Author's notes :
Tanya Mukherjee, while traversing an old and tiny alley called the 'Dugon Gali' near the Howrah station in Kolkata, that she used to visit with her grandfather as a kid, suddenly finds herself lost inside an alley called the 'Diagon Alley', in London. And she has no idea how she ended up there! But things don't stop spiralling out of control when she witnesses a massive attack, learns from an auburn haired British boy that the way back to her own 'place' (whatever it meant) was taken over by the Death Eaters who have now wreaked havoc across both the cities of London and Kolkata.
Will Tani ever be able to return back home? Or does fate have something else in store for her in this mysterious magical world that has started to unfold, that she never knew even existed?
Further Notes : Lacks editing and may contain typos and grammatical errors (apologies for that). Hope you enjoy it! Do give me your opinion at the end!
Tani was an average nineteen year old girl from Kolkata. She lived with her father and her bed ridden grandmother in a small apartment, in a place called New Town. Her mother had passed away when she was ten. She did her schooling from Loreto, a convent, and had as average a school life, as any other. And since the time she moved to Bombay to do her engineering, she has been enduring a regular college life, with her friends and all the other pros and cons.
Even when it came to looks, she wasn’t outstanding anybody. She had waist-long jet black hair and always wore them in plaits, but whenever she wore them down they fell in waves. She was perhaps a little too pale, and quite tall for a girl, and a tad bit skinny for a Bengali.
Never in her wildest dreams did Tani ever think, that her 'ordinariness' would come under an existential crisis.
But that farce was pretty much destroyed, as she found herself on the run, with an auburn haired British boy named Joshua Humphrey, in London.
How she came about that situation, was itself a series of circumstances extraordinaire, and well out of her grasp, because that very morning she was at the Howrah station, waiting to board a train back to Bombay. The only thing that registered to her was the small excursion that she had begun to kill her time, to an alley that she had thought she had known pretty well since a very a long time.
But she hardly got any time to think things through and try and make sense (which she had given up on already), because when you were on the run with Mister Humphrey, let alone some terrorist organization called the “Death Eaters” who were keen on killing almost everyone, you were bound to deal with half answers, nasty sarcasm, cockiness, no time to take a minute's halt let alone take a break, and rudeness in general.
And she had been ordered to follow every word of this ill-tempered fellow without a question.
But keeping your questions to yourself when you saw a boy of around your age (or anyone for that matter) starting a fire out of nowhere in the damp fireplace, was a herculean task at which Tani failed consistently, earning a few glares and grunts every now and then. But she didn't care.
“How did you do that?” Tani exclaimed, but the boy had already moved on to flying objects around the room, and she saw the cauldrons that were kept atop, flying inside the boxes of their own accord. And the boxes themselves were flying around and getting stacked in neat columns, one on top of the other. The floor, which was strewn with paperwork and parchments that rolled themselves up into neat rolls and went into the other boxes, and thus got cleaned. Some went flying out of the room to the next, where the old lady had disappeared a while back in the context of packing.
“Just how ARE you doing THIS?”
The room went on tidying itself up magically. The Humphrey boy kept swaying his stick called the “wand” like a concert master, and everything moved in accordance with his tune.
Tani would have found this acceptable, even comical, had it been a show or a movie on a TV. In reality though, it was freaking her out.
She had to duct to avoid a quill that came shooting at her face.
“What the-?” Tani began indignantly, despite the shock, but to no avail. The boy kept ignoring her.
At the end, when the last ink bottle had settled itself on top of a table, and sealed itself with a cap that materialised out of nowhere, and the quill had landed itself softly beside it, did the boy finally deign to look at her, with an amused expression which was very striking to his previous demeanour.
He literally had a pronounced smirk etched across his thin face, stretched over his high cheekbones. He was having too much fun, which irked her.
Just who were these people?
“It is surprising you never got used to it. I have seen you back in the alley so many times. At least back when Arvind was still alive.”
