Chapter Twenty-four: Lottie’s Flight
Lottie quickly averted her gaze. The dark windows suggested that it was well after hours. Andrea hadn’t returned yet.
“Don’t you try to avoid me,” hissed Palmyitor. She grabbed the third year’s chin and forced her to make eye contact.
Lottie could almost feel the anger burning from the professor’s eyes. “I”I’m””
“Shut up.”
Palmyitor pulled Lottie to her feet. All of the other Palmyitors stood at the other side of the common room, watching. “Give me the phoenix,” Palmyitor demanded. Lottie shook her head. “Give it to me. I don’t want to have to repeat myself again.”
“I”I don’t have it.”
“Don’t lie to me. I know you stole it. Who else would have?”
“I DON’T HAVE IT!” Lottie shouted. “Let--me--go!” She broke out of Palmyitor’s grip and stumbled into the center of the common room.
The circle of students closed around her. Palmyitor swept through the crowd, looking much more like a bird of prey than a professor. Lottie spun around once, staring at every nightmarish face. She followed her instincts from the Camps. She ran.
Lottie didn’t bother to look back to see if she was following.
She was just out of he clock when she ran into Andrea. “Lottie!” Andrea shouted. “I figured it out””
“Andrea, we don’t have time.” Lottie continued to run, beckoning for Andrea to follow. “Give me the charm.”
“What?”
“Listen to me,” Lottie panted. “You’re going to be in a lot of trouble if you don’t give it to me.”
Andrea started, fumbled in her pocket for the pendent and dropped it into Lottie’s palm. Faintly in the distance, Palmyitor’s high heels clicked against the stone as she emerged from the clock.
“Let’s go back,” Andrea whimpered, grabbing Lottie’s elbow. “Come on, we’re going to get in trouble. Let’s go back.”
“Keep running!” Lottie shouted, wrenching her arm free from Andrea’s grasp. “Don’t follow me “ go that way!”
“Why? What did you do?”
“Look “ I--Hell.” Lottie clutched a stitch in her side. “Palmyitor found out that I took the charm! You need to leave me so she doesn’t know you were involved!”
Andrea stopped for a split second. Panting, she stared at Lottie and said, “No, it’s my fault too.”
“Come on!” Lottie grabbed her wrist, pulling her further down the corridor. “Come on, we need to go.”
“Lottie we-we’re not going to get away,” Andrea wheezed. “Let’s just stop and face it.”
“No, no, no, no. We’re going to be in so much trouble and””
“Lottie, I’m stopping. I don’t care if you don’t, but I’m tired and I don’t want to run anymore.” Andrea stopped; Lottie didn’t.
She could only hear the vague echoes of Andrea’s apologies to Palmyitor over her own footsteps. Orange light filtered through the gap between the wall and a tapestry, which depicted Euphrasie the Excellent escaping a rather enthusiastic mob of Muggles laden with tar and feathers. She veered right and slipped into the open doorway behind it. Flickering torches illuminated the high barrel-vaulted ceilings, decorated with cobwebs and the tops of the dusty, iron staircase. She stole a glance behind her before rushing down the stairs. Lottie could hear Andrea and Palmyitor’s steps through the ceiling, hurrying by and Palmyitor’s sharp voice shouting profanities.
Lottie stared at her knees, praying that Andrea wouldn’t think of the hidden staircase. A sudden rage rose inside of her like a cobra. Who was Andrea to betray her best friend?
Dusty light filtered into the narrow staircase -- two silhouettes kept Lottie palled in shadow. “Rowe!” hissed Palmyitor. “Rowe, you are going to regret ever having been sorted into my house if””
Lottie didn’t stay to hear what she had to do to regret being sorted into Palmyitor; she pushed open the painting covering the other exit and hurtled herself into the corridor.
“Rowe, this is your last chance!”
She didn’t even consider turning back.
“Petrificus Totalus!”
Lottie’s arms and legs snapped together. She struggled for a moment before losing her balance and falling forward. The ground made contact with her nose, which crunched in protest under the force. Warm blood dripped down her face, into her eyes and puddle on the floor.
All Lottie could see was Palmyitor’s pointed shoes. “Cowardice as I have never seen,” she hummed, pushing Lottie’s stiff body over with the tip of her foot.
Lottie, only able to move her eyes, glared at Andrea who shrank back into the wall.
Palmyitor whipped out her wand and smirked. “That hurts, doesn’t it?” Lottie winced at sight of the wand. “Locomotor body!” Lottie lifted into the air. “Never in my fifty years of teaching… stealing, lying, sneaking away…” She faded off, focusing on guiding Lottie’s floating body up the staircase. Several times, Lottie bumped into the wall, causing a jet of pain to shoot through her body; she was sure that it was no mistake of Palmyitor’s.
