Chapter Thirty-One
Prisons of the Mind
Minerva had been waiting for them at the gate as they came in, a fistful of envelopes in her hand to give to Dumbledore the moment they entered.
"These came for you since you left, Professor. And there are more on the desk that came during the game as well," Minerva said, a worried look on her face.
"More Fae attacks?" Dumbledore asked.
"Not just that, it seems that the magic has begun to fail again," Minerva said, walking along side them, "Nearly every borough we have across London was seen today, and the O'Donnell's Bookshoppe and Tea House in Edinburgh was visible as well. There are even reports that there were Muggles in Gringotts bank!"
"It seems I have things to attend to. I trust you can take care of these four, Severus," Dumbledore said with a sigh.
"I would be delighted to," Severus said with a threatening smile that the four students utterly didn't like.
"And don't be too hard on them," Dumbledore added, knowing that advice would likely be forgotten as he and Minerva went inside.
"If things are starting to appear again, I'm going to be needed at the Ministry," Sirius sighed, kissing Anna. "So much for sleep."
"I think I'm going to go by the hospital and say hello to Jennifer before I head back," Anna said.
"Please ask her not to stay too late," Severus said, glancing at the students. "Well, what are you standing there gaping at? Head in to my office!" he ordered, and the four of them immediately marched forward. Shaking his head at the students, Severus then nodded to them before following.
It wasn't until the next day that anyone realized that anything else was wrong. Dumbledore himself did not get back to the school until dawn and quickly retired to his rooms. Jennifer had stayed out later then she had intended, but she was snuggled in bed when Severus awoke in the morning. He got quietly got up to get some last minute work done before the beginning of class, taking his paperwork downstairs. But it wasn't long after he got to his office that there was a frantic knock on the door. Severus sighed and opened it, quite surprised to see Angela standing there.
"Something's terribly wrong! Essie didn't come back to her room last night, and she wasn't with Doug this morning either! I can't find her anywhere!" Angela exclaimed. Severus quickly pulled her into his office, shutting the door. "She told me to come to you if anything ever happened while she was out."
"She didn't go to the game. Were you expecting her to go?" Severus demanded.
"No, she told me she was going to go up to the North Tower while Trelawney was at the game. She wanted to use the professor's crystal ball because hers was broken," Angela explained. "She said that Icarus has been trying to send her messages about what happened to him."
"He's been attempting to send her messages? How long has this been going on?"
"It started a few weeks ago…"
"Then why is the first time I'm hearing of it?" Severus demanded, Angela shrinking back. "Never mind, you're not responsible. Go eat, I'll take care of this. If you see Professor McGonagall, send her up to the North Tower," he said as he opened the door and pointed her out. The moment she was gone, Severus hurried to the back stairs. He heard his name and paused to see Jennifer just below him, looking at him curiously.
"Where are you going, Severus? Aren't you coming to breakfast?"
"It was Sibyl, Jennifer. It's been Sibyl this entire time… we should have seen it months ago," he said, continuing up the stairs.
"Sibyl?" Jennifer said with disbelief, hurrying to catch up with him. "Oh come now, Severus, don't you think this is going too far? First Pyther, then Pomona…"
"This time I'm certain," Severus said, glancing back at her with such a serious expression that Jennifer quieted down. "When does Sibyl go to school functions, Jennifer? Never. Only she did go the night of the dance, didn't she? And Icarus had been watching her very closely ever since, probably too close for her own liking. Then she even went to the game last night. Can you recall the last time Trelawney came down to go to a game? A game, strangely enough, disrupted by undead creatures no one has seen in several hundred years?" Jennifer's expression changed, attempting to think back. "Apparently Essie was onto something and went to the North Tower alone yesterday, and now she is missing."
"Essie is missing?" Jennifer repeated with growing concern. "But… Sibyl wouldn't, she couldn't possibly do anything to harm a student. She's been a Hogwarts professor for years and years! Even if she is a little batty, she wouldn't do that!"
"She nearly killed you, Jennifer. I wouldn't put anything past her at this point," Severus said as they hurried down the corridor to the tower and up the last staircase. But when they stepped into the classroom, they immediately noticed that the curtain to the back room was open. Several things, notably the crystal ball, most of the books, her ornate tea set, and Sibyl herself were very much missing from the room.
Minerva hurried up to the top of the stairs, shooing away curious students who had come up for their morning classes.
"I can't believe it came to this," Minerva said, the grief in her voice unmistakable. "Granted, I never liked the woman, but I never thought it would come to this."
"She can't have been acting alone. She had to have gotten the Ladle from somewhere," Severus pointed out.
"And we can't rule out that she might have been under the influence of some sort of cursed item," Jennifer added. Severus frowned at that.
"Angela said that Essie came up here to borrow her crystal ball," Severus replied.
