Bridget sprinted down the empty corridor. She had… five minutes until the Hogwarts Express left without her. She skidded around another corner and looked right, left. Her face fell. She was doomed. Nothing was familiar about this part of the castle; the paintings sneered sinisterly and the heads on the suits of armor watched her every move.
A staircase! She took the steps two at a time. Suddenly, the staircase gave a jolt and started to swing.
“Shit!” She screamed and started to scramble up the stairs before it left the landing completely. But it was too late. The staircase swung completely around to the other side than started to stretch upwards. Bridget stared in disbelief. She really hadn’t seen that coming. Stupid stairs. It continued to get longer and longer until it arrived about three stories higher than the floor it had originally been at. She sighed and started climbing; there was no use now but to find the Headmaster’s office and explain what had happened.
“Sock! Robe! Hat! UNDERWEAR! You know, that’s just plain disgusting, Sirius!” Bridget was halfway under Sirius’ bed in the boys’ dormitory, fishing out lost and forgotten articles of clothing from underneath his bed. She got up and stretched out her stiff back. “That’s it, get your own bloody underwear, there’s no way on earth I’m touching that thing.” She gathered her own pile of dirty laundry from off of Clive’s old bed and dumped it in her cauldron. She couldn’t help staring at the bed. The boys had kept it immaculately clean and untouched since Clive’s death and the empty bed kept calling for attention.
“It feels desolate, doesn’t it?” Remus asked softly and put an arm around her shoulder. So he had noticed.
“It shouldn’t stay that empty, it doesn’t feel right. It’s a hole.” She explained. “Mother always said that when someone died, you can’t keep everything unfinished; you have to fill in the holes they’ve left behind.”
“Why don’t you have it then?” Peter suggested. “You know, next year when we come back you can sleep there; sort of like having your own bed. Your own space.”
“Let’s wait until next year then.” She said softly. She stared at the bed for a few moments before continuing. “I’m going to go drop my laundry off; maybe Ollie will do it for me before we leave.”
“You sure that you remember how to get there?” James asked.
“Yeah, hang a left at Hawaii… Honestly, James, I’ll be fine!” Bridget laughed and picked her cauldron back up. “I’ll be back in five minutes, we’ve got to finish packing; the train leaves in three hours.”
Three hours… That’s how long she’d been lost in the castle. Pathetic. she thought bitterly. Absolutely pathetic. She couldn’t even find her way around Hogwarts without help from Sirius, Remus, Peter, or James. Wait, was that the kitchens? Bridget felt like jumping for joy. “Thank God!” She tickled the pear and stumbled into the kitchens.
“Hello?” She asked tentatively. The kitchen seemed to be empty. “Heellllloooo!”
“How is I to be helping you, Miss?” A small, green, wrinkled elf appeared at her elbow.
“Oh! Um, do you think you could show me the way to Professor Dumbledore’s office? You see, I got kind of lost and-”
“Please follow me, Miss.” The elf turned and began walking at a brisk pace towards the door. Bridget couldn’t help raising an eyebrow at the elf’s strange attire. It was wearing a miniature business suit with a skirt and polished oxfords. A second, closer look revealed that it also seemed to have bright red nail polish on its fingernails.
“I love that color.”
“Thank you, Miss.” The elf said tersely and sped up the pace. Bridget had to jog to keep up. The elf stopped at the gargoyle that guarded Dumbledore’s office and said, “Miss is going to have to find her own way in.” Without further ado, the elf snapped her fingers and disappeared, suit and all.
Bridget rolled her eyes and turned to face the gargoyle. Now, the password…
“Okay then… um, Drooble’s Best Blowing Gum! No? Um, licorice wands? Pepper Imps! Jelly Slugs! Chocolate Frogs! Cockroach Clusters!” The gargoyle stood aside. “Ew, really?” She made a face and walked quickly past it… just in case it changed its mind about letting a first year into the Headmaster’s Office.
She came up the oak door and paused once, before knocking and quickly taking a step back from the threshold.
“Come in!” Professor Dumbledore’s voice called cheerfully.
Bridget pushed open the heavy door and took three cautious steps into the office. Professor Dumbledore was nowhere to be seen.
“Hullo, Professor.” Bridget mumbled.
“Why, Ms. McGuire, is that you?” Dumbledore’s head poked out of a black cabinet that was next to a perch Bridget knew belonged to Fawkes. “Shouldn’t you be on your way home? Oh, I’m sorry, how rude of me. May I offer you a butterbeer?”
“Yes please, Professor.” Bridget’s face burned with embarrassment. She’d been in the Headmaster’s office many times before of course, but to miss the train? She was parched and hungry, and the weird little house elf hadn’t offered her anything to eat. And since it was now five o’clock in the evening and she hadn’t eaten since eight o’clock that morning, she was reasonably starved.
