Chapter 2 – Being alike

The castle seemed to flicker in the air. It looked solid, though. She was pretty sure it was real, and it was where she was heading. The sun was not very high for the end of summer, but the air was fresh. She concluded the place must have been farther north then where she was before. She did not dwell on where she was previously, as the discomfort of not being able to remember anything precise was distressing.

‘There, must be the answer,’ she thought, looking up to the castle with hope. There must be people there who will know exactly what the matter with her was. She would meet them and stay with them. Yet, the idea of the other children or adults she would be meeting in a short while made her feel self-conscious. She looked down at her clothing and gave a more decided appearance to her skirt. A brass watch appeared around her neck, but she did not check it. She jumped down the comfortable rock she had rested on and headed purposefully to the castle.

She soon passed by a large and colourful pitch. She spotted tiny fluffy sort of creatures hanging more coloured banners on the west side of the pitch, where beautiful silver and emerald green material was already half covering a structure. One on them wasn’t working, though. It was watching her intently. She felt uneasy; were these creatures what she had called for? She had hoped to find herself somewhere with humans.

As she reached the northern end of the pitch, the small creature vanished from thin air with a loud crack. Now that, at least, had something to do with what she had called for.

She now had a full breathtaking view on the castle. Following the pitch toward the castle, she had left the forest hedge which was curving west. As she looked left from the castle to appreciate its distance from the forest, a hut with a smoking chimney caught her eye. ‘That must be human,’ she thought, just as a barking came. A giant of a man appeared on the door step.

This made her smile. ‘A nice fairy tale,’ she told herself. ‘Dwarfs and giants, I should have expected that, I suppose.’ These thoughts had brought her to the very foot of the castle. She crossed a large gothic forecourt to reach what must have been the main door. Should she knock? She reflected that in such a big castle, people may not be standing behind the door, so she made the doors open themselves wide, sensing that this way she proved openness and straightforward intentions.

The doors let an impressive long cry of heavy wood and old brass as they opened slowly. A monumental staircase was facing the doors at the center of a huge hall.

‘Hello?’ she asked nervously, wondering if she should go any further. But then she realized that four grown ups were coming to welcome her and decided to wait in the hall.

Soon enough, the four adults appeared at the top of the handsome marble stairs. She couldn’t seem to remember how to smile and suddenly felt too shy to greet them. A wise-looking old man wearing half-moon spectacles and a white beard was looking kindly at her, flanked by a strict looking lady and a dark gentleman. On the right of the younger man, an ugly-looking man with a strange blue eye was staring at her with defiance and shot a word she could not understand as he threw something red at her from the top of a small stick. But it was just light; maybe he was checking her in some way. Whatever the man found out, he now looked puzzled.

She looked at her feet. She hated herself for such unexpected display of shyness. She was quite nervous to see the outcome of the meeting, though; she knew she had come here in desperation to find people like her, but it did not seem to be successful so far, and she could not remember at all where she was before that. Now, however, was not the moment for self-pity. She looked up with determination and politely greeted the inhabitants of the castle with a clear and, she was happy to hear, steady voice.

‘Good morning, Miss,’ answered the old man kindly. ‘Please come up.’

Her small steps echoed in the majestic hall. ‘Would you do me the honour of coming to my office?’ asked the white haired man, and not waiting for an answer, he took the lead.

He uttered an ice-cream name out of the blue when they reached a moody-looking gargoyle several floors upward. The young girl was pleased as she observed moving staircases and armour and heard the conversations in the moving paintings. The wall opened into a rotating staircase and they all climbed up.

The white bearded man gestured to a comfortable looking armchair in front of his desk, before sitting himself behind it. The three other adults took place on the sides. The old man looked composed and kind, but the three others were palpably tensed. The witch tried to smile at her, but the tension made it look like a smirk. The dark man’s eye had been glued at her since she entered the castle in an intense glare, neither kind nor hostile. The ugly one still looked slightly hostile. She focused into the pair of blue eyes in front of her.

‘Would you like a drink?’ offered the old man who, once again not waiting for her answer, flicked a small stick as a glass of orange-coloured juice appeared in front of her. She was thirsty. She bent toward the glass, and transformed the content into water before she grabbed it and drank. She sensed the three adults twitch but stuck to the blue eyes.