"That is rather odd. Essie has one of her own that Corey gave her," Jennifer said thoughtfully.
"It does seem to be one of the things that Sibyl took with her," Minerva agreed.
"Do you think she might have taken Essie to her summer home or something? Or perhaps she stopped there to pick up some things?" Jennifer asked.
"I have a couple of addresses for her that you're welcome to try. Let's head to my office," Minerva suggested, leading the way. "Although I doubt she'd stay at either very long considering the circumstances."
"It still may give us some clue to where she is or where she's keeping Essie," Severus said, following close behind as they hurried downstairs. He stood over Minerva's desk impatiently as she dug through her files, the relevant ones popping out of the cabinet on their own.
"Here we are, she owns a place in Manchester and also has a retreat on Thieves Holm."
"I think we'll start with the retreat since it's more remote. I'll need to cancel some classes…" Severus began.
"I'll take care of that. I'm starting to get used to rescheduling classes this year," Minerva said dryly.
"Jennifer, perhaps you should…" but Severus stopped short when he looked over to see the lost expression on her face. She had been gazing at the school register for quite some time. She appeared quite out of breath, trying to hold her tears back. "Jennifer?"
"She's not here," Jennifer said, shaking her head slightly. "Alicia… she's not in here."
"Oh, Jennifer," Minerva said with a sigh as Severus went over to her, flipping the last page over. "It's really not the end of the world, you know, sometimes it takes awhile for the name to appear…"
"And sometimes not at all," Jennifer said, sounding strange. "The other three were in there the moment they were born."
"Jennifer," Severus said in a gentle but firm voice. "Jennifer, now is not the time for this. All that matters right now is that Alicia is safe and well cared for. We need to try and do something for Essie before it's too late," he said. Jennifer nodded numbly. "Now, I need you to go to the Ministry and appraise them of the situation, and get what information they may have found out so far about the Ladle. With any luck, we should be able to connect the pieces."
Essie woke up and found herself in a dark room, surrounded by the sound of the ocean and only a tiny light coming from a knot hole in a trap door above her. Her heart was beating out of her chest, remembering what had happened. She pushed herself up, the cellar floor muddy and damp under her hands. But something inside told her not to stand yet and she found herself crawling through the cellar, her hands searching for something and she wasn't quite sure what. Then she felt a tingle running through her fingers as she touched something hard and somewhat sharp and realized it was a shard of bone. Reaching down again she found several more… each a tiny sliver, each with the same odd feel. At last she felt satisfied that she had them all, putting them in her robe pocket. Then, as quietly as she could, she climbed the ladder to the trap door, pushing it gently and then harder when she realized it was locked, gazing through the hole.
There she saw the legs of a table, and the feet and robes of Madame Trelawney; nobody else would wear that color. She was chanting loudly, and Essie realized she was probably trying to contact the ball. Cautiously putting a few fingers in the hole, Essie changed into her mouse form and quickly steadied her grip from where she dangled from the knothole and climbed out, scampering quickly behind a dusty old broom that sat in the corner as she peered up at the table.
"Answer! Answer, portents of the future! Show me my next path!" Trelawney demanded… perhaps even begged… until finally she sat mesmerized, looking into it. Slowly Essie climbed the broom, but even then she couldn't make out what Trelawney had seen, but her face had become full of grief. "No, no, I wouldn't do that! No, nothing would make me to that! It cannot be true! I cannot possibly!" she wept, covering her face with her hands. After a moment of weeping, she seemed to be remarkably better, covering up the crystal before double-checking the locks on the trap door.
"I am so terribly sorry," she said quietly, her lip trembling. Quite suddenly she Disapparated, leaving only the mouse to contemplate what to do next.
Well, one thing was certain, Essie thought, she wasn't about to ask the crystal. Essie changed back into her original form and grabbed the crystal, tying the scarf around it and then around her belt buckle so she wouldn't drop it when she changed again. Frantically she searched the fireplace and the pots, but there was no sign of floo powder, and she had very little idea of where she was. Hurriedly, she stepped out the door, realizing that perhaps she had and even bigger problem ahead of her, for she was on a very small island and the lonely cottage was the only structure upon it. Seals and seabirds beached all around her, none of them too concerned that she was there. It wasn't the only island though; many others seemed to be all around her, and most of them larger islands that reached out in the distance. She went back inside, hoping that a quick search would produce her wand so she could turn one of the seals into a skiff to get her on one of the bigger islands and hopefully find some help. But when pulling out a few drawers in both the kitchen and the main room didn't avail to anything, she spied the dusty broom again. Well she had to try it, what other choice did she have? She also realized that she had little choice as to where to go next, and it wasn't to Hogwarts.