Dumbledore handed her an ice cold butterbeer and sat down behind his desk. He drew his wand and with a flick, removed the caps. He held his bottle up and said, “A toast, Ms. McGuire? To the end of another school year and the beginning of summer?”
Bridget smiled and clinked bottles with him. How oddly surreal this all felt. Dumbledore took a quick drink from his butterbeer then set the beverage down onto his desk.
“Now, I assume that you didn’t stay behind at Hogwarts to have a friendly chat with your Headmaster, am I correct?” He said merrily. His eyes really did seem to twinkle perpetually, Bridget noted.
“Well, um, ha ha… It’s a funny story, really, Professor. You see, I was bringing my laundry down to the house elves before I left on the train, Professor, and I sort of… kind of… got lost.”
Dumbledore chuckled, before giving in and full out laughing. “Ah, I’m sorry, Ms. McGuire… Please, I truly am sorry. That’s perfectly understandable. Let’s be thankful that it wasn’t something extremely serious. Like, shoving a certain Slytherin into the Vanishing Cabinet…” He raised an eyebrow and smiled. “You gave Mr. Malfoy quite the scare. I daresay he won’t be trying anything else again.”
Bridget relaxed a bit in her chair and gave a weak smile. She opened her mouth to reply only to be cut off be a sharp rap at the window. Bridget realized with a sinking feeling that it was Theodore, or Theo, Papa’s owl. But didn’t he know that she was supposed to be on the train right now? The owl must have obviously come to the Headmaster after finding no one in the Great Hall. He’s forgotten when I get out of school again. She thought, her face burning. Many a day she had waited outside of her Muggle elementary school waiting for her father to pick her up, long after Lily, Claire, Marie and Alice had left. A similar incident had also occurred around the Christmas holidays.
Dumbledore saw the bird and rose halfway before saying, “Please excuse me, Miss McGuire. It seems that we have an avian visitor on our hands.”
“You can call me Bridget if you’d like, Sir.” She said softly. “The owl’s from my father. I recognize the bird.”
“Really? Then let’s see what this is all about then, shall we, Bridget?” He took the letter from Theo and conjured up a dish of water for it. He handed the letter to Bridget. “You’re correct. It’s addressed to you.”
Bridget took the envelope and ripped it open.
Daughter,
I assume you are doing well. I received your last owl and I am very pleased with your academic performance in your exams. However, your behavior is unacceptable. Fiona is appalled and I am extremely disappointed in you for upsetting your stepmother like that.
Bridget snorted at the idea of Fiona being appalled at her behavior. Bridget had read the reports from her lawyers and private investigators hired by her mother to look after Bridget and her piece of the inheritance. She was constantly updated with information on Papa’s new wives and all other business and legal proceedings. Bridget was even willing to bet that she was the only twelve year old at Hogwarts that knew what alimony and aliquot was and what the difference was between them.
Fiona wasn’t exactly “little miss perfect” from the reports that she had read. Bridget personally thought that being a Muggle play bunny was a bigger mistake than a few pranks. She read on:
Your behavior has distressed her so much that she has insisted that we go to our house in Canada; in the Northwest Territory instead of the one in Ontario since she plans on magically entertaining this summer and we can’t risk any more Muggle sightings. We plan to be gone for most of the summer, so she has kindly compiled a list of summer activities for you while we are gone. I have also owled your grandmother in Taiwan. She has set aside a week for you to visit her this summer. Please be grateful, polite and considerate when you visit. She is a very busy woman with limited patience. I will now close this letter with Fiona’s choice of summer plans for you.
-Cooking camp in Russia
- Summer school in America
- Volunteer work for Fiona’s charity organization
-Visiting your sisters in France
- Elocution and Manners Summer program in London, along with tutoring in French, Latin and embroidery at the Young Ladies for a Better Society Institution.
- Performing Arts Camp in France
I look forward to your arrival at Ellesmere Range next week.
Sincerely,
Gus McGuire
P.S. Your brother had requested that I send his congratulations on your grades and your new acquaintances with the Black, Potter, Pettigrew, and Lupin families. He sends his warmest regards and wishes me to inform you that he intends to owl you soon and set up a date to meet up one day.
Bridget stared at the letter for a few seconds. She really couldn’t believe that he had forgotten when school got out.
“Professor, may I borrow a quill and some parchment? I need to reply to this immediately. It seems,” she said tartly while rolling up the letter, “that my father has again, forgotten when I get out of school.”
Dumbledore nodded and conjured up parchment and handed her a quill. “Take as long as you’d like. Now, with your permission, I’ll gather up the rest of your belongings and bring them here. I believe that your trunk is in the boys’ dormitory?”
Bridget’s jaw dropped slightly. “How did you…?”
