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Alexandra Quick and the Stars Above by Inverarity

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The Witch's Lullaby

Alexandra hadn't even asked where she was going. She assumed Chicago, but she didn't arrive in a Portkey booth like the ones at the Chicago Wizardrail station. Instead, she landed sprawled on the concrete floor of a small room that was empty but for a chair, a plain wooden desk, and Diana Grimm.

The coffee can that had brought her here clattered to the floor. She sat up and found Charlie lying half out of the other can. She picked up the raven, who was making feeble, unhappy croaking sounds.

–Your bird will recover,” Ms. Grimm said. She was wearing a black cloak with red trim, but underneath it was an ordinary long-sleeved shirt.

Alexandra rose to her feet, cradling her familiar. –So am I under arrest?”

The Special Inquisitor arched an eyebrow. –Should you be? I'm sure you've violated Charmbridge Academy's rules, but that's for Lilith to deal with. You've also broken a few Muggle laws, but it's not my job to enforce those, and I doubt your mother has filed a missing persons report.”

–That would be hard, since my mother is a cat,” Alexandra said.

Diana Grimm showed no reaction to the bitterness in Alexandra's voice. –I meant Claudia.”

–I know who you meant. Claudia's not my mother.”

–Well. She is your legal guardian, so until you turn eighteen, she still gets to decide what to do with you.”

–Does she?”

–Let's not quarrel, Alexandra. I hope you appreciate how many strings I've pulled to bring you back without charges.” She leaned closer. –How many strings I've pulled for you over the years.”

That gave Alexandra pause. A lot of things had happened in the past three years, and she recalled uncomfortably how many things she had gotten away with, Lilith and Diana Grimm's threats notwithstanding. Had she been receiving favorable treatment all this time? She'd assumed any leniency was simply so the Office of Special Inquisitions could continue to use her as a means of capturing her father. She was too angry at her aunt to want to feel obligated to her.

–You've been lying to me since the moment we met,” she said.

–Lies of omission, about truths that weren't mine to tell.”

–You would have told me the truth if it served your purpose.”

Diana Grimm gave her one of those chilly looks she and her sister both excelled at. She reached out and seized Alexandra by the upper arms. Alexandra tried to pull away while holding onto Charlie, but Ms. Grimm's fingers tightened painfully. Her eyes became colder and harder.

–That was my sister you so casually refer to as a 'cat.' You've known her as your mother for all of four days now, and you've never really met her, not the real Hecate. You're angry because people didn't tell you things, not because anything was actually taken from you. You never even knew what you lost.”

–That's because you all decided for me!” Alexandra snapped. –You just lied and lie -” She was silenced with a slap across the face.

She turned her head away and didn't look at her aunt while she put a hand to her burning cheek. Charlie squawked and struggled to be freed from her grasp.

Ms. Grimm spoke in a less icy tone. –You are feeling angry and aggrieved, and perhaps you have a right to. What you learned came as a shock, I have no doubt, and if it had been up to me, you would have learned the truth much sooner. But you'll mind your manners. I've told you before, I won't suffer insolence and disrespect from children. Not even my niece.”

Alexandra dropped her hand from her cheek and tried to soothe Charlie, who had recovered enough to start making noise, and she was afraid the raven might direct a few choice words at Ms. Grimm. –So where are you taking me?”

–Back to Charmbridge Academy.”

–Not to Larkin Mills?”

–Lilith asked me to bring you back to school. I suppose that means she isn't planning to expel you, though I wouldn't presume to speak for her.” Ms. Grimm walked to the door of the small room and opened it. Beyond was a larger, more familiar set of offices. Alexandra had been here before, when the Special Inquisitor had questioned her and Maximilian after their return from Roanoke. It was the Wizard Justice Department building adjoining the Goblin Market in Chicago.

