When the next session finally came, it was I, of all people, who was late.
I had been able to persuade the Weasley twins to let us hold our sessions in their little secret room. And by persuade, I mean blackmail. If Filtch got even a whiff of a clue, months of work would be lost for the twins.
With one last look over my shoulder, I made sure no one was around, then slipped inside. After only a few feet, I entered the soundproof enchantment and immediately heard the voices of the three Weasleys.
"What does that smell like to you?" one of the twins asked.
"Go away with that. It's none of your business!" screeched Ginny.
She scuffled with Fred, who tried to hold a vial full of pink shiny liquid under his sister's nose.
Maddie came running as soon as she caught sight of me and half hid behind me. "The twins have cooked up something again. But I'd better stay out of it."
"Finally there, too?" George leaned casually against the wall beside us. "If you're going to be our leader, you really need to take this more seriously."
I wanted to punch him. "You've obviously used the time wisely, haven't you?"
"Wisely?" hissed Maddie behind me, earning a wry grin from the redhead.
"Wisely! That's a good keyword. Surely you can guess what that potion should have been." George handed me a vial as well.
The pink liquid glistened in the light and the fine mist that rose had a subtle glint. I reluctantly waved it to myself, although I was already pretty sure what it was. My suspicions were immediately confirmed as the old familiar smell rose to my nose.
"So?" asked Maddie insecure.
"Lilac first." I held the potion closer, now knowing with certainty that there was no danger from the fumes. "Warm cocoa." An inane grin crept onto my face. I remembered very well my answer when Madame Poufeit had mixed the potion for us. "And New Year's."
"New Year's?" Maddie seemed to have gained more courage from me and waved some of the glittery vapor to herself. "What does New Year's smell like, please? And why this day of all days?"
I handed her the bottle and began to spread out my papers. "Haven't you ever been out on New Year's? At six in the morning, when all the revelers have gone to sleep? It's strangely still and quiet, and if you're lucky, the first wind of the year blows away the remnants of the smoke. Black powder and fire, but at the same time a cool freshness." Madame Poufeit had thought long and hard about my answer, but she had never told me what the potion smelled like to her.
"Then you're really lucky," George chortled. "I think it's pretty dusty."
My grin widened and maybe got a little cheekier - I was definitely spending too much time with the Weasleys. "You have old-fashioned taste, then? I thought Amortentia smelled like the things you're attracted to."
Immediately, Fred and Ginny froze in their fight. "That's cheating. You knew what it was!" The twin let go of his sister and put his hands on his hips. "You better not spoil anyone's surprise!"
"I smell freshly cut grass. And - urgs is that varnish?" Maddie took such deep breaths that I had to take the potion away from her to keep her from falling over from hyperventilating. "I want something cool like that!" she complained. "And not weed, lacquer, and apple pie."
"You know what that sounds like to me?", I appeased her after finding a cork for the bottle. "After a wonderful Sunday in your own little house. Your husband painting your fence, your kids playing on the lawn, and a fresh apple pie cooling on the windowsill, with apples from your garden."
Maddie pressed her hands to her glowing cheeks. "You think?"
"A real poet," George joked. And then, as the others also finally unpacked their things, he asked much more quietly, "Lilacs, then?"
I had to bite my lips to keep from grinning stupidly. It had to be the potion! Clearly! "What did you smell besides dust? Vomit and blood from your Skiving Snackboxes?"
"That would be really disgusting," George laughed. "No. I smell the fresh air when you're still flying over the Quidditch field at dawn, mint, and , well, something dusty." He screwed up his face.
Dusty? "Old books, maybe?", I suggested.
"Do I look like a bookworm?"
"Mysteries," Ginny blurted in. "I bet this place smelled pretty dusty, too, before you guys set up shop here."
The twins could only agree. To my regret, Fred and Ginny kept to themselves what they had smelled. A little curiosity had been piqued.
"But you're not really planning on selling that, are you?", I asked uncertainly. "That stuff is not to be trifled with."
Fred rolled his eyes. "We know. No worries."
"Every worry," Ginny growled, fixing her hair. "If you spread that stuff around, I'll tell Mom on you."
But before we could discuss it further, Maddie lifted out her folder. It was almost twice as thick as the day I gave it to her and colorful sticky notes were spilling out everywhere.
Immediately, we interrupted our shenanigans.