It was not all that long after she had flown away that Severus had Apparated onto the island with a paper in one hand, wand on the other, suspiciously opening the unlocked door and peering into the kitchen. It was obvious the dust on the floors of the cabin that it had definitely been disturbed, and Severus carefully walked over to the teacup on the table and tested it with his finger; it was still lukewarm. It was then that he heard the lapping sound of water, and quickly cast a spell to unlock the trap door. He opened it to find the cellar completely flooded with salty water. A chill went through him until he noticed tiny prints in the dust beside the trap door heading towards the fireplace, there replaced by a set of small human footprints that tracked back outside. Well, she was on her own now, Severus mused, but that was better than most of the alternatives. If she remembered anything from her Defense class, she would… Severus groaned, remembering Essie's Defense marks. He really needed to add another hand to his watch.
The Ministry was in complete chaos when Jennifer got there, shells ringing off the walls, agents running in every which direction, and Penelope buried behind a mound of paperwork at the reception desk.
"I'm sorry, you're just going to have to tell them to handle it on their own; we need you at Westminster," Penelope told someone on the shell with a sigh. "Don't argue, just go!" She said, putting the shell back on the shelf.
"Penelope?"
"Oh, Jennifer, don't tell me the school has appeared to Muggles too!" she said.
"No. At least, I sure hope not," Jennifer said. "I need to talk to Thurspire about the Ladle…"
"I think Thurspire is out on location near the Knockturn Alley city entrance. You'll have to try back later."
"But there's a student missing! And we think we found out who was responsible!" Jennifer argued.
"Well, right now I think you have more resources than we do at the moment. Can't you handle it?" Penelope asked.
"We need information. Never mind, I'll just go…" just then Jennifer stopped short as Arthur and several Creatures agents appeared in the entrance carrying a small iron cage, hurrying towards the back. "Arthur?"
"Jennifer! I suppose you heard about the Redcap," Arthur said. "But it's alright, we have it now, thanks in large part to your father," he explained, nodding to the cage. A ferocious, goblin-like creature snarled inside, its eyes red and its hands streaked with blood. "Nasty little buggers. I'm afraid Azkaban lost one of its guards to it…. Sammy Martin. Fortunately, it decided to step into the wrong cell, and your father used the iron chain between the floor and his chair to hold it down until Boltin arrived."
"Father always did say there was no such thing as a defenseless Craw," Jennifer said, feeling a bit relieved that she'd been too busy to find out what was going on. "But really, I'm here to find out what you have on the Ladle. It seems that Sibyl Trelawney was the one who tried to kill me."
"Sibyl Trelawney! Are you sure?" Arthur said, stopping in stunned horror, waving the others on to dispose of the creature.
"Well, not completely… but she's missing and there's also a student missing…"
"But I just saw the woman coming from Azkaban prison! She was there trying to visit someone but they sent her away!"
"Azkaban prison! Arthur, you don't think…"
"Say no more. Penelope! Get a message to the Warden asking him to release Ludo Bagman's visitor list. In the meantime, let Craw have whatever she needs! Files… shells, entrance, and any LE officer we can spare until I can find time to get to Hogwarts. Consider her cleared for… well, pretend she's Dumbledore! And speaking of the headmaster, as soon as you get back, let him know I've contained the entire Stonehenge area for him. The Muggles think the area has been radioactively contaminated," he winked. "I got that off of one of those Muggle movies, where these creatures from outer space…"
"Minister Weasley, there's still that little matter at Gringotts, the goblins are still threatening to put the intruders in a vault…." Penelope cut in.
"Fine! Going!" Arthur said, throwing up his hands. "I really hope this flux in magic doesn't last as long as the last one. This has been going on and off for over nine months now," he sighed, grabbing a folder that Penelope held out for him before heading back out. But Jennifer stood for a moment with a curious feeling going through her. Shaking her head, she walked back over to the desk.
"Are you sure she's coming to this place?" Harry asked.
"Icarus said she'd be coming here," Essie said, stumbling in the dark right behind him.
"If Icarus says she is coming here, she is. I can trust him as far as that," Viviane said calmly. "Try to keep up."
"Can't we have a little light?" Harry asked.
"You proved last visit you couldn't keep your eyes where they belonged," Viviane snapped at him.
"Believe me, I have no intention of making that mistake again," Harry swore, feeling Essie stumble a bit behind him, offering her his hand. "Are you all right?" he asked in a soft voice.
"Yes, except I rather feel like I'm dreaming, finding myself walking under the lake with the Lady herself, not to mention you," Essie admitted shyly.
"Well, I'm just a guy who used to have a scar on his head," Harry said. "But I admit the rest is a bit awesome to me too. I'm only glad you were able to catch me at home when you did. You have no idea how hectic the outside world has been lately, with spells failing all the time and Fae appearing in unexpected places."