The boy was British, so it was expected of him to pronounce “Arvind” in a very English way, which Tani would have found very funny on any normal day. But the situation was so dire that day, it would have been impossible to laugh at anything that was even normally funny.
For instance, these people, weren't wearing any normal clothes. Instead they had donned themselves in robes and weird pointy hats, which was very typical of an English or an American witch, or so she recalled from the cartoons that she used to watch as a kid. And far from being laughable, that fact made her judge their sanity, because she was pretty sure even the normal British people never dressed up like this, except on Halloween. Neither were they capable of flying things or making fires or what-nots.
“Did you spy on us?” Tani asked indignantly.
“Not really. My father and I, both knew him. Arvind Mukherjee. Do you know about the department of international magical cooperation at the ministry of magic? My father was an employee there.”
Tani waited for him to continue. The only word that registered to her was “magic”, which she thought pretty much explained everything up till now.
Joshua sighed at the blank expression on her face. He contemplated her for some time, and Tani felt her patience fast evaporating.
“Tanya, your grandfather was a wizard,” He finally said.
“He was a WHAT?”
“A. Wizard.” Joshua said slowly, and took a considerable pause between the two words,“He could do the things that I just did. In fact he could have set up the room in half as much time as I took.”
“This is a joke right!” Tani said shrilly, “My grandfather a wizard? And you should think that I would have known!”
“Well I really thought you did. But he seems to have been careful enough to keep his cover even in front of you. Perhaps he thought it would burden you or something. Well he did have a tricky position to maintain.”
“Or perhaps you are mistaken. I was close enough to my grandfather to know that he wouldn't have hidden anything as big as this from me!” Tani exclaimed angrily. “My grandfather wasn't magic.”
“The whole of London and the Ministry knew otherwise.” Joshua said as patiently as he could, which seemed to be difficult. “And so did the Indian Ministry of magic. He was a prominent member and also the head of the International affairs office there.”
“You are hardly making any sense. What is this ministry of magic?” Tani asked at which Joshua gave an exasperated grunt.
“Ministry of magic regulates the behaviour of the community of people like us and let's keep it at that,” he snapped, “Perhaps later on when you are ready to believe in it you can ask somebody else to clarify the facts and everything else. This is why muggles like you shouldn't be-”
“What did you just call me?”
“A muggle.” Joshua snapped. “You are the most annoying non-magic person I have ever seen. Meaning you are not a witch.”
“I got that!” snapped back Tani angrily. She didn't like the tone of the boy in which he had hurled the word “muggle” at her. It almost sounded like a very bad cuss. “And thank goodness I'm not a freak such as yourself! And neither was my grandfather!”
“Whatever.” Joshua rolled his eyes.
“Dear! I am all packed now!” his grandmother came bursting in out of the back room, carrying a huge pink suitcase.
“Good.” said Joshua, instantly snapping back to his previous air of meaning business. “Grandma, you have to go to the Sanders'. They are camping in Australia, at their summer house. The fidelus charm is in place so I will have to take you there.
“You need to stay here, and do not even THINK of leaving this place till I’m back,” He said to Tani, “I have cast an anti-homenum charm over this place, so no one should magically be able to detect you.”
“WHAT? You are not leaving me here! You cannot just-!”
But before she could get another word out, the young man had caught hold of the old lady who was carrying a large pink suitcase in one hand and a wand in the other, disappeared right before her eyes.
Tani let out a shriek. She could only stare in shock at the spot where they had just disappeared.
“Whatever is happening dadu . . .” she muttered to herself. “I hope I am not going crazy . .”
*
“Dadu, where were you? You were supposed to take me to the gali! I wanted a new present for my birthday!”
But her dadu staggered and fell over the threshold of the main door. Tani knew that he wasn't alright. He was wearing a long tattered coat and gloves and a hat which hid his face, but she could see that a glove was missing from his right hand, with which he had tried to break the fall. The skin had scary looking gashes which weren't bleeding, but looked raw and red.