Dumbledore chuckled. “Did you really think that Professor McGonagall doesn’t notice what’s going on in that tower of yours? We don’t hear all the juicy gossip, but the news of a group of inseparable first year students did manage to get to us. And, unless I am sorely mistaken, there is a rule against boys in the girls’ dormitories… but it says nothing of girls in the boys’ dormitories. So, no harm done.”
“Thank you, Professor.”
“Not at all; it’s no problem.” He smiled, “I’ll leave you to it then, shall I?”
With a small nod to Bridget, he left the room.
After a moment of consideration, Bridget moved over to the Headmaster’s chair to write her letter. The desk and chair were almost too big for her and her feet barely touched the ground. She scooched the chair closer to the desk and took a phoenix quill from its holder and dipped it into the ink pot on his desk. She eyed the desk drawer apprehensively before yanking it open, snatching a piece of parchment from the stack there and slamming it shut. Bridget let out a breath of relief. She was on pins and needles; expecting an alarm to go off at any second.
She looked around the room as she thought of a reply. She loved the Headmaster’s office; the beautiful antique carvings and delicate silver instruments that were scattered around the office on small tables, the gorgeous lacquered black liquor cabinet in the corner, the oak dresser, and most of all- Fawkes. The plumed epitome of beauty looked at her and cocked his head as if to ask if she was honestly going to take that kind of treatment from her own father. She studied Fawkes and smiled. Trust a bird to know exactly how to reply.
Father,
I’d like to warn you that the next time you wish to sound well informed of your youngest daughter’s whereabouts, or anyone else’s for that matter, that you actually know where they are and have the facts- not a scattered version of the truth. I happen to be on my way home as I write this. Hogwarts does not let out next week, but this week. Thankfully, I did not get onto the train on time due to unfortunate circumstances and did have to endure the humiliation of being forgotten at Platform nine and three quarters.
As for Fiona, it’s no use to pretend any longer. I received a letter from your legal department two weeks ago, informing me of your plans to divorce her after this summer. As you may also have forgotten, I inherited my mother’s stock in the company and her right to full access to all the legal records in the company: legal and private. I am a bit insulted that you let this stranger run our household and order around your daughter of all people. I thought that you might have held more personal pride in your family than to let her run things.
This brings me to the issue of Fiona’s order that I abandon Ellesmere Range for the summer. I can’t believe that you actually require me to obey that woman and her foolish commands! Since I have no say in the matter however, I will do as you wish. I will obey only you. I am warning you, I will directly ignore any commands from her. Below is the list of camps you have sent, attached with my commentary.
~Cooking camp in Russia- No. You both seem to have forgotten the Russia is a COMMUNIST country. Remember the Soviet Union?
~Summer school in America- School during the summer? Do you even remember your childhood, Papa? No.
~Volunteer work for Fiona’s charity organization- No. Fiona’s charity doesn’t do any work. What they do is get Fiona drunk enough and get her to convince you to write a rather large check.
~Visiting your sisters in France- Papa, they aren’t in France anymore… school let out two weeks ago. Nice to know I wasn’t the only one this time.
~ Elocution and Manners Summer program in London, along with tutoring in French, Latin and embroidery at the Young Ladies for a Better Society Institution- No. I would kill them all as I made my escape to lock myself up in a mental hospital with all the other poor, normal souls whose parents also made them attend.
~Performing Arts Camp in France- This is probably the sanest idea Fiona’s had since she married you. I will attend on one condition- Lily, Marie, Claire and Alice get to go with me.
Finally, Papa, I hope you will know how disappointed and disgusted I am with your behavior. No matter how much you wish that I had perhaps died during my birth, I am still your daughter and I still love you.
Sincerely,
Bridget McGuire
Without further ado, she attached the letter to the owl and watched it fly off. While she would regret the letter later, she couldn’t help but feel a bit vindicated as she imagined the look on Gus McGuire’s face as he read her letter.
A few minutes later, Dumbledore reentered his office and upon finding her perched precariously in his chair, chuckled, offered her his arm and led her to the Floo. After helping her heave her trunk in the fireplace he gave her a pinch of Floo powder.
“Have a nice summer, Bridget.” He said merrily.
“Thank you, Professor.” Stepping out of the extinguished fireplace for one second, she impulsively reached out and hugged the Headmaster. “Thank you for everything.”
She jumped into the fireplace before he got the chance to respond, threw the Floo powder down and yelled, “Ellesmere Range!” The warm, green flames engulfed her and she couldn’t help laughing at the ridiculousness of her life.
Meanwhile, on the train…
James finished scribbling on a ragged, ripped up piece of parchment, rolled it up and handed it to his owl. The owl took off through the window and the four boys watched as it slowly disappeared from sight.
