A Stranger at Hogwarts
By Holdred
Chapter 1
Early Life
Helen was meditating after her last encounter. She needed to recover mana and heal. The powers of chaos at times were stronger than she expected. She achieved connection with her node easily, the power slowly poured back into her beaten body. Instead of being at complete peace her mind went back to the stories, she had been told of her youth.
Years ago.
Her family had been flying over the mountains for a special meeting her father had to attend. Her mother tired of being left alone all the time had come along. She brought Helen with her. The next leg of her journey was to have taken them over the mountains from India to China. Helen, only four at the time, remembered hearing a loud bang, and then the plane was falling. She was terribly frightened, and then she hurt a lot when the plane hit the snowy side of a mountain. She vaguely remembered her father crawling to her through the wreckage and putting the amulet about her neck. He pushed her out of the plane along with one of the suitcases. The world went dark.
She recovered and woke ten days later. She remembered waking and feeling the sheets being the softest, that she had ever felt. A little old man was taking care of her, who spoke in a language she didn't understand. The story she was told about it years later was the whole mountainside was engulfed in flame from the fuel in the airplane tanks. The only things untouched by the flame were her father's suitcase and herself. The monks told her that one of their number saw the spirit of the tiger and the spirit of the dragon hovering above the flame as if protecting something.
The next few years were spent growing and learning languages. The monastery she found herself in had no women. She was cared for by an old gardener. The gardener was amazed by how easily she picked up languages. She knew English and Gaelic when she arrived and by the time, she was six she could speak Chinese, Mandarin, Cantonese and Tibetan with fluency. What amazed the gardener even more was that she could also read all of these languages as well.
By the time she was six, she had gotten tired of pulling weeds and planting flowers and vegetables. She wanted to learn with the boys that had been sent here. She saw those practicing martial arts in groups, and it looked like fun. She watched and practiced what she saw in secret until she could make her little body do what she wanted. When the next group of boys showed up, she darkened her hair and skin with walnut oil and dressed like a boy, she entered testing like all the new students. She used the name Zhen Mei, because Mei was the name the old gardener had always called her.
When the week of testing was over and the boys who did not pass had been sent home, the masters had been amazed with the skills she had shown. She was put with an advanced group two years older then the novices. She quickly excelled and was equal to the best of the students. As the weeks past, she began to run low of walnut oil. She started using less and less on her skin so it slowly lightened. The stain left her hair slowly as well until a good length from the root out was easily red. The tutors that saw her daily never noticed the change. One day after the masters had been inspecting the progress of the students she was called before a group of them. She was surprised to see Yun the old gardener seated with the masters.
Master Yi spoke, "Mei or should I say Helen, we are pleased to see your progress. We are not pleased to see you trying to deceive your tutors."
"But master," she spoke humbly, "I only wish to learn. The exercises you teach as well as the ability to find one's center are wonderful and a part of me believes this to be very important to me." While she was speaking the spirit of the tiger and dragon were standing behind her.
The monks excitedly whispered to one another. "Very well Mei you may stay. You may not stay in the cubicles with the other boys. You will stay at Master Yun's cottage as you have for years. He told this council you would surprise us some day. As you know, we do not let women train here. It distracts the boys from concentrating at many times in their life. You will conceal the fact you are a girl from all. When you have mastered all the arts we have to teach, you must return to the outer world and return to your destiny."
The years past quickly, she soaked up knowledge like a sponge. Unknown to the monks, she had someone she could talk they couldn't see. One day while meditating, she concentrated on the medallion her father had given her. A spirit rose out of the medallion. It looked like an angel. "Hello Helen, I am so glad you finally figured out how to summon me. I have been with you since the airplane accident."
"Who are you?"
"I am a part of your own soul. The part that remembers things that have gone before. The part of you that once awakened lets you touch the power or magic as some call it. You must now learn to control it as well. During the day, you will continue to learn what the brotherhood wishes to teach you. At night, you will learn what I must teach you."
"Won't I be too tired to learn properly?"
"No you won't be too tired. Because of your blood, you actually do not need to sleep as humans do."
"Do you mean I'm not human?" She asked with worry in her voice.
"Your father was a great mage and your mother's mother was an elf. The Fae blood you have is what gifts you with the ability to require little rest."
"You mean magic is real and I can use it? Oh boy."
"Yes magic is real. Yes you will learn to use it, because if you don't learn correctly it will kill you faster than a sword would."
With her enthusiasm undimmed, she read and studied whatever books her avatar brought her. One evening the avatar had her get her father's suitcase. Using the amulet as a key, she could open it. The inside was amazing; it opened several times never seeming to get thinner or loose storage capacity. When it was opened a certain way she could feel something tingling in her bones. As she meditated with the case in node formation she could feel power flowing into her body.
As the time for her final testing approached, she pondered what she had learned. Her kung fu skills in many disciplines were as good as the masters. Her sword fighting technique was excellent. Staff, dagger and club skills were good. She could walk on the most delicate paper and not leave a trace or through leaves without making a sound. She had mastered and copied all the information on the scrolls in the monastery library and stored it in the library she found in her fathers suitcase. Her alertness of her surroundings was good as was her awareness of the magic field.
Her testing day was a day of great ceremony. Over the years, many of the boys who started had washed out. She approached the room of testing in the traditional red garb of testing. Her spirit rose as she passed each test put before her. Her only sadness was that Master Yun whom she had come to love had passed on and was not able to share her success.
Test last challenge involved moving a large iron urn full of coals to the side so she could walk through. This would permanently brand the inside of her forearms with five-inch high representations of a dragon on one side and a tiger on the other. The full urn weighed almost a hundred pounds. She worried about this task for months. She was only 5' 4" and weighed 124 lbs. As she lifted it, white-hot pain shot through her arms. One-step, the pain seemed to fill her whole body. Second step, the pain ripped into her soul. Last step and putting it down, the pain expanded and her soul expanded. With eyes tight shut, she saw the spirit of the tiger and dragon on either side of her avatar touching it. All three spirits grew and glowed bright white. She saw her body also begin to glow a bright white. Then darkness.
She awoke with her arms firmly pressed into the snow bank outside the door. She was allowed back into an outer room of the monastery to change robes into orange the color of the graduated wondering monk. She was given her pack and a staff. She had prepared her pack herself with her father's suitcase that surprisingly folded up small enough to fit and the traditional 3 days of food allowed to get to the nearest village, and one change of clothes.
The five masters met her at the door. "You can work magic. Everyone sensitive to magic in the entire monastery saw your graduation and the touch of the spirits even if they were on the other side with many walls interposing. One word of advice, only use it when no normal people can see or to save your life." With that, they bid her goodbye.