Palmyitor took a glance at Lottie's face, which was now freely bleeding all over the floor. She clucked her tongue, gazing over the mess on the carpet. "Woolbright, you wait outside." She flicked her wand carelessly, bumping Lottie into the frame of the door. "Oh, excuse me, Rowe." With a smirk, she entered the door, Lottie trailing halfheartedly behind her, and flicked her wand. At once, Lottie was released and fell once again, smashing her nose against the cold, stone floor. Lottie yelped, clutching her face in agony.
She sat there for a moment, unable to will herself to get up and face Palmyitor. The door clicked and locked. “Get up.”
Slowly, Lottie pushed herself to her feet, not looking Palmyitor in the eye. Blood soaked her entire front, causing her shirt to stick to her chest. She wiped her face with the back of her hand and stared at the floor. The chair that usually sat opposite the professor’s desk was noticeably absent.
“This may be the final straw, Rowe.” Palmyitor hadn’t sat either, choosing instead to tower over Lottie. “You can’t go three months without getting yourself into trouble. Believe me, if we had known the kind of trouble you would cause, we would have left you in London. You’re lucky your friend Woolbright explained why you did it, otherwise your consequences would have been...dire.” Palmyitor held her palm out.
Lottie dug into her pocket and pulled out he phoenix charm. It flared with heat suddenly. Hissing through clenched teeth, she dropped it into Palmyitor’s hand. With raised eyebrows, Palmyitor stared at the burning charm.
There was a knock on the door. With a flick of Palmyitor’s wand, it opened. Professor Stainthorpe poked her head in and tentatively said, “Naesa, I know you’re not interested in what she has to say, but I strongly suggest you take a look at what Woolbright discovered.” Her gaze shifted to Lottie. “And perhaps you should take Rowe to the hospital wing. She’s going to pass out if she loses anymore blood.”
“That will be the least of her problems,” Palmyitor responded, eyeing Lottie curiously. “Where is Woolbright?”
Andrea stuck her head timidly through the door frame. Lottie turned her back to her, tears stinging the corner of her eyes. “I”I think I figured out where to find…find Victor K. Lontelles,” Andrea explained, pulling out a sheet of parchment. “The phrase ‘Neville Longbottom is the Secret Keeper’ is an anagram for ‘Victor K. Lontelles, eighteen Somptebree.”
Palmyitor cleared her throat. “And this Somptebree…”
“It’s a street in Paris,” Andrea said. “I”I figured it out with the charm Lottie gave me,” she added hastily.
Palmyitor looked from Andrea to Lottie and back again. “I cannot say I am not impressed,” she said in a business like tone. “This is the sort of work we expect from fifth year Clynalmoys. I wonder why we didn’t put you in Clynalmoy,” she wondered aloud. Suddenly, she stood up, picked a file from the third shelf up and scanned the first page. “Ah. Of course.” She smirked at Andrea from over the file and quickly put it away.
“Well then we are all very fortunate that Rowe here stole the charm from my office,” Palmyitor continued sarcastically. “She could have just asked, but””
“We did!” Lottie shouted. “We asked you and you said no! If I hadn’t””
“I hate to burst your little delusional bubble,” Palmyitor cut in fiercely, “but this school functioned perfectly well before you two came along, and we will after you leave.” Even without Legilimency, Lottie could see something glimmer in the corners of her eyes. Palmyitor turned to Stainthorpe. “So he’s in Paris,” she said. “You know what this means, don’t you?” Stainthorpe nodded. “Good. I’ll keep you updated on your date of departure.”
With a side-glance at Lottie and Andrea, she added, “Now is there anybody who can accompany you?”
“We can!” Lottie piped up, wiping the dried blood off of her face with her hand.
After a pause, Palmyitor began to chuckle to herself. “Rowe, you’ve just broken about every school rule in the course of three months. Do you really think I’d let you travel all the way to France?”
“Well, it’d get me away from here, wouldn’t it? And I wouldn’t get into trouble there, I promise. We’re the ones who found it in the first place; we should get to go!”
“I’m afraid no matter how many over enthusiastic third years I’d like to send to their graves, it just doesn’t work that way,” she responded sarcastically.
“Well…” Lottie didn’t know exactly where she was going. “Well, if you don’t let us go then I won’t tell you what else I found out.” Andrea shot her a quizzical glance. Hastily, Lottie tried to block her emotions, preparing for what she knew would come. Palmyitor glanced at her searchingly, but the all too familiar sensation never began. Why wasn’t she using Legilmency?
“Marianne, could you go and get Ryan and Fornax for me?”
Stainthorpe spun on her heel and left the office. Palmyitor surveyed Lottie, twisting one of her glittering rings around her finger.
