Problems Multipied

Prequel: What's Lost Is Now Found

Running from the orphanage building, tears falling from her eyes, Rinoa tried to escape from the news and from the guilt. She climbed the black oak tree and sat on the branch overlooking the river. She sat there staring blankly out over the water; still unaware of the tears falling down her cheeks. 'It wasn't my fault. I didn't mean for it to happen.' She started to rock back and forth. 'They'll find out. They'll find out.'

When she had heard the news, she had been horrified. Hours earlier, the headmaster of the orphanage had been found dead in his office, dead of a rattlesnake bite. Now the orphanage was in an uproar. Almost everyone was wondering how did a snake get in?

She sniffled and wiped her nose on her sleeve then sighed. She couldn't hide out here all day. She jumped out of the tree, putting on a brave face. If her eyes hadn't been rimmed in red, you wouldn't have known that she'd been crying. As she headed back towards the orphanage, Tim, another kid at the orphanage, came running out of it. "Hey you, Rinoa, you've got somesbody here to see ya," he said. "They is waiting in the foyer for ya."

She approached the orphanage in growing fear. 'They couldn't have found out so soon, could they?' She snuck into the building, blending in with the shadows. When she reached the foyer doors, one of the doors cracked open, silently, without being touched. She peered inside.

There were two women and two men waiting in there for her. Rinoa recognized only one of the people inside. Orphia Tinese was the deputy headmaster of the orphanage. She had been a ward of the orphanage in her youth then she had come back to work there in her late 20s. She was now in her early 60s and very bitter from being passed up for the job of headmaster again and again. She had a sharp, pinched look to here face and black beady eyes. Her hair was in a single braid. It had gone completely gray in her early 30s. She was standing with her arms crossed and an irritated look on her face. The other woman was standing by an occupied chair. She appeared to be between 60 and 70. Her partially gray and russet hair was pulled up into a no-nonsense bun. She was wearing spectacles, and even though she looked stern, her eyes were kind. One of the men was standing in the far corner. The shadows seemed to swallow him up. He had long, greasy-looking, black hair and coal black eyes. He also had a sneer on his face like he was disgusted to be here. He appeared to be about 30. The other man was at an advance age yet undiminished by it. He had long, white hair and an equally long, white beard. He was sitting calmly in the plush chair beside the woman watching and listening to Miss Tinese with a humorous twinkle in his eyes.

Miss Tinese was anxious to get rid of her guests. They weren't normal folk, and she abhorred anyone not normal, at least by here standards. "I don't know why you'd want to see her. She's been nothing but trouble ever since we got her. The headmaster has had to discipline her numerous times." Outside the door, Rinoa shuddered upon hearing this. Miss Tinese leaned forward and lowered her voice. "Besides there's something not right with that girl. She's so pale and white that you'd think she was an albino. Always by herself, never playing with the other children. She didn't even start talking till she was six. We thought she was a mute. She's always slinking around and hiding in the shadows. Half the time, you don't even know she's around; she's so quiet." The older man then looked right at Rinoa and smiled. "Then I think you should ask her to come in from behind the door." Miss Tinese whirled around and pulled the door open so fast that Rinoa fell into the room.

Snape raised an eyebrow as a disheveled 15-year-old girl tumbled into the room. It always surprised him when Dumbledore knew these kinds of things. They saw the girl gingerly pick herself up from the floor. She was about 5ft, slender and willowy. With silvery-white skin and silver-blond hair running down her back, she almost glowed in the dingy room. She was beautiful even with dirt smudged on her face and twigs tangled into her hair, but it was obvious that it wasn't a human beauty. Then she lifted her head so they were able to see her eyes. All of the people in the room, except Miss Tinese, gasped. The girl's eyes were slightly larger than a human's was. It made her look like a picture of perpetual innocence. They also were shaped like a cat's right down to the way the pupils were. Their color was an emerald green with silver and gold specks floating in them.

