Hadrian Whittle was a famous author from a very old and prestigious wizarding family. He wrote Magical Water Plants of the Highland Lochs and Magical Water Plants of the Mediterranean. Now, he was working on his next book Magical Water Plants of Iceland. The year was 1972 and Ada Whittle was in her fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Ada wasn't the only Whittle at Hogwarts. Hadrian had three other children there that year. Ada, however was the only one born outside of the family. Ada's mother was a local girl he had met while researching the plants of the Highland Lochs, one thing led to another and before you knew it there was Ada. She hadn't asked to be born, she hadn't asked for any of this. The other Whittle's at Hogwarts acted like she was some sort of horrible person for daring to come to Hogwarts bearing his name. It wasn't her fault!
Ada was in Hufflepuff, which afforded her a little protection as the others were all in Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. At least she didn't have to worry about anything in her own House. But now Ada had another problem. Professor Beery the Herbology professor had assigned each student a magical plant to take care of for the school year. Ada was petrified. Whenever she tried to raise a plant at home they all died, she couldn't keep anything alive for more than a day or two.
Right now she was in a little used broom closet sitting on a wide window ledge with the pretty white flower with reddish stripes on the petals. "Look, you probably don't understand me or anything, but I kill plants, I don't mean to, but it always happens. I like Herbology just fine, it's one of my favorite classes, but usually I don't have to be responsible for actually making sure something lives. Usually it's pruning or transplanting or harvesting. I'm just no good at it. I try very hard to give just the right amount of water, the right amount of sunlight, doing weeding, that sort of thing, but it never seems to be enough…" she took a shuddering breath. "What's wrong with me? I'm getting emotional over a plant…the plant is responsible for half my grade though." She looked outside onto the grounds seeing students enjoying the day and then back to the flower that almost looked like it was listening to her. That wasn't right, was it?
She sighed again, "I'd just hate to be responsible for killing something as pretty as you are." She slid a finger along a one of the long, delicate leaves being as gentle as possible. "Maybe I'm scared because of my dad. He's a world-renowned herbologist, you know. His name is Hadrian Whittle, I'm proud to be his daughter…it's just that, well, I'm not really considered his daughter…not by the Whittle family. You see the Whittle family is a very old wizarding family. I didn't even know about them before I started Hogwarts. I didn't know a lot of things before I started at Hogwarts. You see he already had a family when he met my mother while he was researching his book for Magical Water Plants in the Lochs. My mother didn't know either. He was doing research there until I was about two I guess before he left. He never made any promises to my mother, but it just seems unfair to me that they would bring me into this world when everything about me being alive is wrong somehow.
"My mother died when I was 3. Her name was Iona, isn't that a beautiful name? I'm glad she had such a beautiful name, even though I don't remember her too well. I remember she was tall and lithe, she loved to dance, every where she went she moved so gracefully, like a dancer. She may have just been a poor shepherd's daughter, but she was proud of who she was. She had this really long, straight blonde hair with just a little bit of red in it. My grandfather, he had the shaggiest mane of red hair you ever saw! And a beard to match! He was a huge man. When I was little he always seemed like he was as tall as the sky and as broad as the moors. My grandmother was a tiny, tiny thing. Her hair was just like my mother's except completely white, even when she was young! Can you imagine that? White hair when you're just a child? I guess it may not have been completely white as a child, but very light blonde so it wasn't that big of a difference when she went white. Grandmum was always moving too, not as graceful, but Grandmum was mauled by a wolf when she was a girl, she almost lost her leg. She was always limping around though, it didn't stop her any!
"They raised me after my mother died. It was a sickness…I remember my father returning when I was six and my grandfather yelling at him, asking him where he was when she was dying, calling for him! I think he was pretty sorry he wasn't there. I guess he might have been able to save her, but I don't know and I don't want to ask either. He was always so nice to me when he came to visit. I knew it was awkward for him. He tried very hard to find out what I was interested in and bring me something I might like. I know he tried, but he never really understood and I didn't understand until I came to Hogwarts why he didn't understand. One year he brought me this strange little dog…I named him Rabbit. He was white and had brown spots, but his tail was kind of split in two. My grandfather thought it was some sort of birth defect and chopped off one of the sides when he got the chance. Then it just looked like he had a crooked tail. I don't think Rabbit liked that very much. He and grandfather never really got along. But he was so loyal to me that grandfather overlooked it most of the time. I know now that Rabbit was a Crup, but I had no idea of that when I was growing up. He didn't like most of our little village, but he defended it so well when another group of villagers came to steal from us that they overlooked it as well. Almost everyone fed him whatever scraps they had. He wouldn't be touched, except sometimes by a child, he wouldn't hurt children, or adults unless they were coming after me. He would growl a little at children, but wouldn't bite if they pulled an ear or his tail. I really miss him. He stays with Grandmum while I'm here. Grandfather died a few years back and Grandmum is all alone while I'm here. He protects her like he protected me. It's strange, from everything I've read Crups are malicious towards Muggles, but Rabbit is okay with Grandmum…maybe she has some magical blood in her as well.
Ada stroked the delicate leaves of the asphodel as she thought about her little dog. "He hasn't aged much, you know, not since he was fully grown. He's still acts and seems like a young dog even though he's nearing 8 years old. Maybe Crups live longer than Muggle dogs. I do know one of these days…I guess I fear that more than anything…that one day he'll be here and I'll know Grandmum is gone. And I'll be all alone in this world. I have my father, of course, but he's practically a stranger. Someone I see once a year, if I'm lucky…and since I've started Hogwarts I haven't seen him. I have seen my half siblings though…the other Whittle's are in Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, there's Mandrake, Dittany, and Alihotsy. I think I really lucked out." She told the plant. "Though I do like 'Asphodel', that would be a very pretty name for a little girl. You get all the popular flower names and sometimes you get herbs like Sage or Rosemary, but you don't get other plant names. In exception to my siblings," she sighed. "Who don't accept me as a sibling. I always wanted a brother or sister and I was so excited to finding out I had siblings and then…" she sighed again. "The first week here Mandrake, who is two years ahead of me cornered me one day and asked me if I knew who he was. I said no, because, obvious I didn't. He told me who he was and I was so excited to know I had a brother, I was all ready to start asking him questions and getting to know him when he told me I wasn't a real Whittle and I never would be. I was crushed! Just crushed! And then his sisters started two years ago and they treated me the same way. I never asked for this…I never asked to be born." She whispered. The asphodel flower nodded a little. It must have been from the slight breeze from the open window.
"Maybe this assignment won't be so bad after all…I mean I can certainly do what I can to keep you alive and it's very easy to talk to you. There's no one else I can talk to. The other Hufflepuff's are all very nice, but I don't have any kindred spirits among them. You probably noticed the bed in here. Filch probably put it in here a long time ago and forgot about it. I've been using it sometimes when I want to be alone. It's a nice little room, don't you think? I've got my own window and this ledge is just as good as a window seat. No one bothers me here. I think it's out of the way for Filch to go even when he's cleaning up because this hallway is just used mainly for storage and a first year study room…maybe things will be okay after all." She smiled at the plant. The plant nodded again and Ada watered the plant a little. Maybe things would be better this year.