Chapter Twenty-three: Interrogation

"Is Rein Lyths your brother?"

"Yes."

"When was the last time you saw him?"

Erin didn't even have to think. "Four years ago," she responded immediately.

"What happened on the last day you saw him?"

She drew in a sharp intake of breath. How much did he know? "He left."

But Maurer was not to be fooled. He looked at her with a gleam in his eye. "What happened to your parents?"

"I don't see how this is relevant to the investigation."

"Oh, its very relevant," Maurer said, bobbing his head. "Now tell me, what happened with your parents and Rein?"

"He killed them."

"Mhm…." Maurer murmured, scribbling notes on a clipboard that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Erin could feel Nick's eyes burning into her. "And did you ever meet anyone named Malvus France or Aristor Grindelwald?" Maurer asked, still writing furiously. Erin shook her head.

"Do you know why he killed them?" said Maurer. Erin chewed the inside of her lip. "I thought we finished with this topic." Maurer gave her a very unsympathetic smile. "Do you have any idea why?" he repeated.

"Because he's evil."

"Okay… and you witnessed all this occurring?"

"I only found their bodies. I never saw him kill them."

The wind outside howled.

Doors slammed.

Dogs barked.

But the room was frozen in silence and stillness. The girl tried to breathe, but there didn't seem to be enough air. The tears refused to come as well. She choked.

She touched her mother's hair. Begged her to get up.

Her mother didn't listen. She continued to stare into the eternal depths of something the girl could not see.

And then suddenly, the shadows shifted, and he was there.

"Rein!" the girl cried, her voice returning to her. She had never felt more glad or relieved to see him. She rushed over to him. Then stopped.

There was a strange smile playing at his lips.

"Then how do you know it was your brother?"

Erin stared at Maurer as though he were insane. Did he really doubt her? "Because he was there!" she cried. "Just staring at their dead bodies. He told me he killed them."

"You talked to him after he had killed your parents?"

"Well…. Yes. He spoke to me."

"I'm so sorry you had to find them like this," Rein said in a lofty voice as though he were discussing the weather. The girl felt her breath escape her once more. Rein was here, everything was going to be fine, Rein was going to fix this, Rein was here….

Why was Rein here?

"I do hope you can forgive me. I had to kill them, you know."

"NO!"

Her cry came out as a pleading sob. "No, Rein, it wasn't you."

"Yes. It was."

The girl shook her head feverishly. "No, it wasn't. Stop saying that. You would never do that."

"How do you know? What I would and wouldn't do?" Although Rein was still smiling, his eyes were flashing with dark anger. "I was once like you. I knew nothing. They didn't tell us anything. They hid everything from us. But they should've realized… they should've known… that I would find out. Oh yes, I would find out…."

He leaned down so that they were at the same height. "Would you like to know?"

"And what did he tell you? He didn't tell you why he killed them?"

"No, he must have forgotten that part," Erin snapped and Maurer asked, "Do you know why he left you alive?"

"I-I don't want to die! Rein, please!"

This was all a nightmare. It could not be real. Here she was, prostrating herself before the brother she had always loved and begging him to spare her life.

Please wake up, she begged herself, please wake up.

But like her mother, she didn't wake up from the horrible nightmare.

Rein, however, just laughed at her words. "I'm not going to kill you, Erin. I love you, just like I loved Mother and Father."

But you killed them.

Rein seemed to know what she was thinking. "It was time to take what was rightfully mine," he said, nodding to himself as though justifying it in his mind. "If there was any other way, believe me, I would have spared them. But I fear this is the path I was destined for. We are destined for," he said, smiling approvingly at the girl.

She thought she might retch.

"We are alike, you and I. You remind me of a younger version of myself. Trusting, naïve… but very powerful, with enough sense to know what to do with your power. That's the funny thing about power," Rein said, his eyes glinting. "So many people have it but they don't know how to or are afraid to use it. It's a disgrace, a complete waste," he spat, narrowly missing her father's head. "They should be thankful," he said, peering down at the bodies, "that I ended their pitiful lives before they could continue to destroy everything, including themselves.

"So no," he chuckled. "I am not going to kill you." He glanced out the window. "But they might."

There was a small mob of men approaching the house, some that she knew, most that she could not recognize, wielding weapons. They looked angry. Driven. Ready to kill. "I don't understand," the girl whispered.

"You used forbidden magic to kill your parents. You know this is strictly prohibited in our town and is punishable by death. They are coming to punish you."

"I'll tell them!" the girl shouted. "I'll tell them it was you! And then you'll pay."

"Erin," Rein shook his head, smiling sadly. "I don't plan on sticking around much longer. The evidence has already been planted. They know it was you, Erin. Good luck." He took a step back and Erin, a desperate tone to her voice now, cried once more, "You said you weren't going to kill me!"

"I'm not, Erin," Rein said seriously. "But this is your test. Lets see if I made the right choice by keeping you alive." And he vanished into the darkness just as the mob outside crashed through the door.

"Because I was his sister," Erin said simply. Maurer looked surprised at her answer. "But they were his parents." Erin shrugged, just wishing the interview to be over. Where were Madame Pomfrey and Professor McGonagall and Professor Dippet…. Didn't they realize how long this was taking? When would they be in to check on her?

"Stay with me Erin… last question…. Investigators found that the house was filled with skeletons. All of middle-aged men. They seem to have appeared or been placed there after the murder of your parents. Do you know anything about that?

This is your test….

"I have no idea. I had already left the house by then," Erin said swiftly. Maurer scratched out something with his quill and stood up just as Madame Pomfrey walked in, a scowl on her face. "That'll be all," he said, inclining his head toward Erin and Nick. "Thank you so much for your time, we at the Ministry of Magic truly appreciate it." He left the hospital wing as Madame Pomfrey muttered something about "tactless" and "indecency" and "Ministry morons."

Anger still boiling in her blood, Erin turned to Nick. "Why didn't you ever tell me you knew my brother?" she hissed.

"I didn't know him," Nick said, "I only saw him. And I only just realized who it was now, when he said the name. Because, you know," he said sheepishly, "you guys have the same eyes."

"Yeah."

Nick, his eyes cast downward, said, "I had no idea about your brother, and your parents. Its awful, Erin, it really is," he said, looking up to meet her eyes. "I'm sorry."

"Well, me too," Erin snapped. She wasn't feeling much in the mood for chatter.

Nick didn't seem to get the hint and said, "Probably worst birthday ever in history, huh?"

"You're like Albus- do you ever shut up?"

It fell silent, and Erin immediately regretted snapping at Nick. It wasn't his fault she had to relive that night over again. And relive it over and over and over again every second of her waking hours and revisit it in her dreams and nightmares.

No, it was someone's fault, but it was definitely not Nick's.