It took Dumbledore, the greatest wizard alive, several hours to discover the location of The-Girl-Who-Lived.
But once he had located the girl, found her in an orphanage for boys and girl, Albus chose not to waste any time in going to meet her.
Dumbledore wasn't going alone, however.
Severus Snape was coming along as well, for he wanted to meet the girl as much as Albus did.
This was how they ended up sitting in a rather lavish, large office talking to the matron of the orphanage - an orphanage that was VERY well off.
Not at all the hovel Tom Riddle had grown up in, a great reassurance for Dumbledore, because this scenario was too close to Tom's for the old man's comfort.
"You're here to take Elizabeth to a school for the gifted?" asked Mrs. Jones, eyes wide, conflicting emotions dancing within them.
Dumbledore smiled his usual grandfatherly smile, with a twinkle in his eyes, when he answered. "That's right. She's been registered since birth, since her parents went there as well. Mrs. Jones, if you don't mind, could you tell me how long Elizabeth's been here at the orphanage?"
"Almost ten years, I think. A police officer brought her in...November, I think it was. She was such a beautiful baby, but..."
Mrs. Jones didn't continue, and Dumbledore started to have a bad feeling. He could remember a talk that he had a little over 50 years ago that had started in a similar way. Even Snape started to pay more attention to the conversation.
"Was there something wrong with the baby?" Dumbledore said calmly.
Mrs. Jones started, and then she laughed. "Oh no, no, no, nothing was wrong with her at all, except if you want to count that she was the most beautiful little girl I'd ever seen. Very healthy, but she rarely ever cried."
Dumbledore felt a wave of relief, but he simply smiled. "And what else can you tell us about young Elizabeth?"
Now Mrs. Jones appeared uncomfortable.
Dumbledore's bad feeling returned.
"Well...Elizabeth is an VERY good student. She consistently achieves the highest marks in her year."
Albus visibly relaxed; maybe she was uncomfortable because she didn't want them to think that she was exaggerating. There was probably no reason for his bad feeling that kept surfacing.
"And friends?" Albus questioned.
Mrs. Jones's eyes shifted, and she glanced away. Nervous. "Well, Elizabeth does have a best friend. Another orphan girl her age by the name of Dot."
"'Dot?'" said Snape, raising an eyebrow, a touch of amusement in his tone.
"I didn't give her the name." Mrs. Jones said lightly, though some small amount of defensiveness was evident in her voice. Albus could tell that this woman truly, deeply cared for the children in her orphanage, and for that, she had his respect. "When Dot first arrived here as a baby, she didn't even have a name. She was just left at the front door. No parents, no guardians, no explanation. As she grew up, I DID give her the name 'Melissa', but she didn't like it, and when she was five years old she completely rejected it, refused to be called by it, and took on the name 'Dot' instead."
"You let a child choose her own name?" Severus said, looking both exasperated and all the more amused.
"I'm sure no harm has come of it." Albus interrupted, his eyes twinkling merrily.
"None at all." Mrs. Jones agreed, a little firmly.
"And Miss Potter...?" Dumbledore said, bringing them back on topic. "This Dot is truly the only friend she has?"
"Well, you know what they say, better to have one good friend for life than many bad friends." Mrs. Jones shrugged.
"Indeed." said Severus quietly, and Albus knew his thoughts were at that moment on Lily, Severus's only true childhood friend.
Dumbledore regarded the matron for a moment, then sighed. "Mrs. Jones, I cannot help but feel that there is much you are holding back, and if I am to accept Miss Potter into my school I will need to know everything."
Mrs. Jones's eyes seemed to glaze over, then she shook her head and let out a sigh herself.
"I'm sorry." she said softly, her eyes just as soft now. "It's just...it was so tragic, so horrific...and..."
"Has something happened to Elizabeth?" Severus said, alarmed.
"Nothing recent!" Mrs. Jones said quickly, flustered now. "No, no...I...but something DID happen to her, a few years ago..."
"Take all the time that you need to tell us." Albus soothed.
