Wandering

[Natalie St. Clare]

Natalie rushed out of the Wizengamot. She couldn't be there anymore, couldn't be near that man. She wished she had the power to destroy him with her mind; to just think and make him disappear. Instead she had this useless, hateful power that enabled her to see him killing everyone she loved. The way he made her feel inside scared her. She didn't want to hate him. She didn't want to wish destruction upon him. That was what he did. She didn't want to be like him. But the power of his hate seemed to fill her up, to possess her.

He didn't even know who she was. She was nothing to him. And Sabrina, too, was nothing to him. And yet he would kill her, like she didn't matter. Like she wasn't a person at all.

Natalie ran down the hall and up to a door. There was no sign on this door, and yet somehow she knew what it was. The Department of Mysteries. Where her father had worked. She tried the door and found that it was locked. She wished she had a wand so she could unlock the door, but since she couldn't, she sat down against the wall next to the door and buried her face in her hands. Only then did she realize she'd been crying.

[Natalie St. Clare]

As she sat there, the door opened and someone stepped out into the hall. It was a man, dressed in a black robe and hunched over. He pushed the door shut and walked away, staring at the floor and not noticing her at all. When he had disappeared around a bend at the far corner of the hall, Natalie stood up and tried the door. It was open! So she looked around quickly, then walked inside...

[Natalie St. Clare]

When she walked inside, all Natalie could see was a series of doors on all sides. She didn't know which one she should go through, so she stood there for a long moment and stared at each of them. Closing her eyes, she tried to use her powers to sense which door she should choose. She didn't feel anything at first, and she thought she might get discovered if she stood there much longer. Finally she walked up and touched each door to feel what emotions lay beyond them. One of them led to fear, another to innocence. Others felt confusing, and some were unidentifiable. She paused and looked around, unsure of where to go. Hesitantly, she opened the third door and stepped inside.

[Natalie St. Clare]

Natalie entered a room with a bunch of large tanks. She noticed that the door she had come from suddenly moved, as if the room were rotating to keep her from figuring out where she had come from. She frowned and looked around the room she had entered. Inside the tanks were great greyish-white things that looked like... brains. As she got closer, she realized that they actually were brains. She stared at them for a few minutes, then wandered around the room, trying to find the door back to where she had been. As she touched each door, she tried to figure out which one had the same feelings as the one she had left. Finally she found one of the doors that seemed right, and she tried to open it. But she found that this one wouldn't open. It was locked.

Taking a deep breath, she tried again, this time just going straight over to one of the doors. Opening the next door, she walked into another room. This one had a clocks on almost every surface, each one ticking loudly. There were also a number of hourglasses lined up on a long table, and a large crystal belljar at the end of the room. Inside the belljar was a hummingbird that seemed to be caught in a strange glittering wind. It would rise to the top as a full-grown hummingbird, then fall to the bottom as an egg, then hatch, and then rise up again, going through its entire life cycle right before her eyes. She stared at it for a very long time, fascinated. Finally, she forced herself to look away and she turned back to one of the doors. She opened it and found herself back in the brain room, so she walked over and tried another door. This one opened into a large square room with benches all around and an upraised dais in the center, on which stood an old curtain.

Natalie froze in the doorway. This was the room she had been looking for. She had seen it in her visions. This was the room where her father had died.....

[Wesley St. Clare]

W watched the girl as she stared at the veil. He needed to stay hidden from her. He couldn't let her see him, even though he wanted to run to her and tell her he was there. That everything would be fine. But she needed to believe he was dead. Everyone needed to believe he was dead. If anyone found out... Craven could find out. And then he would die for real. So he hid in the highest bench and hoped that Natalie wouldn't try to walk through the veil...

[Natalie St. Clare]

Natalie walked up to the dais and approached the veil. It was giving off a powerful feeling of peacefulness, and she liked it. If this was where her father had died, at least he had felt no pain. And he was behind the veil, in a peaceful place. She found that strangely comforting. As she stood there, she could hear faint whispers coming from the other side. She couldn't understand what they were saying, but she could hear the voices very clearly.

She sighed sadly. She missed her father... more than anything. She wished he was with her right then, so she could ask him about how to save Sabrina, and if it was possible. She had warned her father about things before, and she had always thought that he believed her. Yet, when she'd warned him to stay away from the veil... he hadn't. But then, she reminded herself, once she saw something in a vision, there was no changing it.

After staring at the veil for a very long time, Natalie turned around and walked back to the doors. She walked back and rother, checking each door, and finally chose one. She opened it, and found herself back where she had started. Since she had seen what she had come for, she walked toward the little hallway that led back out again. She opened the main door, and found herself across from where Elle's trial was being held. Sighing to herself, she sat down against the wall and waited.

[Erasmus Craven]

Erasmus wondered about that whelp. The way she stared, as if she knew something about him. Then and there he made up his mind, he was going to take her to his lord. If anyone He would be able to define what she was.