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The team of professeurs caught her, quite easily would be an
understatement; the lion was docile and quite trusting of its captors. It was a
painful transformation, but soon the immortal traded places with the flaming lion.
She was taken to the headmaster’s office and sat down rather severely; she had
betrayed their trust, but how? They had never asked and as far as she knew, there
was no registry where all animagi were written up. Confused and in pain she did
more than she was told and became quite submissive as though she were expecting
the collar about her neck again, or to be hit, or whipped, or worse. The
headmaster soon arrived.
"What is to be done Mac?" He said after taking his seat. "Don’t you
understand the severity of this deed?" Mac remained silent, not weeping, not
laughing, not growling, not making any noise. "Mac, don’t you understand
anything I say? Don’t you speak at all? Can’t you nod your head or shake it? Do
you understand right from wrong?" The girl did nothing, only stared at him with
cold empty eyes. "Mac, if you can say nothing in your defence..." Mac looked up
at him, almost pleading with him, pain seeping from her soul and making her look
even more empty, like a black void. Suddenly she roared to life and leapt from her
chair and took his face in her hands and held onto him tight showing him her pain.
He could do nothing but close his eyes and absorb it. A vision flashed into his
mind. He could see Mac on the streets begging for something to eat, thin and
bruised, then attacked and robbed of all the money she had earned. Another vision
flashed into his mind, this time of Mac as a lion bound tight to a wall, a studded
collar bound tight about her neck, fresh blood seething down her breast over blood
matted fur; and then came the worst vision of all. He could see her being chased,
running for her life down the back alley of some ancient town, a man in short
pursuit; they disappeared into a farmer’s field where the walls were made of stone;
quite suddenly a scream rang through the headmaster’s head; a shrill cry of a
virginity being ripped from a girl, then a flash of green light and all fell silent
forever. Mac released him and cowered back to a darkened spot in the
headmaster’s office, huddled and terrified of what would happen next. The
headmaster sat in his chair breathing quickly and heavily; unable to utter a word he
sat many moments absorbing all that he had just seen.
Nearly half an hour had passed before he trusted himself with words and
with motion. Gently he rose and walked over to Mac and stroked her hair. He felt
an unearthly chill make him shiver and a hollow pit form in the base of his stomach
but he said nothing to it. He understood now that she had been cursed into silence,
into an inability to communicate to others with words or with gestures. Slowly he
stooped down to her level and spoke.
"Lets try and see if we can’t lift this curse and get you talking again, alright?"
He didn’t expect an answer and he didn’t receive one. Slowly they both rose to
their feet and the headmaster led her back to her bed in the hospital wing.
All night a group of highly skilled wizards and witches searched for the curse
that froze her ability to communicate; needless to say it made her terribly nervous
and the witch doctor, Pomfrey, was kept quite busy mending cuts from Mac’s
swipes at the professeurs. By the following morning, only one professeur was left
searching; this was the snake like man, Professeur Snape. But as miracles are rare
and impossible to predict the time they will occur, so was the girl’s miracle. The
man had nearly forsaken her, determining this a pointless waste of time, he found
the curse and easily lifted it. The immortal closed her eyes and smiled, swallowed,
then opened two radiant green eyes and whispered to him,
"Thank you sir" then closed her eyes again and did not open them for the
remainder of the week.Cursed
