Chapter 4: Helpless

Myles had known since his first day as Ms. Lenore's assistant that Beth's closed on Sundays and, for the whole week, had wondered what would happen then. He didn't know if would be allowed to stay when the shop was closed for the date or where he would go. He was still unsure about his situation on Saturday, until Ms. Lenore approached him that afternoon before closing.

"Myles," Ms. Lenore said slowly, crouching down and lowering her eye down level to Myles'. "Beth's is closed tomorrow."

Myles felt a flash of panic. Was she finally going to tell him he couldn't sleep at Beth's anymore? Was she going to tell him she didn't want him getting in the way of running the shop anymore? Where would he go?

"I have a spare bed," She continued. "Would you like to stay with me?"

He let out a relieved breath and nodded his head, not trusting himself to be able to speak. Myles hadn't realized how much he had gotten used to the comfort of Beth's and Ms. Lenore's calm presence and he was grateful to be invited to 's home. Despite Ms. Lenore's obvious realization that he was a runaway of sorts, she had never brought up Myles's situation or pried into his past, tiptoeing around Myles's discomfort with the situation with nothing more than concerned looks.

"Well then," Ms. Lenore smiled at him. "Let's close up the shop."

Ms. Lenore lived in a small wizard of community mostly lived in by owners of long-standing family shops in Diagon Alley that was connected to the "space" fit inside Muggle London. It was connected in the Lower Alley,

So they walked down Diagon Alley. The shops on the street became poorer and poorer in quality, and the frequency of closed stores became higher and higher. It was very different, however, from Knockturn Alley. Knockturn Alley had had a dark dangerous feel about it, and the poorly constructed shops in it had always been that way. The shops on the low end of Diagon Alley were marked by permanent "closed" signs and deteriorated maintenance.

Ms. Lenore was surprised when he asked why the shops were closing, giving him the worried and curious look he occasionally got when he asked something that everyone should know. He had gotten that same look when he had asked who Harry Potter was.

"Ever since Gunore's Grand General opened on the far side of the Leaky Cauldron the lower end of Diagon Alley has been struggling. Gunore sells just about everything you'll find on the Alley and often at a cheaper price. It hasn't been as hard on Beth's, my inventory is only a part of my revenue, but a lot of the other shops haven't been able to keep afloat." Ms. Lenore explained, sounding a bit resigned as she looked at the closed shops around her.

They took a shortcut as they neared the Lower Alley, walking down a street of houses that felt only marginally safer than Knockturn Alley. Ms. Lenore, however, who walked down this street everyday looked fully comfortable, exchanging amicable nods with wizards and witches as they passed. While Myles felt safe in Ms. Lenore's protection, he hadn't fully let his guard down since leaving the Orphanage, keeping his eyes open, even if not entirely sure what he was looking for.

So he noticed when a witch hurriedly entered her home, glancing behind him and Ms. Lenore. Myles turned to look behind him, wondering what had caused the woman's reaction and was met with a flash of light. Suddenly Ms. Lenore was moving beside him and the red lights shooting at them bounced away into the sky with a shouted incantation and flourish of her wand.

He caught a glimpse of the two wizards stood ahead of them in the narrow street, wands held out and moving. They were dressed in rough clothing and the color in their face held an unhealthily pale tint, contrasting with the dark bags under their eyes. They still moved quickly enough however, throwing spells at the translucent white shield Ms. Lenore had erected the moment before. Myles hadn't heard the first two spells that had been sent at them, but now incantations were shouted, the voices of the two wizards escalating with the exchange of magic.

Myles stood there stunned for long moments that felt like hours but lasted only a few seconds. Flashing lights shot between the two wizards and Ms. Lenore, whose steady calm had been replaced by a panicked desperation. The see through white shield she had erected with 'protego' was broken almost immediately, and she was saved only by the fact that the wizards, miscordinatinating their attack, had both cast shield breaking spells and the second passed harmlessly through Ms. Lenore.

