Daddy's Little Girl [FW - Book Two]

Meeting McGonagall

The next two weeks pass by all too slowly, and I'm quite certain that the words on the back of my hand will not ever fade away. I wish I could go to Dumbledore about this but I'm sure he wouldn't see me in the first place, and there's also the problem that he probably couldn't do anything about it anyway.

"Vanessa?" Lani asks, and I snap out of my thoughts

"What?" I ask with a yawn.

"Can you pass me that book on identifying types of beetles used in Potions?" She asks somewhat impatiently, and I get the feeling that it's not the first time she's asked.

I pass her the book and look around the library tiredly.

"Are you alright?" Hermione asks from across the table.

"I'm fine." I say. "Just struggling to keep my eyes open"

She nods and I turn my attention to the almost completely blank roll of parchment that's supposed to be my Potions essay, due tomorrow morning, and sigh. I pick up my quill once again and dip it in ink before attempting to add to the page in front of me.

Suddenly, McKenna comes running over to us, which is odd because usually she wouldn't be caught dead in the library.

"Vanessa!" She all but yells.

"Sh!" Madam Pince whispers fiercely from her desk at the head of the library.

"Sorry." She whispers, before turning back to face me. "Vanessa, you need to come with me, right now."

"Why?" I whisper.

"I might have um... let slip to Fred about what Dumbridge did to you in detention." McKenna says quickly.

"What!" I demand, whispering as loud as I dare with Madam Pince watching us like a hawk.

"I told you I'm not good at keeping secrets." She says frantically.

"Wait, what did she do to you?" Lani asks suddenly.

I open my mouth to respond but McKenna beats me to it.

"You need to come and talk to him now, he's yelling and throwing things and-" I cut her off.

"I'm coming!" I reply, getting to my feet.

"Sh!" Pince orders.

"But-" Lani starts.

"I'll tell you later." I say quickly, before hurrying after McKenna.

Upon entering the common room I am tackled to the ground by none other than Fred.

"So... I'm going to go now." McKenna says awkwardly, before running out of the common room, which is strangely empty.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Fred demands.

"I didn't want you to worry, or try to curse Umbridge for that matter." I say defensively, wriggling under his hold.

"So that I can worry now?" He asks. I look away. "Let me see your hand."

I shake my head and hide my left hand behind my back.

"You don't want to." I say.

"Yes I do. I let you take the fall for a prank that was my idea. I need to see the damage that I caused." Fred says desperately. He pulls my hand out from behind my back and raises it to his eye level without another word.

I can't look him in the eye, so I turn my head. He pauses at the sight of my scarred hand, but then presses a kiss to it.

"I'm sorry. It should have been me." Fred says.

"No. I'm sorry. I should have told you." I say quietly.

"Let's just not do this again." Fred suggests.

"That sounds like a good idea." I say with a sigh. He nods and leans in to press a kiss to my lips.

Apparently, Lee comes down from the boy's dorms at this moment.

"Get a room." He shakes his head, crinkling his nose.

I pull away first, and Fred helps me to my feet, and then waves off Lee's words.

Just then, a boy, a fourth year by the looks of him, enters the common room, looks around for a moment, and then approaches me.

"Vanessa Redwood?" He asks.

"That's me." I reply, wondering what this is about.

"This is for you." He says, and hands me a roll of parchment, before leaving the common room again.

I unroll it, and read the message.

"To Miss Vanessa Redwood

There has been news involving your muggle parents that you may want to know. Professor Dumbledore has asked me to meet you so that we can discuss this new development. Please meet me in my office after lunch.

Sincerely,
Professor Minerva McGonagall"

"McGonagall," I mutter mostly to myself. "That's new."

"Well I suppose it'll be interesting to see what she has to say." Fred shrugs.

"Yes. I just hope that my parents are all right." I whisper.

*

"Miss Redwood, have a seat." McGonagall says as I enter her office.

I do as she says and sit down across from her at her desk.

"As I'm sure you already know, Professor Dumbledore has asked me to meet with you to discuss the current situation with your adoptive parents." She explains. I nod, telling her to go on.  "I'm not sure if you know that your parent's memory needs to be further modified."

"What?" I ask, standing up. "Why?"

"Sit down, Miss Redwood, please." She says calmly. "You may have forgotten, but you only modified your parents memory so that they would forget your existence and believe that your younger sister had gone to a summer camp. Do you see the problem?"

"Oh." I mutter lamely in response.

"Oh indeed. As your sister has turned out to be a witch, further modification to your parents memory needs to be modified so that they believe young Sylvia is at a boarding school, to explain her absence during the school year. We need you to agree to this before we can go through with it of course, and that is the reason for this meeting."

"That's fine. They can adjust their memories for that reason. Of course I agree." I say quickly.

"I thought you would." McGonagall says with the faintest hint of a smile.