"Did you kidnap Hermione or what is this?" asked Fred incredulously, barely able to contribute a page of notes.
Maddie scratched her still-red cheeks in embarrassment. "I don't know. Somehow I'm a little... I felt like I was on to something. But now I'm not sure."
"Out with it Bell. We don't have anything special to show, so let's try your idea."
And then Maddie started. She pulled out her phone and played the video of the rescue again, but stopped as soon as the bird came into view.
"We always talk about a fog vulture, but," she zoomed in as George had already caught me. "See the water spots here?" It was hard to see because, yes, most of the uniform was black, and besides, a pool of blood was increasingly spreading from my injuries. But just at the collar of my white blouse it was still visible. Indeed. It was wet.
Maddie cleared her throat, then flipped open the folder. "I researched fog vultures first, but I didn't read anything about water or anything like that. What I found instead was this." She fished out a printed article. "I don't have any decent source information because the whole thing just came to my attention two days ago, but." She left the sentence unfinished as we skimmed the paragraphs to the part she had highlighted in yellow highlighter.
According to legends, the Augurey were created from a cross between a fog vulture and a phoenix.
Augurey. I snatched the note from Maddie's hand and read it again while pacing.
Ugly, vulture-like birds that looked imposing for only a few days or weeks before looking plucked and sick until they were reborn.
Razor-sharp feathers - at least shortly after rebirth.
And their feathers dissolve into rainwater.
"Maddie," I gasped breathlessly as I walked up to her. "I'm going to kiss you now," I threatened, and already I was grabbing her by the shoulders and pressing a big kiss to her cheek. "That's awesome. Oh holy unicorn hair. Maddie!"
After spending at least twenty minutes pacing back and forth, starting sentences over and over and never finishing them, Ginny had stopped me.
"I don't know what you know, but I have no idea about Augurey. So if Maddie has indeed stumbled onto something, shouldn't we look into it right away?"
Slowly, I nodded and let her show me again what Maddie had found. "I'm sure we'll find more at the library," she suggested.
General agreement. I was halfway out when I turned back around. "We can't leave things like this," I reminded myself just in time.
"No problem." George drew his wand. "Evanescet." And immediately all the things cleared into a pile and with a soft poof, they disappeared.
"What did you do?" My head was spinning and I was far too out of it to be honestly panicked. But they were still documents I had stolen from my parents.
"Don't worry." He pushed me back toward the exit. "They'll only be untraceable for an hour or two."
On the way to the library, Ginny and Maddie had to take the lead because I was so beside myself that I wanted to make several wrong turns.
"Pretty exciting, huh?" Fred patted me on one shoulder while George walked on my other side.
"It can't be that easy," I muttered to myself. "If it were that easy, I'm sure someone would have figured it out before now."
"Who said it was a fog vulture anyway?"
Puzzled, I tripped over my own feet and the twins had to reach under my arms to keep me from falling lengthwise. "My parents."
"On what grounds?"
I would surely soon have pain in my neck from looking back and forth, but the twins argued very convincingly. "Because it's always fog vultures associated with curses. They live as long as phoenixes and need virtually no food. Also, they can dissolve into mist when they are not active. There is a record of vultures that have lived for decades only in mist form."
"Ah-ah-ah," George interrupted me. "Now we know what a fog vulture is, but why would this bird that attacked you necessarily be one? What about its behavior, its appearance says 100% fog vulture?"
In disbelief, I stared into the brown eyes that held me so spellbound. I was at a loss for words. Could my parents really have made such a mistake?
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I am using the definition of an Augurey here, as I do in my Mattheo Riddle FF. This is not the same as what JKR uses in her stories. Here are brief quotes from Darkest Desire:
Veri was an augurey, also called an Irish phoenix.
Augurey were frowned upon as the ugly kin of the phoenix, but Liz had never understood that comparison. She had been enamored with the desolate birds since she first saw Veri, and had spent far too much time with the neglected animal as a child. Enough time to witness why they were called Irish phoenixes. Shortly before her sixth birthday, Veri had died for the first time. First her feathers had fallen out, then the whole bird had disintegrated and become a dull, gray puddle.
Augureys not only have sharp feathers, their beaks are feared by many wizards because they are known to hack wands in two and suck out every ounce of magic.
Veri flapped her wings and flooded the whole room with her rain,