take the path of safety, far from this danger.
The Gryffindor and Slytherin first-years left the dungeons in a hurry. There he was… The Potter boy was just like his father, every bit as self-centred and arrogant… There was no doubt that in no time, I wouldn’t be able to bump into him in the corridors without having to stop him doing something wrong …
I had entertained hopes, I realized, in spite of myself. The son of Lily Evans! I could remember her bent figure over the cauldrons in Slughorn’s classes! But there was no Lily in this boy. Lily was very much dead, while James Potter seemed to have been blessed with a reincarnation.
The Gryffindor first-years promised to be a nightmare. There was yet another Weasley, leaving me wondering when the endless stream of red-haired oddities was going to dry up, a jumpy, over-enthusiastic Muggle-born know-it-all, a pair of giggling girls and two of your average, mediocre Hogwarts boys. But all that was nothing, nothing. To top it all off, the son of the Longbottoms, one the bravest and most highly skilled couples I had ever been disgraced to fight against, was acting like a pathetic stuttering clown!
To tell the truth, the Slytherins were not that much more engaging. Draco seemed to be the only promising child in the class, with the Parkinson’s offspring, whom I was disappointed to find quite giggly, too. It was a pity Cybele did not join my House.
I was looking forward to beginning my research, still thankful for the welcome and powerful distraction the girl was bringing.
I went up to my meeting with the headmaster, realizing how strange, in a refreshing way, it was to head to his office on pure scientific business for a change.
He smiled up at me from his desk when I entered his office and I had a feeling that he too may have been thinking along the same lines.
‘Ah, Severus, have you already set your first meeting with Miss Philius?’
‘I have, we are to meet at the end of the third week.’
‘Let me know what you have planned,’ he invited.
We went through my tentative strategy and agreed to meet again during the weekend following the meeting. I was unwilling to leave, though, without confronting the headmaster about the unspoken theory I suspected we were sharing. Luckily, he did not seem in a hurry to let me go.
‘Very good, very good… Minerva and Filius reported that she was acting most mildly and in respect to the established rules so far. What have you observed?’
‘She hates her wand,’ I answered, somewhat besides the question. I had been watching her during Potions, pretending to use her wand to summon ingredients and light the fire, holding it in a hostile way. ‘And it’s a good thing we’ve introduced her as a foreigner; she has no care whatsoever for Hogwarts’ Houses, she has already been seen in two different common rooms and keeps taking meals at whichever table. The fact that she has not been Sorted properly, of course…’
‘Ah, how I wish Houses would less often be a barrier to friendships…who knows, she may set an example.’
‘Well, talking about her Sorting, I have been wondering…Ravenclaw?’
‘Dear Severus, you know as well as I do that the girl would hardly have fit in Slytherin.’
I could not but agree just after seeing the latest bunch of trolls for myself, but I wished Dumbledore had not chosen to misunderstand my question.
‘No, but it is not what I meant: the House, and her name, too,’ I elaborated.
The headmaster seemed to be lost in deep contemplation of his own wand. I was on the verge to erupt in direct confrontation. At this point, however, Albus, still playing with his wand, spoke.
‘It is ironic, isn’t it? That one of the most legendary heirlooms of the Ravenclaw founder shall be her wand… when rumour has it that she might never had needed one…’
Now we were getting there.
‘So you think it is a plausible theory?’
‘As far as my knowledge extends, Severus, and we may want to consider that it covers some grounds; it is the only one theory. And I want you to keep this in mind when you go through your work with Cybele, as impossible as it seems.’
‘That would mean that she shall never remember where she came from. Are we setting up to discover it?’
‘I suppose we are, Severus, but how? Even if legend was true, and Rowena Ravenclaw had been one, that would set to nearly a thousand years since the last appearance of a Magian…’
Cybele was right on time Friday evening and did not waste smiles on me as she came in. She seemed to have a feeling of anticipation rather than apprehension, though, because the smile was just behind her lips a she looked up at me after sitting down.
I had come to understand that Cybele’s slight expressions were purposeful, even if lost on most people. From her ghost of a smile, I gathered that we were celebrating our little victory to be settled as a research team and I let a smile come close to my lips as well in a response which was not lost on the girl. Although I was confident she wasn’t inclined to it, I cut any possibility of small talk immediately.
