LUCK WOULD HAVE IT
I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE HARRY POTTER UNIVERSE, EVERYTHING BELONGS TO JK! I DO NOT DO THIS FOR PROFIT, NOR DO IGET ANY OUT OF IT, THIS IS FOR MY OWN AND OTHERS ENJOYMENT!
SET IN TOM RIDDLE ERA
EPILOGUE
It was a particularly dark, dank and misty morning that one of the oddest things happened in Mr Grasleys backyard.
He had always believed in odd occurrences, wondering what the government could concoct next and cover it up with when he read the newspapers. But Mr Grasleys had a knack of reading between the lines, figuring out what odd thing they were attempting to cover up.
But he had never, in his seventy two years of life, witnessed such an odd girl.
He had been enjoying his morning tea, a habit that he was very fond of. Sipping it in his favorite wicker chair and watching the clouds slowly drift by as the sun slowly set. The hill his seat sat upon was quite the languorous journey to get to, and his weary bones were feeling his age now, but up he had walked and down he would again. The endless cycle of his favorite habit.
He used to share this habit, until his dear old wife, Haile, passed away.
But now he sat alone.
A peculiar sound reached his ears and his eyes cast towards the sound. Slowly a small mound of dirt was being dug upwards near the foot of an ancient oak tree. For a second he almost believed that his beloved was digging herself out of the grave, except she had been buried a foot away from that site.
Instead a head popped out, even covered in dirt Mr Grasleys could make out the fine gold of the hair on the head that appeared next.
A grin plastered to her face, the oddest girl came out of the earth.
Strange occurrences were normal for her, Aurillia Astoria had grown into them, and up around them. She searched them out.
The first one had happened when she had being flying around on her mothers Aethonan which she had procured in Ireland, far away from their home in Australia. The Aethonan, a modest chestnut with wings of blazing red brown had been a kind mare, she had happily helped Aurillia learn how to fly.
And fly they did. That day that the strange thing happened on had been an everyday normal one. Which made Aurillia wonder why people called them odd days when things that were strange happened?
But never mind that.
She had been flying along the coast with Klein, the Aethonan, when she had seen a patch of sand that shifted constantly. Landing Aurillia investigated with the mind of a seven year old, grab the sand.
The oddest thing happened. She put her hand through the shifting sand and met metal.
The little girl had fallen face first into the sand, luckily Klein grabbed a hold of her shirt with her strong teeth and she didn't fall all the way through. If she had, well, things wouldn't have gone well.
The sand had been a portal between two strange places, and Aurillia had no idea where this one lead to.
It had closed suddenly, Klein pulling her backwards before she could get spliced in half.
The little girl had vowed then that she would find every strange thing in this world.
Having hailed from a strong family of wizard with considerable wealth, they were pure bloods but not on the list of Sacred Twenty Eights, Aurillia had many chances to find strange things.
Her magic was strong, her ability to handle it uncanny, and she became a master of non-verbal spells at the tender age of 13.
She didn't attend school, there was no way her parents were going to let their daughter go far away to only learn inadequate things. That's what Aunt Audrey had said, her own daughters were home taught along with Aurillia.
But that didn't mean she didn't learn a lot of things.
She learnt all of the normal magic things, and the history of magic, including about the magic schools. Then on the side she learned about strange magic.
Strange magic was the fun-nest, so she put all of her attention into her little escapades. Asteria, her own Granian, helped her on that journey as she got older.
And this adventure was to be the biggest, most dangerous, and fun-nest strange magic encounter.
"I feel it tingling! The Strange Occurrence is nearby!" She exclaimed, thighs burning hot for they had been flying for the last four hours.
Asteria shook her head, throat rumbling as strong wings carried them over a vastness of water.
The Granian's ears flew back, eyes locking onto the shifting water that signified what her rider was searching for.
Aurillia's keen eyes sought it out, she gave Asteria a kick pat, "Don't let the folks worry over much about me. I'll be back in a couple of hours, I hope."
Giving a snort Asteria conveyed her large amount of disbelief in that fact.
"I'm fifteen! I can do what I wish to do! And Strange occurrences are much more fun then learning the properties of Gillywead!" With that she pushed off her Granian, who trailed down beside her.
Aurillia gave a whoop, then flew through the shifting water.
The bright blue of the sea gave way to a damp darkness. She was approaching the land at a sudden pace, but with a whoosh of her hand, wandless one at that, and a muttered "Arresto Momentum." she landed safely.
"Note number one!" She exclaimed as she stood up, brushing down her worn black trench coat, "The Strange Occurrence has landed us into a Strange Cave!" A piece of paper bobbed behind her, with a quill seamlessly writing down what was being said.
