Pet's memories of what had happened at the Ministry of Magic back in December had indeed been wiped from her brain but the emotions hadn't gone with the specifics. She knew she'd been on her way to an interview at the Department of Mysteries and whenever she thought about it she felt a noxious cocktail of unpleasant feelings: regret, fear, embarrassment, guilt.
She'd received a letter from Mr. Mulciber over a month ago about her interview but it had strangely brought up the same horrible feelings as the fake meadow memory that made her not want to go ahead with it. Not knowing why she felt so suddenly opposed to the idea, she had eventually put mind over matter and responded.
Now here she was walking through the atrium again but this time she wasn't greeted by chaos. She did find herself on edge though, like her body was responding to a threat it expected to appear at any moment. Of course nothing came of it, instead she turned up at the appointed room for her interview feeling more tense than she should have.
The room was empty when she was shown in so she loitered awkwardly as she waited, rehearsing a hypothetical conversation in her mind for the hundredth time. She snapped out of it when she heard something drawing closer and it didn't sound like footsteps. Pet turned around in time to see Mr. Mulciber enter in a wheelchair. A brief flicker of surprise flashed across her face before she could school her expression into something more neutral and less likely to offend. Her stomach twisted inexplicably. Had Mr. Mulciber always needed a wheelchair?
"Mr. Mulciber." After a pause she added, "Forgive me, I thought it... Prudent." It felt like the right thing to say not that she could say why exactly.
She'd received a letter from Mr. Mulciber over a month ago about her interview but it had strangely brought up the same horrible feelings as the fake meadow memory that made her not want to go ahead with it. Not knowing why she felt so suddenly opposed to the idea, she had eventually put mind over matter and responded.
Now here she was walking through the atrium again but this time she wasn't greeted by chaos. She did find herself on edge though, like her body was responding to a threat it expected to appear at any moment. Of course nothing came of it, instead she turned up at the appointed room for her interview feeling more tense than she should have.
The room was empty when she was shown in so she loitered awkwardly as she waited, rehearsing a hypothetical conversation in her mind for the hundredth time. She snapped out of it when she heard something drawing closer and it didn't sound like footsteps. Pet turned around in time to see Mr. Mulciber enter in a wheelchair. A brief flicker of surprise flashed across her face before she could school her expression into something more neutral and less likely to offend. Her stomach twisted inexplicably. Had Mr. Mulciber always needed a wheelchair?
"Mr. Mulciber." After a pause she added, "Forgive me, I thought it... Prudent." It felt like the right thing to say not that she could say why exactly.
Thank you Bee for my stunning Secret Swap gift <3