Author's Note: Whew! This chapter was intense. I made myself cry. I hope it's not melodramatic- it's hard writing about such intense emotions without going overboard. I've put a lot of thought into how someone would feel in Miriel's situation, so I hope it's realistic.
Chapter Twenty-One
"That means that 'Dear Uncle Lucius' finally got what he deserved," Ron told me nastily. "The Ministry of Magic found the Malfoys' bodies in their castle."
"Ronald!" Hermione said in exasperation. Her brown eyes were filled with worry, and she watched me in concern. I had told her how I felt about my uncle, and how lately he had been kind to me, in his own way.
I felt the sudden urge to slap that gloating smile off of the redhead's face, but as I took in what he had said, I heard a roaring sound. I felt the blood surge in my ears, and for a moment I couldn't hear anything. My face and my hands felt numb. I swayed, and someone pushed me down into a chair.
"Miriel, are you alright?" Hermione's voice was dim, as if she was speaking from a great distance.
All the kids chattered around me, and I heard one of them say, "I think she's gonna pass out!"
I covered my face with my hands. "But he said he was leaving the Manor," I wailed. All the shock and grief I had felt at losing my mother was torn open again, only this time it was worse. It was like a terrible, black hole forming in my chest, and a dark shadow of fury shifted in the back of my mind.
"It's too bad Draco hadn't been there as well," Ron said, his voice sharp with spite. "Then we would have been rid of-"
"Shut up! Just shut the hell up!" I found myself standing, and my wand was in my hand. The adamant sparkled and glowed, it drew all the light in the Great Hall to itself until it dazzled like blue-white lightning and the air around us grew black and icy. All of my grief and rage raced through my arm into that wand.
"Expelliarmus!" I heard Harry yell, but nothing happened. The wand remained in my hand, and it grew brighter and brighter. I heard several screams, and some of the younger girls at the Gryffindor table began crying.
Suddenly Ron's horrified face froze in front of me. All movement stopped, and a thick silence covered the room. I could hear my ragged breath, and my pulse throbbed loudly in my ears. It was as if time itself had stopped.
Dumbledore stood to the right of me, behind the frozen figures of the students. He was no longer a kind, eccentric old man. The look on his face was fierce, and his body burned with a white radiance. In a flash I realized that I was seeing the true Dumbledore. His wand was pointed directly at me. "Finite maledictum!"
But the current of magic and rage had gathered a life of its own. The light from my wand pulsed, and actually seemed to beat against Professor Dumbledore's spell, pushing it away. It surged forward, toward Ron Weasley.
"Adverso flumine magica!" The wizard's deep voice echoed throughout the hall. Light exploded behind my eyelids, and lightning raced down my bones. It was excruciatingly painful, and it was a relief when I blacked out.
I dreamed about my mother. She was stroking my hair and calling me her baby. I even smelled the sweet, expensive perfume she liked so much. It was called 'Amarige,' and she always got it at an expensive gift shop on Royal Street in New Orleans.
I woke up slowly and dimly. Peeping through my lashes, I realized that I was once again in the infirmary. Stripes of light fell in through the windows. It must have been morning! I shut my eyes again, not wanting to face real life. Every muscle in my body ached. I felt worse, much worse, than when the kids had hexed me on the train. Like before, I awoke to hear voices, only this time, they were talking about me.
"Albus, this is cruel," Professor Lovelace said. "I can't go on like this, and she shouldn't have to, either. Tell her the truth about me now, or I will."
"My dear," Professor Dumbledore started. "Please lower your voice. I'll take care of everything in time."
"Don't give me that. Give her that damned mirror if you have to. She'll never find it on her own. What in Merlin's name are you waiting for?" Professor Lovelace's voice rose sharply in anger. "I don't even care about Lucius anymore. Just stop this charade."
Professor Dumbledore's voice faded off. I assumed he had escorted the other teacher out of the room since I couldn't hear them anymore. When I opened my eyes again, he was sitting at the bedside.
"Professor? What happened?" I asked.
"I prevented you from doing a terrible thing," The headmaster told me, his face exhausted and grim. He looked like he hadn't slept all night. "Just barely. You were about to curse Ronald Weasley. What were you thinking, my dear? I would hate to see you end up in Azkaban."
"I didn't mean to," I said, horrified and confused. "Everything happened so fast." I closed my eyes as the memories of what had happened rushed back to me. "The Dark Lord killed my uncle, and Ron was happy about it." Tears flooded my eyes. "I just lost it."
"Yes, the students have already spoken to me. And Molly Weasley." Professor Dumbledore rolled his eyes. "But we won't go into that just now. I can only assume that you were lashing out in grief. My dear, the amount of power you demonstrated last night was frightening. Harry couldn't stop you with his disarming spell. I am considered one of the more powerful wizards, and even I could not immediately restrain you. Soon it will be all over the wizarding world."
