mini-gryphon to Molly Michon, though the writer doesn't quite know her by that name

[c-macaulay.livejournal.com]

Molly Achievski. That's the name of the little girl Camilla met.

When I wake up, I'm going to remember you. I'm sure of it.

And Camilla does remember, just as she said she would. She remembers everything from that day. She wants to know if Molly remembers it too.

She wonders who Molly really is. Maybe she's not really a little girl anymore. She could have been anyone.

I hope you feel better when you wake up, Molly said, swinging down from the branch. And I hope your brother says he's sorry. If you still don't feel good, come find me, okay? This place is magic; I bet someone can tell you where I am.

Camilla wants to find her. So she writes a simple little message, in the maroon ink she always uses:

Molly,

My name is Camilla. Do you remember climbing the tree with me? Are you at Hogwarts still?

I'm in Gryffindor.

She sends it off, not with a school owl, but with the little gryphon that Adam Young gave to her a long time ago, when she'd only just arrived at Hogwarts. It's a very magical gryphon. She's sure it will be able to find Molly if she's here. If Molly exists.

No, she has to exist. Camilla has the cards she took from Charles's deck, proof it all really did happen. And she has the cards Charles sent back to her, proof Charles knows it happened too, even if they won't ever acknowledge it in words. Therefore everything was real, Molly included.

She can't talk to Henry about it. He knows something's wrong; he came to see her, the headaches notwithstanding, the day after it all happened. That strange sense he has, the way he's attuned to her (and maybe that's how he found Hogwarts, after all), something told him she needed him. But she couldn't explain to him what had happened, not without risking his anger, and that she was not willing to do. So she shivered, and fidgeted, and Henry said It's your brother, isn't it, not asking so much as telling, and Camilla wouldn't say anything at all. And Henry did a surprising thing, then. He kissed her, full on the mouth, the way he hadn't done since before he died.

Camilla thinks she knows what that means. So she can't talk to Henry about it. Not any of it, not even just Molly and the tree, because if any of it comes out, it'll all come out. He'll be angry at Charles, something she presently doesn't like to contemplate, and that's bad enough. That she would have guessed anyway. What the kiss has told her is that Henry will also be angry at her.

She's not sure she could endure that.

If you still don't feel good, come find me, okay? Molly said.

And maybe Molly isn't feeling so good herself, if she wasn't really a little girl either. If she'd been enchanted the way Camilla was enchanted.

They can compare notes.

She hopes the little gryphon brings back an answer.