Hogwarts, here she was again, though certainly not under the circumstances she would have liked. Miriam walked along the front lawn that lead up to the castle gates, where waiting for her was none other than Albus Dumbledore himself. He still looked the same after all these years; his friendly smile still unchanged, though his once auburn-colored hair was now streaked with more gray than what she remembered of him.
Off in the distance, the large Knight Bus sputtered as it began to pull away from the dirt road, leaving Miriam feeling slightly nostalgic as she gazed upon Dumbledore's kindly face again.
"How did you know I was here?" she asked.
Dumbledore simply smiled at her, his eyes still holding that familiar twinkle in them. "I have my ways." He opened the gates with a wave of his wand, and Miriam walked through.
Snow covered much of the grounds as Miriam and Dumbledore trudged forward, shivering slightly from the cold. It was much colder here than in London, and mentally, Miriam was kicking herself for not bringing something warmer to wear. She had become too accustomed to the warmer weather of her adopted country.
They didn't speak a word to each other, remaining quiet during their trek over the grounds. As they passed by the Forbidden Forest, a deep shiver went down her spine - not from the cold, but from the memory of what had happened to her there. This was the exact spot where Tom tried to have Miriam kill herself. The after effects had sent her into a downward spiral of emotions that she didn't think she would ever recover from. It had been a very bad time in her life. But because she had two wonderful friends to help her through, she had gotten her life back on track.
Pushing those thoughts out of her mind, she noticed they had reached the main entrance of the school, and Dumbledore was holding the door open for her.
~*~
Dumbledore sat serenely across from her in his high-backed chair; his half-moon glasses were perched slightly crooked on his long nose. Time was a precious commodity, something of which Miriam didn't poses at the moment. Almost immediately, she began pouring out in vivid detail how Tom had lured her across the ocean by kidnapping her friends, how she barely managed to escape from him, and how Tom was still holding her friends captive. For added effect, she showed him her arms where the scratches were slightly visible and some dried blood remained. Dumbledore nodded his head as though he already suspected something of this nature to have happened.
Miriam looked up at him, her heart pounding loudly and painfully in her chest. "Please, you have to help me rescue my friends. I can only imagine what is happening to them as we speak."
"Have you been reading the papers lately, Miss Riddle?"
She shook her head no. "I only know what my friends have told me from correspondence."
It was Dumbledore's turn to nod. Miriam wished she knew where he was going with all of this, but he spoke up before she could express herself.
"Just a few months before you arrived here, your brother came to ask me for a job. You might be surprised to learn that he wanted the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts professor."
Miriam raised an eyebrow. Defense Against the Dark Arts? Tom? He wanted to come back to Hogwarts to be a professor? Dumbledore noticed the befuddled look on her face, and giving her a small but reassuring smile, he continued.
"Your brother expressed his ideas to me that he could share his views of magic with the students, teach them things that are not normally considered appropriate subject topics here at Hogwarts. He also thought that I would not know that for the past few years, he has been committing murder with his group of followers. I must say, he wasn't pleased to know that I was - shall we say - aware of his true motives for returning here. It would be safe to surmise that I did not trust him that much during the entire interview, and as such, I immediately rejected his offer to teach the moment he stepped foot in my office. To be perfectly honest with you Miriam, I did not trust him even when he was a student here."
Dumbledore looked at Miriam directly in the eyes, boring into them with an intensity that she had never seen before from him. "Your friends lives are of top priority to me, Miriam. Rest assured that I will do everything in my power to make sure they are returned safe and unharmed."
"But what can I do to help? Please sir, I want to help. I have to. They mean the world to me."
Dumbledore smiled. "You will help me, of course. I am looking for an assistant to help around the school. I know you will be a perfect candidate for the job, Miriam."
"What exactly would I be doing as an assistant?"
"We are almost upon the end of the first semester, and a few of our professors will require some assistance," Dumbledore answered. "The school nurse has been seeing a great many hexed students recently, and she is feeling a bit swamped from the work. And if it wouldn't be too much to ask of you, we need a liaison to work between the students and teachers. It will be tough work, but it would allow me to use the time to get together a small army to help rescue your friends."
Miriam nodded her head. "Sure. When do I start?"
"Would Monday be good?"
~*~
Miriam slumped down onto the warm bed, her mind racing. She was staying in a small inn in the little village Hogsmeade, just outside Hogwarts, waiting for the next few days to pass so she could begin her new job up at the school.
Her eyelids felt heavy as she closed her eyes, but she was too apprehensive to sleep. The only thing on her mind was bringing Marcella and Sophie home safely... and making Tom pay for his wickedness.
Somewhere, somehow, he needed to be destroyed like the vermin he was.