I groaned. "Everyone at Hogwarts is going to think that I'm horrible." If anybody suspected me of being evil because of my uncle, I had just given them proof. Harry and Hermione probably hated me by now.
"Things are not always what they appear to be here in the wizarding world," A woman's voice said. "And anyone who doesn't take that into consideration is a fool." It was Professor Lovelace, who had obviously returned to the infirmary. She stopped next to Professor Dumbledore and glared down at him as if daring him to throw her out again.
Professor Dumbledore sighed as if exasperated, but he stood up to let her have his chair.
"What do you mean?" I asked the witch, as she sat down. Obviously I was going to get more information out of her than the headmaster. She looked like she was dying to tell me something.
"Your uncle is nothing if not resourceful," She said. "The Dark Lord does not call him 'Slippery Lucius' for nothing. Lucius told you that he intended to leave Malfoy Manor immediately. He dumped Draco off and left Hogwarts so quickly that he didn't even have time to see you. That hardly sounds like a man who is going to lounge around his castle, waiting for the Dark Lord to knock on his door. Severus talked with him before he was summoned to Voldemort's meeting..."
"Severus!" I struggled to sit up. "Where is he? Is he okay?"
"He has not returned yet," The witch said. "We'll know more when he does. I am trying to tell you that there is no way that Lucius would have allowed the Dark Lord to kill him and Narcissa. He is a survivor. He will sacrifice anything, or anyone to survive." She said this last sentence with a little bitterness.
"But Ron said that the Ministry of Magic found their bodies!" I said, holding back the tears that stung my eyes.
"There are many spells and potions that can be used to change another person's appearance. Those bodies that the Ministry found could very well have been Muggles, or house elves, enchanted to look like the Malfoys. I know about this from personal experience, Miriel. It's entirely possible." Professor Lovelace gazed at me intensely, as if she wanted to tell me more. There was something in her expression that, again, seemed familiar.
"Who are you?" I whispered.
Professor Lovelace leaned forward and touched my hand. "This is going to be quite a shock for you," She said gently. Then her hand reached up to smooth my hair, and I smelled it, the faint, sweet perfume on her wrist.
I recoiled in shock, and knocked her hand away. "Who are you? Why are you wearing my mother's perfume?" Perhaps I had not been dreaming this morning.
"Baby, I-"The witch began.
"Don't call me that! My Mama calls me that!" I shook violently. I felt like I must be losing my mind. "Why are you doing this?" I looked at Professor Dumbledore, and his face was stricken with deep concern.
"There is no easy way to say this," The headmaster said. "Please try to calm yourself, Miriel, and listen to me."
"Get away from me!" I screamed at the witch. "Get out of my sight!" Behind me I heard the window panes shattering and the mirrors over the hospital sinks cracking. Broken glass fell onto the floor.
Professor Lovelace caught her breath, and left, her face crumbling like she was about to cry. Instantly Madam Pomfrey was at my side. She gave me a vial of some kind of potion to drink, but I flung it against the wall. The nurse then took out her wand and cast a tranquilizing spell on me. Almost instantly, heavy warmth spread throughout my body, and I felt myself calm down.
"What haven't you been telling me?" I asked professor Dumbledore. "Why does that woman act like she knows me?"
Dumbledore held my hand, and after a few moments, began speaking. "About a year ago, your mother was in her shop, cleaning up after a busy day. There was a particularly large mirror towards the back wall, I believe."
I nodded. I remembered it.
"She was quite shocked when she looked up to see an image of you in the mirror," The headmaster continued.
"Me?" I frowned in puzzlement.
The wizard nodded solemnly. "Apparently, you found the Mirror of Emit, and used it to warn her of her boyfriend's intentions to dispose of her. She encouraged you to tell her every detail of the incident, and of what happened to you once Lucius found you. You told her about your life here at Hogwarts."
"But Professor," I told him. "That didn't happen."
"Ah, Miriel. You mean, it hasn't happened for you yet. Have you not been trying to find the mirror since you arrived? Have you not been wanting to see your mother again?"
A little embarrassed, I nodded.
"Your mother, being the wise woman that she is, did everything possible to ensure that what you had told her came to pass. She faked her own death in the matter that you described to her, and she stayed safely out of your way until she knew you were safe at Hogwarts."
"Professor, that's crazy," I told him. "My mother wouldn't just abandon me like that, letting me think she was dead. She would have told me something."
"Let me ask you this, Miriel," The headmaster said. "What if she had told you the truth of what had happened? When she talked with you in the mirror, she discovered that Lucius had still been hunting her after all those years. Once Lucius found you, he would have known that your mother still lived, even if you had attempted to lie about it. He would have seen it in your mind, or used veriteserum. Would he have so generously taken you under his wing if you had not been an orphan? Or would he have killed you, or attempted to use you against her? It was safer for you believing that she had died. Playing around with time is very dangerous. Any change she would have made to the information you had given her could have brought about unpredictable events. She wanted to make sure you would end up safe at Hogwarts, as when she saw the future you in the mirror."