"Just like the ball said," Essie whispered worriedly. "Is the end of magic coming then, after all?"
"You shouldn't believe everything you see in a crystal ball of any sort," Viviane said from way ahead, letting them know their discussion had been heard. "Or any mirror, or any vision, or any portent that promises to tell or show you something that you don't already know. There is no true reflection of a soul, or of a time, they are merely illusions. And if you remember that," Viviane said, pausing to light a single candle on a pillar beneath the lake. "Then you may come out of this alive yet," Viviane said with an enigmatic smile that made Essie a bit nervous. "Come, let us stand over here by the wall… don't look into the crystal… and wait for her. Do not worry, she is even now searching for the place," Viviane said, gazing into the ball casually. "She is a prisoner of her own fears and visions, and has little choice but to search for it."
"I've heard that people have gone mad looking into the Mirror of Erised, but I think it'd be worse being a prisoner of your fears than of your longings," Harry said. Viviane looked amused and was about to answer when she suddenly glanced up at the shimmering water. "Wait here," she ordered and stepped out into the floor.
That was when both Harry and Essie saw her in a way they hadn't before; with her hair long and free, her dress growing in length, and a silvery sparkle that simmered around her as she moved to the center of the room and picked up the candle. She appeared both older and younger, and definitely more faerie than mortal. If there had been any doubt who she was before, there was little in that moment, and Essie could almost imagine her coming up out of the lake above to speak to those waiting on the shore to hear her wisdom. It was this figure that Sibyl now approached from the same corridor that Essie and Harry had traveled a few moments before. But she did not seem like the quivering, shaky figure that Essie had always known. Now she looked strangely confident, and yet haunted somehow.
"So, it has been you who has been guiding me!" Sibyl exclaimed. "I should have known who you were at Halloween."
"I have been watching you, but I am not the one guiding you," Viviane said expressionlessly. "Have you come to look in the crystals? You will not like what you see."
"But I must. I must stop what is happening. Surely you see it... surely you know!"
"I see only the truth, and the truth is that you have been helping the Dark Fae break through the gate for quite some time now, whether you knew that you were doing it or not," Viviane said sternly. "And those attempts along with others in your Order have brought the events happening now in this world. You should be thankful that you are not on the other side of that gate right now, mortal. Your punishment for your involvement would be harsh indeed. And for what, attempting to stop the inevitable? The opening of the gate? The rebalancing of the this world and the other? Your reasons for attempting to stop it were for no one's benefit but your own. All you knew was that when you saw visions within the crystal, they always came to pass. But this was no mystery, because even before you realized the truth, you were the one who was making them happen. Yet even now that you realize it was your deeds causing these events, you still crave the visions. Even now, you yearn to see the future… foolish woman. You sacrifice your present in favor of your future. Do you not realize that without the present, there is no future? But so be it. If what you wish is to see yourself in the crystals of this chamber then you may do so, or you can choose to avert your eyes and save what little soul you have left."
Harry quickly turned his gaze and held up a hand to shelter Essie's eyes as the light came up in the room. Essie quickly shut her eyes as well.
"It's magnificent! So beautiful! And I see so many things! Wait, no wait that isn't… that isn't right… that wasn't me! I only foresaw it! And that… is the past… don't show me the past… I want to see… but I don't want to see that! Stop! Make it stop!" The crying that came afterwards was heartbreaking to hear. Essie wished she hadn't come, and wished she hadn't shown Harry the crystal… no, she realized, shaking her head. This would have happened anyhow. There was nothing that Essie could have done that would have changed anything; Professor Trelawney had brought this on herself.
"You may look up now," Viviane said calmly after the cries had turned into sobs. Harry and Essie looked around to see Trelawney sitting at Viviane's feet with her hands covering her eyes. "I do not know if she'll ever be able to face the world again, but then, I do not believe she has been able to for quite some time."
"Chances are she'll be going to Azkaban prison for a very long while anyhow," Harry said, walking over to Sibyl and helping her to her feet, letting her lean against him. "Come on. You've got quite a bit of explaining to do."
"I will see that Essie gets back," Viviane told him. "There is something I want to speak to her about first."
"All right, Lady Viviane. I'll just let Dumbledore know she's safe," Harry said, walking Sibyl down the corridor.
"Well! Now that that is done, it is your turn," Viviane said, watching Essie's eyes go wide. "Don't give me that. Stand in the center of the room."
"What did I do wrong?" Essie quivered.
"If you did anything, I assure you, you're about to find out," Viviane smirked. "I am just making sure that you don't end up like her someday. I have enough headaches without having to deal with another seer being led astray, and you have even more talent than she once had before she began listening to lies," Viviane explained, filling the room with light. "Someone like you needs to learn discrimination. Open your eyes," she ordered. The first thing Essie saw was Icarus.
