We walked briskly up the sidewalk that was shaded on each side by thick, towering bushes. Natalie was lagging behind me a bit as I almost broke into a run.
“Tell me again why we set our wards so they were so far away from our flat?”
“More time for warning,” she shouted from far behind me. “Why in the name of Merlin are you walking so fast, Anna? It’s not like we’ve got anything to do.”
“It’s two o’clock in the morning, I want some pudding, and my feet hurt. Would you just hurry up,” I answered, not bothering to hide my tone of exasperation.
I continued walking quickly, not actually knowing why I was moving at this pace-- pudding had never driven me in this way. The mission we had just been assigned was burned in my mind, possibly causing my feet to throw themselves so chaotically in front of each other.
‘Be ready to leave in no more than a week’
‘Destroy the colony of werewolves…’
‘They have been excused from work for an indefinite time.’
These words echoed in my head as we neared our small flat. The building was quaint, located on the corner of a quiet street. Winding ivy grew up the sides of it, pouring over itself as it lengthened with time. We lived on the third level, in number 18.
“You smell of strawberries, Nat.” I grasped the wrought iron railing and turned to look at her before I began the rickety endeavor up the equally rickety stairs.
“Regrettable. Would you hurry up now?” She replied, prodding me in the back with her finger.
“I’m not the one that’s been dawdling behind all day, am I? I’ll take my time, I think.” Stopping mid step, I spread my legs wide and gripped the railing with each hand, effectively creating a barrier between Natalie and our living quarters.
Her first attempt to get by me was a teasing prod with her wand, right in my side where she knew it tickled me the worst. Unfortunately, I buckled slightly, falling into her graces, and she took the moment of weakness as an opportunity to break through my boundaries.
“Ah-ha! Not so fast, missy!” I threw my arm out, blocking her attempt and spun around, throwing my head back in laughter. At this point, she pushed passed me and ran up the remaining stairs, her laughter bouncing off the walls behind her.
When I reached our door, it was hanging open awaiting my delayed arrival. I stepped across the threshold and breathed in the familiar scent of musky parchment that had the sweet overcoat of vanilla.
“We’ve got to get this place cleaned up,” I said as I shrugged my cloak off. Looking around, the room was a relative disaster: the clean laundry sat lumped in a pile on the dining table, last night’s dinner was still remaining on the plain, ceramic plates that Mum had bought me when I first moved out, and our main project at work had been scattered over the remainder of the living area, using any surface as a place for work.
Natalie was bent over, head buried in the fridge, and I could hear her pushing our frugal amount of food negligently around the shelves. “We don’t have any strawberries.” Her head popped back up and stared at me with needy eyes.
“You’re daft.”
--
“Rise and shine, people! Today looks like a sunny d””
Smack.
My radio went crashing to the floor as a result of my effort in silencing the obnoxiously cheery voice that had broken me from my very brief slumber. I let out a slow groan and began dragging my fingers blindly over the floor in search of my lost alarm that would no doubt resound in any second.
“In other news, the Minister of Magic has declared official war on the small wizarding town of Gorning. Why? We don’t really know. Now, back to the main man, Mr.””
“Ah- ha. I bounb id,” I attempted to say through a half closed mouth that was smashed against my bed sheets. Replacing my radio to its rightful spot, I let out a small sigh and closed my eyes before grumbling, “Just three minutes then I’ll be up and showering…”
--
“Anna!” I drowsily pulled myself awake. Only three minutes. Please be only three minutes. “Why didn’t you wake us up? We’re late for work!”
I peeled my eyes open to see Natalie hopping passed my bedroom on one foot while attempting to eat toast and put on a sock at the same time. As I swung my legs over the edge of my bed, I heard a telltale crash come from the direction she had just hopped precariously towards.
“You okay, Nat?” I asked as I performed a quick refreshing charm on my hair in an attempt to make it look acceptable. Sticking up on the left, as always. I heard a low groan and threw my robes on.
“All right, let’s go.” I walked out the door, and into the kitchen, grabbing my bag and a piece of toast before waiting expectantly at the fire.
“How do you always do that so quickly?” I heard Natalie mutter from the floor in the kitchen.
“Let’s just go. No need to be bitter over my superior refreshing spells.”
“I am not bitter. You just will never tell me your style, so I can’t do it as precisely as you can.”
I smiled. “Precisely. Are you coming? Or are you going to continue to bask in your misery over failed refreshing spells.” I paused to allow her a sound of disapproval, which came on cue, then continued, “I don’t think we can technically be late to work when we’ve been excused for an indefinite period of time, so no need to have a hippogriff.”
“I don’t like you much right now, but I will acquiesce and join you in your futile escapades to our wonderful Department of Mysteries, but only because I love my desk dearly,” Natalie retaliated, pulling her sock on completely before standing up.
“You’re a nutter.”
“Get in the fire.”
“You first.”
“Together!”
Gabbing my hand and a pinch of powder, she threw it into the grate, and instant green flames erupted. Pulling me in after her, she stated, “Department of Mysteries, Ministry of Magic, London!”
We were instantly swept away, and after many uncomfortable bumps and knocks, we arrived in our personal Floo.
We stepped out of the fire that was located between our two desks, the only two desks in the room. They faced each other so it was easier for us to speak face to face when we were working. Our walls were of dark, paneled mahogany. The floor was as well, but it was covered with an Iranian rug that had been a gift from our head of Department, McMullan, for completing our first task, which involved vampires, hence the Iranian bit. The lighting in our office was always slightly dim due to the lack of overhead lights, but we had personal lamps at our desks that proved quite useful.