Alexandra walked out, and allowed her aunt to lead her past desks piled with papers being shuffled from one table to another by Clockwork golems, past a room where old men with humorless expressions and long wizards' robes consulted crystal globes and piles of colored sticks and glass marbles. Ms. Grimm waved her wand, transforming her cloak into a long fur coat, just before they stepped outside onto a Muggle street. They walked around the building to a small parking lot where Ms. Grimm's car was waiting.

They didn't say anything to each other until they were on the highway out of Chicago. Then Ms. Grimm asked her, –How did you get from Charmbridge to Chicago?”

Alexandra shrugged. –Hitchhiking.”

–You didn't hitchhike down that mountain.”

–I didn't fly a broom either, if that's what you're thinking.”

–Stop being obstinate, Alexandra.”

–What do you want me to tell you, that I used magic? Okay, I used magic. I broke the rules against underage magic use. I broke them here in Central Territory and I broke them all over Dinétah.”

–Tell me about what happened in Dinétah.”

–Didn't Henry Tsotsie tell you everything?”

Ms. Grimm smiled. –Oh, I very much doubt he told me everything, but he told me how heroic you were.”

–He did?”

–You can understand why I'm skeptical.”

Alexandra narrowed her eyes.

–I'd like to hear the tale in your words,” Ms. Grimm said.

–What if I don't want to tell you anything more?”

–Then I'll pull the car off the highway and use Legilimency on you. I'd rather not.”

Alexandra glared at her. –My father wasn't involved. I didn't see him once.”

–I'm not solely interested in your father.”

–Really?”

–Yes, really!” Ms. Grimm turned her head in Alexandra's direction and returned her glare. –For Merlin's sake, girl, must you make every single time we meet a battle of wills? Will you get it through your thick, stubborn head that I'm not trying to hurt you?”

Suspiciously, Alexandra rubbed her cheek. The sting was long gone.

It was as hard to think of Diana Grimm as her aunt as it was to stop thinking of Claudia as her mother, and just because the Special Inquisitor was her aunt didn't mean she actually felt any affection or desire to help her. And yet...

Charlie started pecking her hand. Alexandra released the raven, who fluttered up to the dashboard. Ms. Grimm frowned, but didn't demand the bird be removed.

–I was trying to find John Manuelito, because you couldn't,” Alexandra said.

–How did you know where to find him?”

Alexandra hesitated, trying to think of a way not to talk about Quimley.

–Are you trying to protect Mary Dearborn?” Ms. Grimm asked.

Alexandra licked her lips. –Yes.”

–Don't. She's already been questioned.”

–Is she in trouble?”

–She's still at Charmbridge Academy. I don't think anything else need concern you. Dinétah is a big place. How did you find John there?”

–From stuff Mary told me.”

–Mary destroyed all her letters from John, but she has an excellent memory. He never told her anything more specific than 'the Indian Territories.' Stop trying to outwit me, Alexandra. For someone so angry at being lied to, you certainly don't mind lying whenever it suits you.”

–I only do it to protect people.”

–Or to protect yourself. So who are you trying to protect now?”

Alexandra sat back in the seat. Charlie was hopping back and forth restlessly, but Ms. Grimm still hadn't objected. Alexandra's fingers clenched her knees, as she tried to work out the consequences. –An elf.”

–An elf.” Ms. Grimm's mouth twitched. –You're going to tell me the same story you told Henry Tsotsie?”

–He didn't believe me either.”

The Special Inquisitor drove on for a while, thinking about that. –Who is this elf who was able to find John Manuelito for you?”

–Not a house-elf, and not a Charmbridge elf. A free elf. And I don't want to say anything more about him. If you want to know any more, you're going to have to use Legilimency.”

Ms. Grimm pursed her lips, while Alexandra waited. –An elf, then. This elf took you to Dinétah?”

–No. He only told me where John was hiding.”

Alexandra told Diana Grimm the rest of the story - mostly. She tried to leave out her Seven-League Boots, but the Special Inquisitor quickly ferreted out the information when Alexandra tried to explain her trek across the desert and her flight from the werewolves. She gave Alexandra's boots a glance, but said nothing else about them.

