Sarah Beth~
"Come on, sweetie. You've been sitting in your room since you've come home. Will you please come with me today?" Auntie sweetly asked, standing in the doorway of my room.
"Auntie, I don't want to go anywhere!" I pulled the quilt on my bed over my head and closed my eyes.
"Don't be silly." She paraded into my room and pulled it off of me. "You need some fresh air." She opened my curtains, letting a sea of light leak in. I let out a noise from the bottom of my throat, similar to a growl. The sunshine burned my eyes. "Look how nice it is outside..."
"No, Auntie!" She sighed as sat down on the edge of the bed.
"I know you're upset about Cedric, but you'll have to move on, darling." I sat up.
"I don't want to forget him..."
"If you care that much about him, then you'll never forget."
"How do you know?"
"I haven't forgotten about my sister, or my mother."
"And Daddy?" She chuckled.
"Yes, and your father... but what I'm trying to say is, yes, I miss them, but I've accepted that they're gone. You have to do the same with Cedric."
"But it hurts..." As if to respond, my chest started to pound and ache, just as it had since the last task.
"I know it does, pumpkin," She put her arm around me and pulled me closer to her. I laid my head on her bosom. "But it happens." We sat in silence for a moment until I finally raised my head and asked her what has always tread on my mind.
"How did Mum and Dad die?" For a mere moment, she looked like she was about to crack. I actually thought I was going to get a legitimate answer. But then her face hardened, and eventually turned back into her overly enthusiastic smile.
"I'll tell you when you're a bit older." I frowned. Things were falling back into their usual order. "How about this; You get up and get ready, and I'll have Twinkle make you some blueberry scones for you to share with Rufus." I had a feeling I wasn't getting out of this. When Auntie had her mind set on something, she would eventually make it happen, so it was better now than later.
"Okay." I put on a fake smile.
"It'll make you feel better and get your mind off of him. Go ahead and get ready." She kissed my forehead and left the room.
I got up and started dressing. I hadn't worn day clothes since my last day at Hogwarts. It felt weird. In honor of Cedric, I wore the purple shirt he had gotten me for Christmas. After that I attempted to brush my hair, but it was so messy that my curls had knotted together. It took a whole ten minutes to get it combed through it. By the time I brushed my teeth and packed my plaid bag, it had been thirty minutes.
"You look much better!" Auntie exclaimed as I sat down on the couch in the sitting room. "Get up! I'm going to be late!" I got back up.
"Here you go, Miss." Twinkle walked in from the kitchen and handed me a small woven basket covered by a pink checkered cloth.
"Thank you, Twinkle." She smiled and left.
"Come on, dear." Auntie grabbed my arm and pulled me through the fire place.
We emerged in Auntie's office.
"Rufus is in Cornelius's office, I think, if you want to see him."
"Okay!" With the basket of pastries in hand, I went across the hallway and into his office.
"Hello!" Mr. Cornelius jumped up from behind his desk and hugged me. "It's good to see you out and about! I've missed you! It's been to quiet around here."
"I've missed you, too, Mr. Cornelius!" I put the basket down on his desk and pulled out a scone. "Do you want a scone? They're blueberry! Twinkle made them!"
"Not right now, thank you. Maybe later."
"Okay then!"
"Frecky! I knew I heard you!" Rufus emerged from the bathroom and hugged me. I laughed and wrapped my arms around him, making our embrace last longer. "I've missed you so much!" Like everything else, I hadn't seen Rufus since Hogwarts, which is probably the longest we had went without seeing each other since my first year of school.
"I love you, Ruffie!" I moved my hand right on his back. He laughed,
"I love you, too!"
As much as I hated to say it, Auntie was right. I felt better to be out with people instead of sitting in a dark room with a house elf. It made me see that life was still going on, and that gave me hope. It made me want to explore, maybe even discover.
"Ruffie, let's have an adventure!" I let go and looked up at him. He had defiantly grown, which wasn't good considering he was at least five inches taller than me already.
"Yeah, let's go!" Delighted, I grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the door.
"You two be good and don't do anything you're not suppose to!" Mr. Cornelius warned, calling after us.
"We know!" I rolled my eyes and closed the door.
"Where exactly are we going to go?" Rufus asked as I pulled him through the hallway.
"I don't know...somewhere we've never been!"
"But we've been everywhere here!" I stopped, realizing he was right.
"Then how can we have an adventure!?" We thoughtfully looked at each other.
"We've never been to the archives, have we?"
"What would we do in the-"
"We can look up our names!"
"You're right....Let's do it!" I grabbed him again and pulled him into one of the Ministry Lifts. A few minutes later we found ourselves where few people have laid eyes on; the Archive Office.
The Archive Office was located under all the other Ministry Offices, and was off limits to anyone without proper identification. Even most of the people who work at the Ministry have never been there, and the general public didn't even know it existed.
