Love is greater than our cause

Chapter 33: He means nothing to me anymore

Albus POV:

Dear Professor Dumbledore

I have something urgent to tell you. My mother has organised for me to join her at the place where Grindelwald is. I don't want to go. She hasn't told me where it is and I am not to tell anyone, she stressed it was important I do this or something bad might happen...I'm sorry. I have no choice and of course my entire family is so proud I'm going to apparently 'join the cause' whatever that mean. I'll try and send an owl but I doubt I'll be able to do it often with all the security they must have.

Amyclus Carrow

I folded the letter up and put in it my draw, sighing to myself. There was nothing I could do and it was frustrating. I have no idea what he's like now, how Carrow will be treated. I know Carrow hasn't see his mother in years, nor does he agree with any of his relatives views on anything. This might be seen as selfish but...if there was a way to make the best of the situation...wouldn't it be a good idea. I hesitated, reaching for a piece of parchment and dipping my quill into the ink pot.

Dear Amyclus

I'm deeply sorry to hear this, I cannot express my frustration in not being able to help you. But you might be able to help me. This may be dangerous but I need you to do something...if you're willing to. Find out anything you can about what he's doing, send it to me and I will record every last word. This will be useful detail to me and the ministry to use against him, to finally defeat him. Reply as soon as you can.

Albus Dumbledore

I called my bird over and he flew away with the letter.
'Dumbledore?' My door opened slightly, a familiar voice calling me.
'Mclaggen?' I questioned, surprised. Why was he here?
'Hello sir!' He came in and I immediately knew he was here for a reason. The suit was a clue.
'What's uhhh with the suit?' I asked, he looked so grown up it made me feel old.
'Didn't you get my owl?' His smile faded to confusion. I shook my head and Mclaggen cleared his throat, 'I'm officially a part of the ministry!' He announced proudly, smoothing down his suit.
'Wow that's great Mclaggen.' I congratulated, in truth I don't like the ministry which is well known to most people. But I know he wants to make his family proud and as he comes from a long line of ministry workers, he's doing just that.
'I'm here on official ministry business of course but I thought I'd come and give you an informal greeting before I have to look super serious and grumpy.' He joked, I wonder what he was here for.
'I've missed that sense of humour of yours.' I smiled.
'I've missed your wisdom sir...I like working in the ministry but they're all pretty depressing.' He shook his head, pulling a piece of paper from his pocket, 'Travers asked me to give this to you...said it was important.'
I read the tiny scrap of paper

Come to my office tomorrow, we need to talk.

I felt immediately annoyed. I have to go to the ministry? Meet with Travers.....who probably wants to talk to me about how I'm doing on destroying the thing that I regret the most. Which isn't going well.
'Have you heard from Carrow?' Mclaggen asked, 'I've sent a few letter but he hasn't returned them.'
I felt bad that Carrow won't be able to reply to Mclaggen because he will be too busy on trying to reply to me. Despite that, I decided to tell him the truth. 'Yes, I have...he's on a rather important mission right now, you might find he won't reply for a while.'
'I see...is he in trouble professor?' It was evident he was concerned for his friend.
I didn't really know how to reply to that, shaking my head I replied, 'you best be going Mclaggen, before they come looking for you.'
He grinned, 'my sense of humour is rubbing off on you sir.'
'Im glad!' I watched as he left me, I sighed into my hands as I dreaded the next day.

My hands in my pockets, I walked along the bust streets of London. Somewhere I hadn't been in a few years now, I'd grown comfort in hiding away at Hogwarts.
'Sorry!' Someone shouted after bumping into me. I nodded my head and continued towards my destination. I reached the red telephone box and turned the numbers. It started to go down and I felt the lump rise in my throat. Swallowing it down I started to work on what I was doing to say. I had managed to find cover in time for today's lesson, I hoped they would be ok. Just another thing for me to worry about. I saw the swarm of workers as the telephone box landed. I got out and blended into the mass of people, just another joy of being here. Owls were flying in every direction from above and the house elf's cleaned the windows as I remembered they did. I got into the elevator which was crammed with witches and wizards. It was as if my stomach was left behind as we went down, reaching the floor I wanted to be on. I waded my way through the people and hurried off to Travers' office. Finally, I found a door labelled 'Head Of Magical Law enforcement' I knocked and waited. A slit opened, startling me a little as I saw a pair of dark brown eyes. It closed and the door opened, revealing Travers sat in the office chair, Theseus beside him. He gestured me to sit down and I followed.
'I suppose you're aware why we brought you here today?' His annoying voice rang throughout my ears.
'Because you want to know-'
'Because I want to know how you're doing on destroying that thing.' He finished before I could, why would he ask me in the first place then?
'Well...there's been no real development yet.' I sighed, shaking my head, waiting for the criticism.
'Dumbledore...do you understand what's happening here?' He asked rhetorically, his hands pressed together in an annoyed manor. 'If you can't destroy this blood pact, the wizarding world is in Grindelwalds control.'
'I realise that Travers, do you not think I've been trying my hardest to find out how to actually destroy it!' I defended
'No, no I don't.' He said bluntly, 'I think you still hold a liking for him which is holding you back.'
'That is not true!'
'Then say it.' He said through gritted teeth, standing up to tower above me.
I drew a breath, 'he means nothing to me anymore.' I shook my head, I wanted to scream at him. But in order for them to see me as loyal I had to lie. They just think i used to be friends with him still anyway, it's not like they think they're asking me to do something that difficult. That's what they do, they gets other people to do things for them but I still need their support.
Satisfied, Travers relaxed back into his seat, 'I'm giving you a few more years, if it's not destroyed by then...we'll have to think of something else.' He sighed, pushing his pencil in line with the others so they were perfect. I hoped I'd be able to find a way to destroy it in the next few years. Otherwise I don't know what we can do.