melchior yaxley is quitting the complaints dept. (yaxels) wrote in neeps, @ 2018-04-04 22:48:00
Who: Fraser and Melchior Macmillan What: Fraser Croft, Tomb Raider When: Late Wednesday afternoon, 4 April 2000 Where: The Macmillan Vaults, Macmillan Park Warnings: Opening a tomb
The advantage of being wizards was that when you wanted a thing done, you could general do it. Fraser wasn't exactly sure what they were going to find in Isobel's tomb, but he hoped they'd find something to help them move forward on breaking the curse. He'd been struggling with the book for days, and he was more and more convinced that what he needed had been buried with his distant relative.
Fraser walked down the passageway, his head bent slightly because of the closeness of the ceiling. Two hundred years ago, wizards had been shorter, and hadn't needed the tall ceilings he and Mel took for granted. Fraser held his lighted wand as far forward as he could, reading the names and dates of dozens of Macmillans who had been dead for many many years. He reached the tombs of the eighteenth century, and turned back to his cousin. "It's one of these, I think. You check down that side, and I'll keep looking over here."
The tombs were feeling creepier than usual. Mel didn't come down here very often, nor did he dutifully visit the tombs on the Yaxley Hall grounds (nor would he again now that he had been formally banned from the property). In fact, he wasn't sure he'd been back to the Hall since his father's interment. He felt far more at home on the Macmillan grounds, but the vaults were not where he wanted to spend his time. Now, though, his life might depend on it.
He started going through the nameplates in each column, occasionally stopping to look at the detailed inscriptions and engraving on the vault door. It was on the third column that he stopped, his thick finger tracing the name inscribed in brass. "I think I've found her," Mel told Fraser, his voice ringing with a surprising reverence for someone he was as angry with as he was at Isobel.
Fraser turned away from the centuries old burial vaults, the plaques still dutifully polished weekly by a house-elf. He was convinced some of the names he was seeing weren't exactly pureblooded, but nobody was asking those questions anymore, so he wasn't interested in deepening his knowledge of Macmillan genealogy of the 1700s. He turned round and came over to where Mel waited.
The bright, shiny plaque read "Isobel Macmillan", and she had died in her teens. The dates matched up as well. It wasn't proof, but it was a good shot. "Well," he said to Mel, "do you want to open it or be on guard in case she's in there and comes up fighting?"
Mel thought about that for a moment. It was with a surprising certainty that he said, "She won't attack me. I'll open it."
Fraser nodded and moved backwards, his wand at the ready. "Did you bring the dragonhide gloves? Now's the time to stop and get them if you didn't…"
"It's a little late for me now," Mel said, "but anyroad I'm a wizard. Who says I'm opening the vault with my hands?" He carefully lifted the top off with a levitation spell and moved it to lean, upright, against the far wall of the corridor. "Isobel, if you're in there, come out peacefully."
"I wish we had Ernie's magical distance-vision stuff. I don't fancy sticking my head over the edge of that, do you?" Nevertheless, Fraser moved forward, coming up to the vault. Fraser started to lean in to see what was inside. But Mel moved in to block his way.
"After I got bit keeping that thing from eating you, the last thing I want is for you to get your head bit off by an angry great-great-aunt of some long remove," Mel grumbled and peered in over the edge. "Coffin's closed," he added, and, unnecessarily, "We're going to have to levitate it out. I'll do it."
Fraser grinned. This would actually be a lot of fun if it wasn't so damned serious. "Remember when we were kids, and we'd all pretend that we were with Uncle Teàrlach searching for lost treasures in Mayan pyramids? Did you ever think we'd need to actually do it, in our own vaults?"
"Can't say I did," Mel answered, "but I never thought of the two of us, I'd be the one getting cursed." He carefully levitated the coffin lid out, stacking it with the vault lid, and looked in.
"Huh," he told Fraser. "It's empty."
"Empty?" Of all the possibilities, that wasn't one Fraser had considered. He peered over the edge of the outer tomb, looking in to the coffin. His wand lit it up brightly, and he thought he saw a flash of something inside. "Revelio," he cast, in case there was an invisible corpse in the coffin, but nothing was revealed.
"There's something in the coffin, though." He focused his wand's light spell on the middle and there was definitely something shiny sitting there, half-hidden by a fold of the velvet lining. "Can you wizard whatever it is up here? I'll stay back in case it's more biting magic."
"That I might as well grab with my hands, but--" Mel levitated it up and out into the light. It was a silver ring, in the form of a snake that was tied to itself by the tail. But its head was all too familiar to Mel: catlike and angry with winking dark gems in the eyes. "What are we putting that thing in? I'm not chancing it biting me any more."
"Good question", replied Fraser. "We could shrink the coffin and use that, but I'd rather be somewhat more respectful of my dead cousin, even if she caused a lot of trouble. Hang on..."
Fraser took a deep breath. "Ualraig!," he shouted, "I need you!" Since he was on the property, he knew the elf would hear him and apparate in quickly.
"Yes, Master Fraser?"
"Oh, good, Ualraig. First of all, The Lady Isobel is not in her grave. Do you know where her body is?"
Ualraig did not seem surprised at the question. "No, Master Fraser. She was there when we buried her."
Fraser hadn't expected that bit of information. It was always fascinating when house elves volunteered information. "Never mind, then. Can you fetch me a thick crystal box, large enough to hold a ring, that we can lock shut?"
The elf disappeared and reappeared seconds later, with a box exactly to Fraser's specifications. Fraser didn't know if the elf had found it, stolen it, or made it, and he didn't really want to know. Some things were best left as 'elfin magic'. Fraser levitated the box until it was right under the levitating ring, so that Mel could drop it in.
Which Mel did, and shut it with a shudder. "Thanks, Ualraig," he said, for the house-elf's benefit. "We'll be up for tea in a while. Please don't tell Mum or Nana Murdina or any of the aunts and uncles where we are. I don't wan them to worry. We'll clean up down here ourselves."
"Ual, please let us know immediately if Lady Isobel comes back."
The house-elf nodded solemnly and vanished to go about his other duties.
"I don't know what I expected," Mel told Fraser, "but it wasn't that. That was easy."