Author's Notes: A fairly short chapter, to set up a major plot event.
Sirius makes an appearance. And, Mira and Hermione have a bit of girl-
talk.
Disclaimer: Nothing from the books or movies belongs to me.
Chapter 52: A Rough Day for Mira
Tuesday came and went uneventfully for the most part. The fancy dress ball robes arrived via courier from the tailor elf workshop late in the afternoon. Eloise's robe was altered flawlessly. One could look at it closely and never realize it had been originally fitted to a shorter and smaller woman. The professor's heavy black renaissance era wizarding robe was exquisite as well. Not as flashy as the robe Mira would be wearing, but nicer than his formal academic robe. Mira had lucked out with finding a piece of very fine cut velvet fabric left over from a special order ceremonial robe commissioned by a high-ranking Ministry wizard. The tailor- elves managed to stretch it just enough to cut the deep cuffs and collar of the ball robe from it. She carried the box upstairs and hung the two robes in her wardrobe for safekeeping.
Mira owled the professor, to let him know that she had procured appropriate robes for them to wear to the ball. She also asked if he could come by on New Year's Eve to try his on, to make sure it fit. She received an owl back, stating that he was being assigned to patrol the corridors the rest of the week, as there had been talk of some serious pranking among the students who were staying on over the holidays. But, he would try and see if he could steal away from the school for a little while sometime in the next few days.
Before she went to bed, Mira wrote another note to the professor, letting him know that she understood about his being assigned to patrol the corridors, and would see him whenever possible. She also wrote to her cousin, to confirm that she would be meeting Tricia and Hermione at the Leaky Cauldron at ten in the morning on Thursday. Mira tied the notes to the shop-owl's legs before retiring to her upstairs apartment. Just after the owl took flight, a cloaked figure in the alleyway cast a spell on it and called the bird down to a waiting carriage. After a few minutes inside the carriage, the owl was back on its way to Hogwarts. But not before being enchanted to deliver any messages from the shop directly to the carriage or cloaked man first.
The hooded man in the carriage took the original message from Mira. It was replaced with a scroll written in her own handwriting, telling the professor that she would let him know what night would be best for a quick rendezvous between his patrols of the school grounds.
Wednesday evening was Mira's second tutoring session with Hermione. She arrived early, and found the girl sharing a bottle of butterbeer with her friend, Harry. Sirius Black, Harry's godfather, was drinking at the bar with Hagrid and a few other local wizarding folk. Mira sat and chatted with the young wizard and witch before it was time for her tutoring session. Sirius spotted her and carried his mug of ale from the bar to their table and sat down next to Mira.
"So. What's a nice witch like you doing in a place like this?"
Mira edged her chair a little closer to Hermione, and gave him a frosty look.
"Sirius, please don't."
"What did I say? I was just trying to be friendly, love. No harm done. I can tell that your boyfriend's charming demeanor has started to rub off on you. Why don't you let me buy you a drink, to cheer you up a bit."
"Sirius, I came here to study with Hermione, not to drink."
"Well, it's not time for you to study yet, is it? Come on. Let me buy you a drink, please? You know I'll keep bugging you until you give in."
"All right, but only to spare me the embarrassment of having to hex you in public."
"See, that wasn't painful; was it? What'll you have?"
"Just one of those drinks the kids are sharing."
"A butterbeer? Nothing stronger?"
"No, just a butterbeer. Remember; I'm here to study, not to party."
Mira looked at the large clock on the wall as it chimed the hour.
"Oops! My how time flies. I suppose it's time for my lesson, so if you could just have the barmaid bring my drink back to the meeting-room I'd really appreciate it."
She got up from the table and pushed her chair in.
"Come along, Hermione. I'm quite eager to get started this evening. A pity we can't hang around and chat with your sweet little friend and his godfather."
She picked up her book and turned to the two wizards.
"Harry. Sirius."
Mira turned and flipped the hem of her cloak back, letting it trail behind her as she headed towards the private dining rooms. Sirius laughed a raucous belly laugh, and Hermione snatched up her book and ran to keep up with Mira.