Tani was scared. She thought he was going to die. She stood over him helplessly, trying to think of a way to save him. He might have already been dead on the floor and she couldn't do anything, she thought.
But then he stirred.
“Ta . . . ni.” he gasped, his head still buried into the floor.
“Dadu what has happened to you?” Tani was crying now. Tears had welled up in her eyes, and were falling down her cheeks uncontrollably.
“Wa . . . ter. Bring.”
And Tani had run to the kitchen to get him a glass of water. She had spilt the water once clumsily the first time at the kitchen door, and she had felt very angry at her weak and clumsy self. But she had to get the water to dadu otherwise she knew that something bad would happen.
When she returned to the main door, her dadu was missing. Tears started welling up yet again, as she stood motionlessly holding the glass of water, staring at the empty space on the floor where she had left her dadu about five minutes ago. She knew that the inevitable had happened.
“Tani what are you doing? Bring the water here.” her dadu's familiar voice called from behind her. He was crouched upon the sofa. He looked ragged, his clothes torn at a number of places and his right glove still missing. There were huge scars left from the gashes from before . . . but wait, had she imagined it? She had thought the gashes were pretty raw and scary, but they looked almost healed now. And even though her dadu looked really tired and drained, he was at least sitting up.
“Dadu . . . are you okay?” she asked in a low voice as she handed him the glass.
“Okay? Of course I am okay! Gah! Those nincompoops can't even do a thing right. Bloody letting them infiltrate the office like that . . . ultimately throwing the task over me. The ministry is really after my life. Yes the crown jewel and all the other non-sense . . . they should have some sense that there is no point to twaddle around and to take some real action! Dumbledore had warned us about this. . .”
Tani just let her dadu gibber on as she went and sat beside him, leaning her head against his other arm. She was just happy that nothing bad had happened to her dadu, like she had feared.
“ . . . they almost got me, but I taught them a thing or two. They will not dare to pull a stunt like that again those nasty little . . . Tani are you crying?”
“No.” said Tani.
“Tani, did I scare you?” He asked slowly, as he started patting her head.
“No.” but the tears kept dripping from her eyes. Tani cursed herself for being such a cry baby, and she was six now! She had thought she had grown up, but there she was, crying like back when she was five. And she had been missing her dadu terribly, who was absent for almost three days. But she didn't care. As long as her dadu was alright, she didn't care.
“Tani, I am sorry.” her dadu whispered.
“It is okay.” Tani whimpered.
“Hey Tani, guess what? I got you a surprise! I know I couldn't take you to dugon gali like I had promised, but you will like this too.”
Tany quickly wiped her tears. “What is it?” she asked.
“Well it is a surprise. Go to the other room. Come out when I tell you to.”
Tani suddenly felt excited, despite having tears still etched over her face. She always awaited most eagerly for her dadu's surprises. He has never disappointed her in that front. She quickly jumped from the sofa and shuffled off to the other room.
“You can come out now.”
And when she entered the living room again, her face lit up of its own accord. An instant smile stretched her lips until she was grinning like a clown.
The whole room was lit up with light orbs that hung itself from the wall and somewhere even floating in the mid-air, and the table in front of her was heaped with candies of all kinds, which were almost on the verge of tipping over. There were the liquorice wands that she was so partial towards and heaps and heaps of chocolate frogs in which the frogs that were of chocolate really moved! They came along with some collecting-cards of weird characters that she was fond of collecting. The characters in those cards moved like in a video, and sometimes they even talked to her! There were Bertie Bott's every flavour beans, and she always had a good time having those with her dadu, shimmering coconut bars of different colours, sugar quills, Drooble's best blowing bubble gums and a lot more that she was seeing for the first time.
And in between the chocolate mountains, was a huge cake with a candle shaped like a 6. But it wasn't any ordinary candle. It was spewing different coloured sparks, and the sparkles didn’t even die away, thus creating a lot more glitter on the table and the floor.
