Chapter two: The Invitation
Brow furrowed, Lottie stepped into her family’s flat. “To see me?” she repeated. “Are you sure? Who would be here to see me? All of my friends went home, didn’t they?” Posy squeezed her daughter’s shoulder and smiled weakly.
A quite unfamiliar man sat at the Rowe’s rickety table. He wore dark, fine robes that reminded Lottie of the Death Eaters who had marched down the streets. He was clean shaven, unlike anybody else from the Muggle camps, and did not have one smudge of dirt on his face. He couldn’t have been from one of the camps, Lottie was sure of that.
“Hello, Charlotte.” The man smiled, emphasizing his crow’s feet. Lottie glared at the man. Nobody had called her Charlotte since she was very young, before she decided that Lottie suited her, and Charlotte didn’t.
“Lottie,” she corrected.
“Oh, of course. Lottie.” The man held his hand out. With a nudge from her mother, Lottie finally took the man’s hand and shook it. “My name is Professor Fornax Maelioric.”
She bit her lip, trying not to laugh. Lottie had never heard a name like Maelioric before, let alone Fornax. “Yeah? So what’re you doing here?”
Maelioric pointed to the empty chair across from him. Resenting the invitation to sit down in her own home, Lottie sat, folding her arms and raising her eyebrows at the man who barged into her flat. “So, Lottie, tell me, what do you think about magic?”
Lottie rolled her eyes. “I think the people who have it abuse it, and that the people that don’t have it would do well with it.”
“Have you ever thought that there could be good people with magic?” Lottie bit her lip. All of the people with magic she had ever seen abused the power. Unsure of which answer would be correct, she just looked at her lap. “Before I tell you, do you promise to keep it a secret?”
Lottie couldn’t stand it. She needed to know what he was talking about. Nervously, she looked over her shoulder at her parents who were both smiling down at her. “Yes,” she said suddenly feeling the urge to whisper. “I promise. What’s the secret?”
Maelioric folded his hands on the table and leaned in, whispering as well. “There’s an entire movement.” His voice made Lottie shiver. “Hundreds of witches and wizards who aren’t like the Death Eaters are fighting to end Voldemort’s reign.” Lottie gasped at the sound of the Dark Lord’s name, but was too captivated by what this man was telling her to do anything else about it.
Suddenly, Lottie felt as though somebody was pouring scalding honey into her stomach. Why was this man telling her this? Would the Death Eaters kill her if they found out that she knew about a rebellion? What would she do with this information? “But--”
“Why am I telling you this?” Lottie felt as though the man could read her mind. Maelioric seemed to be enjoying the suspense. “You’re a witch, Lottie.”
Posy gasped and squeezed her husband’s hand. “Nathaniel…” she whispered. “Our daughter.” Lottie turned around. Her mother was making it sound like it was a bad thing. “Our daughter.”
“Me?” She didn’t know what to think. He must have been lying. Nobody in her family had magic. Was it possible for her to have it? “No way. That’s not possible. I mean, my family is entirely--”
“You know, Muggle-borns tend to pop up more often now.” Maelioric leaned back in his chair, his eyes twinkling. “It’s quite sporadic, but we’re beginning to believe that it has something to do with a parent’s belief in magic.”
Lottie clenched her fists, scrunching up the baggy fabric on her pants. “And… erm … what now?” she asked, trying to ignore her parents’ franticly hushed conversation behind her.
Maelioric laughed, clapping Lottie on the shoulder. “Well, you want to join the rebellion, don’t you?” He raised his eyebrows. “Most eleven-year-olds jump at the offer.”
“Yes! Of course, I mean… But what do I have to do?”
“There’s a school,” began Maelioric, “called Alsemore. We train all of the Muggle-borns, half-bloods and the occasional pure-blood there.” Lottie liked this idea the more he explained.
“You mean I can leave here?” Lottie tried not to bring her hopes up too far.
“Yes,” answered Maelioric. “Though, we can’t let the students come back here very often because the Death Eaters might recognize them.” Lottie turned around again and looked at her parents. Their conflicted faces illustrated just how she felt. Sure, she wanted to leave the camp and help defeat the Dark Lord, but she didn’t want to never see her family again. “There will be occasional visits, of course,” Maelioric added quickly.
Lottie turned back to him. “What would I learn at that school?”
