Star Crossed

Chapter Ninety Six- Miss. McLaggen

"The games is over Sykes," I hissed as I pressed my wand into his neck from behind, the heels of the black leather boots pressed into the heel of his right foot. He groaned and attempted to struggle but a small shock into the neck soon discouraged him. 
"Alright, alright you bitch," he growled. I chuckled, "I've been called far worse." 

In a whirl of colours and wind we swirled together until my feet slammed hard onto the familiar tiled floor, I quickly bound the man's hands behind his back. 
"After you," I smirked, giving him a sharp prod in his back causing him to stagger forward a little. 
He shot me a look of hatred before dragging his feet towards the large oak wooden door at the end of the empty corridor. 
"It's polite to knock," I taunted as I looked between him and the door, for a moment he looked at me as if I was insane before he eventually withdrew his gaze with a shake of his head, he raised a hand and knocked unenthusiastically. 
"Enter," replied a gruff voice. 
"You heard the man," I smiled, Sykes pushed open the door. I gave him a little shove causing him to stumble ungracefully through the threshold. 
"Well I'll be..." the pokey man ogled, he was dressed in a slightly too tight pinstriped black and purple suit. A few deep scars criss crossed across his round face and bald skull. His dark eyes small and beady as he stared at his new visitor. 
"Mr. Franklyn may I present to you Mr.Sykes." I nodded as I stepped over the threshold and to the side of Sykes allowing the door to slam shut behind me. 
"Miss McLaggen, you are out doing yourself. That's the second arrest this week! I must ask girl do you sleep?" he breathed stepping around from his desk and approaching the apprehended man before him. 
"Oh soundly Sir knowing these stains upon our community are dining with the dementors." I replied. He chuckled, 
"As this one will," he smiled, Sykes visibly flinched at this but he had little more time to dwell upon his fate however as Franklyn swiftly withdrew his wand and with a flourish to men appeared in the grate of the fireplace. Two transporters. 
"Mr.Sykes you will hear by be retained in Azkaban prison until you are collected to attend your hearing." he recited as if he was merely informing someone of what he was having for lunch. 
"No!" Sykes shouted as his situation began to dawn upon him, but I was faster than he was. I quickly snapped my fingers and caused him to freeze unable to so much as blink. 
The two transporters nodded in my direction before each taking a rigid arm each and dragging him into the fireplace before in a flash of white light they had vanished from sight. 

I groaned as my eyes began to flicker open, I yawned lifting my head up from my desk I glanced around with a sigh, I had fallen asleep at my desk again. A small single candle still burning illuminating the room in a flickering orange glow, I looked over at the small alarm clock sat upon the edge of my desk, four thirty three am. My eyes landed upon the picture frame sat beside it as they always did... the four of us, together, the Heirs. I scoffed and slammed the photograph down face first upon the table. Those days were long gone, I was not the same girl smiling out from that photograph... I was colder, a lone wolf... I still had contact with Wiglaf and Lazarus of course but I barely ever saw them, they were off upon their own separate paths both of them choosing to travel rather than a corporate life. And Tom? I felt the familiar pang of pain in my chest at the thought of him. I had not been able to make contact with him since the day he had left Hogwarts... I had heard he was working at Borgin and Burkes but I had never managed to come across him after many many months of finding any excuse to pass by... but now my job practically forbid me to enter Knockturn Alley without reason or back up... 
but the more time that past the less I tried to contact him and the more of a memory he became, a dull ache in my chest when I would find myself lost in a dream or sitting alone at night. Wiglaf and Lazarus never spoke of him it was as if we had been a trio... but I could not forget. He had numbed me. 

I jumped out of my thoughts as a loud tapping reverberated off of my window, it was Juniper. 
"Some things never change eh Juniper?" I smiled, "You'll be by my side till the very end." 
Juniper gave a soft hoot of agreement as she brushed her soft feather head against my hand. 
"What is it you have for me at  this hour?" I smiled, handing her out a dead mouse which she gladly took. 
"Ah I should have guessed," I sighed as I turned the small periwinkle blue envelope over in my hand to find my name in familiar cursive decorating the front. 
I slid it open with the tip of my nail and withdrew the dainty piece of parchment inside which emitted a strong familiar cloud of musk perfume. 
I unfolded the parchment and began to read, 
"Dear Grisha, 
I know it is late but I was working late in the office-"
It would seem we did have some things in common. 
"I will be in Paris for some last minute editorials from Monday until Wednesday next week. I have instructed Willow to maintain the house.

Best regards,
Aunt Gavina."
I rolled my eyes, I had left the McLaggen estate in the hands of my Aunt since leaving Hogwarts. It was filled with far too many memories... I wanted to start a fresh and a small apartment in London was far more convenient after my new job in the Ministry. Gavina had been less than pleased upon hearing of my new career, calling it masculine and barbaric... she had tried tirelessly to employee me within Witch Weekly and had even attained a new house-elf 'Willow' to try to entice me back home. 

But that place was no longer my home. I had started a new life, without all of my painful memories. I had lost the one thing about my old life that had left, that meant anything to me... it was funny that it was him. Him that I had told not to run from his past and yet now here I was doing exactly that... I had been naive, just a child. Only now did I truly understand, only now that looking at my past, looking back on him that it caused nothing but pain and I wanted nothing more than to run from it.