Another Time- Another World
AN: Thank ya'll so much for the favs, follows, and reviews this story has received, I truly appreciate it. Please enjoy.
Chapter Ten:
June 1992, Nigel and Hylas's Apartment Building:
"Cutie-pie! Cutie-pie! Oh, god! This is no time to play hide and seek, Cutie-pie! Oh god - oh god! Cutie-pie! Are you here?! Dear god -please be here! Cutie-pie!" were Nigel's calls as he checked, double-checked, and triple checked his Cutie-pie's admittedly small apartment, praying each time he looked in the pantry, in the closets, in the bathroom, in the bedroom, and even in the kitchen cupboards that he had merely overlooked the child.
Each time and each place he checked drove him further into tears, until he was on the couch bawling.
"Cutie-pie!"
When it finally sunk in that his favorite Cutie-pie was no where to be found he forced himself to get up. The only contacts, besides Cutie-pie, he had among the magical world were the twins and this had traces of magic all over it. Honesty, Cutie-pie couldn't have vanished into thin air without magical interference.
Nigel Hopkins, ran off to his apartment to search for the instructions and strange bag of wizarding coins that Cutie-pie had given him for is birthday last year. The instructions were on how to find the Leaky Cauldron which was supposedly to the entrance to the London magical shopping district - which, if it were anything like the French one, would be amazing. (The directions had been written by Fred and George, not Cutie-pie. The dear boy couldn't give or follow directions to save his life). Nigel nearly choked at that last thought, before shaking it violently from his head. No time to think of that; he had to get in touch with the twins, maybe they knew something or someone they could contact to find Cutie-pie.
The twins gave each other disturbed looks as they finished reading Nigel's letter. The ink was shaky and there were drops of water (tear) splatters that distorted the words in some places. Nevertheless, the message was clear and extremely worrying.
"Should we -" George began.
"-tell mum and dad? But they'll -" Fred finished the question.
"-go straight to the Headmaster." George completed.
"And, really, the man's QT's teacher. What does he have to do with QT outside of school?" The said together.
"Besides -" said Fred.
"-you know how much QT despises him." George concluded.
They thought about what they should do for a moment, before making the final decision with a simultaneous nod of their head. "Madam Bones."
"Perfect -"
"-go straight to the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement."
Fred began the letter to Madame Amelia Bones; George wrote to reassure Nigel that they were contacting someone about QT's disappearance, and asked if Nigel would like the twins to visit him over the summer to keep him company.
They then borrowed (captured) Hermes from Percy while he wasn't looking to send off the letters and went down stairs to ask their mother if they could stay with a friend over the summer. While Molly Weasley was hesitant to allow them to stay with a muggle in Muggle London; Arthur Weasley, when he arrived home that night, thought it was a brilliant opportunity for the twins to learn muggle culture. Even Molly relented when the twins admitted that it was the same muggle they had spent the holiday in Paris with and the same one they had met through "The Harry Potter, Childhood Defeater of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, and The-Boy-Who-Lived". The twins wondered of her reaction if their mother knew they called "The-Boy-With-Way-Too-Many-Titles" QT. They figured it would be astronomically hilarious, but refrained, only because they were aware that all those titles and even the name 'Harry Potter' bothered QT when he heard them.
George and Fred got a swift reply from Nigel and Madame Bones.
Nigel said that he would greatly appreciate their company, and if their parents approved, would pick them up tomorrow in front of the Leaky Cauldron. Madame Bones's reply was that she would begin an investigation upon the matter at once.
The twins met with Nigel the very next day. They were dressed in the clothes the tailor had given them for the holiday in Paris, minus the coats (and they were perfectly aware that QT had commissioned Nigel to make the clothes for them - they were hardly stupid after all, but they let QT think he had his little secrets), and Nigel's hair was a deep blue (hadn't his hair been some other color just yesterday?). The tailor was wearing a uncharacteristic black suit and though he looked as well dressed as ever - his blue nail polish was chipped and their were dark circles under his eyes.
Needless to say the twins were concerned, they may not have met Nigel in person but twice, but they were well acquainted with the man's personality and obsession with his need to look perfect every time he stepped out his door. Things were dire indeed.
Without a world they gave him a hug that looked much needed -for all of them.
Time passed and the return of You-Know-Who hit the papers. It was announced that Harry Potter had been captured shortly after the summer break after his first year at Hogwarts had started. This threw the wizarding world of Great Britain into a mass panic. What were they to do without the boy who defeated Voldemort the first time? Who was going to save them now?