“Wait outside,” ordered Palmyitor suddenly. “And if you try to run again, we’ll snap your wand and ship you straight back to London.”
Lottie and Andrea shuffled into the corridor. Once the door shut behind them, Lottie turned to Andrea, hissing, “Good going.”
“What?”
“For turning us in! For turning me in!”
“Lottie you’re being absolutely ridiculous. There was no way we were going to get away from her. Look what happened to you when you tried!”
“Well at least I wasn’t a coward.”
“A coward! Me? For choosing to face the consequences instead of running away? I’d reconsider my definition of cowardice if I were you.”
Lottie stared at the floor in a moody silence. She could hear the other two heads’ and Stainthorpe’s footsteps approaching. She sat down against the wall and stared determinately at the floor. Andrea followed suit.
Maelioric was the first in the group. “Rowe?” He stopped walking and stared at Lottie, still covered in her own blood. Now that the adrenaline of being caught had worn off, her nose throbbed painfully with each heartbeat. Stainthorpe leaned over and whispered something in Maelioric’s ear. “Ah, of course,” he said, and with that, the three professors entered Palmyitor’s office, shutting the door behind them.
A feeling that Lottie quite couldn’t describe bubbled inside of her stomach. She glanced sideways at Andrea, who was sulking to the floor and immediately turned to her own shoes. “Sorry,” she finally muttered.
“Don’t worry about it.”
Andrea smiled and pushed Lottie’s shoulder playfully. “But next time try and fall backwards,” she joked.
“And break my skull? No thank you.”
“What is your secret?” Andrea asked suddenly. “Did you find anything out?”
Lottie laughed. “No, I was lying. Glad she didn’t use Legilimency.”
Andrea frowned. “I thought she did. Maybe you blocked her.”
“I doubt it. She’s been doing Legilimency for, like, seventy years. I’ve only been learning Occlumency for three years.”
Andrea smiled mischievously. “I’m not sure,” she cooed. “If anything it was a simple level of Legilmency. And””
“Sshh!” Lottie hissed. She thought she had just heard the conversation switch from explanation of the situation to debate over the topic at hand. Cautiously, she moved over to the door and pressed her ear against it.
“It may seem reckless…” It was Palmyitor. “But it’s not all together unbelievable, Fornax. They’ll be with Marianne, after all. Before this evening’s events, I was considering letting them participate in whatever they had discovered anyway.”
“Naesa, I know you like to have your favorites,” Maelioric began, “but maybe you should remember that Rowe has broken a remarkable amount of rules in the past year. And you know that I like to give students a bit of leeway, but even for me””
“Not to mention,” Clynalmoy interjected, “she just spent about twenty minutes running from you. Is that the way to””
“But think about her training, Ryan.”
There was a meaningful pause. Lottie was sure that more was going on in the office that she could hear.
“Looks bad for us,” Lottie said grimly as she pulled her ear away from the door. “But you can’t say tonight was boring, eh? And how did you find out that it was an anagram, anyway?”
Andrea blushed and shrugged humbly.
The door clicked open. Andrea and Lottie scrambled to their feet. It had only been since the end of summer that she had faced so many adults in Palmyitor’s office.
Palmyitor cleared her throat. “As a group,” she said clearly, “we have decided that it would be advantageous for you two to accompany Professor Stainthorpe to France this summer.” Lottie turned to Andrea, jaw hanging open. “But you will be required to train with Professor Breckenridge for three times a week and Professor Stainthorpe twice a week outside of your classes. And if your grades drop,” she said, staring pointedly at Lottie, “you will spend your summer here.”
Maelioric looked resigned on the issue. Clynalmoy kept his eyes politely averted. “And Rowe,” Palmyitor added, “if you do any more stealing, not going to France will be the least of your worries.”
Lottie nodded and turned to leave when Palmyitor stopped her. “And I would suggest not mentioning this to the other students. Palmyitor smirked, took off a ring, examined it and put it back on. “Oh and Rowe, what was it that you were saying earlier? What else did you find out?”
Astonished, Lottie glanced at Andrea. “Er”I”I was ly”er I mean bluffing.”
For a second, she thought Palmyitor was going to hit her. She picked up a hand and swept across the office. Instead, she patted Lottie’s shoulder in an awkward congratulations. “Good job,” she said. “It won’t be long now.”
Halfway to Infinity by Eponine
Chapter Notes: Hey guys, it has been an ungodly amount of time since the last update and I'm so sorry! I had some family issues and then my computer broke and deleted all of my files. It wasn't a good time, to say the least. But at least an update came out of TheBird and I sitting up until all hours of the morning, right? Major thanks again to her for being a fantastic beta and listen to my fanfic woes while sick.
This chapter is dedicated to the cast of Macbeth.