‘Do you know where you are?’ asked the blue-eyed man.

‘No.’

‘This is Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I am Professor Dumbledore, the headmaster, and this is our deputy headmistress, Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape and Alastor Moody.’

She gave three slight bows.

‘And you are…?’ asked Dumbledore simply.

The girl looked at him as if not understanding the question.

‘Pray, what is your name and where do you come from?’ he reformulated encouragingly.

The girl recollected a short moment, as to recall some information that one knows for sure but has not been asked for a while, like one’s cousin’s birth date.

‘Cybele,’ she said as she looked up, looking relieved. ‘I come from the South,’ she added.

However fit the headmaster may have found the information, he did not press the point.

‘What did you come to Hogwarts for?’ the woman named McGonagall asked kindly.

There it was. She had prepared for this question.

‘I wanted to find a place with people like me, people who could explain me about what I do, maybe tell me… Help me.’

This had not come out as clearly as she had rehearsed at all. She looked from the witch to the dark-eyed man to the headmaster hopefully, ignoring the brutal-looking man who was pointing his light-throwing stick at her with a grimace on his face which made him look strikingly like the gargoyle downstairs.

‘What is it that you do?’ the woman asked. ‘Tell us about it.’

‘Err, things that other people can’t do. But I saw people doing it here: like the little creature outside disappearing and the giant man in his hut making it rain over his vegetable patch.’ The old man’s lips unexpectedly twitched into a smile at these words, but she continued nether the less. ‘And when I open the door; I’ve never met anyone who can open the door without touching it, unless it’s electric.’ She saw the women and her younger colleague exchange an eager look at this last word. ‘Also like you giving me a glass of juice without going to take it somewhere.’

‘…Or changing its content if you don’t like it,’ the old man finished for her.

‘You can disappear like the House-Elf?’ the younger man cut in a bit brusquely.

The young girl broke into her first real smile since she entered the castle and let out a clear little, laugh.

‘Was it really an Elf?’

‘Yes,’ the man answered with a slight smile, looking suddenly very engaging, but the smile and the impression passed as fast as light. ‘Can you do that?’

‘Yes, I can be invisible. Or I can disappear to appear in another place.’

‘Can you show us?’ he asked slowly.

As an answer, she disappeared and poked the deputy headmistress’s hand gently, who gave the smallest breath intake. She reappeared seconds later, and then disappeared again.

‘There is a lake.’ Her voice came from the northern window, behind the meeting table, where she was gazing outside. ‘I did not see it from the grounds.’

The adults exchanged looks at this further proof that Hogwarts’ magical laws were bellow the creature; no wizard could Apparate within the grounds.

She walked back to her armchair.

‘Is there anything else… unusual you can do?’ Snape continued.

She hesitated. Was she right to be so opened to these people who were obviously not as similar to her as she had hoped? Even though they were doing things like her, they also seemed surprised at a number of things.

She gave a non-committing, ‘I don’t know.’

Dumbledore gazed intensely at her, and then said, ‘You do not know exactly where you come from.’

It was not a question.

‘I don’t remember,’ she corrected. ‘Nothing precise; I just was among people unlike you, so I wished I could find other people more like me, then I found myself down these mountains other there… And I knew I could walk to this castle to find you. You are like me, right?’

‘Well,’ the headmaster answered, ‘we can be invisible, and appear in other places, open doors, summon glasses of refreshments or change glasses’ contents.’ He looked at her piercingly over the half-moon spectacle before adding, ‘But we do not do it exactly in the same way as you, so we may be of different kinds.’

‘Have you always been able to do all these things?’ McGonagall asked.

‘Yes, but I don’t remember much,’ she lied. She could not remember anything at all, actually, she thought sadly. ‘I don’t remember when I was younger,’ she added truthfully.

‘You must be hungry,’ the headmaster stated unexpectedly. ‘Eslis!’ The Elf appeared in the very second. ‘Would you please take our guest down to the kitchen for a healthy snack, and bring her back when I will call?’

‘Yes, Sir,’ the Elf squeaked.

The young girl looked positively delighted to follow the small creature. But she turned back to Dumbledore.

‘The students in your school, they are my age?’

‘How old are you?’