‘The method of investigation at first will be through interviews and experiments. We will go through a descriptive stage as to list all the differences and similitude you may present with both Muggles and wizards. Of course any experiment will be decided on between us, you shall not be forced into anything. Does that suit you?’
‘Of course. Thank you.’
‘We will also do separate work. You shall write down any feeling or memory of your past you may come across. It is possible that you suffer from some kind of amnesia.’
‘Yes. Sir, do people ever come out of amnesia with such a sense of purpose as I did? I mean, one would think someone who does not know where they come from would not either know were to head, right? And I headed right for Hogwarts.’
As much as I appreciated a clever student, I had been wondering how interviews with a cunning girl as Cybele would go and, as I feared, it was becoming evident that I would have to be more open with her than I had planned.
‘Yes, and that is the reason why I personally do not think you suffer from amnesia. However, we should not let any possibility aside, and such work may prove useful in time, don’t you think?’
‘I will try.’
‘On my side, I shall do theoretical research in a wide variety of fields to try and figure out the origin of your particularity.’
‘Sir, do you have any ideas?’
‘Well, there is much I can look in: your situation may result from a spell or a charm but if it is the case it is likely to be extremely complex magic, possibly whether ancient and forgotten or newly invented, as your case is contemporarily unique. It could also be a magic-creature related occurrence we are unaware of. It could be your nature, unknown…’
She did not react to this as we looked at each other for a short while. I understood she had known the last bit to be the main hypothesis but she did not react. I felt an easiness and comfort, in spite of the unknown powers and intentions of the girl in front of me, that I had simply never experienced before. Cybele had said she did not peer into people’s minds. Actually, she had said that she had the feeling that she could but would not try because – it was quite an elegantly modest way of putting it when one came to think of it – it would be rude .And I knew there were no use trying to perform Legilimency on her because Cybele was out of the reach of any traditional magic. But it was quite unnecessary, as I simply believed her.
‘We will have only an interview today. Next Friday I would like to observe you performing basic wizarding magic and take notes. The following week, I would like to observe performances that are not usual magical skills, if we can identify any today.’
Over two hours of interview went smoothly, Cybele answering accurately and in her relaxed, pondering way to all of my questions.
‘Miss Philius, there is a topic on which I did not ask any questions today. It is, however, as important as the others but I do not think interview is the best way to put it together, so I am going to give you some homework. Could you try to organize a list of the knowledge you can master? It is still not clear to me to what extent you’ve reached in personal, magical or general knowledge. Do you understand?’
‘I think, but I could pass you a draft during Monday’s class; you will tell me if I’m on the right way or if it needs changes before next meeting.’
‘Yes, thank you. You may go now, it is very late.’
‘Thank you, Professor.’
And with that she was gone. I decided to focus my research directly on the Magian hypothesis as soon as Dumbledore would pass me some reading material.
I was starting to appreciate that Cybele did not take offence or make any fuss at being called a subject or even referred to in third person. The more I got to know the girl, the more it puzzled me that a girl with such characteristics could have gotten along with those horrid Gryffindor boys, even if in a way of speaking they were quite cunning and light-hearted Gryffindors. I suppose, that just proved that she was very much complex and contradictory; a human being to put it in one word.
Leaving Professor Snape’s dungeon near midnight, Cybele could not feel more grateful to have some friends and an adventure to look forward to on the following day and change her mind from the distressing duty of finding out who she was. Pondering over the meeting, she nearly bumped into a boy who was going down to the dungeons – a Slytherin, an aggressive Slytherin.
‘What are you doing sneaking down here?’
She looked up to see a tall blond boy with a sharp face and on the thin side, looking so hostile that she almost laughed out loud at the ridicule of it.
‘What? This is a corridor! I’m coming out of Professor Snape’s office.’
Malfoy was about to sneer and make a nasty comment about her getting a detention so soon, when he noticed the ‘Professor’ bit. He had unhappily came to notice in this last three weeks that most non-Slytherin students hated his godfather and always just called him Snape, at best. He looked down the girl’s chest to spot the blazon on the robe. A Ravenclaw. Had he seen her in Herbology? Intrigued and a bit calmed down, he asked in a more neutral tone, ‘Well, it’s late. Got detention?’