"What were you doing snooping out there like that? Didn't Tim tell you that you were to come to the foyer?" The girl nodded. Miss Tinese approached Rinoa looking like she wanted to hit her, but didn't dare with guests watching. "Stand up straight, girl. We'll discuss your punishment with the new headmaster when he arrives." Turning so only Rinoa could see her face, Miss Tinese smiled nastily, "and maybe this one will want to continue the type of punishment the old headmaster meted out." Only Snape and Dumbledore saw the girl shiver in fear, and the look of revulsion that fleeted across her face. Miss Tinese turned around to face the guests, all innocent smiles. "Rinoa, these folks are from some boarding school in England. They have come here to see you. So behave." She then pointed to the woman, the younger man and then to the older man. "This is Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape, and Headmaster Dumbledore." The girl visibly startled at the title of headmaster, once again. Miss Tinese waved her hand toward the girl, who flinched away from it, disdainfully. "This is Rinoa." Dumbledore got up and slowly carefully approached Rinoa. He held out his hand, and after a moment's pause, she shook it. "It is nice to have finally found you, my dear." He looked at Snape who started herding Miss Tinese out of the room. "We would like to speak to the girl alone," he said. He roughly pushed her from the room without letting her get a word in edgewise. "We shan't keep you from your busy schedule." He then shut the doors in her face and locked them. Then McGonagall pulled out her wand and performed a silencing charm.

"I thought you were wizards. You had that look about you." Dumbledore smiled kindly at Rinoa and sat back down into the chair. She asked in a small voice, "Did my school send you?" Her eyes showed her fear as she crumbled down to the floor and cowered into a corner. "I didn't do it. It wasn't my fault. I didn't want him to die. I just wanted him to stop." She started crying again. McGonagall looked shocked and confused. After about five minutes, Snape couldn't stand it anymore. He flung himself down beside her and gathered her into his arms.

At first she weakly fought against him, but then with a cry, she clung to him. "Who is it that you didn't want to die, child?" he said softly, rocking her back and forth in his arms. The girl mumbled something into his shoulder. "What did you say? I couldn't hear you." She lifted her face and looked at him through tear-filled eyes. Looking into her eyes, he felt his heart contract with some unidentifiable emotion. She back looked down. "Headmaster Dimpleman." McGonagall looked confused, "But I thought he died of a snakebite." Dumbledore got up from the chair and sat down on the floor in front of Rinoa and Snape. "Can you speak parceltongue?" She nodded yes. "What did you want him to stop, child?" She stiffened in Snape's arms. "Does it have anything to do with his punishments?" They could barely hear the girl's voice. "He thought I was very pretty." Snape's eyes blazed with understanding then it turned into fury.

He calmly passed Rinoa to Dumbledore then went out of the room in a black rage. He approached Miss Tinese, who was hovering in the hallway; he grabbed her by her ugly green suit and slammed her into the wall. "You knew what that sick bastard was doing to her, and you didn't stop it?" he said in a perfectly calm icy voice. Miss Tinese's eyes went very wide with fear, but she remained silent. He shook her slightly. "When did it start?" "When she was seven," she said quietly then continued in a rush, "and she deserved every bit of it." Snape's eyes widened with surprise then narrowed in anger. "Very well, now you will get what you deserve."

A half-hour later, Snape returned to the foyer looking very pleased with himself. Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Rinoa were all sitting in chairs; Dumbledore and McGonagall were telling her about Hogwarts. "But how can I go to school there? I don't even live in England." Snape came into the room and sat in the chair in-between Dumbledore and Rinoa. Dumbledore smiled, "Not yet. That is why we're are here." McGonagall leaned forward, "We have good news. You're parents aren't dead; they're in England. We have come here to take you home."

Rinoa was in shock and had gone extremely pale. "My parents...not dead? ...Home? ...A home." She sat there for a few minutes absorbing the information then started smiling brightly. "When can we leave?!" she said, practically bouncing in her seat. Snape raised an eyebrow at her hurry to leave; though under the circumstances, it was perfectly understandable. Dumbledore smiled at her exuberance. "Go pack up, and we can take the Knight Bus when you are done." She jumped up racing toward her dormroom with Snape following to act as guard. Fifteen minutes later, Dumbledore was waving the Knight Bus down, and they were on their way to England.

Tim ran down the hallway, late for supper. "Slow down, Tim. This is the third time I've warned you this week. Go to the Headmaster's office and wait in it for Miss Tinese." Tim hung his head, "Yes, Denmother." After an hour had gone by, the Denmother went by the office and saw Time seated outside the door. "Miss Tinese hasn't been by yet?" "No, Denmother." Her eyes narrowed, "Didn't I tell you to wait inside the office?" "I can't, Denmother." "Why is that, Tim?" "The office isn't there, Denmother." Looking skeptical, she opened the office door and fainted dead away. Inside, three of the walls were still intact, but the outer wall was completely missing like it hadn't ever been there. Where the floor used to be, the ground was completely bare, and where the Headmaster's desk should have been, was a grave mound with a single Easter Lily growing on it.