Adam, on all fours, raced to the chauffeur, the others following along in his wake, hurrying to keep up.
They followed him outside to find a carriage. It rose at their arrival. Hermione noticed that it didn't have wheels. It had what looked like wooden, well, legs.
"Hello, Palanquin," said Cogsworth.
"Wow, another visit," Palanquin said sardonically. "Left to rot for years without anyone bothering to check on me or ask me to take them anywhere. Then asked all of a sudden to deliver an old man to the village. My poor unused legs could hardly take it. What is it you want from me this time?"
"What happened the night my mother died?" Adam, the Beast, growled, skipping any pleasantries. "Cogsworth said that you went somewhere."
"Now that's a very interesting question. I suppose I can tell you now that your father is long dead," Palanquin said. "I drove your parents to the asylum in the village where your father handed your mother over to the man who runs the place."
"WHAT?! The asylum?!" Adam, the Beast, roared. "Why did you never speak of this?"
"I was threatened by your father," Palanquin said solemnly. "He threatened my family if I breathed a word to anyone."
Hermione raised her hands at Adam placatingly. "That means she might not be dead," Hermione pointed out.
Cogsworth sighed. "She very well might be worse than dead if she were taken there," he said.
"Why do you say that?" Hermione asked.
Cogsworth shuddered. Adam and Hermione looked at him beseechingly. "Well, the man who runs that place is a master witch-hunter. He hates all things magical and tracks down magical beings to eek their power away slowly."
Adam looked startled. "A witch-hunter? How do you know that?"
"Your father funded him," Cogsworth replied. "And our estate continued to fund him until this enchantment cut us off from everything."
"I know he was crazy about the witch hunting," Adam commented. "But I never believed it."
"So why would he hand your mother over to a man like that?" Hermione mused.
"No idea," Adam replied. "They weren't particularly close, but I can't imagine why he'd do something like that." He looked around at the gathered servants. "Do any of you know?"
Lumiere and Palanquin remained silent. Cogsworth looked thoughtful. "Your mother had her own secrets. I did not pry as my main responsibilities involved me working with your father and helping to manage the estate. However, she did have her own accounting and funds that she could use. Perhaps we should look into those."
"I agree," Hermione said. "I have a feeling that we shouldn't ignore this."
"But what about the enchantment research?" Adam asked.
"We need to do both," Hermione said. "But I just have this hunch that they're related somehow."
"I don't see how my mother could be connected," Adam replied. "But I can't argue that I want to know what happened to her. And why she'd be turned over to some witch-hunting maniac."
"Shall I go investigate the accounts?" Cogsworth asked.
"I'd like to do it with you," Adam said. "I'm ashamed I didn't know that we still funded a place like this. It makes me want to know what else we'd been funding."
"Excellent!" Cogsworth said cheerfully. "I've been saying for years you should take more interest in this."
Adam rolled his eyes. Hermione resisted laughing at his petulance. She felt grateful that Adam had seemed to let go of his anger towards her and she could see this side of him. Hermione was glad to have a sense of purpose again. A mystery to solve. It felt good.
"Hey!" a child-like voice yelled from the back of a red footstool that had emerged in the doorway leading from the castle. Hermione immediately recognized Chip, hopping precariously as the footstool barked (!) and raced towards them. Hermione started, reaching her hands out in case she needed to dive to catch the fragile-looking teacup. None of the others looked concerned though.
"Is that safe?" she muttered to Adam.
"Not really," said Adam, in an unsurprised tone, "But he does it all the time."
"His mother has given up trying to get him to stop," Cogsworth said disapprovingly. "But it's extremely uncouth to ride a dog."
"Ah, let ze boy have his fun," Lumiere said. "He deserves as normal of a childhood as possible, given ze circumstances."
They watched as Chip raced towards them. "Hey!" he cried again. "My mom said to tell you that dinner is ready. Hey, stop!" He hopped on the top of the footstool, who screeched to a halt. Chip lurched forward, laughing, and did not fall off. "Good boy, Sultan!" The footstool barked happily in response. Hermione stared. She hadn't been imagining things earlier when the footstool had barked. A dog had been enchanted too?
"My mother also said to tell you to come now and eat. That you need your strength for mystery solving," Chip said carefully, as if trying to recall his mother's exact words. "I think that was it. What is mystery solving?"
"Thank you, Chip," Hermione said smiling at the adventurous teacup. "Mystery solving means that we're trying to figure out something we don't know. A mystery is when there's something you don't know the answer to and solving is when you figure out the answer."
"Ohhh!" Chip exclaimed. "Like how Lumiere disappears with Fifi and no one will tell me why or what they're doing."
Lumiere looked amused. "Oui, zat is a mystery zat you will learn when you grow older," he said.
"Ughhhh…." Chip whined. "Adults always say that. I grow older every minute and still don't know."
"One day you will," Cogsworth said.
"Or if you're like me, you'll just be left out here to ponder the mysteries of the world while everyone goes about their lives," Palanquin groused. "And never find an answer to them."
"Maybe you need to open your mind a bit more," Lumiere commented.
"Are any of you allowed to leave the grounds?" Hermione asked, thinking about what Palanquin had said earlier about not being used.
"There's no restriction of it," Adam said. "But look at us. If any of us went anywhere, it would be a disaster."
Hermione nodded. "That makes sense."
"Master, you always forget about ze wolves," Lumiere commented. "We'd have to get past ze wolves if any of us tried to leave."
"The wolves keep people out and keep us in," Cogsworth sighed.
"Wolves you say?" Palanquin asked, surprised. "No wolves attacked me when I suffered the voyage with the old man back to that pitiful village."
"Really?" Cogsworth asked. "I wonder why that would be."
Chip hopped a little on the back of the footstool. "Hey! Remember dinner? My mom will be mad at all of us if you don't come."
They all laughed. "We wouldn't want that," Hermione said.
"Let's go," Adam agreed. They all went back into the castle, except for Palanquin.
"Oh fine, get what you want from me and leave me out here in the cold," he complained as they walked away.
"That man has always been so unpleasant," Cogsworth said when they got back inside. "But he's an excellent driver. The best we've ever had. And he's reliable, no matter what he says."
"Is there nowhere else for him to go?" Hermione asked.
"Well, we have a garage where we keep carts and carriages," Cogsworth said. "He could go in there."
"Zis is true," Lumiere said. "But if he were inside, he would find something else to complain about. Don't worry about him, mademoiselle. He would find something to complain about in ze richest of places."
Hermione nodded. She'd encountered people like that. Draco Malfoy came to her mind. Throughout their time at Hogwarts, he'd always found something to complain about. However, she'd noticed in the past two weeks in her limited interactions with him at Hogwarts that he didn't seem to be like that anymore. He was more quiet and contemplative. He still could pull out that masterful sneer when he wanted, but didn't seem to be as spoiled or negative.
Belle mentioned that she'd talked to him. Hermione hoped Malfoy didn't give her much trouble.