She returned with a flick of her wand that seemed to make one of the wizards' wand arms jerk up, but accomplished nothing else. One of the wizards performed another shield breaking spell, and this time the other wizard cast a different spell. Ms. Lenore, shieldless, dived out of the way of the red bolt shooting at her, landing hard on the ground.

Mrs. Lenore's luck held and a man behind the two attackers, who Mrs. Lenore had nodded to on their way by, distracted the two wizards, giving her enough time to get back on her feet. The timid and frightened looking man shot a spell at the wizard closest to him, but the spell was easily deflected and the pale wizard's partner took down the man behind them with a sinister looking ball of darkness that broke through the man's fragile looking shield. Ms. Lenore shouted the man's name as he fell, looking sickened at the sight.

The two wizards, with their twitching mouths and oddly focused eyes, did not look evil so much as unhinged and desperate. A volley of spells ensued, with Ms. Lenore able to keep up with them, if just barely. She countered an offense spell with her wand, the yellow light of the curse dissipating at the touch, and dealt with a mass of black coils heading at her with a burst of fire that scorched the air around them. Under the guise of the fire she broke the ground below them into rubble with a hard slash of her wand and sent the rocks shooting at the two wizards.

"Myles," she gasped, having bought a few seconds of time. "Run!"

Myles's trance was broken and, with a single look back back and around wishing he could help but seeing no way a 'reparo' or 'nits' would deter the two wizards, he ran. He sprinted in the opposite direction, running towards the Lower Alley. He heard one of the two wizards shout "Get him!" and realized with sudden clarity that the two men were there for him, they'd come because he'd left the Orphanage. Myles risked a glance back at a clamour of noise and saw Ms. Lenore dropping one of the two even as the other wizard hit her with spell that threw her body like a doll, violently crashing her into a house. The wooden wall collapsed under the impact with a sickening crack, her body disappearing into the hole in the house.

A pit formed in Myles's stomach and he faltered in his run, stumbling in shock. He saw the still standing wizard chasing him, wand out and throwing a spell, and panic pushed thoughts of Ms. Lenore to the back of his mind. He dove to the side and the red ball of light grazed his side, numbing where it hit and knocking him to the ground. Myles scrambled to his feet and raced for the corner, making it before the next spell came.

He experienced a momentary relief at making the corner, which disappeared instantly as the pale and haggard wizard popped into existence in front of him. Their eyes met as the wizard raised his wand again and Myles dashed for the door to the house beside him, the only escape or cover nearby. He hoped with a desperate will that it was unlocked, and the lock clicked in response.

Myles tore into the house. There was a kitchen ahead of him, tended to by a startled old witch who had drawn her wand and aimed at him. She shouted at him but he didn't pay her words any heed, hearing the wizard only steps behind him. He saw a fireplace and a ceramic bowl of powder beside it and came up with a half formed plan.

Ms. Lenore had often taken the Flu to go on house calls and, while Myles had never done it, there didn't seem to be any special trick to using it. He grabbed the Flu powder and thought of the only address he knew.

"Seren Manor, 18th Knightdale Valley." Myles shouted, throwing the powder into the fire and jumping in. He felt a twist in his stomach and a wave of warmth rush through his body and suddenly he was inside of a different fireplace.

The living room before him, in contrast to the one he had just left, was finely decorated. Every piece of furniture, carpet, and decoration inside it was thoughtfully placed, aligned, and picked to fit the unobtrusive color scheme of dark wood and earth tones. Yet several oddities broke the clearly planned layout: a large pink stuffed animal, an animated model of an exotic and scaly beast, a ugly plant with shaking tendril-like vines. Cecilia sat curled up in a cushioned chair far too big for her, reading a book and twirling a quill in between her fingers. Her acacia wand was settled on her ear, bared by a shiny raven pin that swept the side of her hair back.

Myles saw all this for a split second before he was violently flipped upside down, streaks of velvet peeling off of the wall above the fireplace, pulling him up to the roof and tightly wrapping his body. Cecilia looked up from where she sat engrossed in her book, blinking up at him.

