The Chosen

Chapter 5: The Calm Before the Storm

“And lastly playing as a reserve beater will be Alexander Connolly.” Roger King had just finished reading off a list of all the members of this year’s Gryffindor Quidditch team and as usual not a single first year had made it.

“There’s some sort of ridiculous bias against first years in this place,” Sirius Black complained loudly. He and his friend James had been of the few first years that had even given it a try in the first place.

“Oh, be quiet, Black,” one of the older boys said, “you’ll have your turn when you’re older.” The other boys joined in on his laughter.

On the other side of the common room, Lily and Fiona were talking. “I think you explained this Quidditch thing to me before, but I just don’t get it.”

“It’s not all that hard to understand. You see there are seven players, three chasers who go after the Quaffle and try to put it through a hoop guarded by a Keeper. Two Beaters keep these evil little killer balls called Bludgers from killing the players. And the Seeker catches the Snitch to win. Which is basically this little golden golf ball with wings”

“What’s the point of everything else if the Seeker wins the game?”

“Well,” Fiona considered this question for a little bit, “that would be really boring.”

“I just don’t get it.” She stopped talking and hugged her knees to her chest. “This is horrible I just don’t know what any of you are talking about!”

“Don’t worry, you’ll get it all soon enough. Ask me anything you don’t understand.”

“Okay, number one, what did Gretchen mean after the Halloween feast?”

“Huh?” Fiona asked suddenly studying the floor intensely.

“You were there, what did she mean by what she said?”

“Umm, well, you see. It’s kind of insulting.”

“Well, obviously. Arabella slapped her.”

“Well it means something like…er…dirty blood. You see, you’re Muggle-born so you don’t have this long line of ancestors behind you, and Gretchen, she’s just one of those people who think your surname is more important than your own.”

“Oh, well that’s stupid.”

“I didn’t say it was right, or that it made any sense, but that’s just they way it’s been for a really long time.”

“The Muggle world isn’t all that different, really.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, you have people like that everywhere.”

Fiona looked around nervously for a few seconds and then jumped up suddenly, “Hey, let’s go out on the grounds. It’s too nice a day to stay inside.” Lily also got up and followed her out the portrait space.

The day was nicer than either Fiona or Lily had expected. There was a slight breeze, but it was rather warm for November. The leaves of all the trees were now beautiful colors, in shades of red, gold, and yellow.  Lily and Fiona headed straight for one of the larger trees and sat under it. They watched the older students walking around and basically being themselves. There was a group of Hufflepuff girls, that looked to be about 4^th year, racing to hide behind trees and dive into piles of leaves that happened to be sitting around. And there were also a couple of older boys were standing by on of the trees laughing at an inside joke. “They all look so at home here,” Lily said wistfully.

“I’m sure that we’ll feel that way in a couple of years,” Fiona reassured Lily, but Lily wasn’t sure if she believed her.

“Hey, Lily!” the high-pitched voice belonging to Narcissa Collins shouted at the two girls. She ran to meet them dragging a sandy haired boy along with her.

“Hi Narcissa and er…” Lily said as she stood up. She looked at the boy and tried to remember who he was, “Evan?”

“Yeah, it’s Evan, Evan Rosier. You ran into me in the hallway,” Evan said rubbing his head as if from the memory.

Lily turned completely crimson, “Of course, how could I forget?” She tried to smile weakly as Evan beamed at her.

“Anyway,” Narcissa said, abruptly edging in between them all, “We haven’t talked much in a while and I thought it was all because of all that nasty stuff Gretchen said to you. Well, Gretchen doesn’t know what she’s talking about. We all know that you’re not Muggle-born, she just couldn’t think of a good insult.”

“But, Narcissa, she kind of is Muggle-born,” Fiona said disgustedly. Trying to move away from the Slytherins.

“No, she’s not, you silly Gryffindor girl.” Narcissa laughed.

“Actually, I am,” Lily said softly still red in the face.

“Really?” Narcissa and Evan both asked at the same time.

“Yes, but I don’t see how it matters. I’m a quick learner, even if some of this does contradict all the logic I’ve ever been taught.”

“I can’t believe it. You can’t be Muggle-born. I can spot one almost a mile off,” Narcissa said in a choked voice.

“Well, I am. I don’t think it says much about your character to care about such things.”

Before anyone could respond a loud rumble of thunder rolled from the horizon and dark clouds began gathering. “So, much for the nice day,” Fiona laughed nervously. She hurried inside with Lily right behind.

*****

The rain pounded on the roof of Gryffindor Tower the rest of the day. Arabella had flung herself down on her bed and was reading a magazine called Teenaged Witch. Fiona was trying to read over Arabella’s shoulder and was muttering aloud to herself about how cute the Ballycastle Bats’ new Chaser was. Lily tried to ignore them as she tried to scratch out a letter to Petunia on some scrap parchment. She had barely gotten past Dear Petunia. She wasn’t exactly sure what to say to her sister, things didn’t even make much sense to her anymore. Jean was nowhere to be found for much of the day, but no one was really looking because they all assumed that she was in the school library.

