Chapter Text
Sunday, 1 November 1981, afternoon
The day after toddler Harry Potter reflected Voldemort’s Killing Curse back on the Dark Lord
The Department of Magical Law Enforcement in the Ministry of Magic
Pandora Lovegood, age 19, was the mother of an eight-month-old baby girl (who currently was being cared for by the child’s father). Since Pandora had married Xenophilius, she had tried to act like the former-Ravenclaw witch she was. Most of the time, she succeeded.
Pandora was developing a great reputation as a clever inventor of new spells—that is, when Pandora was acting normally. But once in a while, Pandora was hit with a Vision—then Pandora acted spacey during the Vision.
Receiving a Vision always annoyed Pandora, because of the unexpected extra responsibility that the Vision dumped on her, but she always acted upon each Vision she received. This explained Pandora making today’s trip to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement (DMLE).
Now Pandora walked up to the DMLE Help Desk. When the Help Auror acknowledged her, Pandora said, “I wish to speak to Amelia Bones. I presume her rank is Auror First Class.”
The Help Auror replied, “Actually, Bones’s rank is Senior Auror now, the next rank above Auror First Class. She’s one of the shining stars in the DMLE: incorruptible and hard-working, and what she did with the monocle she found in the Bones Heritage Vault impressed the Director big time. Whatever your business is with her, she’ll do you right.”
Then the Help Auror’s voice and manner changed. “But her brother and sister-in-law got killed by Death Eaters last night, so she has asked for Family Leave. She might have already left. May another Auror help you?”
“No, sorry, it needs to be Amelia Bones I speak to.”
The Help Auror nodded, then turned round to face a big room full of desks and chairs; some of the chairs had quill-wielding Aurors sitting in them. In the back right corner of the big room, ten or fifteen Aurors were standing and talking to each other; they seemed upset about something.
“SHACK,” the Help Auror now yelled, “GO FIND SENIOR AUROR BONES IF SHE’S STILL HERE. THIS WITCH NEEDS TO TALK TO HER.”
Kingsley Shacklebolt, who had been a Gryffindor student two years ahead of Pandora, now jumped up from his chair and hurried away.
****
Minutes later
Amelia Bones led Pandora into tiny Interview Room 6. Interview Room 6 was painted a calming avocado green, and contained a small table, two chairs (on opposite sides of the table), and not much floor space for anything else. Pandora took a seat, then Bones shut the door. The red Auror robes that Bones had carried draped over her left arm when she had walked up to Pandora, Bones now folded and placed on one end of the table. Once Bones no longer was carrying her Auror robes, she took her own seat and looked at Pandora expectantly.
Pandora looked back. Former Hufflepuff Amelia Bones, age 23 (meaning, four Hogwarts years ahead of Pandora), looked quite different from what Pandora had expected to see.
Firstly, Bones was not now wearing her red Auror robes, even though Pandora was meeting Bones in the DMLE offices.
Secondly, Bones’s left eye was covered with a monocle. Through an eyelet on the side of the monocle ran a dragonhide or cowhide cord; the other end of the cord looped round Amelia’s neck. Pandora the student never had been close to Amelia Bones the student, but Pandora was certain that Amelia Bones never had worn a monocle at Hogwarts.
Thirdly, Amelia Bones’s dark-red hair, the colour of which, many Ravenclaw and Gryffindor witches had envied during Amelia Bones’s Hogwarts years, now was well-streaked with grey—when Bones was twenty-three? Had Bones been cursed?
Now Bones looked at Pandora and said in a businesslike tone, “I’m Senior Auror Amelia Bones. You asked to speak to me.”
Pandora matched the businesslike tone: “I’m Pandora Lovegood, formerly Brown. Sometimes I’m a Seer. This morning I had a Vision—about you. I’ve three messages to tell you.”
“Go on,” Bones said, in a flat voice. Pandora could not begin to guess what the other witch was thinking.
Pandora said, “The first message is, you must go somewhere with me tonight. Something will happen at that place, after sunset but before midnight, and you must witness it. Don’t ask me what will happen, because I don’t know.”
Bones sighed. “This will create problems of me, but—fine, I’ll go with you. Evidently Magic wants me to see something important. Your second message?”
“Bring a null-magic evidence bag with you,” Pandora said.
Bones shrugged. “I don’t carry evidence bags in my off-duty clothing”—she was referring to the green casual witch’s robe she now was wearing—“so I’ll need to go back to my desk for one. Your third message for me?”
“Don’t you speak one word to Bronzedagger.”
Bones surprised Pandora when she asked, “Who’s Bronzedagger?”
Pandora blinked in surprise. “I don’t know. I figured you would know. I’m guessing it’s a goblin name.”
Bones shrugged. “The only goblins I know by name are Deadlysword, who is the Bones account manager, and Director Ragnok. Hopefully I’ll find out who Bronzedagger is before I unknowingly talk to him.”
