The Girl Who Saw Tomorrow II » Harry Potter

2.49 | Past Puzzles

Nothing bothered Margaret more than unanswered questions:

Why was she so important to Alfréd Xenakis? Why did her mother insist that he had done everything for her? What made her so different from Markus?

No matter how many times she recalled what her mother had said, something felt like it was missing. As though a puzzle she could not complete because she did not have all the pieces. She wished she could ask someone for clarity, read a book or something to find what she was looking for.

But it had never been that simple. It wasn't as if she could show up at Ignatius Prewett's door again, demanding for answers; or even go to the Scamanders, who probably knew even less about Alfréd Xenakis.

Margaret could always ask Dumbledore, but a part of her wanted to put off speaking to him for as long as possible. She had a feeling he would want to discuss her brother first and she was not ready for that yet...

Besides, if Margaret were to face Markus, she wanted to know more than he did.

It was almost a sort of competitiveness against him that came startlingly easy to her. Having her own secrets would let her have the same haughty look on her face as he probably did after having his his literal existence for so long.

Damn him. She would never let herself fall behind again.

On the last day of the break, a puzzle piece appeared out of nowhere.

Ginny was curled up on the couch, her nose in a book in the most Hermione-like fashion.

"Not a word," she says pointedly, when she saw Margaret staring at the book. "I've been putting off this homework for long enough... Even Professor Binns will notice if I haven't submitted it after the holidays.

"I'll get you my notes from last year, Binns is a ghost, he gives the same homework each year," Margaret tells her.

"Really?" Ginny perks up. "Harry and Ron discarded theirs and Hermione'd never give me hers!"

"Yeah, no problem," says Maragret, shooting her an elated grin. "Just remind me tomorrow."

There it was, Margaret's potential lead hiding in plain sight all this time: A History of Magic. More importantly, its author was Bathilda Bagshot.

Bathilda Bagshot. A very much alive great-aunt of Gellert Grindelwald.

That evening, Margaret left the Burrow once everyone had gone to bed. Leaving without notice did not feel right, so she got a dozen pastries from a bakery in London, leaving them and a note thanking Mr and Mrs Weasley for the kindness they had shown her over the last two weeks.

A part of her felt it was too emotionless. But another part of her remembered that big feelings meant bigger chances of losing control, of falling helplessly sick again, of having those terrible nightmares again.

No. She should best keep her distance for now.

Margaret knew for a fact that going against Dumbledore's wishes for her to stay in the Burrow and coming to Godric's Hollow in particular would be a dead giveaway of what she was doing. But she highly doubted Dumbledore had not figured it out yet.

In fact, a part of Margaret wanted Dumbledore to know.

Even if he had not outright told her to look for anything, she had the strangest feeling that he always knew that she would come across Alfréd Xenakis's secrets and that she would recognise her father as soon as she saw his pictures. As much as she respected that he perhaps guided her towards the path as a mentor would, she was upset that he had not seen it fit to reveal the truth himself.