Chapter 8: Confrontation
Helen woke an hour after she'd fallen asleep. She couldn't fool herself. There was no way she could get a decent night's sleep until she talked with Dumbledore. Snatching a set of robes, she crept silently out of bed, as not to wake up her dorm mates. Slowly and carefully she made her way until she reached two giant stone gargoyles. "Pepper Imps" she said clearly. Helen knocked on the door and stepped inside. Her guardian was petting Fawkes with his backside towards a glaring Minister of Magic.
"Hello Helen." Dumbledore said calmly, still stroking Fawkes.
"Hello Alby."
"What are you doing awake, miss?" Fudge demanded.
"And hello to you too Minister. Don't you remember me?" Helen asked coldly. He was the idiot who didn't believe Dumbledore and had wasted over twelve months doing nothing to prevent Voldemort from reeking havoc. Helen first met him at a party her parents held at their winter home in Carna.
"Who are you?" Fudge asked.
"Helen Cliff."
"Cliff!" Fudge said taken back. "Yes...yes of course. I remember very well. How's your uncle?"
"Killed a week after my parents did thanks to Voldemort."
"DON'T SAY THE NAME!" Fudge whimpered.
"A minister who's afraid of saying his name? Tut tut!"
"That's enough Helen." Dumbledore warned. "Minister, we shall resume our discussion at another time?"
"Y-yes. Of-of course." Fudge stuttered. "And you g-get to bed!" he added before scurrying away.
Dumbledore turned to face her. "I expected you to come immediately after the feast."
"I needed a nap first." Helen retorted, sitting down on a chair. "Are you going to explain to me what's been going on? Like why I was kidnapped, for starters?"
Dumbledore then sat down behind his desk.
"Helen." he began. "There is alot more to you than you even realize. The matter is immensely complicated. I dare not leave a single detail out. It is imperative that you fully understand and embrace what I tell...or show you...for it involves Harry Potter and someone whom he cares deeply for."
"Tell me."
"I can't tell you everything tonight. I have to start from the very beginning." Dumbledore said. He took a strange looking bowl out from a cabinet and placed it on his desk.
"What is that?" Helen asked curiously.
"A foreign form of a pensieve. This belonged to your grandmother."
"My...My grandmother?" Helen stammered. "How did you get it?"
"She left in it my possession."
"You knew my grandmother?" Helen asked wonderingly. "What was she like?"
"I'll let you see for yourself." Dumbledore said. Helen reached out a hand and stuck a finger inside the pensieve and then suddenly she was inside a highly furnished room. Two people were there. Both wore old fashioned clothes, from the 30s. Helen gasped as she saw that the girl standing across from a handsome boy looked almost exactly like her. They had the same lips, the same nose, the same height and size, and the same hair. The only differences were that the girl's hair was shoulder length and her eyes were slightly more exotic looking. As the girl turned her head, Helen saw that on the left side of her neck she had a triangle shaped mark. The same size and place as Helen's. This girl...her grandmother...was having a shouting contest with the boy in front of her...
~* THE VEIL...by Foxi Blair*~
The year is 1936. Chapter 1: Wills and Persuasion
"Woah! Hold on! Time out! Rewind!"
"Annie! Hear me out-"
"Hear you out?" A tall raven haired girl screamed. "It's absurd! Absolutely absurd!"
"But Annie!" John pleaded. "I've wanted this my entire life!"
"Did you really expect me to travel with you on some phony expedition?"
"It's not a hoax! I swear it! Let me explain-"
"No! I don't want to hear your explanations, John! You have to be out of your mind if you think I'd go through with it!"
"This is a once in a lifetime opportunity!"
"Yes! Because once you find this place your life ends there!"
"Well yes there are curses and demons and monsters and-"
"NO! There's the scorching hot sun, low water source, and once inside one of those pyramids there are traps all over the place." she scoffed. "No curses!"
"Listen..."
"No YOU listen to me John! My mother was an Egyptian. She was born into one of the oldest families around. I heard legend after legend and myth after myth about the things inside those tombs and what happens to people who went messing about!"
"We're not going to mess about!"
"Then what do you call it?"
"An adventure!"
"AUGH!"
"No one believes in the Lost Palace of Eumaria."
"Hmmm. Maybe that's because it doesn't exist!"
"Y'know sometimes I wonder how you can have such a dull imagination."
"And sometimes I wonder how I could have such a fairytale-lover as a boyfriend."
They stared at each other for a moment and then broke into a grin.
"Annie please! Think about it!" John said as he sat beside her on the couch. "Ever since I was a little boy I've been fascinated about Ancient Egyptian times and then BAM! I came to London a year ago and I found you! An Egyptian!"
"Half Egyptian and only by birth" Anyanka interrupted.
"You can't possibly want to avoid going there forever."
"Oh can't I?"
"What about those dreams you've been having?"
"What about them?"
"And the journal we found!"
"What about it?"
"Don't you think it means something?"
"Coincidence"
"You have to know at least something."
"Waste of time talking about."
"Won't you at least be open-minded about it all?"
"MY FATHER VANISHED TRYING TO FIND THAT STUPID EUMARIA PLACE! HE DIDN'T LIKE THE IDEA OF GOING BUT HE DID IT TO PLEASE MY MOTHER! THEN MY UNCLE WENT TO TRY AND FIND HIM AND HE WENT MISSING TOO! MOTHER BELIEVED IN STUPID REINCARNATION AND THAT FATHER WOULD BRING HER BACK SO SHE WENT AND KILLED HERSELF! ALL I KNOW IS THAT EVERYONE WHO BELIEVES IN THAT MAKE-BELIEVE PLACE ENDS UP DEAD! IS THAT OPEN-MINDED ENOUGH FOR YOU?" Anyanka burst into tears and John put his arm around her.
"I'm so sorry, Annie. I didn't know." John whispered, on the verge of tears himself. "I didn't know."
Anyanka fumbled with her necklace that was cool to the touch.
"If it means so much to you...I'll go." Anyanka spoke in a barely audible tone. John stared a bit guiltily at the floor.
"You don't have to-"
"I will." She sighed. "My mum would have wanted it." She was quiet for a moment and then...
"She told me some things about it. Would you like to know?"
"Only if you're up for it. I really don't want you upset again. Honest I don't. It isn't worth it."
Anyanka cleared her throat, looked into John's loving blue eyes, and started her story.
~* END OF CHAPTER *~
Dumbledore placed a hand on Helen's shoulder.
"That's enough for tonight." he said before Helen found herself back in Dumbledore's office.
"But Alby!"
"You'll need rest so that you can have a good first day back." Dumbledore said in a voice that ended it. Helen stood up and gave "Alby" a hug for agreeing to eventually tell her everything, and left.
Helen's brain worked as fast as it could to process everything she'd seen and heard. Her grandmother, Anyanka, was half Egyptian and the fate of her family (death of parents and uncle) ended up the same as Helen's. Anyanka and her friend John were talking about trying to find some lost palace but what did that have to do with Helen or Harry for that matter? Then it hit her...after "Annie" started crying she had fumbled with a necklace...or amulet! Wasn't that what her captors had been looking for? The amulet? But Helen didn't have it, nor did she know where it could be. Her parents certainly never mentioned it at all. Helen pondered this until she finally fell asleep.