The two witches situated themselves in the tiny dining room. Mira draped her cloak across the back of her chair, and waited for Hermione to unpack some items from her book satchel. Before they started, the barmaid knocked on the door and delivered two frosty bottles of butterbeer. One for Hermione, one for Mira.
Hermione took a sip of her drink and looked over at Mira.
"You don't like Sirius much, do you?"
"Oh no Hermione. I like him just fine. It's just that he's been trying to play games with me, and I don't appreciate it."
"Oh. I just noticed that you were awfully cross with him back there, and wondered why."
"He's a very handsome and charming man, Hermione. And he knows it. And he knows I know it. But he's playing a very dangerous game. Look, you're old enough to understand. Sirius knows perfectly well who I'm involved with and that we're serious about each other. And the two of them have some kind of extreme bad blood between each other that goes back to their school days."
"Um, I know. I know the story, or at least part of it. They've never exactly been friendly with each other."
"Well, that's an understatement, Hermione. I've been there when they've met in passing and it was like two tomcats sizing each other up for a fight. Anyway, Sirius has been very flirtatious with me, and he's doing it to tweak the professor. I don't appreciate being used as a weapon against my own lover by his schoolyard rival."
"I thought grown-ups didn't do things like that?"
"Sweetie, grown-ups can be the worst with things like that. Now, don't get me wrong. Sirius takes good care of your friend, Harry. He's not a bad man. He just needs to grow up a little bit. Like so many others in the great brotherhood of mankind."
"Don't I know it!"
"Problems with your boyfriend, Hermione? He was quite the charmer when he came in to buy you gifts."
"He just doesn't understand. He's trying so hard to be who he thinks I want him to be, that he's forgetting how to be himself. He's trying so hard to impress me with things and it's not things that matter to me."
"Well, he's young. He wants to do all the right things but only has a vague idea of exactly what to do."
"I know. It's just that sometimes I feel like I don't fit in with the wizarding world."
"It's okay. I feel the same way a lot of the time myself."
Mira patted Hermione on the hand, and the girl smiled and looked down at her books.
"So, what's on the agenda for this evening?"
"Well, I thought we could do more transfiguration of inorganic into organic. How about turning that empty glass butterbeer bottle into a wooden bottle?"
Mira spent the rest of the tutoring session turning glass to wood, and then back to glass again. Satisfied that she had master of that skill, Hermione told her to study and practice; they would begin working with less complex animals the next session. Mira would start with transfiguring an earthworm into a piece of cord and back again.
"Um, Hermione. I don't mean to question your methods, but we can move more quickly. I have actually done short-term human to animal transfiguration before. Not that I go around bragging about it, it is illegal and all. But I've done it, just the same."
"Oh, I didn't know. Sorry, I thought you needed to start off on a very remedial level. I had no idea you were that advanced already."
"It's okay. It's better this way, because I'm missing some important basic skills. We can just move really quickly past what I already know. And besides, I've not done serious magic in years; I'm woefully out of practice. It'll be good for me to go over all the basics again, just to make sure I haven't forgotten any of it."
Mira reminded Hermione to be at the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley by ten in the morning, for the day out with Tricia. Hermione told her she had been looking very much forward to it. She didn't have any sisters and didn't have many friends outside of Hogwarts; none really in the muggle world.
The witches gathered their cloaks and books and exited the dining room. Sirius and Harry were already gone, but Hagrid was waving to Hermione from the bar. Mira bid her farewells, and left Hermione to visit with the half- giant gamekeeper. She walked down the icy street, oblivious to the fact that a large man in a dark hooded cloak was following her.
Mira hesitantly stopped off at the little flat shared by her one time friend, Lucy, and her part time shop girl, Maddie. Mira had owled Maddie to let her know that she was needed all day in the shop on Thursday, but had not yet heard back from the girl. Lucy answered the door and was polite but cool towards her former best girlfriend. Maddie was out on a date, and would be home shortly. But if Mira wished, she could sit and wait for her. Since she was already there, Mira decided to stay. Lucy conjured up a tea set and sat primly on the edge of her sofa, eying Mira with a hard to decipher look on her face.