‘Err-’

‘Yes, they are about your age,’ McGonagall cut in. =

‘Do they do things like you or me?’

‘They can. They come here to learn it our way.’

‘Maybe I could learn your way too, then we would be alike. Wouldn’t we?’

Dumbledore smiled. ‘We will discuss it when you come back.’

The girl sighed and followed the Elf to let them deliberate over her case.

***

Dumbledore waited for the door to close behind the Elf and the girl before he looked back at each of us.

I was quite fascinated. Never such a phenomena had presented itself to me. I knew, and Albus must have known, and assumed that I knew, too, what was the most far-stretched and yet most obvious hypothesis here. I was dying to explore the matter. The girl would stay here and nobody would be more qualified than I was to study her.

Though, I also felt uneasy; past fascination for powerful magic had cost me before, was still costing me, dearly. I thought for a second that ironically, we were likely to be two in this room to feel the very same way. But I was tempted, possibly harder than ever. I was determined to have her in Hogwarts and under my close responsibility. It was just a matter of directing these deliberations wisely. This game I could play.

Dumbledore raised an interrogative eyebrow to us and unsurprisingly, old Mad-Eye was the first to answer his silent interrogation.

‘I’ll call the Unspeakables; they’ll see the creature and bring it to the Department of Mystery.’

Dumbledore kept half as expressionless as I hoped I remained. McGonagall typically cried out indignantly.

‘We shall certainly not hand a child over to laboratory freaks! She is of school age and therefore falls under our responsibility.’

I felt like it was safe to intervene coolly at this point.

‘I am afraid Minerva is right. Considering the age of the girl, we can hardly avoid the responsibility. Still, Alastor has a point; this should be reported to the Ministry… to a certain extent,’ I added cautiously. I was already on fine ice. As on cue, Albus gave me one of his trademark piercing looks. Minerva saved it.

‘Yes, let’s not hide to the Ministry that we have a child with special abilities, but let’s not give enough away to tempt them into getting her as a guinea pig!’

Perfect! I could have kissed the old stiff owl.

Moody opened his mouth, no doubt to express some more disgusting suggestion about the girl’s future in a cell in the Magical Creature Experimentation Center, but I cut in again.

‘As Albus said, for now we are quite at her mercy and the Ministry could not prevent anything if she would turn to harm anytime soon. The wisest move is probably to give her a peaceful welcome and to keep her, as well as in good mood, under close observation.’

I did not like the look that the three of them gave me. I was being obvious. They were seeing through me and I hated that.

‘And we are to suppose that you are eager to take charge of the close scientific observation, Severus?’ Dumbledore asked plainly.

It seemed like game was over, cards on the table.

‘You would suppose well, as I am the most qualified… and yes, I do volunteer.’

Something close to sadness painted itself on the transparent face of the older Gryffindor.

‘Severus, I know, and admire, your passion for research, which has led in the recent past to major magical discoveries, but let me speak plainly; I feel that you are already under duties too heavy for one wizard, and such observation will be engrossing as well as time consuming. It is also critical that the findings remain among us in these disturbed times,’ he added cautiously. ‘As fascinating as the research is, and as tempting it is to have it rested in hands I believe to be the most skilled and efficient, I cannot but be reluctant…’

This time no expression crossed my face.

‘I am at your service, Headmaster. One would think that I could receive a rewarding task, which I may truly enjoy, as a compensation for my… less pleasant duties,’ I said icily, cursing myself for giving such a shameful attempt of a tantrum to get what I wanted. So much for the skilful poker game I was proposing myself to play five minutes ago. Never the less, it worked.

‘We should then consider that you ought to have a share in these duties. Minerva?’

‘Of course, Albus, it will be capital input. Are we then assuming that we are taking the girl in?’

Moody accepted defeat, for his standard, in an unexpectedly gentleman-like manner.

‘So let’s get through what we shall feed the Ministry, our course of magical observation steps and how to fit the girl in… Before sunset!,’ he said grumpily.

***

So we went through with it. The girl was summoned back less then two hours later.

Eslis escorted her back and she accepted to resume her place in the armchair with a look of determination.