Alexandra left out her encounter at the Orange Rock Library. When she came to Trish and Johnny, she mentioned finding the teenagers out in the desert while she was fleeing from the werewolves, but told Ms. Grimm that she'd sent them driving off in one direction while she led the werewolves in another. She didn't know if that story would hold up, as she didn't know what Henry Tsotsie had told her, but if the Inquisitor sensed any inconsistencies or untruths, she didn't say anything.

And finally Alexandra came to the battle on Witches' Rock, the Navajo witches, and the Chindi. Once she got to her recovery in the hogan with the Indian medicine men and women, she stopped talking.

By then, they were climbing the mountain to the Invisible Bridge. Alexandra noticed that Ms. Grimm didn't slow down at all, though the road was as icy and treacherous as it had been when she'd come down it a few days earlier.

–Quite a remarkable story,” the Special Inquisitor said at last. –You're quite a remarkable girl.”

Alexandra wasn't sure how to respond to that.

Ms. Grimm parked the car. Alexandra was not happy when the other witch accompanied her to the Invisible Bridge. –Are you afraid I'm going to run away again or something?”

Ms. Grimm gave her a wry smile. –Not really, though at this point nothing you do would surprise me. I need to speak to Lilith myself.”

They stepped onto the Invisible Bridge and walked silently across it. Charlie took off, but rather than flying ahead, simply circled around them before landing on Alexandra's shoulder again.

Halfway out over the valley, Alexandra asked, –Are you going to see your other sister?”

–I don't have another sister, Alexandra. Not anymore.”

–What do you mean you don't? Dean Grimm can undo the transformation -”

–For a few minutes, so you can exchange meaningless words with an empty, mindless shell?” Diana Grimm stopped and faced her.

Charlie glided off Alexandra's shoulder without a sound. Alexandra kept her eyes focused on her aunt. –She's not mindless.”

–Hecate is gone, Alexandra. That... shell, that creature, that's not my sister. It's not your mother. Don't hope for anything from her; she's gone. Lilith should have left her be, not put her on display for you.”

–She wasn't putting her on display, and if my mother is gone, it couldn't hurt her for me to meet her, could it?”

Diana's voice was as bitter as the cold wind whipping their hair. –Your mother? You're calling a woman you didn't know existed until a few days ago your mother? Claudia is your mother in every way that matters. She's the one who raised you like her own daughter.”

A light snowfall had started just as they'd reached the top of the hill, and Alexandra's hair was becoming damp. She brushed it out of her eyes. –Okay,” she said, –I'll tell you what - you don't tell me how I should feel about my... sister, and I'll keep my mouth shut about yours from now on.”

Her aunt studied her a moment, tight-lipped, and then resumed walking. Alexandra followed her to the other side of the valley.

As they walked through the snowy woods, Alexandra said, –That's why you hate my father so much, isn't it? It's not just duty. It's personal for you.”

–Your father permanently Obliviated my sister. It wasn't the Aurors, as he claims - it was him. He fled with you and left Hecate mindless.”

Neither of them said anything else until they reached the steps of Charmbridge Academy. Then Ms. Grimm said, –Of course it's personal. But it's also duty. Your father is an enemy of the Confederation.” She turned to face Alexandra. –You have no idea how much like Hecate you are.”

She walked up the steps, leaving Alexandra behind. She didn't look back and didn't pause when Alexandra didn't accompany her through the front doors. Alexandra stood outside for several minutes, until she was shivering, then held up her arm. Charlie cawed and flew out of the woods. Alexandra walked inside, carrying her familiar on her arm as she proceeded to the Dean's office.

It was late afternoon; the hallways were crowded with students released from class, and they were already standing in knots talking amongst themselves after having been parted by the passage of the Special Inquisitor who looked exactly like the Dean. Through the space left in Diana Grimm's wake, Alexandra marched with Charlie on her shoulder, head held high. Conversations died or turned to shocked whispers. Everyone stared at her. She kept her eyes straight ahead, but she didn't make it past the front hall. Anna shouted: –Alexandra!” and practically ran into her arms, while Constance, Forbearance, and Innocence came rushing after her.