"I have been meaning to talk with you. I hear that not only do former Death Eaters come around the shop, but an unstable wizard with a likely criminal past has been lurking around as well. I'm not entirely sure that I want my baby sister being exposed to such elements. I mean, it's ultimately her choice to work for you or not, she is of legal age. I just want to make sure that you can ensure her safety, considering the men which you have been seen consorting with."
"Lucy, it's just part time. She's not exposed to any kind of danger. If you are concerned, you can send an owl to Albus Dumbledore over at the school, he can vouch for the integrity of both men and assure your sister's safety in their presence."
"Mira, I don't understand you. I really don't. You have men pursuing you who can give you a lavish lifestyle and make you a lady of society. But you settle for a teacher with a questionable past. Maybe it's your muggle upbringing. I don't know. I just know that we've grown so much apart since you've become involved with this Potions professor. I miss our friendship, and I worry about you. He's already led you into harm's way once, it can happen again. You're woefully out of touch in the wizarding world, and there is talk that the dark wizards are planning some kind of uprising, to call in old debts from the war. Your professor may be a man of integrity, but he has enemies. That puts you at risk too. Just remember that, Mira. And please keep my sister out of it when it crashes down around you."
Both women looked up to the sound of a key in the lock. Maddie entered the room, and gave her sister a puzzled look.
"Hey Lucy. What's going on?"
"Mira dropped by to find out if you were going to work for her tomorrow. I told her I didn't know, she would have to ask you in person."
"Yeah, sure. I'll work all day. I can use the pocket money. Nine o' clock as usual?"
Mira stood up and smoothed the front of her cloak.
"Nine o' clock. See you then, okay?"
She headed for the door, and looked back over her shoulder.
"Bye, Lucy. 'Night Maddie."
Mira stepped back out onto the street, very close to tears over the confrontation with Lucy. She was quite fed up with Lucy and Susan's attitudes. She made her way to the tailor shop; oblivious to the fact that somebody had been in while she was gone. There were two scrolls sitting at the foot of the shop-owl's perch, one with a Hogwarts seal on it.
Mira pocketed the scrolls and went upstairs to her living quarters. She put her schoolbook on the table, hung her cloak by the fireplace, and changed into her nightclothes. She read the scrolls over a cup of soothing herbal tea. The first was from Susan. She was confirming that Tricia would be at the Leaky Cauldron at ten in the morning, wearing the appropriate muggle attire. And she also requested that Mira stay over with Susan and Albert the following night, as Tricia wanted some extra time with her "auntie" before having to return to school. The second scroll was a message from the professor, letting her know that he could steal away for maybe an hour between patrols of the school grounds the following night, and to owl him back and let him know what time she would be home from London.
Mira realized that she was trapped between a rock and a hard place. She couldn't turn down Tricia's request to stay over, but she didn't want to miss seeing the professor either. She pulled out a scroll and quill and wrote him a quick note. She would be in London overnight, but would be home for New Year's Eve, and could see him anytime after she closed the shop.
Mira bundled the scroll with a piece of twine, took it downstairs and balanced it across the water-cup of the shop-owl's perch. He was trained to fly by his owl window at least once during his nightly hunting runs, in case Mira had any urgent messages to be sent out.
She cast all of the protection and security wards on the building, essentially locking herself in for the night, and went on up to bed. A couple of hours later, the owl swooped over the shop, and spied the scroll on his perch. He turned and came in for another pass, and the enchanted owl window slid open to give the bird access. He looked at the writing on the scroll, and recognized the shape of the writing as meaning the message was to go to the school castle. Swiftfeather clutched the message in his beak and flew back out the window, into the night sky.
He turned away from the castle, and circled over a dark alley in the middle of Hogsmeade. The owl swooped down for a landing on the wheel of a black carriage, which was parked in the shadows. A large older man stepped out of the carriage and took the message from the owl. He looked around to make sure the coast was clear, and disapparated. Less than ten minutes later, the man apparated and handed the owl a forged scroll, and sent it back on its way to Hogwarts. He then walked quickly to the Hog's Head tavern; where he met up with a younger woman who was sitting alone at a table, with a bundle of cloth on the floor beside her. She got up, picked up the bundle, and followed the older man from the tavern back to the alley. The woman climbed into the carriage and set the bundle on the seat across from her, the man took his place on the driver's platform. He pulled out his wand, said a brief incantation, and the entire carriage disapparated into the night.
