Chapter 3
Righting Supposed Wrongs
Late at night, in the tiny parlor of the inn, Corina was doing her very best to forget all that she had heard at the Indian school that afternoon and reveled in the fact she would never have to return to that miserable place again. Although, the sixteen-year-old soon found out she was quite alone in the relief she was experiencing.
The inn was loosely packed with people; a few of those had been in the parlor with them earlier that evening just after supper had been served. Now, however, Corina and her father had the entire room to themselves. They could have the fire blaze as high as they wanted (Southerners, the both of them, they Paytons could not bear any sort of cold), the inn staff could cater to their needs and their needs alone, and Corina and her father did not have to hush their tones when they spoke with one another.
Corina thanked Merlin for small favors in the fact there was a wizard-run inn just ten miles from the Indian school. It felt wonderfully freeing to be back in her loose-fitting robes. Corina would have thought her father would have felt the same way, but as she watched him sit in his chair in front of the fire, he just seemed anxious and troubled, his mouth hidden by his laced fingers.
“Father, what’s wrong?” Corina walked over to her father’s side and put her hand gently on his shoulder.
Connor Payton stared into the fire, one hand messaging his temple, the other swirling a tumbler of scotch. His answer was brief. “Annie.”
At the end of that statement, Corina cringed away from her father as though he were a snarling dog. She backed away from her father and clumsily took her seat in the opposing armchair, her posture rather stiff for how relaxed she had been mere moments ago.
“Why?” she asked, tucking her stocking feet beneath her. “We did what we were sent here to do. We told her about the school. Now Bell will keep in touch with her so she will be ready to attend when she is eleven.”
Corina said these words in the hopes that she could defer whatever it was that her father’s thoughts about Annie Two-Moons were going to mean for her, especially if it meant staying in this place any longer than was absolutely necessary.
“In fact, we should be ready to go back home tomorrow or the day after,” she finished.
“That’s exactly what I’m thinking about,” Corina’s father finally said. “Home.”
Corina did her best to settle herself comfortably for what she knew was going to be the beginning of a very uncomfortable conversation.
After gulping down the last of his scotch, Corina’s father rose from his armchair and began pacing in front of the fireplace. “I can’t…even imagine taking children away from their parents at six. Annie said some children are even younger when they are taken away.”
As much as she disliked where her father’s thoughts would likely be leading to, Corina still could not help but absolutely agree with him. She knew she couldn’t imagine being taken away from her father at the age of sixteen. If she had been five or six when strangers had come to her home to take her to a school somewhere far away, she didn’t know how she would survive. She would have been reduced to a weeping puddle mere moments after she had been taken.
It should have been instinctive to feel pity for the child. On the other hand, Corina certainly didn’t want her father harboring such feelings towards Annie Two-Moons. There was just something about the little Indian child, something in her demeanor that made it impossible for Corina to feel such feelings towards her.
“I know, it’s sad,” Corina replied rather stiffly. She hoped that if she kept her answers as short and clipped as possible, the conversation would just wither and die. However, it would seem that whatever Connor Payton was planning to do, he was going to do without his daughter’s encouragement or blessing. There was a certain determination in his expression that Corina knew could not mean anything good.
“I’m going to see if I can get Annie sent back to her parents,” he told his daughter. “At least until she’s old enough to attend Bell.” To end his statement, Corina’s father slammed the empty tumble down hard on the fireplace mantel.
Surprised, Corina could only utter one small squeak in reply. Whatever she had thought her father was going to do about it, it certainly wasn’t this. In one rapid motion, Corina pulled her feet out from beneath her, but she was uncertain of where to jump to the floor or simply stand on the chair so she would have the height advantage for whatever she was going to say.
“You can’t do that!” she shouted, her voice echoing in the empty room.
“I can’t, can’t I?” he asked his daughter. “Who is going to step me?”
“The American government says all Indian children need to go to these schools,” Corina reminded her father, still from her rather awkward seated position. “How do you plan to maneuver around that?”
But Corina’s father had already figured that part out on his own.
“I’ll go over their heads,” he told her, beginning to ramble slightly. “I’ll have the Department of Magic erase Annie’s name from the records, Obliviate her teachers; we do nothing no less extraordinary with other Muggle-borns.”
Hearing this sort of plan made Corina cringe even more than just the idea of having anything further to do with Annie Two-Moons.