With the eyes of half the school on them, Alexandra embraced her friend.

–I'm okay,” she said quietly. –Will you wait until we get back to our room before you start yelling at me?”

Anna made a laughing sound that threatened to turn into a sob, but she controlled it. Only her eyes betrayed her, glistening a little when she stepped back. –I won't yell at you if you promise you're going to tell me everything.”

–I will.”

Innocence asked, –What happened to your hair?”

Alexandra ran a hand through her hair. She'd forgotten it was still white. Constance and Forbearance tsked.

–I'd say she tried to cross an Age Line,” Anna said.

–I'd wager she crossed more'n that,” Forbearance said.

–Troublesome vexes, Troublesome woes,” said Charlie.

Alexandra gave her friends a wan smile. –Dean Grimm is waiting for me, and I'll be in even more trouble if I keep her waiting. I'll see you this evening, okay? If I'm not expelled or turned into a pig.”

–Turned into a pig?” Innocence was horrified and thrilled at the same time.

Alexandra lifted Charlie off her shoulder. –Anna, will you take Charlie back to our room, please?”

–Never!” said Charlie.

Alexandra nudged her familiar. –Please behave, Charlie. Maybe Anna will give you some owl treats if you're good.”

Charlie said, –Anna,” and stepped onto Anna's wrist.

When Alexandra turned around, she almost bumped into David, who, with Dylan, had joined the small group gathered around her.

David shook his head at her. –You crazy, girl.”

–Thanks a lot,” she said. –It's nice to be back.”

As she brushed past, Dylan said, –That white hair thing looks so anime.”

She made it to the administrative wing without being accosted further, though she saw Ms. Shirtliffe standing by the cafeteria, arms folded, wearing her uniform. Alexandra must have missed a dress drill. She nodded to the teacher, who didn't move or respond.

As soon as Alexandra stepped into the main office, Miss Marmsley said, –What took you so long, Miss Quick? You were supposed to be with Special Inquisitor Grimm.”

–Yes, ma'am.” Alexandra didn't argue.

–Go in.” The painting gestured at the Dean's office door.

Alexandra walked into the Dean's office. Her eyes automatically went to Galen, who was curled up on the hearth like last time. Diana was standing across the desk from the seated Dean, with her back to the cat.

–You must be feeling very secure, since you felt entitled to take a detour on your way to my office,” the Dean said.

–I didn't take a detour, ma'am.” Alexandra composed herself. –I just gave Charlie to Anna to take back to our room. Charlie doesn't like cats.” She forced herself not to look at Galenthias.

The Dean kept her cold gaze on Alexandra a moment, then said, –Is there anything else, Diana?”

–Not that we need to talk about right this moment,” Diana Grimm said.

Lilith Grimm hesitated a moment, and it seemed to Alexandra that there was a hint of disappointment in her voice when she spoke again. –Well then, thank you for bringing Miss Quick back.”

–Just doing my duty.” Diana Grimm strode to the door. –I can't tell you how much I enjoy it when my job consists of collecting teenage runaways. Do try to keep her in school this time, Lilith.”

The Special Inquisitor barely looked in Alexandra's direction before walking out the door, closing it behind her. Alexandra and the Dean faced each other silently across the room. Alexandra couldn't read her other aunt's expression.

She remained standing, resisted fidgeting, and finally spoke first. –I think she hates me.”

Lilith Grimm sat back in her chair slowly. –Is that what you think?”

Alexandra looked away from the Dean, with her dry tone and flat expression, and her eyes settled on the black cat who had not moved from where she lay on the hearth. –She didn't even look at her sister.”

–I am her sister. Galenthias is a cat.”

Galenthias's ears twitched. Alexandra thought about walking over to pick her up, but the Dean's gaze held her.

Ms. Grimm folded her hands on her desk. –Enough distractions. Do you want to remain at Charmbridge Academy, Alexandra?”