Disclaimer: Nothing from the books or movies belongs to me.
Chapter 52: A Rough Day for Mira
Tuesday came and went uneventfully for the most part. The fancy dress ball robes arrived via courier from the tailor elf workshop late in the afternoon. Eloise's robe was altered flawlessly. One could look at it closely and never realize it had been originally fitted to a shorter and smaller woman. The professor's heavy black renaissance era wizarding robe was exquisite as well. Not as flashy as the robe Mira would be wearing, but nicer than his formal academic robe. Mira had lucked out with finding a piece of very fine cut velvet fabric left over from a special order ceremonial robe commissioned by a high-ranking Ministry wizard. The tailor- elves managed to stretch it just enough to cut the deep cuffs and collar of the ball robe from it. She carried the box upstairs and hung the two robes in her wardrobe for safekeeping.
Mira owled the professor, to let him know that she had procured appropriate robes for them to wear to the ball. She also asked if he could come by on New Year's Eve to try his on, to make sure it fit. She received an owl back, stating that he was being assigned to patrol the corridors the rest of the week, as there had been talk of some serious pranking among the students who were staying on over the holidays. But, he would try and see if he could steal away from the school for a little while sometime in the next few days.
Before she went to bed, Mira wrote another note to the professor, letting him know that she understood about his being assigned to patrol the corridors, and would see him whenever possible. She also wrote to her cousin, to confirm that she would be meeting Tricia and Hermione at the Leaky Cauldron at ten in the morning on Thursday. Mira tied the notes to the shop-owl's legs before retiring to her upstairs apartment. Just after the owl took flight, a cloaked figure in the alleyway cast a spell on it and called the bird down to a waiting carriage. After a few minutes inside the carriage, the owl was back on its way to Hogwarts. But not before being enchanted to deliver any messages from the shop directly to the carriage or cloaked man first.
The hooded man in the carriage took the original message from Mira. It was replaced with a scroll written in her own handwriting, telling the professor that she would let him know what night would be best for a quick rendezvous between his patrols of the school grounds.
Wednesday evening was Mira's second tutoring session with Hermione. She arrived early, and found the girl sharing a bottle of butterbeer with her friend, Harry. Sirius Black, Harry's godfather, was drinking at the bar with Hagrid and a few other local wizarding folk. Mira sat and chatted with the young wizard and witch before it was time for her tutoring session. Sirius spotted her and carried his mug of ale from the bar to their table and sat down next to Mira.
"So. What's a nice witch like you doing in a place like this?"
Mira edged her chair a little closer to Hermione, and gave him a frosty look.
"Sirius, please don't."
"What did I say? I was just trying to be friendly, love. No harm done. I can tell that your boyfriend's charming demeanor has started to rub off on you. Why don't you let me buy you a drink, to cheer you up a bit."
"Sirius, I came here to study with Hermione, not to drink."
"Well, it's not time for you to study yet, is it? Come on. Let me buy you a drink, please? You know I'll keep bugging you until you give in."
"All right, but only to spare me the embarrassment of having to hex you in public."
"See, that wasn't painful; was it? What'll you have?"
"Just one of those drinks the kids are sharing."
"A butterbeer? Nothing stronger?"
"No, just a butterbeer. Remember; I'm here to study, not to party."
Mira looked at the large clock on the wall as it chimed the hour.
"Oops! My how time flies. I suppose it's time for my lesson, so if you could just have the barmaid bring my drink back to the meeting-room I'd really appreciate it."
She got up from the table and pushed her chair in.
"Come along, Hermione. I'm quite eager to get started this evening. A pity we can't hang around and chat with your sweet little friend and his godfather."
She picked up her book and turned to the two wizards.
"Harry. Sirius."
Mira turned and flipped the hem of her cloak back, letting it trail behind her as she headed towards the private dining rooms. Sirius laughed a raucous belly laugh, and Hermione snatched up her book and ran to keep up with Mira.
The two witches situated themselves in the tiny dining room. Mira draped her cloak across the back of her chair, and waited for Hermione to unpack some items from her book satchel. Before they started, the barmaid knocked on the door and delivered two frosty bottles of butterbeer. One for Hermione, one for Mira.