“Happy belated birthday Tani. I hope I wasn't too late.” her dadu smiled but Tani was too absorbed in her surprise to notice.
*
Tani snapped out of her doze at the sound of a crack. She was having a dream about her grandfather, which almost seemed like a long lost memory. But she couldn't recall it as it had all seemed very murky. It was a good dream nevertheless.
But she didn't get much time to further think on it as Joshua Humphrey re-materialised out of nowhere. Tani had thought that she would be prepared for it this time but apparently she wasn't as she tried to stifle the scream that escaped her yet again, and failed miserably.
“Muffliato!” Joshua snapped as he pointed his wand at her. Tani flinched but nothing happened.
“Are you crazy? You would set all the death eaters upon as any time!”
“Of course I would scream if you do that! It is not like I see people vanishing and materialise into and out of mid-air every other day!” she snapped back and glared at him, hoping the intensity would set him on fire magically somehow. Or at least she hoped it would. But nothing happened except her earning back a glare of equal intensity.
“Are you packed?”
“There is nothing to pack. I lost my luggage in the morning.”
“Oh that I have with me.” Joshua said as he pulled out a tiny pouch from his robes. Tani stared in disbelief.
“Don't tell me it is in there.”
“Of course.”
Suddenly Tani felt too exhausted to care about the reality and this magic anymore. If he says it was there, and if it was possible to squeeze in a huge rucksack into a tiny pouch that one could hang around their neck or whatever, and Tani hardly thought that he was lying, then so be it.
“So what now?” she asked. “Are you taking me back to Kolkata or not?”
“You will see. Take my hand.” He said as he held out his left hand, the one that wasn't holding his wand.
Tani took it gingerly. “We are not . . . disappearing into thin air are we?” she felt apprehensive.
Joshua rolled his eyes. “Yes we are.” And with that he grasped her hand tightly and a moment later a claustrophobic sensation washed over her as she felt herself being squeezed into a tunnel.
*
The sensation lasted for only a moment, and the next thing she knew, she was rolling down a muddy field where they had landed.
Her head hurt pretty badly. As soon as she had stood up, she felt dizzy and sick. She spat out some mud as she coughed.
They were in the middle of a dense forest.
She found it hard to believe her eyes, because just a while back they were in that tiny room back in the alley. Did she actually travel through air? Seeing someone else doing it was completely different from actually doing it. But there was no sign of the room anywhere, and so she was pretty sure that they had travelled quite a lot in a span of a micro second. Suddenly, this magic felt more real to her.
The evening light was breaking through the dense canopy of the huge and tall trees above them, and it was difficult to make out the sky. Even the light that was streaming in had a greenish hue. A wet mist hung in the air, thickening by the second. It was going to be dark soon as the light faded away fast. Tani didn't like the idea of being stranded in a forest in the dark.
“Wh-where are we?” she asked. Joshua was already on his feet and was walking a few feet ahead of her. Tani was still staggering to a standing position.
“Hurry up. We must find them.”
“We must find whom?” She asked.
“Friends.” Joshua said warily, although Tani didn't think the wariness was due to her this time. But she didn't ask any further as she knew this was about the most that she would get out of him.
And so they kept on walking deeper and deeper inside the forest.
Tani had to do her best to keep up with him as he refused to slow down his pace. At first she did try to ask him to slow down, but when she kept on meeting with disgusted and annoyed expressions, she decided to give up and try her best to keep up. She often tripped on the roots and fell, and at times Joshua had no choice but to wait for her to catch up. And during these times he would make some snide remarks and prove the utmost jerk that he was, or so Tani thought as she would glare at him in return.
It was after an hour and a half of trekking, when Joshua finally decided to stop. They were standing at the edge of a small clearing. It was already dark by now, and the light of a full moon which was apparently out there but out of sight behind the dark canopy, somehow made its way into this little clearing, lighting it up dimply. The trees looked so dense and monstrous at the boundaries, Tani wondered why they didn't just converge over and swallowed it.