Alexandra lifted her chin. –Yes, ma'am.”

–You promised me you'd be better, that you'd stop doing reckless things that endanger yourself and others.”

–I didn't endanger anyone else. It was John Manuelito endangering me and others. I almost got him, Ms. Grimm. I found him when the Auror Authorities of two Territories couldn't.”

–You ran away and almost got yourself killed.”

–You haven't even heard what happened -”

Ms. Grimm held up a hand. –Diana told me everything I need to know. I discussed the matter with Claudia. She's undecided about whether to allow you to remain at Charmbridge, as am I. Your behavior between now and April will determine whether I will allow you to come back after spring break. I imagine what you say to Claudia when you go home will determine whether she sends you back. In either case, you're on probation for the rest of the school year. Any further infractions will mean suspension, not detention.”

Alexandra filtered out the first things she wanted to say, while she considered her response more carefully. When she spoke, her voice was calm. –Claudia doesn't want me. She never wanted me.”

–Is that what she told you?”

–Isn't it obvious?” Alexandra was annoyed at Ms. Grimm's quizzical expression. –It's not like we have to keep pretending.”

–I'm so sorry, Alexandra. I didn't realize how unwanted you were. You never told me that Claudia abused and neglected you.”

–What? I didn't say she abused me.”

–But she was negligent? She didn't protect you, care for you, see that you were fed, clothed, safe? And your stepfather? Did he ever mistreat you?”

–No, but -”

–But you were unwanted,” Ms. Grimm said softly. –So Claudia never had a kind word for you... never showed any affection... never cared about you. You grew up in a cold, unloving home. Is that what you're saying?”

–I...” Alexandra glared at her aunt. –You're mocking me.”

Ms. Grimm rose from her chair and walked to a tall cabinet standing against the opposite wall. Trophies and plaques and a miniature Clockwork golem sat on top of it, and behind the glass of the upper section were beaming photographs of famous Charmbridge alumni, including several Territorial Governors and a former Governor-General. The Dean took a key out of a pocket in her robes and unlocked the wooden doors that hid the bottom half of the cabinet. In the darkness within were shelves holding a variety of books and artifacts. Ms. Grimm withdrew a large silver bowl with runes and inscriptions along its edges. She held it cradled in one arm while closing the cabinet doors with her other hand, then walked back to her desk to set it just back from the edge facing Alexandra.

–Is that a Pensieve?” Alexandra asked.

–Yes. Have you seen one before?”

Alexandra nodded, while Ms. Grimm opened a desk drawer and withdrew a small wooden box with a hinged lid. She lifted the lid to reveal several vials filled with silver liquid. She pointed her wand at the Pensieve, and water from the end of her wand filled the bowl.

–What are you planning to show me?” Alexandra asked.

Ms. Grimm poured the contents of one of the vials into the bowl. Like shimmering reflective oil, silvery light spread across the surface of the liquid. –Diana used to visit Claudia frequently, during the first few years of your life, before you left Chicago. She collected some of Claudia's memories and brought them back here.” Alexandra's eyes followed Ms. Grimm's to the floor, where Galenthias, bored with sitting on the hearth, was now rubbing against her ankles. –I told you that we tried to restore Hecate's memories. We thought perhaps memories of her daughter might help.”

Alexandra forced herself to look away from the cat and back at the Pensieve. –Your sister took memories from Claudia?”

–Claudia gave them to her.”

–She gave away memories of me.”

–Merlin and Circe, child,” Ms. Grimm said. –Bottling a memory isn't the same as Obliviation. Claudia still has plenty of memories of you, and the ones that were taken didn't leave empty holes.” Her fingers tapped the hinged box.

–But - my father, when he Obliviated me...” Alexandra hesitated. Abraham Thorn had extracted her memories of her journey to the Lands Below with Maximilian so that Diana Grimm couldn't learn what had happened, then returned them to her in a silvery vial just like the ones in Ms. Grimm's case.

