Present Time
Storybrooke, Maine
Indira shivered and shoved her hands into the pockets of her jacket. So far they had not done much more than walk down the main street of the small town, hoping they would find something, or someone, that could provide them with a clue or two. The shrieking sound they had heard from the other end of the town had, however, been enough to cause them to turn and walk back. Indira crossed her fingers in hope that the shrieking had not in any way been a sign of trouble aiming for their friends.
"We really need some sort of history-lesson regarding this town", Filipi muttered. "It feels creepy."
"You don't say?" Wolfgang responded. Indira rolled her eyes at him.
"Fili's right", she said. "We seriously don't know anything about this place other than that it's inhabited by fairytale characters; heroes as well as villains, and if our journey here is anything to go by we could probably assume that magic is a real thing here."
"Too bad we don't have our wands", Wolfgang said.
"You seriously think they would have worked?" Filipi asked. Wolfgang shrugged.
"For all we know we actually met the real Ollivander who gave us real wands that then caused the vortex to appear when we all waved them around."
"When did you get so smart?" Filipi questioned. Wolfgang looked offended.
"Hey, just because I'm not a Hufflepuff or a Ravenclaw it does not mean I'm not smart."
"Guys!" Indira hissed and knelt down behind a parked car. The other two quickly followed suit.
"What?" Wolfgang asked. "What did you see?"
Indira peered over the hood, studying the large, yellow house on the opposite side of the street.
"Someone's moving around inside that building", she said. Filipi and Wolfgang slowly lifted their heads, joining her by the hood.
"So what?" Wolfgang asked, his voice a mere whisper. "It's a house; people live there and move around there."
"If you don't think there's anything wrong why are you whispering?" Indira asked, glaring at him. He paused.
"Alright, go ahead with the deduction, Auror Singh", he said, referring to the character she had created for an old Harry Potter-fanfiction written by Rachel. The nickname caused her to roll her eyes at him.
"Look", Filipi said, drawing their attention. Across the street two women were stepping out of a yellow bug, hurriedly walking to the house while making as little sound as possible.
"The blonde one's the Sheriff", Filipi continued. "I knew I recognized the car."
"Something's definitely wrong, then", Indira said and watched as the two women walked in through the door. "Come on."
"You want us to go in after them?" Filipi asked, frowning.
"Yes", Indira said and rose. Wolfgang's face widened into a grin.
"There's the Gryffindor in you", he said and rose as well.
"I thought you were the responsible one", Filipi said, rising with a smile as well.
"Really? You're in for a surprise, then."
The trio moved across the road and up the stairs to the house, finding the door unlocked. Once inside they found rows of offices and conference rooms; apparently the house was not exactly someone's living quarters.
The shadow they had seen moving inside one of the rooms had been on the second floor and thus they started to move up the stairs, trying their best to move silent when stepping on the stone. The second floor showed off another corridor of offices. One of the doors was open and from inside they could hear voices.
"I sealed the room with a blood lock", a female voice said. "It can keep you out or it can keep you in."
Wolfgang met Indira's gaze and mouthed "blood lock" with a surprised expression. She decided not to respond with anything but a shrug; she might not know the exact definition of such magic, but she guessed it had something to do with DNA. Most likely it limited the amount of people that could remove it to those that shared the same genes.
"I know what I'm doing", the voice continued, sounding confident. The next moment they heard another door open up and they took the chance, moving up to the already open door. On its glass window it said, with golden letters, Town of Storybrooke; Mayor's Office. It led to a small room with a secretary's desk and, behind the desk, was another open door with the word Mayor.
"Don't move!" came another female voice from inside the second room.
"There's nowhere for you to go", the first voice filled in, but had hardly finished speaking when a whooshing sound interrupted her. When it waned the two women they had been following gasped.
"I thought you said he couldn't do that", the Sheriff said, looking at her companion.
"No one can break through my magic", the other woman said, baffled and her voice barely a whisper due to the shock. "No matter how powerful they are, they can't."
"Then who are we dealing with?" the Sheriff asked, turning her head and noticing the trio outside the door. She immediately raised her gun.
"What are you three doing here?"
They quickly raised their hands.
"Sorry, we did not mean to startle you", Indira said.
"We're investigating something", Wolfgang filled in. "Maybe the same thing as you."
The Sheriff slowly lowered her gun.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"No fairytale characters", Indira answered, "but we ended up here anyway earlier today with no memory stretching back possibly half-a-year."
"If you're under the same curse as the rest of the town you should probably make that one whole year", the dark-haired woman who had talked about magic said. "That is what the rest of us are experiencing."
"But how can they be affected?" the Sheriff asked, looking at her companion. The dark-haired woman shook her head.
"I don't know, but from what we just saw happening we are dealing with something new."
"What exactly did you see?" Filipi asked.
"Nothing that concerns you", the dark-haired woman responded, her tone cold.
"Maybe it does", Wolfgang responded and crossed his arms over his chest. The woman whipped her head towards him, her dark eyes glaring.
"Don't try to intimidate me, young man."
"And why is that?"
"Wolfgang, seriously, step back", Filipi said. "You are unarmed and talking to someone who previously talked about using magic. What are you going to do?"
"Find an explanation to all of this", he responded.
"By starting a fight with someone?" Indira asked. "How much of an idiot are you?"
"Alright, people, please; listen up", the Sheriff said. "We obviously want the same thing here; we want to find whoever cast the curse and get people's memories back. Right?"
"Yes", the dark-haired woman answered.
"Exactly", Indira said at the same time. The blonde nodded.
"Okay, good. Then let's go somewhere we can go through what we know and figure out our next step. Alright?"
"And where would that place be?" the dark-haired woman asked with an ironic, sweet smile. "As you might remember the whole town thinks I'm responsible."
"We'll go to Mary Margaret's apartment", the Sheriff responded. At this the dark-haired woman looked pained.
"No. Henry will be there, won't he?"
The Sheriff paused, giving her comrade a compassionate look.
"You can't avoid him forever, Regina."