"You're saying that my mother is alive?" I couldn't believe it. I would have thought that this was some kind of cruel joke, or that Professor Dumbledore was insane, if it had not been for his sober, honest eyes, and his comforting hand on mine.
"In the mirror you told her the date you had arrived here at Hogwarts," He said. "She arrived here shortly after you did. I was quite surprised, let me tell you. I wasn't sure what to do with her. Having her back again in the wizarding world would have drawn a huge amount of attention, especially from the press. Lucius would again have been after her, and her life would have been in danger."
"But you didn't tell me anything?" I still found the entire story unbelievable.
"You have been in constant contact with Lucius, and he has amazing powers of legilimency," The wizard told me. "He would have been able to see into your mind, and learn of your mother's existence. More importantly, he might have informed the Dark Lord. Your mother wanted to tell you about her arrival immediately, but I insisted it was safer this way. Your mother is doing very important work with Severus that the Dark Lord must not catch even a hint about. The two believe that they can create mirrors which repel the Unforgivable curses. She has also been working for our order, the Order of the Phoenix, which has been planning strategies against Voldemort."
"All of this is really hard to take in," I told him. "My mother has been here? At Hogwarts?" I suddenly knew what he was going to say before he said it.
"She took the position of our Muggle Studies teacher," The headmaster said.
It was impossible to sort out my feelings right then. I felt an overwhelming mixture of shock, happiness, anger and confusion. I had spent a year grieving her death, and now I couldn't believe that she was really here, had been here all this time. I knew I was probably going to be furious with Professor Dumbledore later, but right now I pushed that thought aside.
"I think your mother very much wants to see you," He told me gently.
When he guided Professor Lovelace back into the room, it was clear that she had been crying. The woman took a deep breath. Taking out her wand, she performed the spell to restore her original appearance. Her image wavered in front of me, and suddenly my mother stood there, with her reddish-brown hair curling around her pretty face.
"Mama?" I trembled so violently, I could barely get the word out.
She rushed forward to hold me, and I sobbed against her shoulder. I don't know who cried more, but I couldn't seem to stop clinging to her, and touching her face. She was alive, and karl hadn't killed her. For a brief, strange moment, I thought of my favorite scene from Tolkien's book, "The Return of the King," that I had begged my mother to read to me over and over as a child until I had memorized it. In it, Sam wakes up and discovers that Gandalf is really alive, even though the fellowship thought he had been killed by the evil Balrog. Sam says, "I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself. Is everything sad going to come untrue?"
Thanks to all you great reviewers out there!
Thank you, Kaylyn, ice-princess 42, and shadowstar21. I love you guys. (sniff!)
Rycca Wolfbane: Actually, I could never get into "The Neverending Story" either. My younger sister forced me to watch the movie about a kazillion times. The scene in the movie where Harry rides the Hippogriff actually reminds me of Bastian riding the luck dragon. HA! The Hitchhiker's Guide is cool. Hey, I want to go to Busch gardens. I am in desperate need of a vacation. Right now the only excitement I get is going down to hang out at "Walmart."
Escaped: Breath, Escaped, breath. I hope that this chapter didn't freak you out too bad about Lucius. I think I freaked myself out! Don't worry, though, you will see Lucius again soon. You know I can't kill off the poor guy. He's just too sexy. Both of us seem to have some serious anti-Ron issues. The scene where Miriel is about to curse Ron was inspired by a book called, "A wizard of Earthsea," by Ursula K. LeGuin. Have you read it? Yes, poor Harry is about to have a nervous breakdown or something. Actually, the dean changed her mind about the due date on my project. It's now due in December! Yikes! These people are driving me crazy. To be fair, though, it turned into the paper from hell because I am a terrible procrastinator. I was anxious about the thing, and so kept putting it off. Thank you so much for your detailed reviews. I really appreciate them.
Kiwiblue: Wow- you must be psychic or something. How did you know that Lovelace was Miriel's mother? Yes, I'm pretty sure that Dumbly turned Draco into a kid on purpose so he wouldn't have to become a Death Eater when he turned 17. No, the other students are still kids. Poor Neville- that's not really fair, is it? Yes, I love New Orleans too.
MerryDay: Well, Poor Snape does need some romance in his life, but I'm not sure it's going to come from Miriel. I'm sorry, but I cannot ruin the story for you by telling you the details. I'm going to be like my hero, JK Rowling, and be secretive... Thank you so much for reading my story.
Arsinoe de Blassenville: Yes, it is fun to write about little Draco. It will be kind of sad when he turns back to a teen again, but it has to be done! Thank you for your reviews.
