Harry Potter & The Black Sacrifice
Post 16: Daughter of Equinox
Chapter 14
Daughter of the Equinox
Tucked away in a forgotten corner of basement level 5 of the Ministry of Magic was a small unremarkable office with only one desk in it. This desk belonged to one Mary Lows, and being forgotten and unremarkable was exactly how she preferred things. Her job was necessary but boring, and was often regarded as a waste of time by other Ministry employees. This general disdain meant that few people even knew she was there at all, and it allowed Mary to work at her own pace, and in glorious seclusion. Though she officially reported to the head of the department for International Magical Cooperation, she was, in a sense, her own boss.
Mary was the Ministry liaison to Muggle parents with wizard children. Her responsibilities included, but were not limited to, keeping track of all Muggle-wizard births in London, sending the confused new parents a friendly letter explaining why their newborn child might, for example, suddenly levitate out of their crib, and answering all questions the parents might have during the first 11 years, before the child was ready for their magical education. It was largely a thankless job; the question she was asked more than any other was "Can't we just turn it off?" But she was a Muggle born herself, and she saw this as a way of trying to make it up to her own parents, who had had a particularly difficult time raising her.
The moment that Mary put her key into her office door on the morning of September 24th, she immediately knew something was off. Mary was a slave to routine, and one thing she made sure to do every night before going home was to turn off all the lights in her office. As she pushed her door open this morning, she saw that a single light was on, the one that overlooked her overflowing filing cabinets.
She stepped over to the cabinets and gave them a cursory look. They did not appear to have been tampered with, but she admitted to herself that they were so disorganized that she wouldn't have been able to tell if they had been tampered with or not. She shrugged, turned off the light, and sat down at her desk. 3 Muggle-borns had been born the day before, two boys and one girl, and she wanted to get the letters out to their parents as soon as possible.
…
If you had told Otis Cotton of Guildford that his 6 month old daughter Samantha was about to be kidnapped, his knee-jerk emotion would be relief. This would of course give way to shame and despair almost immediately, but for a split second his only thought would be that the nightmare that had begun on March 21st when she was born was finally over. Needless to say, Otis was not adjusting well to life as the parent of an infant witch.
In the 24 hours between the time she was born and the time Otis had received a letter (carried by an owl, if you can believe that) from someone claiming that his newborn daughter was a witch, Samantha managed to create quite the impression on the hospital staff. When Samantha was three hours old, a young nurse had been startled to find three sparrows flying perfect circles around the delighted infant's head. This would have strange enough without the fact that the birds had been rainbow colored. As the stunned nurse was leaving to alert the head nurse though, the three birds disappeared with a pop. When the young nurse returned to the nursery with the annoyed head nurse though, they were not disappointed, for the birds had been replaced by three juggling kittens.
Unfortunately for the nursing staff, these little amusements gave way to more alarming phenomena. When Samantha was 7 hours old, a nurse arrived to change her and bring her to her mother to be fed. Samantha was crying at that point, and as the nurse reached down to pick her up, the nurse's cap suddenly caught on fire. Instinctively, the nurse ripped the cap from her head and began to stomp out the flames. This only distressed Samantha more, and the nurse shrieked in surprise as the viewing window into the nursery shattered into a thousand pieces. Luckily, there were no babies directly in front of the window; Samantha was alone in the nursery that morning.
By the time the letter from Mary Lows arrived in Freda Cotton's hospital room, Freda and Otis were both nervous wrecks. They had learned enough to know that they needed to keep their daughter happy to avoid being injured, but that was all they had learned, and it was only a matter of time before she became upset again.
They heard the tapping on the window and both jumped about 5 feet into the air. Otis walked over to the window and, without thinking, opened it to let the enormous brown bird in. The owl untied the envelope from its neck and flew back out the window in quite a hurry.
Freda looked confused as her husband opened the envelope. He began to read the parchment out loud.
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Cotton,
My name is Mary Lows, and I just wanted to congratulate you on the arrival of your healthy baby daughter. I also wish to extend you my assistance.
No doubt by now you will have noticed that Samantha is no ordinary child. You should have seen the effects of both the extreme positive and negative aspects of her moods. I know this won't make sense now, but please trust me when I say that this is perfectly normal. You are now the proud parents of a newborn witch.
Otis looked up in terror, and Freda matched his look of terror and then some. If this was supposed to make them feel better, it had failed miserably. Otis began to read again.
What I wish to offer you is very simple. I am one of the very few members of the magical community who has regular contact with the non-magical world. It is my job to help you, the non-magical parents, adapt to and cope with your daughter's unique abilities.
Having a witch in the family is a rewarding experience, but can be a monstrous challenge for non-magical parents. Plus, I must add that we at the Ministry of Magic have detected an enormous, very powerful latent talent in your daughter. This will be quite beneficial to you and her when she learns to control her talents (around the age of 11), but for now it merely means that you have additional challenges ahead of you. I sympathize, as my parents were both non-magical as well. I will be available every step of the way to offer any assistance or advice that you may require.