‘No, just tutoring.’ And she made to leave.
‘Are you that bad at Potions?’ he said mockingly. Wrong question to ask a Ravenclaw, though.
‘No, I’m not!’ she responded indignantly. ‘I just like the subject.’
Now she remembered the bloke - he was a Slytherin first-year she had heard Fred and George talking about nastily. She remembered seeing him with two large dumpy fellows, who seemed to have as much conversation abilities as Phil, but less brains. He was haughty and had also said something insulting to Archie in the corridor once… an unpleasant fellow. She went on before he could decide that he had been polite long enough, but was surprise to hear,
‘It’s my favourite subject, too,’ the boy tried, ‘the teacher is really good.’
‘Yeah, he’s brilliant,’ Cybele said spontaneously, beaming. Honestly, she had referred to the Potions Master and researcher more than the teacher, but the boy was won over with that.
‘You’re in second-year, aren’t you? How come I can’t remember seeing you before?’
‘I’m new in Hogwarts. I was living abroad before. I’m Cybele, Cybele Philius.’
She extended a hand. Malfoy hesitated a split second but decided that his godfather would not give tutorials to a Mudblood; they shook hands.
‘Draco Malfoy, nice to meet you…’
There was an awkward moment where they smiled weakly at each other.
‘Well, I’ll see you around!’ Cybele tried.
‘Sure, I mean… I’ll see you on the weekend?’
Cybele looked at him and felt a tiny pang of pity. Sure, he seemed to be a disagreeable fellow, possibly a bully as far as she could tell, but there was eagerness in his voice and she was keen to interpret it as a plea for a higher quality of acquaintances. On the other hand, if the boy was prejudiced and aggressive with everybody, it was his own fault that he ended up stuck with a pair of trolls… Well, there was only one way to know more about the person behind the rudeness.
‘Tomorrow my friends and I have a, er… concert, you know, The Wuthering Wands.’
‘Ugh… you like this group?’ he grimaced.
She smiled. ‘No idea, my friends won tickets, so I figured I’d just give it a go. I take you don’t like them?’
‘Tuneless, violent, crap…’
‘I see… Care about a chat on Sunday? By then we’ll know if we have the same musical tastes…’
Cybele’s goodwill and attempt at what she viewed as a generous display of tolerance was rewarded by a broad smile.
‘Sure, see you after breakfast?’
They shook hands again.
When Snape got out of his office moments after the meeting, he was pleasantly surprised to see Cybele and Draco shaking hands smilingly, further up the corridor. All of a sudden it did not bother him at all that Cybele knew the Gryffindor Tower passwords better than Longbottom; he was all for inter-House friendship.
Malfoy was coming down his way to the Slytherin common-room and when he spotted him, he anxiously jumped on his godfather to check his new friend’s blood status.
Snape kept expressionless as a disagreeable sort of regret crept within; he often wished he could actually teach his godson a bit of what he had most cruelly learned in life about the real values of blood. But considering his role as a double agent, it was absolutely out of question… unless…
‘No idea.’
‘What?’
‘Cybele is an orphan. Her parents disappeared in mysterious circumstances last year and the girl must have experienced some sort of shock because she suffers of partial amnesia. Her ease with magic leads us to think that she is not Muggle-born, but her blood status cannot be established in any positive way.’
Malfoy looked confused.
‘Draco, this is not common knowledge, please do not tell Cybele or anyone else that I have let you know such things!’
‘All right, but Severus, do you mean there is no way to establish one’s blood status other than with a family tree?’ This made it sound like there was nothing special at all with Muggle blood and Draco did not like the idea.
Severus was starting to think that this was not the best idea after all and instead of making Draco’s mindset evolve, was more likely to expose Cybele to his godson’s very worst side… However, it was too late to go back.
‘No, none at all. Cybele is a brilliant girl, that’s all I know. If it’s not enough for you, by all mean do not seek her company. And I have to warn you; whether due to her amnesia or to her education, Cybele has no concept of blood status or prejudices of any kind, so she may have difficulties understanding your views if you chose to share them… And remember to call me Sir or Professor while we are at Hogwarts.’
And so he left Draco, looking confused, in the middle of the corridor.