Hermione took a sip of her drink and looked over at Mira.
"You don't like Sirius much, do you?"
"Oh no Hermione. I like him just fine. It's just that he's been trying to play games with me, and I don't appreciate it."
"Oh. I just noticed that you were awfully cross with him back there, and wondered why."
"He's a very handsome and charming man, Hermione. And he knows it. And he knows I know it. But he's playing a very dangerous game. Look, you're old enough to understand. Sirius knows perfectly well who I'm involved with and that we're serious about each other. And the two of them have some kind of extreme bad blood between each other that goes back to their school days."
"Um, I know. I know the story, or at least part of it. They've never exactly been friendly with each other."
"Well, that's an understatement, Hermione. I've been there when they've met in passing and it was like two tomcats sizing each other up for a fight. Anyway, Sirius has been very flirtatious with me, and he's doing it to tweak the professor. I don't appreciate being used as a weapon against my own lover by his schoolyard rival."
"I thought grown-ups didn't do things like that?"
"Sweetie, grown-ups can be the worst with things like that. Now, don't get me wrong. Sirius takes good care of your friend, Harry. He's not a bad man. He just needs to grow up a little bit. Like so many others in the great brotherhood of mankind."
"Don't I know it!"
"Problems with your boyfriend, Hermione? He was quite the charmer when he came in to buy you gifts."
"He just doesn't understand. He's trying so hard to be who he thinks I want him to be, that he's forgetting how to be himself. He's trying so hard to impress me with things and it's not things that matter to me."
"Well, he's young. He wants to do all the right things but only has a vague idea of exactly what to do."
"I know. It's just that sometimes I feel like I don't fit in with the wizarding world."
"It's okay. I feel the same way a lot of the time myself."
Mira patted Hermione on the hand, and the girl smiled and looked down at her books.
"So, what's on the agenda for this evening?"
"Well, I thought we could do more transfiguration of inorganic into organic. How about turning that empty glass butterbeer bottle into a wooden bottle?"
Mira spent the rest of the tutoring session turning glass to wood, and then back to glass again. Satisfied that she had master of that skill, Hermione told her to study and practice; they would begin working with less complex animals the next session. Mira would start with transfiguring an earthworm into a piece of cord and back again.
"Um, Hermione. I don't mean to question your methods, but we can move more quickly. I have actually done short-term human to animal transfiguration before. Not that I go around bragging about it, it is illegal and all. But I've done it, just the same."
"Oh, I didn't know. Sorry, I thought you needed to start off on a very remedial level. I had no idea you were that advanced already."
"It's okay. It's better this way, because I'm missing some important basic skills. We can just move really quickly past what I already know. And besides, I've not done serious magic in years; I'm woefully out of practice. It'll be good for me to go over all the basics again, just to make sure I haven't forgotten any of it."
Mira reminded Hermione to be at the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley by ten in the morning, for the day out with Tricia. Hermione told her she had been looking very much forward to it. She didn't have any sisters and didn't have many friends outside of Hogwarts; none really in the muggle world.
The witches gathered their cloaks and books and exited the dining room. Sirius and Harry were already gone, but Hagrid was waving to Hermione from the bar. Mira bid her farewells, and left Hermione to visit with the half- giant gamekeeper. She walked down the icy street, oblivious to the fact that a large man in a dark hooded cloak was following her.
Mira hesitantly stopped off at the little flat shared by her one time friend, Lucy, and her part time shop girl, Maddie. Mira had owled Maddie to let her know that she was needed all day in the shop on Thursday, but had not yet heard back from the girl. Lucy answered the door and was polite but cool towards her former best girlfriend. Maddie was out on a date, and would be home shortly. But if Mira wished, she could sit and wait for her. Since she was already there, Mira decided to stay. Lucy conjured up a tea set and sat primly on the edge of her sofa, eying Mira with a hard to decipher look on her face.
"I have been meaning to talk with you. I hear that not only do former Death Eaters come around the shop, but an unstable wizard with a likely criminal past has been lurking around as well. I'm not entirely sure that I want my baby sister being exposed to such elements. I mean, it's ultimately her choice to work for you or not, she is of legal age. I just want to make sure that you can ensure her safety, considering the men which you have been seen consorting with."