–What your father did was a dangerous bit of memory alchemy,” Ms. Grimm said. –And it's more destructive when it's involuntary.”

Alexandra thought about the note she'd read, signed by Diana Grimm, when she'd sneaked into the Census Office in the Territorial Headquarters Building in Chicago when she was twelve. Diana Grimm had suspected Abraham Thorn of Obliviating Claudia Quick just after Alexandra was born. But Alexandra had known so little then, and she didn't know what to believe now. Her father, Diana Grimm, and Claudia had all turned out to be lying, so everything she'd learned was just as likely to be wrong.

Lilith Grimm was studying her. –We tried showing this memory to Hecate because it's one of the first of you using magic.” She gestured at the Pensieve.

Curious despite herself, Alexandra walked to the desk, and after staring at her white-haired reflection for a moment, leaned over and dipped her head into the bowl.

As soon as her face broke the surface, she felt a moment of disequilibrium, as if she were falling out of the sky and into... a parking lot. No, she was in a car, and the car was sitting in a parking lot at a highway rest stop. Alexandra thought she even recognized the Interstate signs; beneath them, cars sped past in both directions on their way to and from Chicago.

–Ice cream,” said a little girl, and Alexandra looked at the girl and felt even more out of place. The little girl had short, black hair cut in bangs that fell almost to her eyebrows, and bright green eyes. She was just barely old enough to sit in the car seat to which she was strapped, and she was pointing at a large, blue poster of a chocolate ice cream bar standing in front of the little travel mart where motorists paid for gas and bought overpriced travelers' necessities and snacks.

–No,” Claudia said firmly. Alexandra recognized her mother (not my mother!) sitting behind the wheel, younger and a little thinner, but her voice was the same as ever.

–Ice cream,” the little girl repeated stubbornly.

–No ice cream, Alex.” Claudia turned the keys in the ignition. –There's fruit and some ham and cheese in the lunchbox, and you've got a bottle of juice right there -”

–Ice cream!” little Alexandra said in an insistent voice, and she reached a chubby hand out and at the very limit of her reach, touched one finger to the vinyl surface of the dashboard in front of her. The car trembled and with a horrible cracking noise, the engine died.

Claudia sat speechless as smoke began curling from beneath the hood.

–Ice cream,” the little girl said triumphantly, clapping her hands.

Then Claudia was frantically in motion. She got out of the car. Alexandra saw her younger self's expression transform from smug to concerned as Claudia opened the hood to see an engine block that was a cracked, smoking ruin, slammed it back down hard enough to shake the car, stormed in and out of the store, collapsed back into the driver's seat, and almost threw a chocolate ice cream bar at the child. –There! There's your ice cream! You wanted ice cream so badly, now eat it!”

Then Claudia pressed her face against the steering wheel and sobbed.

Finally, a small voice said, –Sorry.”

Claudia lifted her head from the steering wheel. Little Alexandra's wide, concerned eyes were brimming. –Sorry, Momma.” Tears spilled down her cheeks. Next to her, the ice cream bar was melting and soaking through its wrapper.

Claudia made a choking sound and reached over to unstrap the girl from her car seat and lift her into her arms. –Oh, Alex. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.”

Alexandra - the older one who was voyeur to this scene with her younger self - yanked her head back out of the Pensieve and stood up. She wiped at her eyes automatically, though the magical fluid in the Pensieve stayed in the bowl, none of it clinging to her face.

–I don't remember that,” she said, though now very faint memories did stir - being in a strange, unfamiliar place with lots of cars and trucks rumbling past, a tow truck and the smell of smoke, clinging to her mother and trying not to be scared...

–I'm not surprised,” Ms. Grimm said. –You weren't even three.” She held a vial over the Pensieve and stirred the waters with her wand. The silvery fluid was drawn back into the vial and the Dean stoppered it, then poured the contents of another one into the bowl. –That wasn't the first time you did something like that, according to Claudia, but -”

–All right,” Alexandra said, –I get the point. I don't need to see any more memories about how hard it was raising me and how I ruined Claudia's life.”

