Chloe arrived at her mother’s house on Friday evening.
Maria was working late again, and Chloe had told her over the phone that she’d have dinner ready for the two of them.
A Muggle television was broadcasting an accident, a large fire, some distance from Maria’s home.
Flames roared across the screen.
Even from as far away as the reporter stood, Chloe could still hear the crackling of the fire.
And beneath it, the deeper sound of structures collapsing inside the building.
The reporter was shouting over the noise, voice strained, reporting that firefighters couldn’t reach the scene because of traffic.
Most people were fleeing.
But some were crying out and trying to push toward the building, held back bodily by strangers.
“That woman is a mother…” The reporter’s voice caught.
“Her child is in that building.”
The screen went black.
Chloe set the remote down on the sofa and caught a glimpse of her own face in the dark glass, pale, grim.
She often envied Michael’s ability to Apparate.
It was the wizarding ability she wanted most.
It would make getting anywhere so much easier.
But fifteen minutes later, she was at the scene anyway.
London’s underground wasn’t that bad.
When Chloe arrived, the crowd she’d seen on television had pushed even farther back from the building.
The heat radiating off it could scald through open air at that distance.
Every surge of flame from inside lit up the faces of the people screaming outside.
Shrieking, shouting, begging, breaking down, the raw shape of human despair pressed against Chloe like something physical.
She pulled a mask over her face and worked her way around to the back of the building, away from the cameras.
No one else was there.
The window frames had burned to a bright red.
The glass had curled inward, and black smoke poured through the gaps.
Even with the mask on, Chloe coughed.
She forced the window open.
The heat that would have scalded anyone else felt perfectly comfortable to her.
She stepped back, sprinted, and climbed through.
The moment she was inside, she reached out and took hold of the fire.
It died fast, room by room, leaving only a handful of small flames still dancing at the window, so that from outside it still looked like the building was burning.
She could have done it from outside.
But that would have been impossible to explain.
And the firefighters still hadn’t arrived, if the fire simply vanished, the people outside would have no way to get in.
Chloe moved through the wreckage.
Children’s picture books.
Toys, not quite burned through yet.
It hit her.
She’d passed this place before.
This was a children’s center.
“Damn it.” The words came out low and sharp.
She’d known there were children inside. This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
She hadn’t known there were this many.
“Is anyone there?” she called out, and started moving through the rooms.
They were all empty.
Charred toys.
Walls and ceilings blackened with smoke.
Nothing else.
Chloe’s heart sank, step by step, until she reached a closed door.
The panel had nearly burned all the way through.
Through it, she heard something faint.
Crying.
The metal plate on the door read: Restroom.
She knocked.
“Is someone in there?”
The crying stopped.
Whispered voices.
Then the hinges creaked and a narrow gap appeared.
Chloe turned sideways, slipped through, and pulled the door shut behind her.
Three children stood looking at her.
Two boys and a girl.
One boy had strikingly red hair.
The other had soft brown hair.
The girl had silver-bright hair and deep blue eyes.
All three looked around five or six years old.
The red-haired boy had put himself in front of the girl.
He was watching Chloe carefully.
“Come here — are any of you hurt?” Chloe crouched down.
All three were soaking wet, their cheeks flushed red from the steam.
The restroom was thick and humid like a sauna, but the temperature was far lower than outside.
The red-haired boy let his guard ease, just a little.
He gave a small shake of his head, nose twitching, clearly fighting back tears.
“We got really hot,” he said, voice thick and unsteady but trying hard to hold, “so we… we worked really hard to turn on the tap and got ourselves wet.”
Chloe saw the small stool in front of the sink.
She could picture it exactly, three small children hauling themselves up to reach it.
“You did brilliantly,” she said, and pulled him into her arms.
She turned on the tap.
The water that came out was only lukewarm.
Good, no waiting needed.
She scooped water over him.
“What’s your name?”
“Teddy.” The answer came muffled, nose still sniffling.
“Can you do one more thing for me? Can you bring your two friends over here so I can cool them down too?”
Teddy nodded.
Ran back, took the other two children by the hand, and brought them over.
Chloe poured water over all of them as she spoke.
“I need you to stay here for a little while. Don’t go outside — you won’t be in danger. I’m going upstairs to check if anyone else is there.”
“There’s no one.” The little girl grabbed Chloe’s hand immediately, eyes wide with fear.
“After the fire started, the older kids brought all of us down here. We should have gotten out, but the door frame warped and trapped us. Vivian tried to come back in to find us and got burned.”
The tears started falling.
The small face scrunched tight.
“Teddy could have gotten out. But Teddy ran back in for me. I’m going to get Teddy killed. Dad, Mum, Grandpa, Grandma — they’re all going to be so angry at me.”
“It’s not your fault, Victoire Weasley!” Teddy shot back immediately.
“They won’t blame you. And you haven’t gotten me killed!”
“But we’re all about to die right now!” Victoire cried harder.
Chloe quickly gathered Victoire in and patted the small back, slow and steady.
“No, we’re not. My godfather will come and save us!” Teddy declared, voice full of absolute certainty.
“He’s the most powerful wiz, person!”
The third child had gone quiet beside them, tears running silently down a small face.
“You’re all going to be fine,” Chloe said, and drew that child in too, tapping gently on the tip of a nose.
“Your mum must be waiting for you right outside.”
She looked over at Teddy and smiled softly.
“Come on. You’re not joining this hug?”
Teddy hesitated for a few seconds.
Then stepped forward, and Chloe wrapped her arms around all three of them at once.
The front door had warped in its frame.
The window was still far too hot.
She had no way to get them out safely.
Staying in the restroom with its water source was the best option.
And with her in control, the flames on the upper floor were dying out.
The only question now was whether the brick walls could hold.
Then, sharp and distant at first, then unmistakable, the wail of fire engines.
Chloe’s shoulders dropped.
“All right, children. We’re saved.”
➤ Next: The Clock
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