Emaline looked at herself in the mirror over her desk and rubbed at the dark circles under her eyes. It was a long walk from her room to her office that morning. She left extremely early in order to avoid the students in the hallway. It was Friday, and she had a class at eight o’clock.
“You look fine. This will all work itself out. Mere misunderstandings, I assure you. Once everything has been explained, no one will be mad anymore.” The deep baritone voice of the mirror was comforting.
“Thank you. I only hope you're right.”
“I never lie.”
A familiar voice spoke out from the doorway, “Well I’ll be damned. Mum told me you were teaching here, but I thought I would come see for myself.”
“Charlie?” Emaline turned and ran at him. She threw her arms around him, and he squeezed her tightly.
“Wow, nine years and you are just as pretty as you were when we were together. I can’t believe they let a troublemaker like you teach.”
“I wouldn’t have gotten into nearly as much trouble at this school if it hadn’t been for you and your brothers. I have to admit though, I was very nervous about teaching.”
“You seem to have gotten over that quickly. From what I hear you’re quite the Professor. A Chimera in class? That was pretty brave.”
Emaline blushed, “Well I had to get their attention. I wanted to be taken seriously.”
Charlie looked at her, a little bewildered, “If you wanted to be taken seriously perhaps you should have distanced yourself from certain students.”
A frown creased her forehead and she pushed away from him, now knowing exactly why he was here. “Your mum sent you to talk to me, didn’t she? She always did have a way of meddling in things.”
Laughing a little, Charlie responded, “That’s not a very nice thing to say about my mum. She is just worried about Ron. Sure, you aren’t doing anything legally wrong, but morally, I’d have to say your judgment is a little off. He’s not me, and after the way you broke off our engagement, you think she wants you involved with my brother?”
“I didn’t break off our engagement. ”
Charlie looked at her a little confused, “My mum gave me the ring you left behind that morning. You told her that you had been accepted to Auror training and that you realized we were too young anyway.”
Emaline’s eyes widened in surprise, “I most certainly did not! Yes, I came to tell you I had been accepted, but your mother told me that since you were not, that it would be best if I moved on without you, that it would only upset you that I was going. She said we were too young.”
They stared at each other for a long time, not sure who was telling the truth.
In a low voice Emaline started to talk, “Charlie, I loved you. I loved your family, all those siblings. I loved coming over and feeling like I belonged there. Ron and Ginny were always following us around, and the twins - God, don’t even get me started on them. But I don’t think your mum ever truly liked me, no matter what I did. It sounds as if she is the one that broke us up.”
“It’s water under the bridge now.” He looked hard at her and asked, “Are you sleeping with Ron?”
Emaline glared at him, “Do you really think I would do that?”
“What about Harry?”
Getting angry now she answered tartly, “That is none of your business, and neither is any of my other relationships. You know what? You came here to ask about your brother, and you got your answer. Run along back to your mummy, and tell her to mind her own business.” She gave him a fierce scowl. “I should have known you didn’t come here to see me. Why would you? You only do what Mummy wants you to do.”
“Now wait just a minute, Emma, that is not necessary. You never were one to do things properly were you?” Charlie grabbed her upper arm to keep her in place; neither heard the approaching footfalls on the steps. “If you are having an inappropriate relationship with one of your students, I think it is my duty, as a concerned citizen, to turn you over to the Ministry.”
Emaline jerked her arm away from him and moved towards her desk. “It is none of your concern what I do. Now get out of here Charlie. You no longer have any say in what I do. If you truly loved me, you would have come looking for me and wouldn’t have just taken your mum’s word for it.”
“Why would I come looking for you? You didn’t bother to come talk to me. I’ve been in Romania for a long time now. Anyone could have told you where I was.”
Emmaline turned to him with tears in her eyes, “I knew where you were. I ran into Bill a while back, and he told me. I just didn’t want to stir up those old feelings; it took a while for me to get over what had happened.”
“We could try again.” Charlie moved towards her, but Emmaline threw up a trembling hand to stop him.
“No, I can’t go there again, I’ve moved on now. I’m going to get married and…” When he continued towards her she quickly backed up and hit the wall where the large mirror hung. It teetered precariously then slipped from its wall anchor.
Charlie watched in horror as the heavy mirror crashed down on top of her, crushing her beneath its weight. He grabbed hold of it and threw it off of her. Emmaline laid very still, blood pouring out of a gash on her head and a large shard of mirror sticking out of her chest. “Oh no! Come on Emma, breathe!”