Ms. Grimm shook her head, and said with growing exasperation, –That is not the point I am trying to make.” She gestured at the Pensieve.

Alexandra frowned, then slowly and suspiciously leaned forward to dip her face into the water again.

This was an earlier memory. Claudia was sitting at a table in the small kitchen of an efficiency apartment with medical textbooks and notebooks in front of her. It was late at night. Claudia looked tired, and she was wearing a sweat-soaked tank top, suggesting that the apartment was quite hot. A great clamor drowned out the usual street noises as a train went clattering past, and then a baby's cries filled the apartment. Claudia's fingers curled and she closed her eyes, letting out a long breath like someone whose last nerve was wearing thin to the point of snapping.

Alexandra started to pull away and out of the memory, but Ms. Grimm's hand on her shoulder stayed her. For a moment she almost struggled - you could breathe while immersed in a Pensieve, but being held with one's face beneath the surface triggered an instinctive aversion to drowning. But when Claudia sighed and rose from the kitchen table, there was something about her weary resignation that made Alexandra wait to see just what she would do.

In a small but very new-looking crib, a baby wailed until Claudia picked it up. There was no impatience or exasperation in her actions this time. The baby, who Alexandra watched with fascination, unable to quite believe that the little squalling creature was her, continued crying while Claudia walked around the apartment patting it and murmuring soothingly. But only when she began to sing did the infant Alexandra grow quiet:


–Hush, little witch, no need to cry,

You're the apple of my eye.

You're too small to charm a fly,

But you'll do magic, by and by.


Hush, little witch, please don't cry,

You've bewitched me, 'tis no lie.

You cast a spell, no need to try,

And you'll do magic, by and by.


Hush, little witch, don't you cry,

Don't be restless where you lie.

You can't Apparate or fly,

But you'll do magic, by and by.


Hush, little witch, no need to cry,

Your eyes are closing, sleep is nigh.

And by the stars up in the sky,

You'll do magic, by and by.”


When she finished singing, the little witch's eyes were closed. She slept in Claudia's arms.

Alexandra pulled her face out of the Pensieve, and was quiet for a few moments. She realized that she had been humming along with Claudia's words.

–I know that tune,” she said.

Ms. Grimm nodded. –It's a very old one. The Witch's Lullaby. Every child in the wizarding world knows it.”

Claudia must have heard it when she was a child, Alexandra thought. Perhaps from her own mother or from Mrs. Pruett. Claudia, too, had been told that she would do magic, by and by.

–I don't want to hear any more self pity.” Ms. Grimm picked up Galenthias, and held the cat in a way that was eerily similar to Claudia cradling her baby sister.

Alexandra willed the transformed animal to show a flicker of recognition, some sign of intelligence. Galenthias purred contentedly, eyes lidded and barely focused on anything, and flicked her tail.

–What is memory alchemy?” Alexandra asked.

Ms. Grimm blinked. –It's what it sounds like: the alchemical counterpart to the magic involved in Memory Charms. It's necessary for Pensieves, Remembralls, memory extractions like these...” She twirled the vial that had held the memory that was still swirling in the Pensieve between her fingers. –Alexandra, you're not paying attention to anything I'm saying, are you?”

Alexandra turned her face up to her aunt. –Yes, I am. I paid attention when you talked about memory alchemy.” After a moment, she said, –I got your point. May I return to my room now, ma'am?”

The Dean sighed. –Write a letter to Claudia. You are not to ignore her. If she tells me that you are not answering her, I will send you home.”

–Yes, ma'am.”

–Making up the classwork you've missed is your responsibility. You'll need to work that out with your teachers.”

–Yes, ma'am. One other thing?” Alexandra raised a hand to her snowy hair.

–Yes,” Ms. Grimm said, –do something about that.”

Alexandra dropped her hand and with a sullen expression said, –Yes, ma'am,” and left the office.

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