“Magic, of course,” said Maelioric with a laugh. “Though, you should be warned that this school is more dangerous than most. The students are trained to fight and are expected to help the cause by their sixth year, if not earlier.” Lottie bit her lip. “It is very dangerous, of course,” Maelioric continued, “but our students are trained well, and we usually have adults near by. Each student is trained in one of three areas, and becomes that position in the war.”
“What do you think?” asked Lottie, turning to her parents.
Posy looked down at the floor, making sure her face was hidden. Nathaniel tapped her gently on the shoulder. She looked up at him, opening her mouth to say something, but he shot her a stern look. Looking back at his daughter, he smiled weakly. “Whatever you think is best, Lottie,” he responded shakily. “Do you want to help the cause?”
“Yes.” She turned back to Maelioric. “Professor, I want to do it.”
“Excellent!” Maelioric clapped his hands together. “Well, could I just ask you if you know how to read, just so we know where to begin?”
Lottie beamed. “Yes,” she said proudly. Muggles in camps were not allowed to read, according to the Death Eaters. The Dark Lord had taken over fairly recently, though, and Lottie was only the third generation in the camp, so reading was easily taught in secret. Most girls her age knew, but she had seen a few kids whose parents or grandparents were so afraid of the Death Eaters, that they never learned.
“That’ll save us a lot of trouble then,” Maelioric mumbled, scribbling with a quill on a yellowing piece of parchment that looked like the scrap of paper the man in the cap had tried to sell to them.
“Can--can I ask you a question, Professor?”
“Of course.”
“Do we have to leave right now?” Lottie picked at the dirt under her fingernails. She wanted at least a day to say goodbye to her family.
“Ah, of course not,” Maelioric said with a shake of his head. He patted her on the shoulder. “We will be collecting all of the first year students on Monday at noon. It doesn’t give you a lot of time to get ready, but you are not required to bring anything along.”
Monday… Lottie took a deep breath. That only gave her a day and a half with her family. “Okay.” She looked down at her lap. “Monday it is then.”
With a chuckle, Maelioric stood up. “You’ll love it, don’t worry.” He gave her a reassuring smile. “All of the students do.”
“I hope that’s a promise,” she said nervously.
Without another word, the strange man turned around, and walked out the door, his cloak billowing behind him. The door slammed behind him, and a loud crack caused Posy to jump and drop a small mug she had been clutching.
“Well.” Nathaniel leaned against the thin wall, arms crossed. “That’ll be quite an adventure, won’t it?”
Lottie tried to smile back at him, but suddenly didn’t feel like she could. “I--I think I’m going to go to bed.” She clutched her stomach and sat down on her bare mattress. “I suddenly don’t feel very good.” Groaning, she fell backwards and shut her eyes.
It didn’t take her long to fall asleep. This new information dragged down her eyelids with its weight. When she woke, rain still pounded against the windows. It was a gloomy day, though not quite as dark as the day before. Lottie, feeling only slightly better than the previous night, opened the door to leave.
Behind her, Nathaniel was muttering something to Posy. The unnerving sensation of people talking about her crept up Lottie’s spine. She spun around, letting the door shut loudly behind her. “Oh!” Posy ran to Lottie, and brushed the rain off of her shoulders. “Good morning, dear. We didn’t even hear you get up…”
Nathaniel followed and ruffled her hair, chuckling sheepishly as he did. “You’re getting sneakier and sneakier everyday, I’ll tell you that.”
Crossing her arms, Lottie took a step away from her parents. “Sorry,” she said quietly. “I’m going to go out today, is that okay? I just want to see my friends for one more time.”
“Of course, love,” Posy said and gave Nathaniel a sharp flick on the back. He spun around obediently and followed her to the other side of the room. Standing alone in front of the door, Lottie pushed her knitted cap back onto her head, took a deep breath and silently left.
She ran quickly through the rain, head tucked under her arm, before she spotted the pair of tiny boots that she knew to be Pip’s. “Morning!” squeaked Pip sleepily.
Lottie picked her head up and smiled nervously. “Morning,” she repeated. “Have you seen everybody else?”
“Yeah, they’re all over there.” Pip pointed to what once had been a large cart for selling food, but was abandoned years ago. “Alexa got hurt when the Death Eaters came last night,” she said more solemnly.
Feeling the blood rush to her head, Lottie followed Pip as they jogged over to the cart. “Alexa!” she shouted as she fell to her stomach and pushed herself under the gap between the cart and the pavement. A ditch under the cart gave her enough room to sit up. Pip followed and fell easily into the tiny spot in between Lottie and Hattie.