Charlie cradled her head in his lap. She made a small gasping sound then fell silent.
“NO! NO! NO!” The anguished shouts came from the doorway.
Charlie spun around so quickly he almost fell. His eyes widened in surprise to discover who were there. “It was an accident,” he tried to explain, “she backed into it.”
"You were trying to take her from me. You had your chance, and you blew it. Now look what you’ve done. Oh God, Emma.” He shoved Charlie away so he could look at her.
With fury on his face he swiftly turned towards Charlie, “Expelliarmus!” Charlie’s wand went flying across the room.
“You are going to pay for this Weasley, ”Suffoco!”
Years of dodging dragons had taught Charlie to move quickly. He managed to jump out of the way before the choking spell hit him. He could not believe that this was happening.
When he heard Ferio come out of the young man’s mouth, he turned to flee. Surely he had not meant to use the old spell meaning ‘to slay.’
Without his wand he knew he could not fight. He raced from the room towards the hidden tunnel he had entered the school from, a furious young man hot on his heels.
~
The doors to the Great Hall banged open, and with a wave of her hand, the tables cleared of all the breakfast items. The hall went completely silent as Headmistress McGonagall mounted the steps to the professors’ sitting area.
She took a deep breath and with a slight quiver in her voice made an abrupt statement, “Professor Latham has been killed.”
Several students jumped to their feet as audible gasps were heard throughout the hall. “No one is leaving this room until I find out who is responsible.”
Her furious gaze swept across the hall, and every student felt as if she were accusing him or her. “Yesterday someone started some very nasty stories about Professor Latham, and I believe this may be related.” Her eyes stopped moving when she found the steel-gray eyes she had been looking for.
She strode over to him and in a low menacing voice she said, “Mr. Malfoy, you were heard having an argument with Emaline yesterday morning. Will you please explain yourself.” It wasn’t a question it was a demand.
“I don’t have to tell you anything. I want to go see for myself.” He started towards the doors when her next words stopped him.
“I do not need to remind you of the terms for which you are in my school. You will answer my question, Mr. Malfoy, or you will join your father. Is that clear?”
All color had drained from his face. He looked around at all the people staring at him. “Can we go to your office?”
McGonagall narrowed her eyes at him, “Do you have something to hide Mr. Malfoy?”
He growled out “No. I just don’t think it is anybody else’s business.” When she didn’t make any move to leave he lowered his voice and answered her. “We met over the summer. I didn’t know she was a teacher. I saw this beautiful young woman walking around Knockturn Alley looking lost, and I offered to help.” Behind him Ginny snorted loudly.
Professor McGonagall raised an eyebrow at him. “Is that all?” Every pair of eyes was glued to him, waiting for his answer.
He looked around, not sure he really wanted to continue. Headmistress McGonagall seemed to not notice or care that there was an audience. The back of his hand started to burn, and he quickly decided he had better continue. “She was looking for certain artifacts; I took her to Borgin & Burkes then asked her if she wanted a drink. We went to the Vampire Room, and I bought her a drink. We had been having a very friendly conversation when some of my father’s old friends approached. When they tried to take me, she stepped in.”
“Go on then, what happened next? Dean asked from behind the Headmistress.
Draco glared at Dean, not wanting to tell everyone what happened but knowing he wasn’t about to get out of the room without a fight. “I asked her to help me find somewhere to hide, and she said she would.”
“Why would she do that?” Hermione questioned him with a haughty tone.
Draco sneered at her, but when Hagrid made a move towards him he nervously blurted out the rest of his story. “She said that Dumbledore had felt I deserved a second chance, so she would help me. Somehow she had convinced my mother to send me back to school. I had no idea she was a professor until I saw her here.” He winked at Dean and casually added, “We’re friends.”
Rage filled Professor McGonagall’s face, and she pointed her wand at him.
With a little squawk of fear he answered, “Friends, just friends, I’m sure she was seeing someone else though.” Draco turned his head towards Ron.
“Then what were you discussing in her classroom yesterday?” Orla tried to sound interested without letting on she was the one who overheard them.
He looked at the Headmistress, who had a questioning look on her face. “I wanted her to get permission for me to go to Hogsmeade, that’s all.”
Not totally ruling Draco out as a suspect, McGonagall’s cold gaze locked with the next person who could have been involved.