"You should've owled first, it's awfully rude to show up unannounced." Cecilia said, but she was smiling as she rose. "Imagine if I hadn't been fully dressed."

A second later, there was another flash below him, followed by grunt and an attempted spell cast. The velvet streaks moved again and, while Myles couldn't look down, he realized the wizard chasing him had attempted to follow him here and had gotten himself caught up in the flu's protective charms just like him.

"Cecilia, love, you didn't say you'd be having guests over." A woman said brightly, rounding a corner and coming into the edges of Myles's vision. She had the same odd look in her eyes that Cecilia did, though the woman's were more abstract and less focused.

"This is Myles, mother." Cecilia responded to the woman. "Myles-not-Muren. And this, well, I'm not at all sure who this is but he doesn't look friendly."

"He does look very angry." Cecilia's mother said curiously, peering at the struggling wizard who was fighting the red velvet strips with his tongue and arm, sputtering as he unsuccessfully tried to cast a spell. "Maybe your friend can tell us why."

Cecilia pointed her wand at the velvet strips encapsulating him, instructing them to gently put Myles down. Gasping, the constrictive velvet strips had made it difficult to breath, he tried to explain, apologizing for bringing the man here as well as coming uninvited himself and trying to explain the attack. He didn't explain the situation well in his state of mind, adding details that had nothing to do with the story and forgetting important details. Ultimately, however, he managed to explain most of what happened and Cecilia's mother, Mrs. Luna Eden, flued to the ministry, bringing the velvet wrapped wizard with her.

A finely dressed house elf served him and Cecilia tea and biscuits and while Myles had no appetite he drank the tea, more for something to do with his hands than any desire for the drink. He had half expected Cecilia to pester him with questions, especially since she had somehow figured he had lied to her about his last name, or even accuse him of not only intruding into her house but also bringing a dangerous wizard along with him. Cecilia, however, sat across from him in companionable silence, letting him recover in silence. She pulled out her book and read, occasionally glancing up at him.

Eventually Cecilia's mother returned, a scarred middle-aged man accompanying her. He wore black robes with embroidered with scarlet and with a series of images set in white on the front. While the scars made his face intimidating, the expression on his face was slightly bored and rather uncaring.

"Myles?" the man asked and Myles nodded his head. "I'm Auror Rawlins. I was informed that you do not have parents or a legal guardian, is this true? Myles nodded again. "I'm here to take you to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. We'll need to hear your account on the attack in the Lower Alley and we'll settle this situation."

Had Myles known more about the wizarding world and society in general, he would have thought it odd that a scarred and unsympathetic man who looked more suited to fighting dark wizards would be sent to retrieve an 11 year old child. But he didn't, and the man's countenance served to make him more apprehensive about going to the Ministry. At this point Myles had come to the conclusion that the Orphanage was not part of the Ministry or, as far as he could tell, wizarding society in general. There were, he had found by researching through books at Flourish and Blotts, no orphanages in Britain and most orphans were adopted into a family. Still, Myles had no idea what awaited him. He didn't know if he would be in trouble for the attack in the Lower Alley and, even if he wasn't, what would happen to him, the same book where he had found out about the wizarding orphanage had stated wizards came into their full rights at 17.

"Myles," Cecilia's mother said gravely. "Remember to keep your shoes tied." Myles glanced down at his feet, thrown off balance by the comment and quite sure that the woman was insane.

A smile tugged at the corners of Cecilia's mouth at his bewildered reaction. "I'll see you at Hogwarts in a few days." She extended a hand and he shook it.

Myles was reassured by Cecilia's reaction. She had said she would see him at Hogwarts, something she wouldn't have said if she thought he was in trouble.

The Auror led him into the fireplace and they Flued to the Ministry of Magic. They exited in a grand and bustling hall, filled with the smell of burnt flu powder and magically appearing people. When Myles had arrived in Diagon Alley for the first time he had been stunned by the commotion and sheer number of people, unable to take everything in. The Ministry was similarly busy, though it's colors were restrained and it's decoration uniform.