“Lottie, where were you?” Melanie turned away from Alexa and scooted closer to Lottie. “All last night we were looking for you. It’s hard to take care of one person in trouble when we’re not sure where another one is.”
“Sorry,” she breathed. “I had to go back home. I didn’t know we were meeting back up. I thought you said--”
“No, I didn’t.” Melanie turned back to Alexa and muttered something to Hattie. Promptly, Hattie ran out from under the cart and into the street.
Lottie craned her neck so she could see over Melanie’s shoulder. “What happened to her?” she asked, though by Alexa’s appearance, she could guess. Blood covered her entire right arm, and there was a noticeably large gash across her upper arm.
“She got caught on her way home last night,” Olive said shakily. “She nearly got away, but they--they did something to her arm. Hattie’s going to get something to wrap it in.”
Lottie’s heart skipped a beat. This was her chance to tell them. They had to know, especially after the events of last night. “Wait,” she said quickly. Everybody turned to her. “I--I’ve got something to tell you.”
“Lottie, can it wait?” Melanie slapped her hand against the pavement. “This is more important.”
“Wait!” Lottie grabbed Melanie’s arm. “It’s important too.”
“What?”
“A man came to visit me last night--”
“Honestly, Lottie.” Shawnee glared at her. “This isn’t the time.”
“LISTEN TO ME!” Lottie slammed her fist against the top of the cart. Even Alexa picked up her head to stare at her. “A man came to visit me last night, and he told me that I was magic.”
Silence followed, only finally broken when muffled footsteps hurried towards them. “That’ll be Hattie,” Olive said quietly. True to Olive’s word, Hattie slid under the cart, the sleeve of an old sweater wrapped around her hand.
“This is all I could find,” she said handing it to Shawnee. Without a word, Shawnee snatched it from her and began wrapping it carefully around Alexa’s wound. As she did, Melanie turned back to Lottie, eyebrows raised.
“What are you talking about?” she hissed.
“A man,” Lottie repeated slowly. “He told me that I was magic, like the Death Eaters.” There was another silence. “I mean, I’m not going to be like them,” she added hurriedly. “But I’ve got magic.”
“Lottie.” Melanie grabbed her shoulder. “Seriously, whatever this man told you is a lie. Why would you be magic? You’re just a plain Muggle. That was just some mad bloke lying to you so he could kidnap you or something. Stop being ridiculous.”
Lottie forgot to breathe momentarily as pushed Melanie’s hand from her shoulder. “I’m not being ridiculous.” She tried not to let her voice quiver. “It’s true! And one day I’ll come back and be able to save one of you from a Death Eater, and then you’ll believe me.”
“And until then,” Melanie snapped back, “you’ll just be mad.”
Gripping her fists, Lottie shouted, “I’m not lying!” She turned to everybody in the group in turn, receiving the same look every time. “Nobody believes me? Pip?” The six-year-old frowned at her and turned away. “Fine!” Lottie pulled herself out of the cart. She crouched down and poked her head under it to see her friends for one more time. “I’ll see you in seven years then.” Without another word, she picked herself up and walked away. Once she was sure that she was out of earshot, she began to run, wiping the rainwater and tears off of her face.
She stopped in front of the door to her building, pulled it open and snuck down the hall to her own door. Before she could open the door, it was pushed open by her mother. “Oh!” She pushed her flyaway hair back into its messy bun. “I’m sorry, Lottie. I was just heading to the bakery to get you some food for your trip tomorrow.”
“Oh--er--thanks.” Lottie trotted around her mother and to her small mattress in the corner. She didn’t look up until the door slammed and she was sure her mother had left. Her father was probably already at the rundown bakery that they ran. After she was sure that her mother was completely out of earshot, she let out a scream. Somebody in the room next door banged on the wall.
Willing herself not to cry, Lottie kicked back at the wall, leaving a muddy boot-print. Trying to ignore the bangs on the wall, she curled into as small of a ball as she could possibly manage.
Lottie sniffed loudly. She didn’t know why her friends were all suddenly angry with her. She would never hurt her friends. But hadn’t she hurt Alexa by not helping her? Heavy-minded, she shut her eyes and fell into a restless sleep.
Halfway to Infinity by Eponine
Chapter Notes: Hey all! Here comes chapter two. Thanks again to Deanine and TheBird for fixing this chapter of mine. ^_^