The Unknown

Chapter 56

Dahlia returned to McGonagall's office with only minutes to spare before curfew carrying a bag with some of her belongings from the camp, including a couple of books. She felt bad that her father and Jora were doing all the research into healing Alice and Frank when it was she who asked so she took a couple of books from her box and brought them to the castle. She didn't wish to bring her box to the castle when it contained the apple as it was safer in the centre of the camp surrounded by soldiers.

As they approached McGonagall's office, they noticed another man coming down the hall and Tonks said, "that's my replacement".

A rather tough-looking wizard with short wiry grey hair approached, wearing a brown trench coat, but as he got closer, it seemed his confident and self-assured personality disappeared as he began to blink and look between the three of them rather foolishly. Tonks said, "Dahlia, Tonks, this is Auror John Dawlish".

"Pleasure," Dahlia said as she raised a hand to knock on McGonagall's office door and within moments, the door opened.

Professor McGonagall blinked at the number of people at her door and Dahlia quickly said, "Tonks is leaving, Akio just wants to know about all entrances and exits to your office and quarters and then he's staying out here, and I don't know what Dawlish is doing".

"Patrolling," Dawlish answered.

Professor McGonagall gestured them inside but kept the door open as Tonks stood at the door. Professor McGonagall said specifically to Akio, "that's the only door into this office, the fireplace is linked to the Floo Network, but no one can enter without my say-so. Clearly, the windows are locked from the inside. That painting over there," she gestured to the back of the room which showed the countryside with a small house in the distance, but in the fields with red flowers were two little girls playing. She continued, "is my quarters. That is the only entrance, but it also has a fireplace that has a Floo Network that is cut off unless I allow the person through."

Akio looked between the painting and the professor, what he wanted was clear, so the professor sighed and walked over to the painting before saying the password. It opened, and Akio went inside to see the professor was telling the truth that the painting and the Floo Network were the only access inside and was happy knowing that was all. He then left the quarters and nodded to both professor and Dahlia before he began to leave the room.

"Night," Dahlia said as Akio closed the office door.

In the hallway, Dawlish was still quite uncomfortable being with a soldier of the dead, but Tonks had gotten used to it throughout the day, so she said, "good luck, you're in for a long night. He doesn't talk, don't take it personally".

They then noticed that Akio wasn't stood but sat down against the wall with his legs crossed as he held his sword on the knuckles of his hands balancing it with his eyes closed, meditating.

This didn't faze Tonks as she then said, "as I said, don't take it personally if he doesn't talk to you, he hasn't said a word to me all day, but he does speak English. Don't try and attack him, even now when he looks all Zen. From what I heard from the camp, the best of Niflheim are trained by him so don't piss him off. Night".

She then just walked away as Dawlish looked at her. She walked away as if she had just left her fellow Auror in an ordinary position, as if the child he was assigned to watch was any ordinary child and the soldier was an Auror whose desk was in the same department as his. As if this whole situation was normal and happened on a regular basis.

Professor McGonagall gestured for Dahlia to follow her into her quarters when her office door closed, and Dahlia followed and was surprised at just how cosy it seemed. After she walked through the painting, she saw everywhere was opened, except the bedrooms and the bathroom. The sitting room was to the right as you walked in and had a red and brown two-seater couch with a matching armchair on a rug that was a golden brown in front of the fireplace. The coffee table in front of the couch had a chess board on and a few books and there was a bookcase in the corner of the room. Dahlia could see pictures on the fireplace and more on the cupboard against the wall. She couldn't see the pictures clearly from where she stood but she guessed that they were of McGonagall's family.