A cool sensation moved over my body; it was the detection device used to make sure it really was Natalie and I entering through the Floo. I still hadn’t gotten used to it. Letting out a shiver as I moved quickly over to my desk, brushing the soot off myself in the process, I threw my bag down atop the organized chaos. To me, it was all in order, but to any other onlooker, it was a complete disaster. Quills were everywhere, papers were scattered about the top, and even a cold, half-full cup of tea sat on the corner from last week.
“Anna, we really should clean this up. A simple scouring charm would do the trick, you know.”
“No! Because then I’ll lose track of where everything is,” I stated as I shuffled through the papers in search of a certain piece that I just knew was there. “Aha! I found it!”
I leaned my hips against my desk as I began to look over the report that Natalie had written a few weeks back for the project that we had just recently been assigned. As I looked over it, certain words jumped out at me: small, metallic piece; werewolf hair; shift time…
“What are you looking at, Anna?” Natalie asked me from across the room. She had sat down at her equally as disorganized desk, and was looking at nothing in particular, so she decided to badger me instead.
Without looking up, I replied, “This report you gave me the other week on time shifting that McMullan assigned us. For some reason, it just popped into my head.”
“Oh, huh….”
At that precise moment there was an ear- piercing alarm that sounded from outside of the main entrance to our office. It lasted precisely two seconds before it was cut off and there was a sheepish knock at the door.
“Well, that was interesting. I guess we have some unexpected visitors?” I mused as I pushed myself off my desk and walked over to the door. Natalie didn’t bother moving. When I reached the door, I tapped it with my wand, and after a series of clicks, I pulled it open.
On the other side were standing two very befuddling looking men that were searching their surroundings instead of looking at me, so I cleared my throat. “Remus? Sirius? What are you doing here?”
Both of their head snapped in my direction, the latter rubbing his neck as an after-effect.
Completely ignoring my question, Sirius replied, “So this is where you work, then? Rather confusing, innit? Took us near a half hour just to find your office once we actually got down here.”
“We Floo. We don’t use the main entrance.”
“Oh, feisty little thing, isn’t she?” Sirius prodded Remus in the ribs before pushing passed me and into our office. Remus grinned apologetically in my direction before nodding his head politely and following his friend. I stared after them. Honestly, what were they doing here, and how did they get in?
As if reading my mind, Natalie asked, “What are two great prats like yourselves doing here?”
“Hey now, there is no need to call Remus and his pet rabbit prats, Natalie.” Sirius shot Remus a look before continuing, “Dumbledore sent us here with a note. It’s how we were even allowed down here in the first place.”
With that, he began searching his pockets and finally finding the folded piece of parchment, he let out a noise of triumph and slapped it down on Natalie’s desk. We were all gathered around it now, looking down at the rumpled piece of parchment.
Remus looked at each of us, catching my eye and moving on. “He said it had something to do with preparation for the mission and that it would be “ how’d he say it? “ beneficial to your studies. Something along those lines.” He flicked it with his hand, apparently anticipating the opening of this parchment. “C’mon! Open it, then.”
Natalie and I just stared at it. My eyes bounced between her and the parchment a few times before my own anticipation was interrupted by”
“Just open it, won’t you! Remus and I have been itching to see what’s in there all day, but we haven’t looked and now we can, so just get on with it!”
“Oh, all right.” I snatched up the parchment and unfolded it, and instantly a voice boomed around us.
If you have recently researched the travel of time, it would be wise for you to make a recount of your studies because it will be very helpful in your upcoming expedition.
The voice withered away with the parchment as flames shot up in my hands, causing me to shriek in pain and drop the letter. We all sat in silence as the loud voice rang in our ears, the lenient command pulling at my strings.
“Nat! We have, that’s what we were just looking””
“Shut up, Anna. Discretion was never your strong point. You know we cannot speak of this in front of them. Have you lost your mind?” Natalie hissed at me, immediately getting to her feet.
I clapped my hand over my mouth and looked between Remus and Sirius before looking to Natalie and straightening myself. “Right, well they’ll know more or less what is going on when we get to the northern most part of Whales or wherever the hell we’re going, will they not?”
“We are in the Ministry right now, Anna. At least save it for outside of the secure walls of the Department,” Natalie surrendered to me.
Silence fell after her last statement, and I noticed that Remus and Sirius seemed to be communicating in that way that they had been earlier: swift hand movements and head jerks.
Sirius disturbed the heavy silence and said, “Time travel, eh?”
“I said OUTSIDE THE DEPARTMENT WALLS!” Natalie’s voice steadily rose as the color in her face did as well. A small laugh escaped me at the uncharacteristic behavior of my friend over such matters as our work. She had never been like this, and considering how the day had started, one might believe that she would have been chipper for the rest of it. Apparently not.
“Remus, looks like we’re going to be surrounded by a bunch of feisty women for this mission of ours. Do you think you can handle it?”
Remus shot his friend a look through narrowed eyes, “Oh, my dear, delusional friend, I can handle it. The question is: can you handle two delusional women and a rampant pet rabbit?”
Fuzzy Elfin Dilemmas by KritchMis
Chapter Notes: This second installment was written by Mistletoe myself. >.< With credit to kritchen, of course, and fg_weasley for her wonderful beta work.