The Marauders: Year Six Part 2 #Wattys2017

The Twisted Trunk

The Twisted Trunk

Minerva McGonagall was inconsolable.

"I should have just listened to the boy!" she said, upset, her accent trembling through her words as she clutched the bit of parchment that Peter Pettigrew had left behind on his bed. She was sitting behind her desk in her office as she lamented, tears fogging her narrow glasses as Elphinstone Urquart rubbed her shoulders consolingly. "Now we haven't any idea where he's gone and it's my fault he's missing!"

"Breathe, Minerva," begged Elphinstone, "Deepest breaths, my love."

"I canna help it, Elphinstone," she cried.

"It isn't your fault, Min," he persisted.

"It is," Minerva wailed, "And if anything happens to the boy... oh poor little Peter! However did he find out?"

Elphinstone shook his head - he'd been wondering the same thing.

The fireplace flashed and suddenly Albus Dumbledore was through the flames, his eyes a bit wild with worry as he crossed the room. Elphinstone stood upright behind Minerva's chair, releasing her shoulders like a teenager caught in the act of some forbidden amorous activity. The headmaster didn't seem to notice Elphinstone's reaction to his presence.

"So it's true then, confirmed, that the boy is gone?"

"It's true, it's true," wailed Minerva. "Oh Albus," she reached across the desk for his hands, "He could be anywhere! He's missing and it's my fault. If only I'd listened to him the other night!"

Dumbledore shook his head, "It is not your fault, Minerva."

"We have to find him," she pleaded, "Albus, we have to find them both. I canna be losin' James Potter and Peter Pettigrew - I doubt that me heart could handle it, Albus! Please, it's broken enough already!"

Dumbledore frowned and he squeezed Minerva's hands. He didn't want to tell her the rest. He didn't want to tell her that Peter and James were not the only two gone missing. He didn't want to tell her that gone, too, were Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Lily Evans...

She looked up at him, seeing the concern waffling about in his eyes and her stomach turned. "Albus," she whimpered.

He drew a deep breath.

Far north, Regulus leg the lot of the rescuers into the pub in Havmork - The Twisted Trunk. The pub was warm and lit with a warm cast to it. The walls were wood and sturdy wood tables and chairs filled the open space. A long bar ran along one wall, behind were shelves and shelves of bottles of all shapes and colours and stacks of shimmering goblets and steins and glasses. The bartender waved his wand so that a shaker hung in the air beside him, mixing a drink, even as he poured another out over ice into a glass and slid it across the bar to a rather disturbing looking man with long, stringy black hair and a mean face. The tables were littered with more people of the same nature - an old hag sat in a corner, her long hooked nose fixed with a knot of a mole and her eyes darting over a mangy old potions book.

The group of them sad a seat and Regulus went to order a round of hot toddies that would thaw them out from the icy air they'd just walked through. He returned, rubbing his hands together as they tingled from relief of the cold and sat, looking 'round at the crew of them - Maryrose with her pale white hair slowly fading into a soft blue, Remus shivering as Sirius rubbed his arms, and Lily, looking pale and worried, staring off into space.

"Right. We need a plan," Regulus said.

"We go and get James! That's the plan," Sirius said boldly.