A/N: This is a fairly short update, but the next chapter will be 7,797 words, so I think you can all handle this. :-) I'm not thrilled with it, but I think it's alright enough for what it is. I hope you all enjoy it!
Dedicating this chapter to one of my most passionate readers and reviewers, Chelsey! Don't know if you'll have time to read this today, but you sounded like you could use a bit of a distraction. Enjoy!
A sixteen year old shot through the air, her dark auburn hair tangling around her as she laughed wildly. No one who viewed this girl would ever believe the serious witch she would eventually become.
Behind her a boy rode furiously on a horse, the hoof beats disappearing into the strong winds. He tried to keep up, but was failing rather miserably. "Min!" He shouted desperately, "Come back here! Da is going to kill you if he catches you flying!"
She just laughed all the harder, "What, are you going to tell him Mal? Cause I'm certainly not!" She did a swift loop through the air and shot back towards her brother, flying upside down.
"Minerva you're going to break your neck!"
"Unlikely," she snorted, flipping back right side up and quickly zooming in a circle around her brother. "Did you want to give it a go?"
The boy shook his head, "You're absolutely mad, flying on one of those things."
"Come on Mal, you'll fall in love once you try one out yourself. There is nothing quite as wonderful as flying!" She slowed down slightly, allowing the eight year old to catch up with her.
"Minerva, we really should get back. Mum will kill us both when she realizes we've gone, and you know how much she hates it when you use magic!"
Minerva rolled her eyes dramatically, "Mum hates magic in general. It's not like I'm using my wand or anything, I just went for a ride!"
The young by shook his head, halting the horse and dismounting. "She won't see it that way, and you know she has good reason. If anyone saw…"
"No one saw!" Minerva grumbled, "You know Malcolm, you should really learn to have some fun. You're eight years old, and you act like Da. Let it go!"
Malcolm frowned noticeably, "I'm just trying to help."
"I know you are, but you're the little brother—I'm supposed to scold you. Back off!"
He sighed, "Okay, Min. Just be careful."
She frowned at his beaten down expression, obvious guilt marring her features. Sighing lightly she swooped down right next to him, reaching out a hand, "Just let me take you for a short fly?"
Malcolm smiled lightly, "It's a bad idea Min, and I can't exactly leave Arabesque here," he said gesturing towards the horse. Minerva bit her lip gently and glanced around, they were in the middle of nowhere. Pulling her wand from her sock she whispered a slight compulsion charm, and Arabesque took off towards their farm.
Malcolm frowned disapprovingly. "Mind control, Min?"
She blushed, "Only a bit, I promise, it wasn't anything more powerful than if I asked you nicely to go back to the house. I just don't speak horse…"
Mal grinned at her, "Great, now you can go live with them."
Minerva stuck out her tongue, "Do you want to go flying with me or not?"
He eyed the broom warily, "I don't know, Min. I still think those things are dangerous."
"Come on! Where's your sense of adventure?"
He took her hand nervously, and she easily lifted him onto the back of the broom. "Ready?" she asked with a grin. With a nod of approval she took off, tearing quickly over the hills surrounding their home. After a moment of trembling terror Malcolm calmed down and seemed to open his eyes. Looking around at the beautiful landscape he let out a whoop of approval."
Mellasandre tried to disguise the slight twitch as she came back to their reality. She had tried, again, to break into Minerva's mind, and again Minerva had shown her a completely irrelevant memory.
Mellasandre was looking more annoyed and more desperate by the day—though Minerva couldn't understand why she was so surprised by her failure. The stubborn witch had just continued to throw herself into memory after memory; she didn't seem to change her methods at all. What did she expect, after enough show and tell Minerva would just let her in?
At the beginning, Minerva had shown Mellasandre memories which painted her as vicious and unbeatable, she had tried to intimidate her. But after the first two days she had grown bored of it. Showing those memories just felt like boasting, something which Minerva found rather intolerable under most circumstances. Since then, she had simply chosen random unrelated memories. None which held anything particularly meaningful in them, and all of which Mellasandre had found exceptionally annoying.
In this one she had simply flown with her brother, earlier today she had shown her the entirety of a film she took her brothers to see when she was in her twenties. Apparently the stiff ministry witch wasn't a fan of old muggle comedies.
They had already been at it for six hours, and Minerva watched as she stifled a groan and stormed from the room, slamming the steel door hard behind her.
Minerva laid her head lightly against her arms, allowing her eyes to drift closed. How long would it be this time?
Dear Malcolm,
I hate to be writing you like this, especially having only just met you, but I feel that you're the only person who may be of any actual assistance.
To be blunt, Minerva has been taken. She was abducted sixteen days ago by two members of the Department of Mysteries, and we have heard nothing since. Dumbledore is doing his best to work diplomatically with the Ministry, but he grows more frustrated by the day, and nothing changes.
