Chapter Six: I Believe in a Free Narnia
For two days she sat in an Auror Division holding cell, with no word of her son and no explanation for why she had been arrested. The frantic mother demanded her son's return, but the Aurors sneered at her; those that didn't sneer, laughed at her, which just made her angrier. On the morning of the third day, Maria and another witch appeared, imperiously ordering that Helen be taken to an interview room for a conference with her advocate.
Helen held her tongue as she was taken into the interview room; if she made a ruckus, the Aurors could force her back into that disgusting cell and she would never find out where her beloved Daniel was. Inside the interview room, Maria dismissed the guard with a brisk, "We will speak with my sister alone, thank you," and a disdainful flip of her long, black hair.
The guard frowned, but left. Once he was gone, Helen whirled to Maria. "Where is Daniel?"
"Peace, sister," Maria soothed, an odd look in her dark eyes. "We will reunite you with Daniel in good time."
Helen stiffened. "Why the change of heart, Maria?" she asked suspiciously. "When last we spoke, you called Daniel by that awful name."
Maria patted the table and Helen sank into the chair next to the table, her brow furrowing in unhappiness at the cold metal of the chair and her attention on her sister. When Helen was in the chair, Maria replied, "You have struck gold, my sister. I have discovered that Daniel is the Heir to the Ancient and Noble House of Calvin, a most honorable heritage."
"How can that be, Maria?" Helen questioned. "Alan was not of that House and neither am I. No son of ours could lay claim to an Ancient and Noble House, regardless of what I might wish."
Maria's smile was sharp and thin. "Daniel is not Alan's son, Helen; he is the son of the late Lord Calvin." Her hands lifted in a placating gesture. "Please, do not question me on this, Helen. Merely accept that you will be raising the future Lord Calvin, with the House of Smith as his Regents. You will have your Daniel back and we shall rescue our young charge from his current…jailors."
"Who keeps Daniel from me?" Helen hissed angrily.
"A Muggle," Maria replied, her lips pursing in distaste and annoyance. "A Muggle has been given custody of Daniel and the Aurors are levying a number of ridiculous charges against you in a clear and utterly appalling attempt to keep Daniel from us. The rest of the family is working through the press, but by the time such an effort succeeds, Daniel may well be beyond our reach."
"Unacceptable," Helen screeched.
"Indeed," the witch with Maria agreed. The witch pulled a coin from her robes and laid it on the table. "You may leave at any time, Mrs. Smith. Compliments of an interested third party."
Maria and Helen inclined their heads to the witch and touched the Portkey; it whisked them away from the Auror Division to safety – and freedom.
Maria took the lead once they were free, leading them out of the alley where they'd landed and along the clearly Muggle street. "Where are we, Maria?" Helen inquired, wringing her hands and longing for the safety of the wizarding world as she followed her taller, slimmer sister.
"Close to where the misbegotten Muggle who took Daniel from you works," Maria replied without glancing back. "Do you not wish to find Daniel as soon as may be?"
"Of course I wish that," Helen retorted. "But must we risk traveling through the Muggle world?"
"What better place for a Muggle to hide his ill-gotten ward? Few amongst us are willing to brave the Muggle world, making it the perfect ploy to prevent our rescue of poor young Daniel."
Helen mused on her sister's words as Maria wound through a crowd of Muggles, her head high and her stride unhurried. When they were clear of the Muggles, she spoke again. "You speak wisely, my sister. Let us hurry to this Muggle's workplace and save my son from his manipulations and abuse."
"Where is my son?" Helen Smith demanded angrily, keeping her wand on the Muggles who dared to keep Daniel from her. She would have him back, she would. And then she would show these miserable Muggle savages why no one touched her son.
The lead Muggle, a mostly bald brown eyed man who reminded her of Alan, glared at her and snapped, "Mio nipote is not your son!"
The Italian threw her an instant, then she snarled and flicked her wand; the Muggle was thrown back against the far wall and she held him there for a moment, then dropped him. "Claim my son as your nephew again, Muggle, and I will not be so forgiving," she sneered, pacing back and forth.
"How'd you escape?" another one of the Muggles growled, moving so he was between Helen and her target. Ice cold blue eyes bored into her, but she was unconcerned; Muggles could do nothing to her.
"Not that it's any of your business, Muggle," Maria purred, dropping her Disillusionment Charm, "But I decided my noble sister had spent enough time in the hands of those blood traitors running the Auror Division." Maria stepped up next to Helen, a vicious smile on her face. "That they would allow a Muggle to raise a pureblood child…it is outrageous."
The Muggles shifted, their opinions of the sisters written across their faces, but Helen hardly cared. "Maria, you may have all of them save the leader," she decided. "I shall deal with him; he is the one who hides Daniel from me."
But Maria laid a hand on Helen's arm, holding her back for a moment. "A moment, sister dear, then you may have your fun, hmm?" When Helen stared in disbelief, Maria gave her a tiny, superior smile. "A trifle, but quite necessary, I assure you."
