Going Home
Miranda Silver, Episode 3
Qui cherché trouve. –French proverb
Time had a way of passing quickly at Hogwarts. Before Miranda stopped to think twice about it, a month had passed. It was now the third week of October. Ravenclaw had easily defeated Hufflepuff, entire potions classes were nearly blown up, and the first Hogsmeade weekend had come and gone. It was, Miranda remembered dreamily, on that first visit, over hot Butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks, that Alistair had finally asked her to be his girlfriend.
Despite all these happy occurrences, Miranda awoke in the middle of the night a week before Halloween. She reached for her wand, quill, and journal.
"Lumos," she muttered, then put her wand between her teeth and looked for her ink. She found a half empty bottle and set it on the nightstand. Bastet roused and purred sleepily before settling down next to her.
In the first dream, she wrote, I'm back at the Sorting. I sit on the stool and put the Sorting Hat on. Instead of saying anything, it sucks me through a black hole. I land in a huge dungeon, and there's a giant basilisk in front of me. Just as it turns its head toward me, I wake up.
She stopped, struggling. The second one... it was too hard, so unclear... There was a pretty woman Miranda had never known, and a flash of green light... A man who reminded her strangely of Mitchell... Someone standing over her, reciting spells she had never heard, then the whispered word, "Obliviate."
She had never told anyone about the dreams- not her parents, not Anna, not Greg, not Alistair, and not Isis. She didn't know what they would say. The ones she had tonight weren't the only ones either; there was the one from after the Gryffindor match, not so much a dream as a terrifying impulse, like a siren in her mind.
Miranda suddenly realized how tired she was and dropped into a deep sleep.
aaaa
More time slipped by. School got busier, which wasn't all bad, because Miranda didn't dream as much. The Halloween feast passed in all its splendor. Alistair and Miranda's relationship grew. Autumn changed into winter, and in the blink of an eye, she was packing for Christmas break. Anna, Isis, Alistair, and she were leaving; Greg stayed behind. When asked, he muttered something about his aunt coming in from Germany and changed the subject.
She boarded the Hogwarts Express that day. Bypassing the seats reserved for the prefects, they found an empty compartment and loaded their luggage. Isis and Anna soon left to mill about the train with the other students. She and Alistair remained behind, watching the scenery pass by. She laid her head on his shoulder as they talked about vacation. Her parents had invited his family over for dinner on Boxing Day. He was quite eager for the chance to see a wizard family's home. They sat in silence for a few minutes watching the landscape. Slowly, he leaned his head in close to her. She closed her eyes, and- the door opened.
In bounded Isis and Anna, with their usual good-natured energy and complete lack of tact.
"Don't you people ever knock?" asked Alistair.
"Of course not," replied Anna. "What's the fun in that?"
They unceremoniously sent Alistair away with clothes and money on the pretext of needing to change. As soon as he was safely out, Isis started giggling.
"We caught you!" she said in a singsong voice.
"No, you didn't! If you would have given us 15 more seconds, you could have caught us doing something, and a good time would have been had by all!" she retorted.
They all laughed. Anna and Isis changed into jeans, but Miranda hardly ever wore Muggle clothes. She changed instead into a flowing robe of rich scarlet velvet. They let an incensed Alistair back in with food, and enjoyed a completely nutrition free lunch.
After they had finished, Anna had an idea. "Let's open Christmas presents," she suggested.
"Why not? We've already got everything here," Isis added. Miranda opened her bag and pulled out her presents: a quill and a bottle of scented ink for Isis, who gave her a book on Egyptian magic; a necklace for Anna, who gave her a scarf in the Ravenclaw colors; and a model of the galaxy for Alistair, who presented her with a beautiful snowy white owlet, at whom Bastet looked with mixed curiosity and disgust. She brightened up some after Anna and Isis gave her a new blue and bronze collar, and then the proud feline proceeded to strut threateningly around the compartment.