“I cannot believe that she got lost again.” Sirius groaned and leaned back in his seat. “I am so going to take the mickey out of her the next time I see her.”
Remus absentmindedly scratched behind Bisou’s ears. “That might be sooner than you think. We have to give Bisou back to her, remember?”
“Oh, yeah. Hey, James, you think your parents will let us Floo to the McGuire’s place?” Sirius asked.
James shrugged, and then nodded. “Yeah, they know the McGuire’s Floo address. Will all your parents be okay with it?”
Peter said sadly, “I can’t. I’m off to summer school right after this. My parents weren’t happy with my exam results so they enrolled me in a few summer courses.”
“That stinks. I’m sorry, Pete.” Sirius patted Peter on the back. “You’ve got to be kidding me on the parents’ thing, James. My mother will be thrilled that I’m finally making ‘the proper connections.’”
“Great. And you, Remus?”
“I’ll ask my mom and dad, they’re picking me up at the station. Besides, they want to meet all of you.”
“Nice! So, we’ll just gate-crash the McGuire’s with the puppy excuse, stay the night there or at least stay for dinner, and then we’ll Floo home the next day.” James rubbed his hands together and smiled.
“I’m not so sure about that, James.” Remus said; a bit worried. “What if they don’t have enough room for all of us?”
“Don’t worry about that, mother,” Sirius said, using his favorite nickname for Remus when Remus was in distress, “Bridget’s a pure-blood. She’s got to have space. And if she doesn’t, who cares? It’s not as if we need a huge castle or something.”
“But we don’t even know where she lives,” Remus persisted.
“Like I said, my mom’s got that taken care of,” James said happily.
“All right. If you say so.” With that, Remus relaxed back into his seat. “Hope Bridget knows what’s coming.”
Seconds later, Bridget stepped out fireplace and out onto Ellesmere Range, the centuries old ranch settled in the Scottish mountainside. The craggy peaks of the mountainside were visible even through the foggy mist that enveloped the lower region of the ranch. She sighed, since the Floo network had landed her in the outside fireplace instead of in her father’s study; Gus McGuire was obviously not home. Whenever he was away, her father insisted on shutting off the only Floo-connected fireplace in the entire castle and activating the one that let the person off at the entrance to the ranch. She looked around at the familiar surroundings.
The entrance to the ranch was fairly simple considering the wealth of her family. Two wooden posts about twenty feet high were driven into the ground. Stretched across them was another post from which hung a thin, purposely rusted iron plate. An artist had cut out pieces from the iron sheet so that the sign read “Ellesmere Range” and under that, “McGuire.” Around the words, were several hollowed out dragons surrounded by mountains. For the McGuire family hadn’t accumulated their wealth through the stock market alone, in fact, they were barely connected with the stock market. What the McGuire family was famous for, was their dragons. The McGuire family boasted several centuries of successful dragon entrepreneurs and dragon tamers. They had raised, and in some cases, tamed dragons for wealthy pure-bloods, large apothecary chains, and any other reason you could think of. They had all types of dragons- Antipodean Opaleyes, Chinese Fireballs, the common Welsh Greens, Hebridean Blacks, Hungarian Horntails, Norwegian Ridgebacks, Peruvian Vipertooths, Romanian Longhorns, Swedish Short-Snouts, Ukrainian Ironbellies and some hybrid breeds which only the McGuires and their dragon keepers knew.
The ranch was ridiculously large; it ran thirty miles wide and forty miles long. The land had been accumulated over the years and the family still acquired more and more land each year. The cold, mountainous terrain was the perfect habitat for the dragons in general and for the few that mostly lived in valleys, there was a small valley nestled in the mountains. It was the ideal place to keep several dragons; charms almost as old as the land itself ensured that no dragon could get out or attack any innocent passerby on their way to the castle.
The McGuire family poured all their energy and love into Ellesmere Range, and it showed in the wild, but somewhat tamed beauty of the landscape. Whatever wasn’t situated in the mountains was meticulously taken care of. No unsightly weed was allowed to take root on the road and no animal dropping was left un-vanished by the grounds’ caretaker, Ainsley. If a Muggle had any reason to drive past the ranch, which was sixty miles from the nearest town, they would have thought it was a Scottish version of an American “dude ranch” for vacationers.
It was not a dude ranch of course, but her home. A place of refuge where she could chat with her friends, tease and annoy her sisters, go horseback riding, or race her brother in the mountains. It was a place where she could go on long walks with her father’s dogs and-
“Oh my Godric, I’ve forgotten Bisou!”
Author’s Note: Had to leave it off there, for various reasons! Sorry about the long wait- I lost my flash drive!!! *shocked* But, it’s all good, I found it. Anyways, hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please leave a review. Even if it’s just one line reviews mean so much to me!