It was a dark, serene night, the luminous half moon gleaming and white glowing stars giving harmony to the dark blue sky. It was silent, the only noise being the other children's faint snores as they drifted off into a deep sleep. However Cecilia lay awake, shivering under the thin sheet that barely gave enough warmth, even in the summer. She stared up at the dusty roof. It was covered with cobwebs and the occasional dead fly, the remains of the only other living things that ever came into her room. She was scared, worried and shocked, but part of her was curious and intrigued, pondering what had happened earlier that evening. It had felt so - real, but it couldn't have really happened? Cecilia often had dreams, dreams that were so clear that it took her a while to adjust back to reality, but never had she had one as vivid as this one.

~ Earlier that night ~

"Cecilia, I know your upset, but your day will come, I know it will."

Earlier that day, Cecilia's best friend Victoria had left the orphanage with her new family. Cecilia was used to everyone leaving the orphanage with family's much more willing to take them than the occasional adults that took even a second glance at her. You would think that anyone with the heart to adopt would ignore what the other children say about Cecilia, but oh so wrong you are.

"She's a freak!"

"She makes things happen, and she acts like it was magic."

"She's so full of herself, she thinks she's special."

"That Cecilia girl, she's a nightmare!"

These children's opinions seemed to draw everyone away from Cecilia. Victoria was the only one that stood between her and the bullies, and now that protective wall was gone. The door to her room swung shut, and she was left alone staring out the window. Cecilia got up from the chair, and moped across the floor to grab her nightgown, just wanting to fall asleep until her day finally came. My day will never come, thought Cecilia, as another tear slowly dripped down her face. There was a bang on her window, quiet but still loud enough to make her jump. Cecilia glanced around and saw a small baby bird had slammed into her window. She was already upset, but she couldn't help but feel sorry for the bird. 'It only wanted company' she thought. She knew all about wanting company. Right now, that was the only thing she wanted. Company.

She opened the window and looked down. A motionless bird lay down on the muddy grass, and Cecilia's heart sank, although she wasn't expecting anything better. Reaching over to grab the birds smooth-feathered body, she felt the cool breeze against her skin. She reached up and and brushed her long, wavy brown hair behind her ears, and out of the corner of her glistening green eye, she saw something out of the ordinary.

A black hooded figure glided smoothly through the darkening sky, blocking the setting sun from Cecilia's view. It got closer and closer, until Cecilia could clearly make out the creature. It looked like something you would see in a Halloween shop, but so much more real. It moved throughout the sky with elegance and grace, but there wouldn't be anything out there that looked less elegant than this. It had no body, only a smooth, swaying, almost cloud like cloak drifting in the wind behind as it moves. It had long fingers, bony yet smooth, and they came closer and closer to Cecilia...

"Stop!" She tried to scream, but nothing came out. It was as if her mouth had been paralysed. Her hearting was beating at an uncontrollable pace, it felt like it would burst out any second. The figure then gripped around her thin, bony shoulder. To Cecilia's surprise, she didn't feel any pain, in fact the sensation was almost soothing. Was she imaging things? But then she had the feeling of being sucked up by a vacuum cleaner, her body distorting. She knew this was the end. She was shrinking, and everything around her became larger, as she slowly became less significant. The pain got worse, as her body was contorted, and she was in so much pain that she barely noticed what happened next. She began to grow feathers, Identical to the bird she had seen just before. In fact, it was almost as if she was the bird from before. She was in a state of shock, so terrified that this emotion overpowered the pain. Opening her arms, great wings appeared, lined with soft feathers and without even controlling herself she began to fly. Without controlling herself she set off into the sky, her wings flapping without her even moving them. She rushed past birds, now her own size, and looked down to see the orphanage slowly fading underneath her. The wind rushed past her body and she neared the clouds, got closer and closer.. and went right through them. She was gliding through the clouds, and felt the same sucking sensation as before, this time becoming bigger and bigger, morphing into her own body one more. The scene blurred and she was back to herself again, and although she still had a vivid image in her mind of what just happened she refused to believe it. This isn't possible- it cant be? The dark cloaked creature then let a bird free, the same bird that had died before, she was sure of it. This couldn't be right. And with that, it flew away, disappearing into the clouds that Cecilia had only seconds ago been flying through.

Cecilia's heart had never been beating this much in the period of just a few minutes. Inside she was screaming, terrified, but not a single noise came out of her mouth, she could hardly breathe.

~ End of flashback. ~

She tried to shake it out of her head, but just couldn't. What on earth had just happened? If she had imagined it- then why? And if she hadn't... After hours and hours of deep thinking, full of questions but no answers she drifted off into an uneasy sleep, nervous that it would happen again. She didn't dream at all that night, she was hardly asleep for spaces of time long enough to do so. She was constantly waking up during the night and every time this happened her head jolted to the window, terrified that the creature would be back again.

The start of the next day seemed relatively normal. Wake up. Get dressed. Eat. Read. Get picked on. But as average as they day seemed, every single light breeze, or dark object gave her the chills. While everybody else went about their daily life as usual, Cecilia was terrified of everything, much to the other children's amusement. Their favourite thing to seemed to be mocking Cecilia at every change they got, trying to "out-mock" whoever had gone previously. It was different without Victoria around, and they were sure making the most of it. Without Victoria, Cecilia was even more vulnerable than before, which was hard to top. Victoria was always there with the sassy comeback to whoever was insulting her. She always was their to comfort Cecilia when she needed it most, on the nights she spend crying. Without Victoria, Cecilia was nothing. She imagined what Victoria was doing now with her new family. Cecilia was sure it would be something cool. They would be at the cinema, or a theme park, something along those lines, things Cecilia would never be able to do. Cecilia wondered whether Victoria had though about her since she left. She wouldn't have, she would be having to much fun. Cecilia had always dreamed about having a free life in the outside world. Most of the kids here had at some point, but Cecilia had been here before she could walk and talk. When she was younger, her mother had fallen ill. She hadn't heard much about her mother, and none of the staff here had ever seemed keen to bring the subject up. She hadn't heard of her dad either, but she was glad. Cecilia's father had left Cecilia alone as soon as her mother died, and nobody in the country had really heard of him since.