They exited the train as usual at Platform 9¾. After finding a trolley, she and Alistair went nonchalantly through the barrier to find their parents, who all looked thoroughly awkward. After giving directions to Alistair's father, who looked rather shocked at seeing her still in her robe, she said goodbye with a hug and followed her parents out of the station. When she got to the car, Cassidy flung herself around Miranda's waist. She spent the drive home recounting every little aspect of Hogwarts for her little sister.
aaaa
It was three in the morning, and Miranda couldn't sleep. She walked quietly through the halls of her ancestral mansion, conversing occasionally with a picture or two, though most were asleep. She finally ambled to the third floor and approached a bronze bust, which was snoring softly. She cleared her throat, and it startled awake.
"Dona nobis pacem," she stated politely, and the bust, yawning, opened a portal in the wall. She stepped through into the musty attic.
As a child, she had always loved the attic. It was her favorite place to roam. She could wander endlessly through all the relics entombed there. She walked over to the large stack of rugs in the corner and surveyed her domain. There was a dressmaker's dummy, boxes of old robes, two empty halves of a dragon's egg, a few spare cauldrons, and various other odds and ends. She thought sleepily of all the times she had spent in the attic.
She stood up. Not much had changed since she was there last. She walked over towards an old armoire. Suddenly, her foot slipped. She found that she had stepped through a false board. She crouched down and examined the damage. The hole was full of what appeared to be books. She picked one up cautiously. It was a photo album. She brushed off the dust and opened it. Most of the pictures inside were asleep, just like the portraits.
Most of the pictures featured a boy who Miranda took to be her father. There were countless pictures of him: with friends; in his school robes; boarding the Hogwarts Express; holding his O.W.L certificate proudly; playing quidditch. After flipping through it, she put it aside.
The next one, even dustier, held pictures of Miranda's father also, but this time with a girl and boy who looked about his age. They were laughing and talking, and waved merrily at Miranda. She couldn't put her finger on the girl. It wasn't her mother; there were pictures of her, when she was Jennifer Parkinson. She looked almost like Miranda. She didn't have Miranda's muscular form or long hair, but she had the same wide smile and dark eyes. There were pictures of her playing quidditch too- she was a seeker for Ravenclaw. The boy looked familiar too. He looked just like Draco Malfoy. She surmised that he was Lucius, Draco's father and her father's friend, but she still couldn't place the girl.
The next photo album was even more perplexing. There were pictures of graduation from Hogwarts in 1972 and a dance afterwards: her father and mother; the girl and another boy she didn't know; Lucius and Narcissa, Draco's' mother. She flipped through more pictures.
The last one was completely different. It was a wedding photo album. She opened the front cover and nearly fainted from shock. It was the woman from her dream- and the man who looked like Mitchell. She touched the shining silver letters in disbelief. The legend ran:
Sofia Silver and Gabriel Nott March 31, 1973They were happy and smiling, obviously deeply in love. But who was she? Miranda racked her brain. She had no relatives named Sofia. Nott- that was Mitchell's last name. Was it Mitchell's uncle? She turned the pages slowly, in disbelief. There they all were. All of it had come together, apparently, but she had been left out. Who was Sofia?
There was one more thing left under the false board- a loose picture. It was Sofia and Gabriel again- but with a baby boy. She tucked the picture into her robes and carefully replaced the books and board.
Looking once again in the attic, something caught her eye. It was a groove running down one wall between two tapestries. Curious, she slid her finger down it. It opened at her touch. She stepped inside cautiously. It was a small chamber. There was a blue and silver quidditch robe hanging in the corner on a nail. It looked as if the inhabitant had never left. It was obviously someone's hiding place. There were pillows and blankets arranged on the floor and a stack of books in the corner. Miranda recognized a few of the titles- A Standard Book of Spells, Hogwarts, a History, and A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration. There was a crude carving on the wall, the inscription "Sofia loves Gabriel." It seemed so oddly funny and ironic that Miranda had to laugh.