Dumbledore locked eyes with her and started with a short speech. ‘Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was established centuries ago. The students and professors here are witches and wizards. Witches and wizards all have, with different level of power, the ability to perform magic. Magic is what we call when we perform such things as we discussed earlier. You mentioned that other people, where you were before, could not perform similar actions. That is because the vast majority of human kind does not have magical abilities. We refer to all them as Muggles and keep our doings strictly secret from them.’

The girl just nodded.

‘We perform all our magic,’ Dumbledore was pursuing, ‘by using magic wands,’ he gracefully flicked the small wooden stick at these words, ‘and verbal spells. For instance, to transform pumpkin juice in water as you did earlier,’ a new glass of pumpkin juice appeared in front of them for demonstration, ‘I need to point then twist slightly upward my wand like that and say “transubsts aqua�.’ The glass glowed a second as the spell worked and left clear water within.

The look on Cybele’s face showed she was puzzled.

‘The young wizards and witches come to this school to learn how to perform magic by using a wand and memorizing the spells in different fields of actions, to learn about animals, plants or other material which possess magical properties and how to deal with them or to use them. Unlike you, witches and wizards cannot perform much magical actions without using wands and spells. It takes five years of education in this school to master the basics. Therefore, we do not think that you are a witch, or at the very least a witch alike any other. Do you understand?’

‘Yes,’ the young girl answered, looking crestfallen.

Would you mind answering some questions to professors McGonagall and Snape, now?

She nodded.

Professor McGonagall started.

‘Can you remember anything about were you were before entering our grounds? Would you please tell us all you can remember?’ she asked kindly.

The girl seemed to ponder the question. I could tell she was not trying to remember any thing but was calculating the course of action to take. I felt confident that if she was genuine, she would trust us. As to confirm both my hypothesis, she seemed to have made a decision and spoke.

‘Barely. I must have been, wherever it was, among Muggles as you say, to have come to realize that I was different. I always used to wish things and they would just happen or appear, so I knew I could ask something a bit more complex and I made the decision to leave. So I made myself wish to find a place where people like me were staying and I found myself down the hill other there. I saw the castle and that was where I was supposed to go but I felt something was wrong. We are different but you must be the closest thing to what I am, or I would not have found myself here at all.’

‘Do you know if you have a family?’

‘No, I suppose I must have had parents. I don’t know where they would be.’

The girl appeared quite indifferent. I could tell better, though, as I was used to concealing or bottling my feelings. She was quite distressed but was putting an impressive restrain at work.

‘Do you know your last name?’

‘No, I’m sorry.’

‘Or how old you are?’

She just stared at her feet. Minerva looked at me. She wordlessly made me understand that she had decided to put an end to what we had agreed to be the first series of questions. I could not agree more; I took over.

‘Miss?’ She looked up and softened at the sound of my voice, undoubtedly guessing that the questions would take a different turn.

‘Could you try to explain us how you perform the magic, as, unlike us, you do not appear to use spells or a wand?’

‘Err, if I want to have water, like, rather then the weird juice, I… just sort of acknowledge that I really want water, not the other thing, then I sort of decide that it should really be like that… so it is.’

‘So it is… Does it require a lot of concentration, time, or energy?’

She looked up at me; she did not seem to have considered the matter.

‘Not more than breathing,’ she eventually answered. She would be a dream to work with; accurate and intelligent, just a bit cunning. And she seemed to know what she was doing; wasn’t she getting just what she had hoped for? Most of all, she seemed to always think before she spoke, which was a rare trait in a Hogwarts student... And she even had more than a hundred-word vocabulary! She would be in Slytherin, I caught myself thinking proudly.

I restrained myself from asking more questions. If they wanted my help, they would have to assign me this task at my conditions.

We were able to leave the headmaster’s office a couple of hours later. All was settled and, as far as I was concerned, satisfyingly. I had gotten exactly what I wanted, even though in a most unexpected way.

As for the one hypothesis nobody had voiced, the headmaster had given a perfect give-away that it was in his mind when it had come to the house. I will have it coming up in our next meeting, whether he liked it or not.

Sitting down at my desk, I realized that the unexpected commotion had relieved me from more pressing preoccupations. I felt grateful that I would have the exciting task of studying out Miss Cybele to regularly take my mind off another particular problem for the coming years.

As of yet however, there was no escaping any more the painfully obsessive wonders and dreads: Lily’s son was entering Hogwarts tonight, at last.