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The Message of the Magpie



They were in Harry Potter’s office. Ermalene couldn’t believe it. She’d felt as though she were dreaming when, after breaking apart from a bone crushing hug with his brother-in-law, Harry had quickly ushered them into the office, warning them to duck from the memos (“they won’t stop pecking at your head if you disrupt them, they’re all labeled urgent”) and apologized for the smell of ash (“the phoenix has just burned, you see”). He waved them into a few plush chairs and cast an extendable spell on one of them so that Ermalene and Andy fit quite well side by side upon it, then settled himself behind his desk. A couple memos started bumping into his temple the moment he’d returned to his desk. He waved at them with one hand irritably.

“So, Bill, to what do I owe your visit? ..and I do hope you’re planning to come ‘round the house later or Ginny will be peaked I saw you without making sure you came ‘round.”

Bill smiled, “Of course. How is Ginny?”

“Been well,” Harry nodded, “Reminds me more and more of your mum everyday,” he laughed, “Nearly strangled me when I said that, though. I meant it as a compliment, but she’s sensitive about it. She’s become the most fabulous cook and she’s been knitting jumpers for all the kids for their Hogwarts Christmas packages. Says it’s not Christmas without a jumper.”

“It’s bloody not!” Bill laughed.

Harry laughed, “I still have my one with the big snitch sewn on it she first gave me.”

“I’ve a ruddy collection of ‘em.”

“So does Ginny. Takes up a whole closet, the lot of them. Even with Hermione’s extension charms on the closet back.”

Ermalene couldn’t take her eyes off of Harry as he talked, she was so in awe of how normal he was, sitting here behind a desk at the Ministry with paper memos bumping him and talking about Christmas sweaters.

Finally, after they’d caught up a bit more, Bill said, “So to business. Harry, I was wondering if you might have access to familial records? Andy’s friend here, Ermalene, has been looking for some information on who her birth parents might have been. She was adopted by the Notts before they moved off to the States,” he explained, “But the orphanage seems to have misplaced the records.”

“Deleted them,” Ermalene corrected.

Harry turned to Ermalene. “Deleted them?”

Blushing because Harry Potter had just spoken directly to her, Ermalene replied in a smallish voice, “Yes. The woman there deleted them.”

“She was confunded,” Andy explained. “When she pulled up the record, something happened that confunded her and she deleted them.”

Harry’s eyebrows stitched together. “Really. That’s odd. Do you know your full name?”

“Ermalene Talon,” she answered. “I found out when I started at Flamel Academy. Before that, I always thought my parents were truly my parents and that my name was Nott. When my letter to Flamel Academy arrived, it was addressed to Ermalene Talon.”

All three looked at Ermalene with surprised expressions. “They never told you themselves?” Bill asked. He looked at Harry with a concerned look on his face.

“No?” Ermalene was confused, “Is that bad?”

Harry shook his head, “Not particularly,” he replied, “Odd that the Flamel Academy would’ve outed it, though. Means you aren’t legally named Nott in the Ministry records.”

“Really? But - but they adopted me,” she said. Quickly she added, “They thought I was a muggle when I was adopted. Does that make a difference?”

Harry shook his head again, “Shouldn’t.” He was pulling a comically long drawer out of his desk. It extended across the room over six feet from the desk with rows and rows and rows of folders lined up inside, all sorts of colors, with bunches of papers sticking out all over. Finally, he pulled one out and laid it open on the desk. It appeared to be a list of family names registered within the past century. He ran his finger down the list, but there was no Talon. He made a face. “Odd.” He looked up at her, “When is your birthday, Ermalene?”

Now she really turned pink. “I... um… don’t know exactly,” she said, “I’ve just always… celebrated it on… on July 31.”

Harry smiled, “That’s my birthday, too.”

“I know,” she whispered.