Myles took it all in as they strode through the building: grand white marble statues that rose nearly to ceiling, a wide mural depicting a wizard conquering a force of darkness, and the bustling mass of wizardry that moved around him. They entered through a wand checking station, at which the clerk decided to register Myles's wand as an "undefined" build.

The Auror led him to an elevator filled with a number of wizards and witches, with a mass of paper airplanes filling the space above their heads. Myles had never seen an elevator before but he thought there had to be a better mode of transportation than a floating box that everyone needed to wait for. They got off on the second floor, labeled 'Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

"Bringing in dangerous criminals, ay?"' The man who ran the desk in front of them gave the Auror escorting Myles a knowing smile and shot Myles a wink.

"Bah, I'm an Auror! Not a damned babysitter." The Auror replied irascible, not seeming to care that Myles was present. "I'm supposed to be catching Dark Wizards."

"Yes, yes." The clerk replied, giving Myles the impression that he had this spiel many times before. "Well there's a shortage of Dark Wizards at the moment so you'll have to make do, Merlin knows we're still busy enough. You can go ahead to room 301."

Auror Rawlins scowled at the man and lead Myles down a corridor that lead to a room with '301' embroiled on the door. Another man met them there, with a badge on his chest that stated:

Auror-in-training

Phillip Mainser

"Rawlins, sir. Reporting for duty." The young, spindly man said in a voice that tried to be rough but barely managed to not squeak.

"Well, get in the room boy! You're not paid to sit around." Rawlins barked, making the Auror-in-training pale and jump to open the door in front of them.

The room inside included only a wooden table and two comfortable cushioned chairs facing it. It was an interrogation room, though the soft brown colors of the wallpaper and carpeted floor intended it to be a comfortable one.

"Myles, was it? Sit down over here and we'll have a chat. You'll be along your way in no time." Rawlins clearly made an effort to keep his voice a little softer than when he was barking at the Auror-in-training who stood watching.

He began to ask a series of questions, and Myles ended up telling the whole story. The Auror, however, clearly didn't believe him about the existence of the Orphanage, asking questions that pointed Myles towards admitting he was lying. He took Myles's account of the attack a bit more seriously, though he still seemed skeptical.

"Excuse me, sir. Is Mrs. Lenore going to be alright?" Myles asked.

"A concussion, three broken ribs, admitted to St. Mungo's. She'll be up and running in a couple of days." The Auror replied. "We'll have to get her account of the attack tomorrow. Seems to be a clear case of assault, though. Category 2, likely Brion junkies crazed on the drug or trying to steal money."

Myles felt horrible about the injuries Mrs. Lenore had suffered for him. He ran his hand through the mess of dirty hair atop his ahead, remembering Mrs. Lenore leaning down to adjust his hair: the smell of fresh potion brewing in her hair and robes, her smile lighting up her face.

His thoughts were broken by a red paper airplane flying in through the vents, making a shrill alarm sound as it flew through the air. The Auror-in-training jumped to grab at it in alarm and Auror Rawlins looked at it with the first traces of interest on his face that Myles had seen.

"Seventeen members of the Wizengamot have had their houses raided: two dead, multiple injured." The young man said. "Requesting all available Aurors to duty."

Before the trainee had even finished reading the notice another flew in, louder in volume than the first. "Ten more manors of the Wizengamot raidex and of several other prominent families," he said, paling as he read the new paper. "Requesting all on and off duty Aurors, Aurors-in-training, and Magical Law Enforcement Officers to duty."

Another paper airplane flew in, but the trainee made no effort to read it. "Nothing like this has happened since..." The Auror trainee paled. "Well, si-"

"Since the war." Auror Rawlins finished grimly, unconsciously touching his fingers to his wand. "Take the kid to the general office and then make yourself useful." He tore out of the room, the edges of his lips quirking up in excitement despite the grim set of his face.

"Well… umm," the Auror trainee looked a bit lost for a moment before he gained his composure, standing up straight, hardening his facial expression, and steadying his voice. "Let's get you to the office."

A/N: Small edit, apparently Auror is always capitalized.