“It should not be a difficult thing to do in the least,” Corina’s father began detailing his plan. “All I really have to do is appeal my case to the Department of Magic, say that there is a young witch in need of extraordinary help. They did the same with that orphan girl in New York City last year who was left with her poor aunt and uncle and was forced to work in a factory to help support the family. And Annie’s case, I believe, will come off a lot more sympathetic. After that, the Department officials will be doing most of the work in making sure Annie gets back to her village and stays there””
“Father!” Corina shrieked, nearly falling off her balance. “You cannot meddle with the laws of the Muggle government!”
“There are no laws against it!” he argued. “I know; I made sure. I read them from cover to cover and there is nothing that expressly forbids using magic to go over Muggle laws, especially unjust ones.”
“Maybe not officially,” Corina answered. “But it goes against everything ethical in terms of wizard-Muggle relations.”
Finally, Corina did stand to her feet so she could face her father at least at somewhat eye-level.
“To start with, anything that would take a continuous effort to keep the Muggles in the dark can only be a risk to someone discovering the Wizarding world,” Corina said. “Even with all the Memory Charms in the world, there is always the chance that someone who has seen or heard too much will be overlooked. Is all the effort really worth it just for one child? Not to mention…”
Corina listed her arguments on and on, but it all appeared to be falling on deaf ears. It seemed that Corina’s father had already made up his mind, and there was nothing that Corina could do to change it.
“Once Annie blends into the wizarding world, who knows how often she’ll see her family,” Corina’s father said purposefully, rubbing his hand over the unshaven part of his face. “She should at least spend the time she has left with her parents.”
Defeated, Corina sunk back down into her armchair, realizing that, for once, there was nothing in her power that she could do to change her father’s mind.
“At the very least, wait until morning before you do anything,” she urged, allowing her head to rest in her hand. “It is late, and there is no use working while everyone who works for the Department of Magic is fast asleep.”
But Corina’s father just shook his head and made his way over to a writing desk tucked away in the corner of the parlor and took up one of the idle quills. “You can go to bed, if you want, Corina,” he told his daughter as he began scribbling away on some piece of parchment. “I have some owls to write.”
But Corina did linger in her armchair for a few moments longer, tucking herself into a comfortable little ball, even if her father paid her no mind. For as long as Corina managed to stay awake, he poured over that desk, ink, and parchment, his scribbling taking on a rapid rhythmic pattern that proved almost hypnotic. Corina could not remember bringing herself to sleep, but she did wake up the next morning in her bed in the Paytons’ room. She was still dressed in the robes she was wearing the night before.
True to his word, Corina’s father spent the next several days writing letter after letter to anyone he thought could help him in his plight, and was just as fervent and distracted as he had been the night he had begun his mission. Several times in the week that followed, she would see her father meeting people dressed in fine robes in that inn parlor. Sometimes she would sit in the parlor and watch them, hiding behind the cover of one of her schoolbooks. The men would smoke and converse over scotch, discussing Muggle laws and policy and how best to care for a child who would soon be falling under Department authority. When he wasn’t meeting with people, he would go back to writing even more letters still.
It had become more than just a mission or a desire to do a good deed. It had become an obsession; something that Connor Payton was losing sleep over and neglecting his own daughter for.
But it wasn’t just writing letters and working with Department officials. Corina’s father went to that school to see Annie every day, sometimes staying for hours. It was almost as though he we doing everything possible to keep her out of her classes. He would Confound Miss Deem and then he would Obliviate her so she would continue to allow him to take her from his class every morning.
He would bring her books about magic, mostly reading them to her because the little girl’s reading was still quite poor, despite the three years she had spent in the Indian school. He said that he was helping her to improve her reading before she was sent to Bell, so she would arrive on par with all the other students, even those who were born into wizarding families. He was also looking into receiving some sort of government stipend so he could purchase books for Annie to take back to the reservation with her.
And once he arrived back at the inn, all Mr. Payton would talk about was Annie; what she had learned that day, what she had said to Corina’s father, all the progress she was making under Connor Payton’s eye, and what a talented witch he believed she would become. He would never bring Annie to the inn, though. He didn’t trust that he would not be seen by some student or school employee who could keep themselves hidden for the rest of the Paytons’ visit. So at the very least, Corina herself never had to see the little girl, even if she did have to hear about her every second of every day, which was certainly bad enough.
