A/N: This chapter is dedicated to the wonderful Jestana, who made a beautiful Indira doll. ^_^ The link is in my profile. Check it out or I'll make Björn come EAT you! Mwa ha ha ha!
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Chapter Fifteen: In which there are two giant leaps forward
- About five minutes later -
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Filled with an unexplainable desire to get done soon, Indira finished grading faster than she thought she would, and once the papers were finished, she set off toward Dippet's office. As she walked, she couldn't help thinking about the person she was going to see. Her feelings toward the headmaster were ambivalent. She liked him – in fact, she more than liked him; he was patient and seemed to genuinely care for her, and she was physically attracted to him as well – but the same emotions that made her want to see him were the same ones that made her hesitate. All her life, no one she let get close to her lived for long. Did she dare risk it with him?
"Kangchenjunga," she said when she reached the statue of the gargoyle. It slid aside, and she began climbing the long, winding staircase, her heart beating faster with every step. She reached the top of the staircase, walked over to the door, and knocked.
There was no response.
Confused, she stared at the door. This didn't make any sense. He should be in there. Why wouldn't he?
She knocked again. "Armando?"
Still nothing.
She was starting to get worried. She opened the door and went inside his office. There was no one inside, and all the portraits were sleeping peacefully. Indira clapped her hands loudly. "Wake up!" she said.
"Oh, hello, Professor Nay," said the portrait of Dilys Derwent. "Is everything all right?"
"Where's Armando?" Indira asked.
"Look, lady, we've got better things to do than keep tabs on your boyfriend," mumbled the portrait of Phineaus Nigellus.
"Phineaus!" exclaimed the portrait of a dark-haired witch named Rebecca Gryffindor, one of school's earliest heads. She sighed and looked at Indira. "Just ignore him, Professor Nay."
"I always do," Indira replied. "Do any of you know where the headmaster is?"
"He left about half an hour ago and hasn't been back since," said the portrait of a white-haired wizard named Donnchadh McGonagall. "And it's been raining too hard for us to hear anything." It had been raining all day, but not hard until about half an hour ago.
That was just enough time to go to the hospital wing to check on Minerva and then to her, Indira reasoned. "But he said he was coming back here," she said. "Are you sure he hasn't been here?"
"We said he wasn't!" Phineaus growled. "How many times do we have to tell you that?"
The portrait of a witch Viviana Madison named gave Phineaus a look that Indira felt rivaled her own infamous Death Stare.
"He probably just got delayed," Dilys Derwent suggested gently. "Why don't you go look for him? If he gets back before you find him, we'll tell him you're looking for him."
"All right," Indira said. She thanked the portraits, with the exception of Phineaus Nigellus, then went back down the stairs. Dilys was right. He probably just ran into another teacher and got delayed. It was a perfectly logical explanation.
Then why was she so worried?
The first instructor she saw after leaving Dippet's office was Halo Pokeli, who taught Herbology and was the head of Ravenclaw. Actually, it was he who saw her first. "Aloha, Professor Nay," the Hawaiian-born Pokeli said. "You look frantic."
"Have you seen Armando?" she asked, too distracted to remember to not refer to the headmaster by his first name in front of others.
"I saw him go that way about a minute ago," Pokeli answered, nodding to his left. "Toward the Astronomy tower, I think."
She thanked him and took off toward the Astronomy tower as fast as she could without running. She didn't know why she was so worried. Something about this whole situation didn't seem right, and the sooner she found him, the sooner she would be able to relax.
She didn't see him as she drew closer to the Astronomy tower, but he also had a head start. The sense of foreboding grew greater with ever step, and she quickened her pace. By the time she reached the long, winding staircase that led to the top of the tower, she was at an all-out run.
Running on the staircase was strongly advised against, and for a good reason; crashing into another person happened more often at high velocities, as she discovered when she barreled into a pair of second-year Hufflepuffs. "Has anyone been up here?" she asked, helping them to their feet.
"Professor Dippet just passed us," one of them said nervously. Indira scared most of the students, especially the younger ones, and he was no exception.
She took off running again, calling his name as she went.
When she reached the top of the tower, she saw him standing next to the railing on the edge of the observing platform, and he was starting to climb up onto it. "ARMANDO!" she shouted above the roar of the rain. "STOP!"
He hesitated for a moment, but then kept climbing.
"What are you doing?" she asked, running over to him and grabbing his arm.
He looked at her, then pushed her away.
Indira gasped. The Imperius Curse. It had to be. She was well acquainted with that curse, having been subjected to it several times when Grindelwald didn't feel like putting up with her resistance. There was no time to wonder who had done it to him. She had to get him to snap out of it before he killed himself.
She seized him by the arm again; unable to get a good grip because they were both soaked from the rain. She tried to recall everything she had learned about hand-to-hand combat in her lifetime and come up with something that would stop him, but not hurt him. Dippet, however, had other ideas, although not his own. He shook her off once more and continued climbing.
Unable to come up with anything else, Indira jumped up, wrapped her arms around her neck, and yanked him off the rail, causing both of them to fall backwards onto the platform. Dippet freed himself from her grip and started to stand, but she tripped him and caused him to fall again. She began to crawl over to him, but he reacted first, seizing her by the neck and trying to choke her. She hooked her arms around his, then rolled backwards, sending him flying into the tower behind them. Before he could get up again, she clambered over and attempted to pin him to the wall by straddling him and holding his arms behind his back. It worked. He couldn't move.