"Lucy, it's just part time. She's not exposed to any kind of danger. If you are concerned, you can send an owl to Albus Dumbledore over at the school, he can vouch for the integrity of both men and assure your sister's safety in their presence."
"Mira, I don't understand you. I really don't. You have men pursuing you who can give you a lavish lifestyle and make you a lady of society. But you settle for a teacher with a questionable past. Maybe it's your muggle upbringing. I don't know. I just know that we've grown so much apart since you've become involved with this Potions professor. I miss our friendship, and I worry about you. He's already led you into harm's way once, it can happen again. You're woefully out of touch in the wizarding world, and there is talk that the dark wizards are planning some kind of uprising, to call in old debts from the war. Your professor may be a man of integrity, but he has enemies. That puts you at risk too. Just remember that, Mira. And please keep my sister out of it when it crashes down around you."
Both women looked up to the sound of a key in the lock. Maddie entered the room, and gave her sister a puzzled look.
"Hey Lucy. What's going on?"
"Mira dropped by to find out if you were going to work for her tomorrow. I told her I didn't know, she would have to ask you in person."
"Yeah, sure. I'll work all day. I can use the pocket money. Nine o' clock as usual?"
Mira stood up and smoothed the front of her cloak.
"Nine o' clock. See you then, okay?"
She headed for the door, and looked back over her shoulder.
"Bye, Lucy. 'Night Maddie."
Mira stepped back out onto the street, very close to tears over the confrontation with Lucy. She was quite fed up with Lucy and Susan's attitudes. She made her way to the tailor shop; oblivious to the fact that somebody had been in while she was gone. There were two scrolls sitting at the foot of the shop-owl's perch, one with a Hogwarts seal on it.
Mira pocketed the scrolls and went upstairs to her living quarters. She put her schoolbook on the table, hung her cloak by the fireplace, and changed into her nightclothes. She read the scrolls over a cup of soothing herbal tea. The first was from Susan. She was confirming that Tricia would be at the Leaky Cauldron at ten in the morning, wearing the appropriate muggle attire. And she also requested that Mira stay over with Susan and Albert the following night, as Tricia wanted some extra time with her "auntie" before having to return to school. The second scroll was a message from the professor, letting her know that he could steal away for maybe an hour between patrols of the school grounds the following night, and to owl him back and let him know what time she would be home from London.
Mira realized that she was trapped between a rock and a hard place. She couldn't turn down Tricia's request to stay over, but she didn't want to miss seeing the professor either. She pulled out a scroll and quill and wrote him a quick note. She would be in London overnight, but would be home for New Year's Eve, and could see him anytime after she closed the shop.
Mira bundled the scroll with a piece of twine, took it downstairs and balanced it across the water-cup of the shop-owl's perch. He was trained to fly by his owl window at least once during his nightly hunting runs, in case Mira had any urgent messages to be sent out.
She cast all of the protection and security wards on the building, essentially locking herself in for the night, and went on up to bed. A couple of hours later, the owl swooped over the shop, and spied the scroll on his perch. He turned and came in for another pass, and the enchanted owl window slid open to give the bird access. He looked at the writing on the scroll, and recognized the shape of the writing as meaning the message was to go to the school castle. Swiftfeather clutched the message in his beak and flew back out the window, into the night sky.
He turned away from the castle, and circled over a dark alley in the middle of Hogsmeade. The owl swooped down for a landing on the wheel of a black carriage, which was parked in the shadows. A large older man stepped out of the carriage and took the message from the owl. He looked around to make sure the coast was clear, and disapparated. Less than ten minutes later, the man apparated and handed the owl a forged scroll, and sent it back on its way to Hogwarts. He then walked quickly to the Hog's Head tavern; where he met up with a younger woman who was sitting alone at a table, with a bundle of cloth on the floor beside her. She got up, picked up the bundle, and followed the older man from the tavern back to the alley. The woman climbed into the carriage and set the bundle on the seat across from her, the man took his place on the driver's platform. He pulled out his wand, said a brief incantation, and the entire carriage disapparated into the night.