There was suddenly a great deal of yelling from downstairs, and something that sounded distinctly like Jean was whimpering. Arabella and Fiona jumped up and headed down the stairs to see what was happening. Lily would have dearly liked to curl up and continue her letter, but she had been making a conscious effect lately to be a bit more outgoing, so she followed. The site in the common room shocked all three of them. Jean was standing in the middle of the room. Tears were pouring down her cheeks and she was clenching a letter in her fist. It appeared that all the Gryffindor prefects had finally decided to get rid of her. Clarissa, who was Head girl that year, was doing most of the talking. “You have three other girls in your year,” she said, “Go hang around with them once and awhile.” The prefects all nodded in agreement.

“I’m sure they’re all very nice girls,” said Robby, another of the seventh year prefects. He gestured toward Arabella, Fiona, and Lily all standing in the stairway. “You’ll all get along great, believe me.” Lily and Fiona tried not to look guilty for spying, but Arabella just smiled proudly that she had been assumed nice. Jean continued to stand there and cry until Clarissa and Lizzy took her by the hands and brought her over to the stairs.

“She’s not really that bad of a girl,” Clarissa said softly, “but she needs to be with people her own age. She needs to be eleven years old.”

“Yeah,” Lizzy said walking away with the other prefects, “She’ll have plenty of time to be older, when she’s older.”

The girls lead Jean up to the dormitory; she was still crying and barely noticed what was going on. Arabella pried the letter from her hand and read it aloud to the others.

Jean,

Things could be better, but if you couldn’t get into Ravenclaw then Gryffindor would have been my second choice for you. I still don’t see why you didn’t get into Ravenclaw. You come from a long line of Ravenclaws who have always done the house proud, but don’t worry. I won’t be too disappointed as long as you get good marks. Now here’s something that I have to address, dear. I know I told you to talk to prefects, get them to know your name, but you shouldn’t bother them. They’ll start to be angry with you and that won’t do you any good…

“The worst part is,” Jean said slowly, speaking at last, “She’s right. They think I’m a bother. Right before I got that letter Robby had told me to go away and leave him alone, and after I read it I ask them if it was true, if I annoyed them. No one said anything, but I knew, I knew it.” She stopped and buried her head in her pillow. None of the other girls could think of anything to say to Jean. Arabella put down the letter without reading the rest and Lily went and sat down next to Jean. No one said anything for a long time after that.

*****

Jean didn’t look much better for days. When she wasn’t in class, she was sitting in a corner of the common room during homework. Sometimes Frank would be with her and they would work on transfiguration, but most of the time Jean would sit all alone.  Then one day when Jean had been looking particularly bad, Frank went to talk to the other girls. “She needs to do something, she looks almost sick,” he said in a very depressed voice, which was very unusual for him.

“Well, what we need is to get her mind off of her problems,” Lily said with a great deal of concern hanging in her voice. Jean was her best friend; she hated seeing her like this.

“Yeah, but what?” Arabella asked, “I mean think about it. All she cares about is school. Is there anything else she likes at all?” There was silence for a few minutes, until it was broken by a loud rumble of people headed for the door.

“Quidditch!” Frank called out suddenly, “That’s where those guys are all going. To see Quidditch practice.” No one said anything, but there was a silent agreement. Frank ran over to get Jean out of her dark and gloomy corner and the five of them all headed out to see the Quidditch practice.

The group took empty seats and watched as the Gryffindor team practiced formations. Color returned to Jean’s cheeks and she look sufficiently happier.

“Oh, look at that mess. Hufflepuff could beat that flying!” shouted a voice from behind the group. They all turned to see the boys, that were commonly called among Gryffindors, ‘the four musketeers’ (Remus, James, Sirius, and Peter). They were never seen without one another.

“Actually, Sirius, I wouldn’t doubt it. Hufflepuff has put together quite the team this year,” Remus said matter-of-factly.

“What are you talking about?” Arabella asked, jumping into conversations she probably didn’t belong in was an art to her. 

“They have. Their new Keeper is incredible, and you should see the speed that their Seeker has.” James said.

“Yeah, but that’s two players on an otherwise useless team. I don’t think Hufflepuff has won the cup in the history of Hogwarts.”

“Actually they have,” Jean said surprising everyone; she hadn’t spoken in quite sometime. “Hufflepuff won both the Quidditch cup and House cup for about 5 years in the early fifties.” Everyone simply stared, lost for words.

“Okay,” Arabella said slowly, “but…” she stopped talking as the seeker went into a spectacular dive. Jean was sitting rather close to Frank with Lily on her other side and then Fiona. Arabella had forced her way among the four other boys and they all stood still for a few moments watching the practice in silence. It seemed like life was prefect, for a while.

