A Marauder's Guide to Falling Forever

Chapter Nine

Tom never arrived home that night. It was well after midnight before Marlene felt the tug of sleep pull her from consciousness, and she awoke the next morning to the sounds of car doors slamming from the street outside.

She had waited up for him on the couch, worried that the intruder might make a return in a possible search for the paper left behind. She spent the majority of her time at Tom's imagining the image on the sheet in her mind, but it seemed foggier with each passing minute. To Marlene it hardly seemed to be of any importance, yet someone seemed to think it was.

And she continued wondering what the person was even doing in the house in the first place. She had moved around the small house looking for signs that something was missing, but couldn't determine that anything of value seemed to be out of place. It wasn't as though she knew the house very well, so either they were looking for something very specific, or they were looking for Tom.

She shuddered thinking about the entire ordeal and desperately wished that Tom would arrive home so that she could tell him about it. But unfortunately, he never did.

So when she awoke on the couch with an extremely stiff neck she glanced to the clock and determined that nine in the morning seemed like an appropriate time to pay visit to the Ministry of Magic in search of her godfather.

Uncertain how else to get there, she settled on using the floo network, thinking it was likely the easiest transportation to navigate. It didn't take her long to find Tom's stash of floo powder; he had a bag of it stored away in a tarnished gold tin on the mantle. She grasped a handful, threw it into the fireplace and watched as the emerald flames erupted into the otherwise empty hearth.

She eyed it wearily, having only used the floo network a handful of times. But she settled upon the comfort of knowing that it was more desirable than the sensation of apparition. She stepped into the heatless fire, feeling a light tickle rather than that of being burned and spoke clearly of her intended destination, "Ministry of Magic."

Images of passing living rooms spun through her vision as she moved through the network. When she stopped moving she stumbled from the hearth slightly dizzy, out into a magnificent hall that had towering ceilings with golden columns lining the long and narrow gallery.

A large sign sat above the main desk that informed Marlene she was in the Atrium which was situated on level eight of the Ministry. She moved towards the reception desk where a brunette with a dazzling smile sat greeting those passing through. Marlene waited patiently, watching as the witch moved swiftly around the desk preparing an elderly wizards visitor pass who stood in line in front of her.

When it was her turn she smiled politely as the welcome witch greeted her, "Welcome to the Ministry, please state your name and business of visit."

"Marlene McKinnon," she said, trying to match the enthusiasm of the vivacious brunette. "I'm here to see Tom Antonovich."

"Which department does he work in?" the girl began to process Marlene's request. A gleaming silver badge that she had conjured began to magically etch the beginnings of Marlene's name into the polished silver. She eyed the way the scrawl of her first name elegantly emblazoned itself to the badge, and wished that her own handwriting could look so refined.  

"Department of Mysteries."

The witch stopped moving and so did the badge; it was one letter short of completing her first name. Marlene watched as her eyebrows drew inwards in a slight frown before the smile returned and she replied, "I'm sorry Miss McKinnon. You must be mistaken. There is no such department here."

"I'm fairly certain that I have the right department," Marlene said slowly. "He's my godfather. Tom Antonovich. He works in the Department of –"

"I'm sorry but that department does not exist," the girl interrupted her firmly with an obvious icy undertone that indicated the conversation was not open for further discussion. "Thank you for stopping by the Ministry. Have a good day."