“Keep still. They are here somewhere. Keep your voice low.” Joshua ordered, and Tani listened without complaining. The atmosphere was tense. Tani could hear a lot of insects and animals calling out by now. She could make out some of the calls as that of a fox's or a wild dog's, but the rest were unrecognisable. She even thought she heard a distant howl as that of a wolf's, except that it didn't feel like an ordinary wolf's howl. It was loud although it was very distant, and lasted for a longer duration, and had an otherworldly ring to it.
She moved closer to Joshua than was necessary, almost clinging to his back. She neither couldn't suppress the shiver that ran through her spine.
And they waited.
And suddenly out of nowhere came a blast of a strong wind which almost blew them of their feet. Tani had to close her eyes, as twigs and leaves and even some mud slapped against their faces. The staggered backwards and Tani had to do her best to keep holding on to Joshua.
And then came the most horrible hollow voice that rang through the clearing.
“Name?”
“Joshua Humphrey. Grandson of Rosalin Humphrey. Patronus is an eagle. Ex Junior assistant auror at the Auror Office. Recently on the run for being labelled a blood traitor.” Joshua called out against the wind.
“And the girl?”
“Tanya Mukherjee from Calcutta. Granddaughter of late wizard Arvind Mukherjee.”
The wind stopped.
“You finally managed to get her then.” said a cheery voice and a man of tremendous built and wearing ragged maroon robes, out of nowhere. A huge fire was suddenly burning in the clearing and there were two tents in parallel, set up together.
“Oi Abney! The boy has returned with the girl! Come out and see!” he called out to the tents. A heavy grunt was heard in response. The big man grinned as he took Joshua's hand. We thought you would never make it after we heard that the death eaters took over Diagon alley. We were planning to move soon.”
Then he turned to Tani to greet.
She thought that he must have been in his mid-thirties and looked terribly worn down despite his promising physique. His face was unkempt with a hedge of tangled red beard growing on it. He had Small twigs and leaves sticking out of it.
“Sorry for the less than a gentlemanly appearance,” he said suddenly conscious, realising that Tani was staring, “Being on the run does wonders to your looks.”
Tani quickly averted her eyes as she turned a little red and managed a small apologetic smile, and took his hands.
“It is nice to meet you sir. I’m Tanya Mukherjee.”
“Aye. Jonathan Barkley here. It is good to see you too.” He said boisterously. Then suddenly he took back his hand and joined them awkwardly.
“Or as the tradition goes back in your place, Namaste.”
Tani laughed a little as she returned the gesture. It was funny, and at times exasperating, how these foreigners thought that it was mandatory to “Namaste” an Indian, whenever they saw one. In truth, no one in India, or in Kolkata ever did a “Namaste” (or “Namashkar” in Bengali), that frequently to each other. She was quite used to a hullo or a simple hi, but she guessed that the Indian culture was purported in a different manner outside the country.
They were then joined by an elderly man who had emerged out of the tent. He was bald with wisps of white hair sticking out from above his ears, and was also really short and wore extra-large robes which hung loose over his tangibly thin body. He had grey eyes that were squinting, complimenting the annoyed expression on his face as he contemplated them all.
Tani felt a sudden aversion to the old figure.
“Ah so you have finally deigned to join us.” he said in a croaky voice.
“Yes.” Joshua said curtly. Tani felt a little relieved that she wasn't the only one who didn't like him.
“And so, this is the off spring of that Mukherjee?” he asked staring curiously at Tani. The tone in which he said, made Tani wonder if her dadu had actually known the guy. If that was the case, then she was pretty sure he must have not been of any different opinion than her.
“Yes she is the granddaughter of Arvind Mukherjee.” Joshua said.
“Looks the same. Prideful. Honour bound.” The man said in a disgusted tone, as he screwed up his brows.
“Excuse me?” Tani began indignantly, “I hope that you were praising me just then.”
