13 Chapter Twelve: The Position

Namora rushed down the halls, eager to find Queenie in the Great Hall. She stumbled past students on the moving stairways and almost collided into the caretaker, which was really creepy because she had never seen him before. He looked grumpy as she passed him and had a crooked nose and eyes that seemed to be an odd color of yellow.

Shaking off the run in, Namora skipped the last few steps of the stairway and almost slipped when she landed, catching a few eyes, but not too many. She could see the doors to the Great Hall and the joyful light flooding in from it. She needed her friend right now and slid into the doorway with a group of students. "Ren!" A familiar deep voice yelled and it echoed throughout the Great Hall. Namora turned slowly and she could hear whispering all around her as she walked out into the hallway.

It was the headmaster. Phineas Black stood in the hallway as students shuffled past him into the Great Hall. "In my office, now!" Namora hesitated. "Headmaster, I have class..." "My office," he told her again. A few students began to stare at her and she tensed up. "Come along..." . Namora looked up at him, realizing that he was conversing with her using his mind. She nodded and followed him back up the stairs quietly. She gulped and thought through what she could have done. Was it because I skipped those last few steps? Or maybe the caretaker said something about me? Was it somehow connected to Defense Against The Dark Arts?

Namora's posture suddenly dropped, no it wasn't either of those things. Could it be? She wondered as she eyeballed him from the back. Did he know what she had done? In Knockturn Alley? Namora surely hoped not. Even if he did suspect her, how could he prove it? Namora straightened her posture and put a curious face on trying to seem innocent as they walked into his office.

Namora was surprised by how colorful it was. There was books going up to the walls, magical objects she couldn't name, and portraits of the earlier headmasters. They watched her and conversed with themselves as she followed the headmaster up a few stairs and into another room.

He turned to lean against his desk and studied her for a moment. "Miss Namora Ren...you have caused quite the ruckus..." he said as files with her name on it magically floated around him, moving. "Excels at Charms... and Defense Against the Dark Arts..." he said darkly and the files fell with a "PLAT" onto his desk. "...Miss Ren you are here today because I know what you did..." "In the hallway because that was just..." "....In Knockturn Alley," he said and then straightened up.

"You do realize that I could have you expelled from this school. The ministry would not be too happy with your parents. And the Ministry of Magic would not be very happy with me either. I might lose my job for reluctance to teach students right from wrong." Namora gulped. He knew and now she was going to get expelled and her parents ...How in the wizarding world would she explain this to her mother and to her father especially. "Miss Ren, I have come up with a solution ...to both of our issues....". He walked towards her, hands held behind his back and eyes dark as night.

The room seemed to grow cold and Namora could feel the chills going up and down her spine. "Now, I need someone to put this crime on which I will have lined out here soon. In order for you to not get expelled, you will spend your time in here." "Why?" She asked him as he walked past her to retrieve a scroll from a shelf. "Well, Ms. Ren..." he said as he unrolled the scroll and set it atop his desk. Namora saw a list of spells that she had never heard of. Each of them were different and unique in their own way. The third one made her tense up. "Protego Diabolica," she whispered. She ran her fingers over the blotched cursive and looked back up at the Headmaster.

He was observing her and Namora glared at him. "What am I supposed to do with this?" She asked him. The Headmaster dodged her question though and pointed to the spell that had made her tense up. "This one..." He said as he came around to stand beside her. "You know it." Namora looked up at him in confusion. "I've never heard of this before." "Tell me what happened in Defense Against the Dark Arts then." She was silent. "All I did was vanquish a boggart." "Oh?" He said as he walked away from her to a closet. "Yes."

The Headmaster turned back towards her and stared at her hard. Namora stared back at him and he let out a small gasp. "How did you do that?" He asked her as he abandoned his task to walk back up to her. "What?" She asked as he approached. "Occlumency is the act of blocking one from their mind. Like Legilimency, it is something that must be learned. It is usually learned. You seemed to do it immediately," he said as he looked at her. The man paused and the air grew colder. Namora could almost imagine her breath going cold in the room. He narrowed his eyes at her and asked: "Where did your mother come from?" Namora wondered what he was playing at, but told him nonetheless. "Somewhere in Eastern Europe in..." she started before her mind went fuzzy. "She lived in a town...village...house..." she stammered. "I can't remember," she said suddenly. Namora let out a small gasp as she struggled to remember where her mother had lived. Was it the little blue house on the corner of the street? Was it a cabin somewhere in the woods? A shared house with someone? Namora shook her head in frustration. "Why can't I remember?" she muttered worriedly.