Reluctantly, Helen inclined her head. She would have Daniel back, but if Maria needed something first, then Helen would permit it. She owed her sister for rescuing her from the clearly corrupt Auror Division; to arrest a pureblood and take her son away was unheard of, unfathomable, and it could not be tolerated.
"Accio Auror's badge," Maria hissed, her wand flicking in the movements needed to make the Accio room-wide, rather than focused on a single object. Helen gasped as seven badges wrenched themselves free of the Muggles and flew to Maria. "As I thought," Maria growled, inspecting the badges. "Not only have the blood traitors permitted a Muggle to raise a pureblood Heir, they have lowered themselves enough to accept a group of misbegotten, pathetic mongrels with no magic whatsoever as Aurors!"
"They dare?" Helen rasped, her eyes wide with horror. "They dare to break our traditions, the Statute of Secrecy itself; they dare to put our world at risk?"
One of the Muggles scoffed loudly at that, a blond Muggle with short hair and blue eyes. "Put your world at risk?" he asked lightly. "Think again, lady; we're all signed onto the Statute of Secrecy and we have been, for years."
"We proved we're just as good as any of your Aurors," a tan-skinned Muggle added grimly. "We've saved lives, both magical and non-magical, on both sides of the fence."
The Muggle with the gall to claim Daniel as his nephew limped forward, pushing his way to the front with angry, intent eyes. "Neither of you has any right to throw stones; you're using magic in the middle of a 'Muggle' Police station, against Toronto law enforcement officers, and both of you are planning to kidnap an innocent four-year-old boy, simply because of who his parents were."
"I am Daniel's mother," Helen shrieked, "You have no right to keep him from me!"
"No, you are not," the Muggle spat, not backing down an inch. "And even if you were, you wouldn't have any right to him anymore." Topaz fire blazed in his eyes. "First of all, you took a sixteen-year-old teenager from the scene of an accident and kept him prisoner in your house, denying him medical attention and suppressing his magic. Hardly the act of a loving, caring mother.
"You even snapped his wand, when only a criminal conviction allows that kind of punishment, especially since mio nipote has completed his OWLs (2), and you attempted to smuggle him out of the country non-magically; likely because mio nipote is not your son and your son has a death certificate." Infuriating Helen further, the Muggle cocked his head to the side, giving her a sardonic look. "As a matter of fact, it's you who had no right to keep Lance from me; I am Lancelot and Alanna Calvin's guardian…"
"What?" Maria shrieked, cutting the Muggle off. "What fool would grant a Muggle any right to pureblood Scions?"
"Their father, my cousin, Lord Artorius Calvin," was the clipped response. "And as I was saying, I have the right to their guardianship, a right that was certified and enforced by Gringotts!"
Helen drew back, shocked; Gringotts had willingly assisted this Muggle? "But you have no right to my son!" she declared angrily. "What have you to say on that front, Muggle? And do not give me your pitiful mewling about Daniel being dead; I would know if my son was dead!"
"Mio nipote may look similar to Daniel, but he is not Daniel," the Muggle growled, his fists clenching. "Your son was old enough to have an Apparition license, three years ago, which makes Daniel four years older than mio nipote. Or do you actually believe that 'Daniel' could magically make himself four years younger, with a different eye color and a driver's license?"
Fury raced across Helen's face and she stalked forward, getting right in the insolent Muggle's face, wand raised and the tip glittering. "You think to lie to me, Muggle? You think to pretend that Daniel would ever willingly live with your ilk, that he would willingly enter that Muggle deathtrap I found him in? Return my son to me now and I will consider allowing you to live."
The other Muggles stiffened and Maria acted at once, slashing her wand across and hurling all but the lead Muggle against the windows, holding them fast. "Do excuse the interruption, sister dear," Maria simpered.
Helen smiled briefly, but didn't take her attention off the Muggle in front of her. "Not at all, Maria; I thank you for your intercession." Brown eyes narrowed. "Now, then, Muggle. Where. Is. My. Son?"
The Muggle met her furious gaze with a glare of his own, but remained silent. As the moment hung, the Muggle tilted his chin up defiantly, but still said nothing.
"I will not ask again," Helen snarled.
And still, the Muggle said nothing, his gaze full of defiance and something else that she could not understand at all.
Once upon a time, a minstrel had given his family an old Narnian tale of a faun who'd come face to face with Jadis, the White Witch herself. As the Witch brandished her wand, capable of turning living flesh to naught but stone, she had mockingly asked if the faun knew why he was in her dungeons. And yet the faun had answered.
"I believe in a Free Narnia."
The gryphlet watching the conflict in the big room between mean Mummy woman and his Uncle fancied that the faun's expression had been just like Uncle's in that moment: defiance regardless of the cost and a belief in something more important than his own life.
But Illishar refused to accept such a cost, refused to let mean Mummy woman take his family away from him. Never again, his magic whispered, fierce and unwilling to surrender.
What can I do? he asked the magic, watching anxiously.
Gold skated over his form and then he turned and raced away from the big room, following his magic's hasty plan.
Never again…I'm not losing anyone else…no matter what.
[2] Ordinary Wizarding Level