In many ways, Corina couldn’t believe herself. It was selfish to be jealous of a little child who had nothing, the logical part of Corina’s brain knew this and repeated this to herself again and again. Corina would always ignore this, however, by rationalizing that it was not jealousy she was feeling towards the little Indian child.
By the end of the week, however, when her father was still showing no signs of getting ready to take them home, Corina decided to put her foot down. She and her father had been in this remote part of Pennsylvania for nearly two weeks now. The school year was fast approaching and Corina, unlike Annie Two-Moons, was actually going to be expected to attending the coming autumn. She needed to get ready.
It had nothing to do with being jealous of Annie Two-Moons. Nothing at all.
And so one night, Corina followed her father into the parlor while he was on one of his nightly letter writing campaigns. Mr. Payton was so absorbed in his work that he didn’t even notice his daughter walk into the room, not until Corina finally placed her hand on his shoulder, startling him into attention.
“Corina!” Mr. Payton exclaimed, his quill snapping in his grasp and ink blotches splattering over the parchment. “What are you doing here? Do you know what time it is?”
Corina calmly strolled over to her father’s side so he did not have to continue to peer over his shoulder in such an uncomfortable way. “I do, yes. What I wonder is if you know what time it is? I don’t believe I have actually seen you sleep ever since we arrived here.”
Corina’s father rubbed at his eyes, but not before Corina suddenly stopped him, handing him a handkerchief so he did not end up wiping spatter drops of ink all over his face.
“I readily admit it, because it’s you, Corina, I didn’t have a complete idea of what I was getting into.” Mr. Payton used the clean side of the handkerchief to wipe at his brow. “There are so many, many people in the government, and so many, many obscure jobs for them to have. And I must write to every single one of them.”
Corina attempted to take her father up by the arms and lead him over to the sofa, but he remained firmly planted in his desk chair, even grasping at the arms of it to keep from being moved. Corina moved over to the sofa alone, but made sure her father could still see her.
“Maybe this is just a bit too ambitious of a project for one man to take on,” she remarked, trying to make the comment sound much more offhand than it was.
But the only reaction Mr. Payton had to this was to shake his head like a stubborn child. “Annie has the potential to be a great witch,” he defended his current position, “and I’m just doing what little I can to help her get there.”
Corina nodded in a stiff manner, trying her best to work on her feet, but Corina’s father proved himself to be much more adept at this game than his daughter. He finally pulled himself up from his chair, at last, and made his way over to his daughter.
“There is something I thought you could for me,” he said softly, “if you really do want to do something to help ease my work load.”
Corina moved up from her reclined position into a straight and stiff posture that seemed to mimic the exact mental imagine of the Indian students she had seen back at the boarding school.
“Do you remember what Annie said about not seeing her sister?” he asked. “I was able to get her to open up a bit about her. Her name is Ešeeva'keso, but she goes by Sofia here. The two girls came to this school together, and she looked after Annie every day until she mysteriously disappeared. Annie misses her immensely; she made that quite clear.”
Corina’s own wandering mind had some idea of what her father may be about to ask of her, but she was desperately hoping against all hope that he wouldn’t.
“Annie said that her older sister was your age,” he finally made his point clear. “It stands to reason that you would be someone she could look up to once you get to Bell.”
Before she had even fully processed the request, Corina was already shaking her head.
“I’m a sixth-year, Father! I’ll have finished my education before Annie even starts!”
“But you said you wanted to apprentice under that Wandwork teacher you adore so much,” Mr. Payton argued. “You’ll surely come back to Bell to see me at the very least. You would have ample opportunities to see Annie.”
But still, Corina continued shaking her head, taking her turn at playing the role of the stubborn child. She was not, was not, was not going to have anything to do with Annie Two-Moons once she left this place for good.
“Please, Corina,” he begged, taking his daughter’s hands in his, “do this for me.”
But all Corina did was yank her hands away from his grasp, shaking her head all the more violently, hands going to her ears so she couldn’t hear any more of her father’s pleas. She shook her head as her father continued to beg, and has he began to yell, and even after he stormed out of the room, slamming the door shut behind. Even after she was alone in the dark, Corina shook her head, even though there was no one there to see her and there was no longer a question to stay no to.
Dawes & Carlise by OliveOil_Med
Chapter Notes: Connor Payton attempts to right the injustice he believes has been done to Annie, despite his daughter's strong objections.
Thanks again to Heather for being a great beta!