"You're under the Imperius Curse!" she shouted. "Fight it! Don't give in!"
He closed his eyes and turned his head away, straining to escape from her grasp.
"Fight it!" she cried again. "You can do this! You have to!"
Don't listen to her, a strong voice inside his head said. Jump off the tower.
No, said another, smaller voice. Listen to her. She wants to help you.
No she doesn't. She's trying to trick you.
No she's not.
Yes she is.
No she's not. The smaller voice was gradually growing louder.
"Please…" she said, not sure how much longer she could hold him.
She's delaying you! Eliminate her!
You can't. You love her.
No you don't! She doesn't matter! The only thing that matters is jumping off the tower!
NO!!!
He stopped resisting, opened his eyes again, and looked at her. "Indira…"
"You're all right," she managed to say despite being out of breath, and released his hands.
He pushed several sections of her soaking-wet hair out of her face and then pressed his hand to her cheek. "Thanks to you."
She let out a long sigh of relief and leaned forward to rest her head on his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her, and for a few moments, they were completely motionless, just holding onto each other in the pouring rain.
Suddenly, she began to tremble. "Are you all right?" he asked. He realized that they should probably get inside; they were risking hypothermia by being out here in the rain.
"I… I thought I was going to lose you," she choked. The rain camouflaged her tears, but her body betrayed her relief.
He smiled and hugged her tighter. "I didn't realized you cared so much."
She lifted her head up and kissed him on the cheek. "Neither did I."
The rain was falling harder than ever now. It was one of the many things forgotten as they shared a kiss that left the world behind.
A memory charm.
That's what's wrong with me, Minerva thought to herself as she left the hospital wing and began to head toward Dumbledore's quarters to have some tea and discuss the incident further. Someone had put a memory charm on her. But who? And why?
Dumbledore told her that if someone knew a memory charm had been placed on them, they could gradually break through it with little or no damage to their mind. However, it would take her a long time to even begin to crack it, and that bothered her. She had the strangest feeling that whatever was being blocked from her mind was important.
Dumbledore was pouring the tea into cups when Minerva arrived. "How are you feeling?" he asked.
"Confused," she answered. "Who would put a memory charm on me?"
He handed her one of the cups, and she thanked him.
"I think," he said quietly, "that it might have been Tom Riddle."
Minerva shook her head and took a sip of her tea. "No," she said. "Tom's my friend. He wouldn't do something like that. Besides, he's not up to anything."
Dumbledore's instinct told him otherwise, but he didn't have anything to support those thoughts, so he kept silent. The two of them walked over to a pair of velvet armchairs next to a window and sat down. Rain pounded against the window and slid down the glass in sheets, making everything outside appear as nothing more than a blur.
Minerva sighed and looked at her tea. "How do I break through a memory charm?"
"I… I don't know," he admitted. "I've never done it myself. Being aware that a memory charm has been placed on you helps, though."
"So should I just try to… to remember?"
He nodded. "Probably."
She brought the cup to her lips, but did not drink. After a few seconds, she set it down and said, "I know it's something bad. I think someone's in danger and if it weren't for this charm, I could do something to protect them."
"Well… it's a long shot, but we could try Divination…"
Minerva snorted and stared at her tea. "What do you say, Cup? Who's in danger?"
Dumbledore chuckled. "You're right, it's not worth the effort. Care for a game of chess?"
"Sure. I'll get it if you hold my tea."
He agreed, and she got up and walked over to his bookcase. As she was reaching for the chessboard, she noticed a picture of a younger Dumbledore and another man standing on either side of a very pretty woman with auburn hair and bright blue eyes. "Albus," she said, picking up the picture, "who is this?"
Dumbledore set the teacups down and joined her at the bookcase. "That's me, my brother Aberforth, and our sister Lucilla."
"Lucilla…" Minerva repeated.
Just then, she saw something. A face. A grotesque, mutilated face, with a long scar where his left eye should be.
She screamed and dropped the picture. The frame shattered on the floor. She covered her face and collapsed, shaking with fright.
"Minerva!" Dumbledore exclaimed, dropping to his knees next to her. "What is it? Are you all right?"
She was too shaken to answer immediately. He wrapped his arms around her, and she spent the next few minutes trying to recover from what she had seen. Finally, she was able to speak again. "I… I s-saw…"
"What did you see?" he asked.
"Grindelwald."
"You saw Grindelwald?" he said. "Are you sure? What did he look like?"
"He… had one eye… and a scar… it was so horrible…"
That matched the most recent description of Grindelwald, given about ten years ago. But why did Minerva… Then it came to him. The memory charm. Seeing the picture of Lucilla triggered the image of Grindelwald being blocked by the charm.
"Grindelwald's coming here," Minerva said. "And he's coming for blood."
It was half an hour before Dippet and Indira realized that they should go inside or risk contracting hypothermia.
However, upon going back inside the Astronomy tower, they discovered it was already occupied by a pair of sixth-years kissing passionately. They stopped at the sight of the drenched headmaster and Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor. Both tried to speak, but they were too shocked to do anything more than stare.
Indira began wringing water out of her hair and said, "Lyons. Sanchez. Detention."
A/N: I was in a Hawaiian-y mood earlier today. Halo Pokeli is the Hawaiian version of Harry Potter. I thought it was funny, anyway. ^_^