All we know is that the Ministry had the correct paperwork, and more than enough right, to keep her indefinitely. And as a former Auror, I'm sure I don't need to inform you of the measures which the DoM is willing to take in its interrogations.
Harry and I are considering organizing a rescue attempt if she isn't recovered in another week—but we realize that our instincts are not always reliable when planning such adventures. Therefore, I'm looking for your thoughts and ideas. What would you do?
I hope that I can trust your discretion until we have made a final decision—I only wish to save your sister, and my patience is waning.
Thank you for your time, and I hope that this letter finds you well.
Hermione J. Granger
Hermione checked the letter for a fourth time, looking for errors or unclear statements. She sighed deeply, she didn't want to write to Minerva's brother, but she really didn't know what else to do. Dumbledore was failing, that much she could see, and Hermione didn't know anyone else worth contacting. Everyone they had worked with in the past would tell her the same thing, trust Dumbledore. Granted, Malcolm may say the exact same thing, but he didn't seem like the type.
All Hermione knew was that if they were going to attempt a rescue mission of this sort, they would need help. Sure, they knew how to break into the Ministry; they had done it enough times at this point. But they had no idea how to go about finding Minerva, nor did they know how to get her out again.
'Though being locked up with Min would be far nicer than sitting here worrying,' Hermione thought to herself.
She knew it wasn't true. She knew that Minerva wouldn't want her locked up there, and she knew that Minerva would be uncontrollably angry if she got caught—but Hermione didn't care. It had been 16 days. 16 days since she had seen Minerva. 16 days since she had heard her laugh, or watched her comb out her endlessly long hair. It had been 16 days since anyone had given her even the smallest smidge of information, and 16 days since she felt secure.
She would wait another week, if she could. She would be patient and come up with a well concocted plan. There wouldn't be any of the mistakes or casualties of the last visits, and she would not leave empty handed.
She would take Minerva away, and to hell with the consequences.
She watched blandly as the auburn strand of hair fluttered in the air above her face, before lightly drifting back against her lips. Then she blew on the strand again.
Two days had passed since she had last been interrogated, and Minerva was bored. She had been fed this time, which she could appreciate, yet she couldn't help but wonder just how long it would be before she was let out—or at least questioned a bit more. They didn't even give her a book.
Minerva was staring towards the ceiling of her room, quietly day-dreaming, when the key sounded in the lock again. She sighed lightly, but didn't move from her place.
"Come with me please," a weary voice sounded from across the room.
"Just out of curiosity, what would happen if I refused?" Minerva asked quietly, not sitting up from her position on the bed, but glancing towards the man in the doorway. He sighed heavily, his eyebrows furrowed.
"If you resist, I have orders to use a full-body bind on you and use a levitation charm to relocate you."
"Ah."
Derek shifted nervously in the doorway, "Come with me, Professor, please." There was a slight tinge of pleading in his voice, as if he was desperately hoping that he wouldn't have to follow that particular order yet. She smiled slightly, despite having only had one mild conversation; they had formed an unlikely alliance. He didn't like that she was being held here in such a way, and she didn't like the way Mel spoke down to her only polite employee.
From what Minerva knew of the Ministry, Derek was likely working here because of the research division. But Minerva knew from friends that you couldn't access that level of confidentiality until you had spent several years working. From his uncomfortable demeanor, Minerva guessed that Derek had absolutely no interest in this particular type of employment, and she hoped that he would be promoted quickly.
Minerva had easily predicted that if she decided to fight back it would be he who was her first opponent, and she wasn't willing to do that. It wouldn't be worth it anyways, she would still have to get out of the building, and she didn't even know where she was located, let alone where to find her wand.
Minerva groaned lightly and sat up, slowly approaching him, "Alright, take me away."
He breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank you, Ma'am."
"Derek, you should feel free to call me Minerva. I'm not a professor anymore."
"If you're sure, I just don't want to disrespect you—there seems to be enough of that going on." He bit his lip as he ended his sentence, obviously regretting his statement.
"I wouldn't have fought you, just so you know," she said softly, "I'm just incredibly bored of this whole situation, and more than ready to go home—I don't suppose you could tell me if Albus Dumbledore has been in touch?"
He shook his head, "No, Ma'am. Though I doubt I would be informed."
She let out dramatic sigh as he opened the door for her, a small smile playing around his lips. She walked into the room, eyeing Mel carefully.
"Good Morning, Minerva. How are we feeling today?"
Minerva rolled her eyes, "Just lovely."
"Good," she said blandly, "Unfortunately, we have something rather serious to discuss, Minerva."