Pandora said, “Change of subject: Why will going with me tonight cause problems for you?”
Bones’s face turned emotionless. “Last night, You Know Who and some Death Eaters killed my brother Edgar and his wife Eleanor. Not only do I have two funerals to arrange now, but now my one-year-old niece Susan is an orphan and it’s my job to raise her. All these things were what I was about to do when I was told that you wanted to speak to me.”
Then Bones said, “Tibia!”
Pop. A house-elf appeared; she was wearing the House Bones crest on her little bone-white dress. “Young Mistress’s Aunt Amelia call Tibia?”
“Yes,” Bones said. “Magic has given me a task to perform tonight, and I don’t know how long the task will take. The task could take minutes or days. Be good to Susan and meet her needs till I return to Bones Manor.”
“Tibia will!” Pop—the house-elf disappeared.
Bones now looked at Pandora. “I’m headed back to my desk to grab an unused evidence bag. Then I’ll come back here, and you and I shall figure out how we’re going to work this.”
****
Later, after sunset
Just before Pandora had Side-Along Apparated herself and Amelia, Amelia had placed No-Noise, No-Odour and Disillusionment spells on both herself and Pandora. The plan was that wherever they were about to go, nobody at the arrival-place would realise that Pandora and Amelia had arrived there.
Also before the Apparation, Bones put her magical monocle over her left eye.
The actual Apparation would be done by Pandora Apparating to the Apparation Coordinates that she had written down on a slip of parchment. When Bones saw the parchment, she asked, “Do you know where you’re taking us to?”
“No idea. But just as my Vision gave me the three messages to speak to you, the Vision also gave me those exact Apparation Coordinates. Are you ready to go?”
“Yes,” Bones replied.
Pandora Apparated.
As soon as the Side-Along Apparation-process ended, Pandora stuffed the few inches of Apparation-Coordinates parchment into Bones’s pocket. “You might need this in the future,” Pandora explained.
****
Amelia saw that the two witches now were on a Muggle street at night, with Muggle houses on either side of the street and with a few Muggle cars parked in the street. Amelia knew the houses and cars all were Muggle because to her right eye, the houses and cars looked like Muggle houses and cars she had seen before; and because her monocle-enhanced left eye told her that everything she saw was nonmagical—
—except for a cat that was sitting atop a waist-high brick wall. To Amelia’s left eye, the cat was glowing.
Amelia quickly drew her DMLE-issue blue wand and hurried to create a Silencing Bubble round herself and Pandora.
Once this was done, Amelia explained to Pandora, “There is a magical cat on that Muggle wall.”
“Kneazle or Animagus?” Pandora asked.
Amelia gently tapped her monocle three times with a knuckle, which activated the Telescope function. Seconds later, Amelia replied, “The cat is no bigger than a regular cat, so it’s not a kneazle. But if it’s a cat-Animagus, the only one I know of in Wizarding Britain is Professor McGonagall, and why would Professor McGonagall be here?”
Pandora said, “Maybe it’s a second cat-Animagus? An unregistered one?”
“Possibly,” Amelia grudgingly agreed. Unregistered Animagi were dangerous.
Pandora asked, “What is the magical cat doing?”
“Staring fixedly at the second house from the end of the street on the west side, on the north side of the street,” Amelia replied.
Then Amelia squeezed Pandora’s arm. “Now you’ve convinced me, Mrs Lovegood. When we find a magical cat in a nonmagical neighbourhood, something strange is going on. Now I know you brought me here because Magic wants me to see all the strangeness that’s coming.
“In the meantime,” Amelia said, “I think we can move closer to the magical cat without the cat sensing us. Let’s move up behind that white car—then we can better watch the cat, and better watch the house that the cat is watching.”
****
Hours later—close to midnight
Outside was colder now; Pandora and Amelia had needed to duck behind the white car and to cast warming charms on themselves to stay comfortable.
By now, almost all the windows of the various houses on this street—including the windows in the second house from the end of the street on the west side, on the north side of the street—had gone dark. Meaning, an entire streetful of Muggles was sleeping now. Amelia wished she were sleeping too.
But Amelia kept her vigil, watching the cat that was watching the house.
Suddenly Pandora patted Amelia’s arm and pointed out something eerie: Again and again, twelve times altogether, all the streetlights on this Muggle street were going out. The zone of darkness started at the east end of the street, and moved steadily closer to Pandora and to Amelia.
When all the streetlights were dark, Amelia’s right eye had only starlight and moonlight with which to see.
But Amelia’s left eye saw a glowing man walking west in the street—the glow meant that Amelia was seeing a wizard. The glowing man had a glowing and long beard.
Amelia much doubted that she was seeing Aberforth Dumbledore coming closer.
Amelia ducked down behind the white car, and pulled Pandora down with her.