The Headmaster put a hand on her shoulder. A reassuring gesture that momentarily surprised her. "I think I know what is going on with you, Ms. Ren," he said darkly and went behind his desk to open a drawer and pull out a vial of black liquid. "He conjured a tea cup which magically filled with steaming hot water. He tipped the vial down and let a few drops of the liquid splash into the teacup. He mixed it with a small spoon then slid it across his desk to her. Namora looked at the inky liquid in the little porcelain cup and then up to the Headmaster. "What is it?" she asked as she took in the aroma. It smelled like nothing she had ever smelled before. The aroma smelled somewhat like blood, dust, smelly socks, and other things she couldn't even begin to describe.

"This is what is called Sanguis-Ater," he told her and continued. "I've only known few in my lifetime that are like you. Ms. Ren, you are a very powerful witch...you are going to be one at least. You know things without having to put in much effort. The thing is, as you get older, you will begin to forget things because you know these Dark Arts..." "How is that possible?" She interrupted. "This happens when a wizard or witch such as yourself is born with too much...power. Your mother and father, I do not know very well, but you're a very strong witch, Ms. Ren. As I mentioned earlier, you know things. You are smart and you are young after all. The youngest here I believe. "

"What this does is it will keep you from forgetting. You must have it at least three times a day. As you can imagine, that is at every meal. " Namora was scared. She had never had to deal with this before. "I'm losing my memories..." she muttered to herself. "It will be alright, Ms. Ren," The Headmaster said. "Drink some tea," he told her. "I must inform your parents of this."

Namora took the cup in her hands and looked at it. She took a small sip and gagged. "This tastes awful." The headmaster was busy writing when he looked up at her. "It might be. I got some for you as soon as I realized it was you who had done it in the alley." Namora's stomach dropped. "Yeah..." she said and shuddered. The Headmaster observed her again. "How did you know I needed this?" "Power," he simply replied. "Never have I had a student at a fourth year level do what you did. I heard the entire alleyway was destroyed; the cobblestone uprooted from the ground." Namora shivered as the memory came back to her clear as the sun. "That and I've had a few eyes on you. You're a peculiar girl and this just proved my theory." Namora looked into the murky water of the cup distastefully as if she was going to throw up her breakfast any moment. "I'm not usually this kind to half-bloods Ms. Ren. Now, I need you to drink that up. All of it. We have some things we need to go over."

Namora sighed and took another sip. This time, she tried not to gag. Her eyes twitched at the fowl taste of the tea and lolled out her tongue as if the air might make the taste dissipate or taste even a little better. No such reprieve came. She looked at the Headmaster. Just a few weeks ago, he had been training her in the art of Legilimency and now she was sitting in his office. She wasn't sure whether to be terrified of what he wanted to say to her or to be nervous that he knew that it was her who had killed that witch in Knockturn Alley.

"There we are," the Headmaster said to himself as he waved off a dark grey owl with what looked like golden talons. "Now, what to do with you," The Headmaster said, turning back to her. "Listen to me very closely Ms. Ren. These next few weeks are going to be very complicated..." "What are you going to do about the alley?" Namora interrupted suddenly, needing to know. He glared at her, a punishment for interrupting. "That is none of your business, but...if you must know in this fragile state you're already in, I'm going to have two criminals brought in. The ministry has been looking for these two for awhile and I'm going to make sure they find them. When they do, I'll do a few things here and there to make it look like they stole a few uniforms from the school so it would look less suspicious. You will be clear, but you must remain calm. You're on the oblivating block Ms. Ren for this. These two will go to Azkaban at the most." Namora gulped. "Okay." "All you have to do is come here every afternoon." "What about my friends? They will know something is wrong." The Headmaster gave her a small smirk. "I'll handle that."

Namora drank the rest of the tea with a loud gag and set the cup on his desk. "Am I allowed to leave?" "I suppose," the Headmaster said as he grabbed up the scroll and rolled it tightly. "Tomorrow. This time or you will see consequences." Namora nodded gravely. As she made her way out of the Headmaster's office, she knew that change was coming. Big change.