“Certainly not. And you might want to watch that tone little girly, or you might get lucky enough to meet the same sticky end as-”
“Anyway!” Jonathan said. “Now that we are all here, we can decide upon the next place to camp! Oh and this is Angus Abney, Tani. Don't mind him, he is quite off the hook these days being such an oldie.” he laughed, but Angus didn't find it funny.
“I wouldn't take that tone with me, and you know that very well Barkley.” He said in an icy voice, but couldn’t tackle Jonathan who took him by the hand and ushered him towards the tents. (“I can walk by myself!” he croaked more, “I don't need your dirty hands on me.”)
“I'll send Navi to you! Josh she has been dying to see you.” Jonathan called back. “Make yourselves comfortable in the other tent. Mind the goblin is there too but he has gone fishing, but he will be back any time. So don't get too mushy with each other!” he chuckled before he disappeared into the tent with old Abney.
“Ignore him,” said Joshua, “He is loud.”
“I am,” said Tani, “What was all that about? What sticky end did he mean?” she asked immediately having not liked the sound of it.
“He is an old bugger and didn't like your grandfather much. Neither my father for that matter.”
“So he knew him huh,” said Tani. “Why does everyone seem to know my grandfather?”
“Well how many times do I need to tell you he was a really well known wizard, and an international figure, and a representative of the crown jewel?”
“That was the first time you did,” Tani said, “And yes that clarifies everything.”
Suddenly there was a crack, and a rugged ball materialised out of nowhere at her feet. Even though Tani had jumped back a little, she had successfully contained her scream thinking that she had finally gotten somewhat used to the weirdness around her these days. But that was not until she had had a better look at the ball.
“WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?” she screamed as she took a few giant steps backwards rapidly, trying to maintain a considerable distance between her and that-whatever it was.
“Master Joshua?” said a thin voice.
The creature was about a foot and a half tall, and had large green eyes, each the shape of a tennis ball. Its ears were long and flapped about its face. Its hands and legs were thin and the skin on its face was sunken. It was donned in a dirty towel, which had mud stains and small leaves sticking out of it, and also had bandages wrapped in places around its arms and legs.
All in all, it was a very unkempt creature.
The creature's eyes were welling up with tears and its nose was drooling. Its eyes were upon Joshua as it ran towards him and almost bumped him to the forest floor.
“Master Joshua!” it shrieked.
“Hullo Navi. Hope you are doing well.” Joshua said kindly, which was not like him, Tani thought. The idea of a “kinder Joshua Humphrey” repulsed her for some reason.
“Navi is not doing well without her master! Navi thought and thought about her master who never returned! Navi waited on and on and every night she would stay by the fire keeping a watch for her master but he didn't return!” Navi, who was a “she” which was noted by a repulsed Tani, wailed ever so loudly, before pausing to take a breath, before continuing.
“And then Navi heard what happened at the Diagon alley, and Navi couldn't stand the thought of . . . the thought of . . .” and she gasped sharply and fell to the ground, banging her head against it, “Bad Navi! Bad Navi! To think of such unwell things about her precious Master Joshua!”
“No Navi stop!” Joshua ordered exasperatedly as he dived to pick up Navi and prevent her from inflicting further self-injuries.
“Navi punished herself every time she thought something bad might have come over her precious master!” Navi whimpered as she showed Joshua her bandages, who gave out an exasperated sigh.
Tani thought that Navi was really a pitiable poor thing. She had tears streaked across its face, and boggy hanging out of its extra-large nose. And her forehead was already bleeding.
“How many times have I told you to not do that Navi!” Joshua said angrily.
“What-er who is this?” Tani asked as politely as she could, as Joshua took out his wand to stop the bleeding magically.
“Navi is my family's house elf. She serves only me and my grandmother.”
Tani didn't think there was a point to further ask him what a house elf was at the moment, and so she didn't.
At the same time, Jonathan re-emerged from the tent.