"Come on!" I pulled him forward again. We ran up and stopped at the small desk that was in front of the door. Both of us laughed when we saw who was working.
"Hi, Mrs. Patty!" I waved.
"Barbra!" Rufus coughed, making me giggle harder. A few months ago we had come to the conclusion that she looked more like a Barbra than a Patty.
"Are you getting a cold, Rufus?" Mrs. Patty asked, oblivious to the mockery.
"Yeah." He bit his lip, trying to keep himself from having another laughing fit.
"What brings you two here?" She asked, smiling.
"We want in!" I exclaimed, getting over excited.
"I'm sorry, but I can't let you." She replied. I frowned. Why was she even there? She worked for the Department of Mysteries (I always said because it was a mystery what she did, which usually resulted in a scolding from Auntie), not the Historian's Department.
"But, Mrs. Patty! There's a reason we need in," Rufus stepped in front of me. "My Uncle sent us to retrieve a file."
"Really?" She turned her head to the side.
"Yeah, he's really busy right now, so he doesn't have time to come get it himself." Rufus lied. I couldn't help but go into another fit of laughter. Being the Minister of Magic, Mr. Cornelius really didn't do much besides sign papers and show up at events.
"Well, if he sent you then I guess I have to let you in." She waved her wand and the door slid open. Rufus and I looked at each other, amazed by her cluelessness. She let us in without proof or barley any explanation!
The door slid closed behind us. Our eyes widened when we saw the place. The room was completely filled with large filing cabinets that were the length of the whole room and reach to the ceiling. There were 25 in all; one for each letter of the alphabet.
"Wow..." I breathed.
"Lets look!" Rufus started walking towards the F's.
"Hey!" I grabbed his arm. "We already know that something will be under Fudge! I want to look at mine first!"
"We can split up!" Rufus started walking again, ticking me off. Never the less, I went to the C cabinet and started searching for Cumberland.
I had to climb up a ladder, but I eventually found it; the cluster of Cumberlands. To my surprise, I had my own file. I opened up the drawer and looked in.
It wasn't very full. The first thing I saw was an old news clipping. It was a small article, less than five hundred words. The biggest part of the article was the hug, square pictures of a freckled man and a beautiful woman on their wedding day. They smiled and waved happily.
The picture stirred a lone, unexplained memory that has always occupied my mind. An early memory of a smaller me, maybe three or four years old. I was laying in a small, child sized bed, wrapped in my special quilt. beside the bed was a man playing a round, odd looking instrument. Beside him was a woman with curly, brown hair. She was softly singing:
"My sweet, my sweet,
Drift off to sleep,
Let your dreams pursue,
The highest star,
The brightest light,
The silver, shining moon.
My sweet, my sweet,
And when you wake,
Always remember this,
I love you, dear,
And I'll be here,
To give you a loving kiss."
After seeing the picture something clicked. These people were my parents! There was no doubt about it! I read the heading of the article:
MINISTRY INVESTIGATES TRAGIC ACCIDENT
I glanced down at the caption under the photo,
Peter and Marry Cumberland at their wedding, 1978
So I was right...they were my parents...
I touched the pictures slowly, but to my disappointment they didn't respond. They just continued to wave.
I started to scan the article. Finally! I was going to find out what happened to them, but it turns out the article was just as use full as Auntie. It was vague and mysterious and didn't even say what kind of accident it was. Maybe I could find the answer in my father's.
I started to put the clipping back, but another paper in the drawer caught my eye. I put the article down and picked up the other paper.
It was printed on thick, official looking Ministry paper. I tried to read it, but it was all law jargon that I couldn't understand. The only hints I could get were from the few things I had learned in the Wizarding Law class Auntie was making me take.
The first thing I could make out was my name and Mr. Cornelius's signature a the bottom. The second thing wasn't that easy, or common. In the middle of the paper I saw OBLIVIATE UNDER STATEMENT OF G 5 SECTION 4: in other words, altering my memories for the greater good.
"R-Rufus..." I whispered, trying to keep hold of the ladder through my shock. "Rufus...RUFUS!" I yelled. He rushed from where ever he was to the bottom of the latter.
"What?" He yelled up to me.
"Push the ladder to the left a bit." Now I had to look in my father's file. I wanted to know why my memory was altered.
"Why?"
"Just do it!" He could tell by my tone of voice that I was serious, so he quickly pushed it. I searched for it, found it, and opened the drawer with my father's name on it. What was inside confused me. Instead of a bunch of paper work there was four small vials filled with silvery liquids: memories. I grabbed them and slid down the ladder.
"Hold these." I threw them into Rufus's arms and stomped towards the door at the far side of the room.
"What are you-"
"There is something weird going on, and I intend to get to the bottom of it!"