Dumbledore quickly reassembled the remaining members of the Order of the Phoenix that very summer of Harry's kidnapping: 'Mad-Eye' Moody, Dedalus Diggle, Elphias Doge, Arabella Figg, Mundungus Fletcher, Rubeus Hagrid, Remus Lupin, Minerva McGonagall, Stugis Podmore, and Emmeline Vance. And was fast to gather more: Severus Snape, Hestia Jones, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Nymphadora Tonks, Bill, Charlie, Arthur, and Molly Weasley.
The elder Weasleys tried to force the twins, who Dumbledore had heard had been spending the summer with a muggle friend in London, to come back home. He was quick to assure their parents -whether it was true or not- that the boys should be perfectly fine, and this way they would not be tempted to try and join the Order at such a young age. It reassured Molly and Arthur - Dumbledore was merely relieved he didn't have to listen to Molly's fretting after that - so much so that he didn't even question how the two young pureblooded wizards even knew a muggle in the first place. He had much more important things to do, such as find the child of prophesy (not the one he had buried at the young age of nearly seven).
School started back for the twins and they entered their fourth year, and still there was no sign of their QT. They reassured Nigel, as he saw them off for the train, that they would keep in constant contact with him and let him know if anything was found out. Nigel allowed himself a small smile, and hugged them, the twins noted - not for the first time- circular bruises around his neck and wrists (QT had told them his suspicions after last Christmas) and they vowed to confront the man about the source when they spent the Christmas Holidays with him (they had already cleared it with an enthusiastic and curious Arthur, "Imagine, Molly dear, they'll get to experience a muggle celebration of Christmas first hand. Won't that be fascinating. You boys must tell me all about it afterwards." and a busy Molly, "What was that? Oh, Christmas with that muggle of yours. I suppose. Now where did I put that book, Nymphadora and Kingsley asked if they could borrow it - where is it? Percy have you seen-?").
As Nigel disappeared from sight the twins sat back with a sigh, "It's going to be different without QT this year."
And indeed it was.
Time flew and nobody heard anything about the whereabouts of Harry Potter except for the fact that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named (or as the twins preferred - Lord Moldy-Shorts) had him imprisoned. However, with the Death Eater break-outs, Sirius Black being released for false imprisonment (and subsequent placement into Saint Mungos Mental Ward), and the constant muggle killings, not many resources (except for the very limited ones of the Order of he Phoenix - funnily enough those resources would have been larger had QT not emancipated himself and allowed only Nigel Hopkins and Fred and George Weasley access to his accounts should he be unavailable- the look on Dumbledore's face when he had been ejected from Gringotts - absolutely priceless) were going to searching for QT.
Soon enough it was Christmas.
George and Fred holed up in Nigel's guest room shortly after midnight on Christmas Eve. They had met Ivan Kudrin and well, he was a rather stand up bloke as far as they could tell. He had a thick accent, a decent sense of humor, and seemed to adore Nigel - even though they could tell that adoration was rather one-sided on the Russian's part. There was absolutely nothing to indicate that there was any sort of abuse happening in the relationship and that just caused Fred and George to scratch their heads in confusion. They had been so certain...
"If it's not Ivan-" Began Fred.
"-then what is causing those bruises we always see? You know how-"
"-they always bothered QT. He didn't really-"
"-know how to broach the subject. However, dear brother, I believe -"
"-that we have no such-"
"-reservation." They concluded together.
That very night they skulked as quietly as door mice into the darkened hallways of Nigel's apartment. And, as they were Fred and George Weasley, they might have overdone the dramatics slightly to imitate some muggle spy movies that Nigel had shown them while they had stayed over the breaks (something that QT had always refused to do - he considered t.v to have a brain-rotting affect- oh, how they missed QT's quirks). So, anyway, they ducked unnecessarily behind furniture, jumped silently over random objects on the floor, and George once stood on a hallway table holding up a small lamp as Fred hid under the table his twin was standing on.
Of course, neither really considered that if they had just walked to Nigel's bedroom door they would have arrived much faster. However, they did, eventually, make it to their destination successfully. George pressed one ear to he door as did Fred and they faced each other as they tried to listen through the door. After a moment the faint mummers of moans.
Hesitantly, after deliberating moment of eye contact between the twins, they slowly, and without making a sound cracked open the door to the room and peered into the room. Their eyes widened and their faces turned more red than their hair. Quickly and quietly they shut the door. Fred slapped a hand over George's open mouth and George did the same to Fred. They made a hasty retreat back to their room, closed the door, and collapsed together on the same bed.
They took a moment to process what they had witnessed...
"Well-" George said slowly.
"-at least we know it's not abuse for certain now." Fred finished. "But -"
"-who knew Nigel would be into that. It's always the last people you'd suspect." George said, with a disbelieving expression.
"I know. I don't think I'll ever be able to un-see that." said Fred with a shudder.