“Angus wants us in for the meeting.” He announced in an annoyed voice. “I suggest you guys postpone the freshening up because Angus says we need to discuss this right away. Also the fact that Anwen hasn't returned since morning.”
“What?” Joshua said.
“Well I am telling you she must have slacked off at the town but no! Angus isn't ready to believe it. He is adamant that something has gone wrong. And he wants her to be present too.” he said, pointing at Tani. “Also, there is this thing going on . . .” Jonathan said in an awkward manner.
“What thing?”
“Well come on in.”
“Navi, go clean yourself and set up the other tent.” Joshua told Navi the house elf. “Tanya, come with me.”
And Tani followed him inside the first tent where Angus was waiting for them, as Navi disappeared inside the other.
Tani almost got a heart attack as she stepped inside it. She was pretty sure the tent was quite small in height and must have been about six feet in length as was seen from the outside. She had expected them to cram inside the shade of an ordinary tent perched over a grassy forest floor.
But this one told a different story, as the innards of a full-fledged house complete with two rooms, a hall, a kitchen and an attached toilet came into the picture. The rooms and the toilet had doors to them. The entry flap had opened up to the large hall with a table, a couple of chairs and candles floating in mid-air, lighting up the place. Tani wasn't sure whether this was a tent or a large apartment.
Angus was sitting across the table towering over them even with his small height, having an impatient and annoyed expression on his face.
“What is this?” she whispered.
“Expandable charm.” Joshua said, which again didn't make any sense to her. “Magic.” he added which surprised Tani, because she didn't think he would have bothered to add a word more to explain what it was. But it was literally just a word more, so it didn't really make much of a difference.
“Sit down.” Angus said, “We don't have much time to waste before we decide. Anwen is missing.”
“No she isn't. She must be dawdling in town!” interjected Jonathan as he took his seat around the table along with the others. “It has been sometime we have been to anywhere posh after all, and she is a girl!”
“And a girl raised me!” snapped Angus, “Anwen isn't a fool enough to dilly-dally when we are on the run, unlike you. I know my niece very well. She knows very well to return with the supplies as soon as she can.”
“Angus is right. Something must have gone wrong,” said Joshua. “She usually doesn't take this much time, and she has been missing since morning, hasn't she? So do we go looking for her?”
“And I thought you were talking sense once! Oh my god you Gryffindors are the worst lot to be with!” Angus said exasperatedly, “Of course we need to vanish soon! What if the snatchers decide to turn up? Or even worse, the death eaters? We need to leave. We have dawdled here too long.”
“But she is your niece!” said Jonathan indignantly.
“Yes my niece, and not my daughter.” said Angus curtly. “After the whole fiasco in Calcutta, that haven is also gone . . .”
“Excuse me, but what has happened in Calcutta?” asked Tani, “What fiasco are you talking about?”
“Yes, ever so omnipresent, Mukherjee. You are not even magic I have heard. Why can't we just hand her away to the death eaters? Might fetch a price.” said Angus.
“What?!” Tani said loudly, not being able to believe what she heard. But Joshua hushed her down with a gesture.
“I had given my word to her grandfather.” He said, at which Tani looked up surprised. He seemed so solemn, so she wasn’t sure if he was making up.
“What are you people even talking about?” Tani asked loudly interrupting every one. Angus hissed in annoyance but she ignored. “I want to know what has happened to Kolkata and why can't I return there? And what word are you talking about Humphrey?”
“We can deal with this later.” said Angus, “First let's decide what we need to do.”
“No I want to know the answers now!” Tani demanded as she stood up and thumped the table with her fist. “Listen old man, whatever problems you have against me, I don't give a damn. But I am not having you pushing me around without any answers.
“Why have I been brought to London?”
She didn't even know why she had voiced that question. It hadn't struck her that there might have been some trickery involved to lure her to this place. But now that she had said it, it made more sense even though she didn’t know how.
