns all over their skin.
"Aunt Minerva." Gwen said weakly, in her hazy state forgetting her promise to never call her that in front of others. "Could I have a glass of water?"
"Of course dear." She replied, dismissing the slip all together.
When she returned with the water Gwen was sitting up in bed, fully conscious and hungry for answers.
"Did she leave?"
Minerva looked at the girl calmly. "I thought it best that she did and sent her on her way."
"I was almost hoping after she went into hiding that she would never come back."
"She worries about you a lot. You remind her of herself sometimes. Mischief making and all. But she was never in danger of being hunted down by death eaters. Not as you are."
"Why would they want me?"
"Only they know the answer, and it's not likely that we can find out without getting ourselves in more trouble than the answer is worth."
"Did she really use my dad as a pawn to protect me?"
"Your father went into this knowing full well what would happen to him." McGonagall stated. "I know your mother has lied to you time after time, but she did not send your father knowingly into death."
"How do you know?" Gwen asked, desperate to understand.
"Your father was close to me as well. He owled me shortly before they left and let me in on some of the details. I knew where you were and what was going on so that if something should happen I could care for you. Your father was a very brave man and you were his world. He was happy to give his life to save yours."
"He knew he might be killed?"
"He knew all along."
Gwen felt the sob rising slowly, the salt stinging at her eyes.
"Go ahead and cry dear, let it all out." Said Minerva, patting her hand gently.