Harry rubbed his chin as he stared down at the list, still conspicuously missing the name Talon. “Hmm,” he mused. “I wonder if --”

Before he could finish that sentence, though, the door behind them suddenly burst open and a bright shimmering magpie flew into the room, chased by several aurors looking quite winded from running. The patronus zipped around the room several times overhead, knocking the urgent memos about, singeing a few of them, before coming to rest on the desk in front of Harry.

“Harry Potter, Head Auror. Lysander Scamander has sent me… he is alive, and in need of help… He has been imprisoned by a Gorgon in the Great North Woods,” the Magpie’s voice was low, like a heavy whisper, and pleading, as though it was desperate to be heard. The words seemed to echo or hang in the air in front of Harry.

Harry blinked in surprise as the magpie turned to smoke and disappeared. He looked up at the other two aurors that had followed the patronus in and then at Bill, his eyebrows popped so high they nearly touched the lightning bolt scar.

“Lysander Scamander,” he said. “That’s Luna’s missing boy.” Harry leaped to his feet. “This is impossible. That boy’s been missing seventeen years.”

“Incredible,” Bill murmured.

Harry looked at the aurors. “Get all the information you can on that patronus. Verify it came from the Great North Woods. Have research find out more about any and all registered Gorgons. Pull the Scamander file from missing wizards. Meet me in the conference room in five minutes. We need to figure this out and get in action immediately. Nobody say a word to Luna ‘til we know for sure. She’s been through enough with that case to have it dug up for no reason again.” He turned to Bill as the Aurors rushed into the hallway. “You understand. I’ll have to look into the name Talon a bit later, but don’t worry, I definitely will be able to help you.” He turned to Ermalene, “I understand that knowing the truth about your family is the most important thing in the entire world. I really do. It meant a world of difference to me personally as a kid, and I swear to you that I will find answers for you. But if this information we’ve just received is true, then I have the very rare opportunity to return a son long declared dead to his heartbroken mother.”

Ermalene nodded, “I understand.”

Harry smiled. “Thank you. I swear I will find you answers. I’ve got to go. Bill, I trust you can show yourself out?” And with that, Harry Potter ran from the office, leaving behind the three visitors and the buzzing memos.

Bill stood up, “Well then, we should be leaving so that they can get to work on that case. Harry’s a man of his word, Ermalene. You’ll have your answers as soon as he can get to them.” He turned to the desk and used his wand to extinguish one of the memos that had fallen onto the desk and begun to smoke as though it were about to catch fire from the contact with the heat of the patronus. “That was a very strong patronus,” he commented, “Whoever sent it must’ve had a very happy thought to send it off with.”

They set off back through the Ministry, past the statue and back out to the streets of London via the phone box elevator. Once they were there, Bill took hold of their hands and apparated back to the beach by Shell Cottage. They walked up the stone walkway together. “I’d say today was rather productive,” Bill commented.

Ermalene replied, “I can’t believe Harry Potter is going to help me find my parents. In a million years if you’d ever told me such a thing when I was younger, I never would have believed you.”

As they approached the door of the cottage, it banged open and Hagrid came bursting out, ducked low beneath the doorway. Fleur followed behind him in a bit of a panic. “Oh Bill, I am glad zat you are ‘ome…. ‘Agrid ‘az been speaking nonsense since he arrived,” she exclaimed.

Hagrid said, “I’m not speakin’ nonsense,” Hagrid growled, “I need to bring ‘malene back to ‘ogwarts to see Dumbledore!”

“Dumbledore?” Bill said, “Dumbledore’s been dead for forty-two years, Hagrid.”

“I know that! I’m not a ruddy idiot!”

“Then how --”

“Dumbledore’s portrait!” Hagrid said, “That’s where I heard yeh name before. It was in a note that Dumbledore left fer me just before he died.” He looked at Bill, “It’s about the prophecy. It’s comin’ true and Ermalene here has to see Dumbledore.”

“Prophecy?” Ermalene, Andy, and Fleur all said at once. “What prophecy?” Andy finished.

“The one Dumbledore left to me,” Hagrid said, “But I’m sayin’ too much. I just got to get yeh to see Dumbledore.”