But how could she possibly be lured to London, she didn't know. Hadn’t it began with an ordinary excursion on her part that she had started quite randomly? Unless there was a magical trickery involved that was used to manipulate her. She looked at Joshua suspiciously.
And there came only one object in her mind, that had made her go to the alley that day in the first place.
Joshua sighed, as he shuffled through his robes to take out the small pouch that he had shown her before. He opened the mouth the tiniest bit and made his wand point directly inside it.
“Accio crystal!”
Almost instantaneously Tani's crystal ball had popped out of the pouch into his hands. He held it out for everyone to see.
“This crystal serves more than one purpose.” he said, as he passed it her way. Tani caught it, and felt a sudden warmth spreading along her fingers. It was also glowing with a mystique light.
“Strange . . .” said Angus, but he wasn't looking at the crystal. Tani caught his eyes, and found a curious expression etched on his face.
But Joshua had also taken out a locket that he was wearing, the shape of an egg with a crystal set right in the middle, and which looked exactly as Tani's.
“This was a gift from your grandfather.” he said. “He asked me to use it to find you, whenever it glowed. He said that it would glow if your life was ever in danger. Or if the time has come. So I tried to find you.”
Tani was in shock. “You gave him your word?” she asked him slowly.
“I had no choice. It was an unbreakable vow.”
Tani didn't get the meaning of it, but she knew it meant something more than a simple promise.
“But why?” she asked.
“I'll keep that to myself.” said Joshua. “As for the part about your life being in danger, yes Calcutta is already under attack. The death eaters are exploiting and killing over there. Muggles or non-magic people are being slaughtered along with the magic people even right now as we speak.
The dark lord had always wanted to take over the British Empire's crown jewel, even though yours is an independent nation. We believe that he wishes to conquer back your country, as a way of expanding his reign of darkness, and it looks like he has already started with his goal.
And he would have definitely targeted you and your family and killed you all. He would never want to keep any seeds alive. Your grandfather had inflicted enough damage upon the dark lord and his followers before. After all Arvind Mukherjee was the most powerful wizard in Calcutta, as well as a great friend of Albus Dumbledore.”
“What do you mean by my family?” Tani's face was white. Her father and her grandmother were still back there in Kolkata. “I have to go back. I have to!”
“If you mean the rest of your family, they are already under my protection so don't worry. I managed it all today, erasing their memory, disapparating them to somewhere safe. But it was you I was worried about. I had to follow you all the way to Diagon alley, so that I could somehow get you transported to London. But I had never anticipated to find you where the death eaters were.”
“But why me?”
“I really don't know how a muggle like you is so important,” Joshua said exasperatedly, “Angus is right, you are a burden! I could have easily transported you to the place I have transported your family to, but there were two issues. Firstly, I couldn't risk you out of my sight, because as soon as the crystal gave its signal, my vow had begun. So if something had happened to you, and still does, I die too. That is the power of the unbreakable vow. And secondly, he had told us this, to have you with us. The only thing he has ever told me and my father about you is that, she is the key.”
“But a key to what?”
“I don't know. He never told us that.”
“If you guys are done with your chit-chat,” interjected Angus, “can we begin the discussion about the important things now as we are already running-” he stopped short, suddenly turning as pale as death. His eyes were popping out of his head in a frightening way as he looked at the open flap of the tent.
A “wheeee” sound was issuing from somewhere and Tani turned around to see a small instrument (a spinning top) kept on the table, glowing brightly like a torch and spinning ferociously.
“The sneakoscope.” whispered Jonathan.
BANG!
“Come on out you filthy vermins! We know you are in there!” cackled a nasty voice of a man from the outside.
There was a shrill squeak.
“Navi!” shouted Joshua as he took out his wand. Angus and Jonathan followed as they all rushed outside. “Stay here.” Jonathan added before exiting the tent last.
There was another loud bang which was followed by an anguished scream of a woman.
“How dare you!” someone shouted.
Tani couldn't take it any longer and followed after them.