On a related note, a team of Ministry obliviators has been dispatched to your hospital. Anyone who has witnessed your daughter's powers will have their memories modified so that you will not have to answer any hard questions about her. This will be completed at no cost to you. My services come completely free of charge as well.
When you wish to contact me…
Otis read the instructions for using floo powder, and decided he'd had enough for the moment. He gave the letter to his wife and began to pace as she read about Magical laws that they must abide by, and secrecy directives that they must familiarize themselves with.
…
It was now 6 months later, and there had not been a day yet where they had not contacted Mary in a panic for some reason or another. Otis had started smoking again. Freda was going bald. They both loved their daughter dearly, but neither of them believed that they would survive 11 years of her uncontrollable "abilities".
…
Fenrir Greyback crept silently along Ferry Lane, where the Cottons lived. He had compiled a short list of candidates from the records he had stolen from Mary Lows' office, and Samantha Cotton was the first stop on his list.
It was just past one in the morning, but when he reached the Cotton residence he could tell that they were still awake. All the lights were still on in the house, and he saw a shadow pacing in one of the upper windows. Very faintly, he could hear the unmistakable shriek of a baby. As he pulled out his wand, he noticed that there was not a single living plant in their front yard. He even noticed one tree that looked as if it had recently been on fire, and portions of the house that looked as if they had caught fire as well.
As he opened the front door, the shrieking grew louder, and he could now hear the exhausted cooing voice of a parent trying to calm the child. He climbed the stairs slowly. The Muggle would be no match for him of course, but he still wanted the element of surprise, if for no other reason than to avoid harming the child.
He pushed the door open, and the shrieking became almost unbearable. The child's father had his back to the door, so the baby, who had her head on his shoulder, noticed Greyback almost immediately. The shrieking quieted almost at once as the baby observed the newcomer with terrified curiosity.
Otis breathed a sigh of relief. "Finally. Dear Samantha, you're going to be the death of me!"
Greyback chuckled and said "You may be more correct than you realize."
Otis Cotton whirled around in surprise. The intimidating figure of Fenrir Greyback crossed the distance between them in two steps. Samantha, robbed of her view of the interesting newcomer, struggled to turn her head to keep him in her sights.
In the most pleasant voice he could manage, Greyback said, "Mr. Cotton, I have come to take your child off your hands for you." He grinned, and brought out his wand from behind his back. The effect was immediate: Otis recoiled from both the grin and the wand, and stumbled over a stroller that was behind him.
Otis regarded the wand with mixed curiosity and apprehension. "Take her off my hands? Did Mary send you?"
"Well…. Yes! Yes she did!"
Otis looked down at Samantha, then back at Greyback. "She didn't tell us that someone would be coming for her. Why do you need to take her?"
Fenrir thought fast. If he could convince Otis to give her to him freely, it be the best way to avoid any harm to the child. "Well… umm.. we at the Ministry would like to run some standard tests on her. Just to make sure she's growing up healthy."
Otis frowned at this, and began to pull out his cell phone. "So you arrive at 1:30 in the morning to do this? Besides, Mary just did a check up on her personally not two weeks ago."
"Put that away," growled Greyback, motioning towards the phone. "Mr. Cotton, I've no time to argue with you. You can give your daughter to me, or I can take her from you."
Otis opened his mouth to yell for his wife, but Greyback was too fast for him. In a red flash, Otis was on the floor, stunned, and Samantha landed in Greyback's waiting arms. She immediately began to shriek again.
"Don't make me stun you too, child," said the annoyed Greyback. Before he could follow through on his threat though, Samantha took a huge breath of air and let out her loudest shriek of the night. Suddenly, Greyback's eyebrows were on fire.
"Ack!! NOO!" He didn't dare drop the child, so he quickly deposited her in her crib and went to work beating out the tiny flames on his face. Once they were out, Samantha shrieked again and Greyback's shoes flew up in to the air with his feet still in them, causing the large man to fall to the floor. This was finally amusing enough for Samantha, and she started laughing.
Once he had stood up collected himself, Greyback reached for his wand again. "SILENCIO!" Samantha continued laughing, but no sounds issued from her mouth.
"We've got plans for you, Samantha," he said icily. "Please do not force me to kill you. Not yet, anyway." Samantha stopped laughing and, incredibly, matched Greyback's cold glare with one of her own.
He snatched the child from the crib and made his way out of the house. Freda Cotton, enjoying the first decent sleep she had had in weeks, did not discover that her daughter was missing and her husband was (still) stunned until the following evening. By which time Samantha Cotton had already made the acquaintance of Lord Voldemort, who had approved her for the ceremony.
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