It wasn't until the afternoon until anything odd happened. It was lunchtime and Cecilia was sitting on a plastic chair in the corner of the kitchen, alone. She spent a lot of time alone, but it felt odd, without Victoria, so she didn't speak, she simply sat there staring at the ground. She could sense all the others pointing at her, and you she could hear whispers and chuckles, but she was too tired to really mind. Without any warning, an old man walked in, scanned the room, but when he seemed to look at Cecilia, he showed a faint smile, the corners of his mouth appearing from underneath his wispy silver beard. It was long and straight, and if he was to sit down on a chair it could easily be sat on. His hair was much the same, leaving very little visible face. Cecilia gave herself a much needed reality check. Why would I make anyone smile? Cecilia was not used to making people smile. Besides Victoria, the only time he would make people smile were when they were laughing at the insults they were using on her. However, he showed no interest in any of the other children. Many of them were already making fun of the man, pretending to adjust invisible glasses, much like the shiny silver half moon spectacles he was sporting, perched atop the edge of his nose, but the unknown visitor simply let out a light chuckle. He then spoke up.

"I wish to speak with Cecilia."

He spoke with a calm, soothing voice, with a slight rasp to it.

"Me?"

Cecilia spoke for the first time that day. She was in a state of confusion. Why does this man want to speak to her, and how did he know Cecilia's name?

"Follow me." He said with another smile. He was either oblivious to or simply ignoring the shocked murmuring passing around the room. They too, were thinking the same thing as Cecilia was, and nobody could blame them, nothing like this had ever happened before. While not so terrified, Cecilia found this just as odd, and she was just as confused as she had been last night.

He lead her down the corridor with a superior sense of direction, as if he had been here before. With each step he took, his oddly fashioned robe swished along the ground. They were varying shades or purple and orange, and certainly different to anything Cecilia had seen anyone wear before. It looked in a way like a luxury lab coat, but it was different in many ways too. He spoke up again, taking Cecilia by surprise.

"You seemed quite shocked back there. I apologise."

Cecilia didn't answer, and followed this man into an room otherwise empty, besides the desk and a few chairs. Cecilia never had never been in here before, she never knew it existed. The room itself looked as if it had been untouched, but the furniture appeared brand new. The white wallpaper was peeling off in the corners, revealing grey concrete wall behind it. The roof had almost as many cobwebs as Cecilia's had, a difficult feat to achieve. As Cecilia started behind the mad she saw outside the dust covered window, making out trees and grass through the grey coating.

"Sit." he said, motioning to the brand new office chair, legs so shiny it couldn't possibly have been used before.

Cecilia stayed silent and sat down, scanning the man in front of him up and down, trying to recognize him, with no luck.

"You must be confused."

Cecilia silently agreed, but remained silent. Her head was full of her voice, asking questions and trying to figure out what was going on, but she didn't dare actually speak up.

"I should introduce myself. I am Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

Cecilia took in every word of what he said, but remained as confused as before, if not even more. She never heard of anything the man taken of, it was as if he was an alien from a strange plant far away.

"Sorry?"

"Ah Cecilia, you're just how I though you would be." He smiled. There was something about his smile that calmed Cecilia, as if he was protecting her, watching over her, keeping her from pain.

"Cecilia," he began "You are not like the average human. In fact, it's often believed that those of your type are simply a myth. What you posses is dangerous, yes, but it must also be protected."

Cecilia was full of so many different emotions, and while she didn't even know to trust this man, his last words scared her.

"Cecilia, you are not only blessed with an incredibly rare skill, but another power within that, an incredibly powerful trait."

Throughout his speech he remained calm, serious, but calm.

"As much as I would love for you to solve the clues yourself, I suppose that I must tell you."

As Cecilia wriggled slightly on her seat, this started to finally feel real. There was a certain tone to his voice that let Cecilia know that he wasn't lying, that he was telling the truth.

"Cecilia, whatever you do, I must ask you not to gasp. It is difficult enough explaining to one muggle what I'm about do tell you, I don't need to be explaining to any others"

"Muggle?"

"Ahh, you have so much to learn."

Cecilia was shocked at this new vocabulary. She knew what was going on, this was a tutor, a special tutor for especially dumb children. Albus then looked at the expression on her face, and as if he read her mind he spoke-

"Cecilia, this isn't because you are unintelligent, in fact, it's rather the opposite. I suppose I should get to the point- your a witch."

"H-h how dare you.."

"Ah, Muggles. You're not whatever your kind has taught you to recognise as a witch, you have a gift, you, with a bit of teaching, can perform magic."

"Sir, you must have the wrong person."

"Cecilia, think, have you ever been convinced that you did something that you thought humanly impossible?"

Cecilia straightaway thought of the last night, and gulped.

"Although, what happened last night is incredibly rare."

"What... h-how did you.."

"That is not to be discussed now. We must begin to get you sorted out for the school year. I'lll take you now."

"Don't worry, we get taught here, and I cant just leave the orphanage."

"Cecilia, do you really think I came here to talk to you if you were going to be staying here?"