Aurillia looked around, clicking her tongue in distaste at the darkness, a quick lumos cast a light from the tip of her ivory wand, which she had brought out. Having encountered many beasts on her travels she had a hex on the tip of her teeth as she walked through the damp cave, her boots squeaking.
"Must be somewhere in a mountain, or deep under an ocean, which would be annoying, seeing as the meerfolk don't seem to be liking us magic folk these days." The small girl muttered to herself, her paper and quill diligently copying her words, "From my keen sense of direction I would say somewhere around Ireland, Scotland." She glanced upwards as some dirt fell onto her nose, "And not under the sea. Which is a relief. Now then, what great mystery shall we find here? The Strange occurrence only happens when two very strong magic's cross each other at a certain level, and between times. Hmmm."
The cave opened up and Aurillia gazed in wonder, in front of her was an ancient tomb. A vast lake spread first, then reached to the steps of a pyramid like structure. Palm's grew on either side's of the cave and Aurillia sensed many eyes on her as she walked to the water, using a non-verbal spell of her making she stepped onto the water, and started to walk across.
"The architecture looks like its Ancient Egyptian, which is highly unlikely if we are in Ireland," She stopped in her pondering as the water broke apart from under her and a strange tentacled beast rose out of it.
"A Grindylow, of course!" Aurillia exclaimed, sending a stunning spell its way and running to the shore, "You know what they say about Grindylow's? Where there is one there is man-"
Grinding to a halt as a huge wave of water, the size of a tidal wave reared up in front of her and a big ferocious head emerged, snapping up a Grindylow as it went, then falling back in.
"A Selma! This place is amazing!" She exclaimed, grinning wildly Aurillia dashed forwards, ignoring the reaching tentacles and the wave of water following quickly behind her.
She was used to running from ferocious beings, and running into more and more.
So Aurillia wasn't surprised as her feet hit solid earth and she ascended the stairs she came face to face with a Sphinx, not the first she had met.
Giving a quick glance behind herself she watched the Selma rear out of the water and give her an angry glare, watching as the Sphinx cast its judgement on her.
"A young one to have found this place so quickly." It started, it's humanoid face holding curiosity.
"Get to the point, I have a curfew and very strict parents." Aurillia stated, she brushed a hand through her messed up hair and gave a sigh, "I mean, please may we go through the riddle already."
"To be in a rush like so is to invite failure." The sphinx cocked her head, then moved one massive paw, "Yes we may go on. What runs and has no feet, roars but has no mouth? Think hard on this child."
She didn't have to, she had run over a whole lake of the stuff, "Water. Thank you."
She run past the annoyed Sphinx, who's tail curled in dissatisfaction of a meal lost.
Aurillia didn't bother looking backwards, she run forwards, ignoring the sound of pixies in the dusty depths as she passed through the doors and into the main room.
Her eyes searched wildly, looking for that tell-tale shifting, she knew it was close.
And it was, being guarded by a deadly looking snake.
She froze. Aurillia had always been afraid of snakes, her one fear. She watched as its slitted eyes calculated her every movement.
She had to wonder why it was guarding such a thing, she had a nagging feeling it meant something important. But her young mind couldn't figure it out. Instead she took in its vivid green scales, some dotted with yellow and orange, and knew that one bite would be it.
"Hey snakey. I know you like that Strange Occurrence, but I need to get to it. You see it's actually pretty cool and I want to hoard it. And from the looks of it so do you. So how about this? We share? It's a book by the looks of it, do you really need it? I'm rambling because I am about to cast a spell on you and I know those take a bit to actually work on little snakes like you. Ha ha ha." She flung her wand out "Stupefy!"
The snake gave a hiss, lunging at her, but not getting very far.
"Yes! Book! Yes!" Aurillia waved her wand and her paper and quill flew into her little knapsack, she stepped forwards, the book looked brand new, it was bound in red dragon scales and diamonds down it's binding. Touching it and letting herself fall forwards Aurillia prepared to travel through the world again.
Mr Grasleys heart thumped wildly as he took in the small girl digging up out of the dirt, golden hair smudged by the dirt she chucked away with hands, one clutched onto a white stick. Her entire body was lifted out as she braced her two arms on either side of the hole she had made.
Finally released from the earth the small girl gave a sigh of relief, muttering something about, "Still better then snakes."
"Oh my!" He exclaimed, the horror subsiding to surprise, "Are you... what.. how?"
The girl's head shot up, wide long lashed eyes found him and they looked on in shock, "You see me. Damn, my spell must've worn off. Muggles seeing me. I well... have to go!"
Then she stood up and waved her stick.
And disappeared.
Mr Grasleys couldn't believe his eyes, he glanced at his tea, wondering if his neighbour Hodge had spiked the brew again.
He could believe that, but not little girls popping out of the earth.