*****

“May I borrow Miss Figg?” Professor McGonagall asked Professor Pearson one day during potions. Most the Slytherins, Gretchen imparticular, sniggered; they were obviously expecting Arabella to be in serious trouble. Of course, from the somber look on McGonagall’s face it looked like something terrible had indeed happened. Professor Pearson reluctantly gave up her student and Arabella followed Professor McGonagall into her office for a second time.

“Professor, I don’t know what you think I did, but I didn’t do it. I have witnesses that can vouch for me being everywhere that I was,” Arabella said as soon as she sat down, but the professor’s grim face didn’t change.

“I know you haven’t done anything Miss Figg. I have some rather upsetting news to deliver.” She readjusted her glasses on her face and if Arabella didn’t know any better she would have said that the professor was tearing up. “Your father,” Professor McGonagall began again, “has been missing for about three weeks now. The Ministry has dispatched some officials to deal with the matter, and no one wanted to bother you…”

“No one wanted to bother me!” Arabella screamed. “My father is missing and no wanted to bother me!”

“Calm down Miss Figg.”

“Calm down! How can I calm down?” She stopped and took a deep breath and then looked at the floor, suddenly interested in the wood paneling. “Do they have any idea were he is?”

“No, they don’t. The investigation is confident that they have few leads though.”

“You’re just saying that!” Arabella jumped up from her chair and ran out the door and back to the dormitory.

*****

No one saw Arabella the rest of the day, and no one knew what had happened. When the girls came back to the dormitory that night they thought it was very strange to see Arabella’s bed curtains drawn. “Bella?” Lily called out when they came into the room. There was no reply. “Bella?” she asked again, but yet again, there was no reply. Jean and Fiona both went to sleeping their own beds, but Lily just stood next to Arabella’s. A strange thought had entered her head and she was trying to fight with it. ‘Arabella would just rip those curtains open if it were you,’ the voice said.

‘No, I can’t do that,’ Lily told the voice, ‘that would be an invasion of privacy. It’s obvious that Bella doesn’t want anyone to bother her right now…’

‘But isn’t she your friend?’

Lily swallowed and obeyed the voice. She pulled the curtains open to see a silently weeping Arabella. “Bella, are you okay?”

“Do I look okay to you?” Arabella asked angrily, “I’m not the crying type.”

“Everyone’s allowed to cry every once and a while.”

“Sure they are,” Arabella said up and wiped her eyes. She looked at Fiona, who had fallen asleep and Jean who was on the verge of doing so, and finally at Lily who was sitting down next to her in genuine concern. “Have you ever lost someone you loved, Lily?”

Lily looked at Arabella, it was obvious that she just had. Lily, on the other hand, was a very lucky person. She hadn’t really experienced this pain. “Of course I have, but I was very little when it happened. It doesn’t hurt, but only because I can’t remember.”

“My father is missing. He’s been gone for almost three weeks, but they didn’t want to bother me.” Arabella’s eyes started to tear again, and Lily looked frantically around for the little packet of tissues she had kept for when she felt particularly homesick.

“I’m sorry Arabella.” Lily took out one of the tissues and handed it too her friend.

“Thanks,” Arabella said as she wiped her eyes, “My father was never really around much. He worked at the ministry, and he was very proud of that. He loved his work, but even though he didn’t show it, he loved us too. He wouldn’t have left on his own. Can someone be parentnapped?”

“I think they call that being taken hostage,” Jean said. No one had noticed that she had gotten up from her bed and was now sitting on the floor in front of Arabella and Lily. “You think your dad was taken hostage?”

“I can’t explain why, but I do. My mum must be in terrible shape. I wish I could go see her.”

“Well holidays are coming up,” Jean said, “but until then, write her a letter.”

Arabella didn’t seem to like that idea, but she didn’t say anything. She put her head down on her pillow and muttered something about going to sleep. Lily and Jean exchanged and sad glance before going into their own troubled dreams.

*****

More November storms poured down on the Gryffindor Tower as most of the first years sat together in the common room. “My Dad wrote to me about what happened to the Figgs,” James told Sirius in a hushed voice.

“I know, my mum did the same,” Sirius said shaking his head, “She said that they’ve been trying to cover it up and find out what happened at the same time. I don’t see how you can do that…”

“You guys knew her parents?” Jean asked looking out from her defense book.

“Yeah,” Sirius said, “I grew up in the same neighborhood. And James’s parents worked with her dad. We kind of all grew up together.” Suddenly a strange strangled sort of cry came out of the hall and Lily came running into the common room. She ignored the odd looks she got from the older students and forced a note into Sirius’s hand. It had Arabella’s print on it and it said, TO: my friends, Lily, Sirius, and James on the front. Sirius read the note to himself and then turned to James. “Arabella’s gonna run.”