"Ugh... I'm tempted to obliviate myself."
"We can't. If we did that -"
"- I know. Who would tell QT not to worry about Nigel."
They sighed heavily. Really, who would have suspected Nigel Hopkins, of all people, would be into BDMS.
"Whenever we see QT -"
"- which, of course we will. Someday." George said, more confident in his words than he really felt - it had been almost half a year since their dear QT had been kidnapped.
"Right, brother mine. Let's not tell him exactly what we've seen. It might-" said Fred.
"-disturb him, bother him, creep him out, worry himself out of his wits for Nigel's bedroom preferences?" George pondered aloud.
"All of the above." Agreed Fred.
They managed to go to sleep sometime later. That next morning they had some difficulty looking Nigel in his smiling face (and freshly darkened bruises around his wrists and neck now that they knew how the man had gotten them), but they quickly got over it. Ivan arrived in the kitchen sometime later before heading off - he was to travel to Russia to visit family for Christmas.
The rest of the Christmas break passed relatively uneventfully, for those a the Hopkins household at least. As for the rest of the wizarding and muggle world they were plagued with many raids and murders sporadically over the break.
The twins promised to come visit Nigel during Easter break as well, which seemed to make the man (who was sporting violet hair at the time) very happy to hear. He once more saw the twins off on the Hogwarts Express at the end of the Holidays.
The days leading up to Easter Holiday followed the the ones leading up to Christmas: mainly uneventful, news of raids and murders had continued to appear in the Daily Prophet, and fear was on the rise in the Great Britain population. However, one event did set April apart from the rest - and no it was not the twin's birthday, though they did receive a very nice gift basket from Nigel that included a new outfit a piece for the two of them , some muggle pranking goods, and a few books on mechanics that they had expressed interest in before. In April, Voldemort announced to the press that he had killed Harry Potter.
Fred and George (along with the rest of the wizarding population of Great Britain -but who really cared about them) were devastated. They considered sending a letter or a copy of the article to Nigel to inform him of the news, but felt that telling the man of QT's death like that was just too awful. This was news that was better off given in person. Though, truly, it was news that was better off not given at all.
So it was with heavy hearts that the twins met Nigel as they disembarked the Hogwarts Express for the Easter Holidays.
Nigel greeted them both with a large smile and by dragging them into a tight, breathtaking hug, that lasted for several minutes before he released them. His hair was a deep violet and pulled up into a makeshift bun. He was dressed in a lime green suit with a complementing black and purple tie. From what the twins could tell, he seemed to be in a much happier mood than they had left him in after Christmas.
"I've got such a surprise for the two of you!" Nigel said in a bubbly way they hadn't heard him use since QT's kidnapping. They glanced at each other hesitantly as they were led to Nigel's car. How happy Nigel appeared to be made it quite difficult to bring up a subject they knew would drive the man to tears - possibly hysterics - and the twins were more than willing to postpone the news and allow more pleasant moments with Nigel.
Instead of going first to Nigel's apartment, the tailor drove them straight to his shop. The twins were ushered from the car, by Nigel who seemed to become more and more ecstatic with each step they took. The twins shared a glance: it was going to be painful to watch the crash once they had to inform him about QT.
So it was with some slowness that they allowed themselves to be herded towards a rather old looking mirror that was positioned in a back room.
"Look at this!" Nigel said, eagerly displaying the mirror, which, to Fred and George, despite it's age, look rather...like every other mirror they had ever seen in their lives.
"Err-"
"-it's rather-?"
"-pretty?" the twins said, not quite understanding why it made Nigel so happy.
Nigel rolled his eyes at their response and tutted at them. "You'll see! This baby is absolutely fab~u~lous~!" Nigel sang.
They shrugged, causing Nigel to huff, cross his arms in a pout and grumble: "Oh, honestly. Boys. No appreciation for the finer things. Not like my Cutie-pie."
Which made no sense considering Nigel, Fred, George, and QT were all male, but they weren't going to argue with Nigel. In fact, now that he had brought up QT by his own violation- maybe now would be a, not good, definitely not good, but decent opportunity to bring up what they most certainly did not want to bring up.
"Um..."
"...about QT-"
"-there's something we need-"
"-to tell you-"
"Yes?" Another voice said. One that was painfully familiar to everyone in the room, but had not been heard for some time by the twins at least.
The identical red heads twirled to the formerly dismissed mirror, and found, to their amazement -
"Cutie-pie!" Nigel squealed running to hug the mirror, in which the image of their friend had appeared.
Their jaws dropped.
QT smirked mischievously. "What exactly, were you about to convey about my person?" His inquiry just as calm as if he was discussing the weather.
They joined Nigel in the hugging of the mirror.
Please tell me what you think.