"Unlike all of the light-hearted fun of the past weeks?" Minerva snickered, feigning an aghast expression, her palm pressed to her chest dramatically.
Mellasandre carefully removed her spectacles, placing them gingerly on the table. She looked closely at Minerva. "You seem to have successfully evaded all of our regular methods of interrogation. I must say, I'm impressed. While I am surely no Severus Snape, I assure you, I am usually more than able to handle our visitors."
Minerva smiled thinly, "I'm sorry to have dealt such a blow to your ego, Mel. Does this mean I'm free to go?"
The witch shook her head, her lips tightly pursed, "Unfortunately, no. I have spoken at length with our research division and it seems that you will have the opportunity to become our first human test subject for a newly invented serum. We're confident that it will produce more positive results than our previous methods."
Minerva paled slightly, and tried to ignore the fear which was crawling up her throat. Since being abducted she hadn't actually been afraid. She thought it was rather odd—but she knew they wouldn't kill her, and so far she had known the exact steps which the ministry would take. She knew how to handle it, and she knew how to survive. Pain, anger, aggravation, depression, boredom—she had felt all of these. But never fear.
Yet the words that Mellasandre had just spoken left a chill in Minerva. If this really was something new—if this wasn't another twisted game—then Minerva had no guarantee of keeping her secrets. The image of Fred and George on their last encounter flickered through her mind—they couldn't be caught. Could she find a way to send them a message? Tell them to hide.
Who was she kidding? If she could have sent a message she would have done so before now.
"A serum you say?" Minerva said, trying to keep the quiver out of her voice.
Mellasandre grinned slightly, "Oh yes, it's quite ingenious. Would you like to hear about it?"
Minerva chuckled darkly, "As if you would be able to keep it to yourself? That's a part of the game, right? Anticipation?"
"Right you are, Minerva. You see, I know that we've kept you quite bored, and unfortunately it will be a couple of days until the Serum is perfected and available for trials. So I thought that you would enjoy having something to look forward to!" Minerva glared silently at the cheerful woman as she continued, "We don't have a name for it yet, perhaps you could assist us in that regard."
"Oh the fun," Minerva said blandly.
"You see, the general concept was to create a serum which would distract the subject long enough to allow access into their mind. It would ease the difficulties of Legilimency against those more capable of evading it."
Minerva couldn't control her curious mind. The theory was terrifying to her, but intriguing as well. "How would it work?"
"It takes the purified essence of a Dementor," she said quietly, pausing for effect, "And combines it with a small hallucinogenic."
Minerva's eyes widened, "You've bottled fear," she said simply.
"Exactly. The subject would confront their greatest fears and most damaging memories, working in such a way that they wouldn't even realize they were being influenced at all. It would all seem completely real." Mellasandre explained, a large smile filling her face. "And you see Minerva, when a person is faced with those sorts of fears—they won't be thinking about broom rides or silly movies, will they?"
"So you use Legilimency while they are living out their nightmares. You can take your time and sort through anything you could possibly want to know."
"Exactly."
Minerva shook her head, her lips downturned in a expression of utmost disgust. "That is loathsome," she spat. "Why on earth was the Ministry ever researching a concoction like that?"
"Augustus Rookwood started the research during his final year with the Department. While I may not approve of his life choices, and many of my colleagues don't approve of his research, I saw that there may be some usefulness. I've had a select team working on it for several months, and I think it may be perfect for this situation."
"You are not the girl that I taught all those years ago," she whispered, her shock plainly displayed. "I had thought that maybe you had been somewhat polluted by your occupation and by your thirst for knowledge. That combined with the amount of freedom the Ministry offers your department—I could almost understand. But this—there is no coming back from this, Mel. This is dark magic—there are no blurred lines here."
"And what kind of magic was it when you chose to become young and fresh and desirable again Minerva? Was that pure innocent magic? Because from what I know of ethics—seeking immortality is distinctly unethical."
Minerva shook her head again, ignoring the slur against her character. Minerva knew perfectly well that she hadn't sought immortality. If that was the case she could have stolen the Philosophers Stone years ago. Mellasandre's skewed view of the situation aside; Minerva knew the truth of that matter.
Moving to her final question regarding the serum, she asked, "Why would you even think that this serum would work any better than Legilimency while under the effects of the Cruciatus curse? If you're not opposed to dark magic, you must have considered that. You must know that a person's mind becomes too scattered for any information to be properly unlocked. Why would this serum be any different?"
The smirk which faced Minerva's question made her blood run cold, "Well that is exactly why human trials are required, isn't it?"
Coming up in Chapter 17: A Rescue attempt, will they succeed?! Coming soon!
Thank you for all the WONDERFUL reviews. You're inspiring me SO much, and I'm glad you're enjoying these glimpses into Minerva and Hermione as much as I am.