For several minutes, there was silence.
Mrs. Jones took deep breaths, staring down into her lap and seeming to murmur things to herself, as if rehearsing a speech.
Finally, she looked up at Albus and Severus again.
"Elizabeth and Dot weren't always friends." Mrs. Jones began. "And Elizabeth didn't always JUST have Dot. In fact, when Elizabeth was younger, she had many friends. And she was different than...how she has been the last few years, after...after it happened. Elizabeth used to be a very kind, very sweet, friendly, outgoing, confident girl. And she had wit, a sharpness to her tongue, really. Especially when she got angry."
Severus had gone pale, for the woman could have been describing Lily Evans as a child.
Albus sent the potions master a look of comfort and sympathy.
"Two years ago, there was a fire here." Mrs. Jones continued quietly, looking ashamed and guilty. Horrified. "No one knows how it started, even to this day, but it was...it was horrible. More than a few staff members died, but thankfully none of the children did." Mrs. Brown took another of her deep breaths, and wiped away a stray tear. "But that isn't to say that the children escaped uninjured. And Elizabeth...she suffered the worst."
"Elizabeth..." Mrs. Jones's voice was a whisper now. "She almost died. She lost an ear, an eye, arm and a leg...severe burns. She had to stay in the hospital for weeks after, and she wasn't even concious."
"She was in a coma?" Severus asked, visibly shaken and paler than ever, his tone one of horror and shock.
Mrs. Jones gave a tight nod. "Yes, she was. But obviously she came out of it after a few weeks. But when she did...you have to understand, children, they- they can be cruel, and they're easily frightened. They called her things. 'Monster'...'hideous'...they called her. None of the children who had been her friends before, all the ones who had just loved her...well, they were afraid of her after the fire. They...abandoned her."
"And...how did Elizabeth cope with these...sudden changes?" Dumbledore asked carefully. His bad feeling was back, and his mind kept wondering, was this the point in the story where he and Severus were going to be told that Elizabeth had used magic to take revenge on the children who had treated her with such indifference and cruelity? Had this fire turned Elizabeth into another Tom Riddle?
"Well, at first she was...she was upset, obviously. Traumatized." Mrs. Jones replied. "But she got past it, with the help of Dot." she added, giving a small smile. "Dot and Elizabeth hadn't been friends, before the fire, like I said earlier. But after...Dot stayed at Elizabeth's side, visited her in the hospital every day, and never failed to stand up to the other children for her. They've been inseperable ever since the fire."
"During this fire, young Elizabeth saved Dot's life, I presume?" Albus said, feeling a swelling of relief, pride, and elation.
"Nearly at the cost of her own." Mrs. Jones confirmed, eyes sparkling with fresh tears. "I don't know how Elizabeth did it, but...as you know, Elizabeth came out of the fire almost dead, so horribly disfigured, and with her limbs lost...but Dot didn't have so much as a speck of ash on her."
Severus and Albus exchanged looks. They both knew how such a thing was possible, and Elizabeth had to be incredibly, powerfully magic, to have done it as a child, as an untrained witch - even if she had done it unconciously.
"Of course, the girls had an explanation." Mrs. Jones said, her voice full of sympathy. "A wild tale involving flashing lights, a man in black robes-" she nodded at Severus. "-much like yours, with a...another man's head on the back of his, and such an odd name. What was it...Voldemort."
Albus nearly lost control of his composure, and his magic, right then and there, in the middle of the muggle orphanage.
Only Severus's many years as a spy kept HIM from exploding as well.
Albus's heart was thundering, his mind racing. Panic, shock, horror.
Voldemort had been HERE! Here, two YEARS prior to Albus and Severus's arrival! He had tracked down Elizabeth, and tried to finish the job he had started ten years ago in Godric's Hollow!
And by the sounds of it, he had nearly succeeded.
Nearly.
Once again, it would seem, Elizabeth Potter had defeated the Dark Lord - and had even protected her young friend Dot from him.
But how?
The power the Dark Lord knew not, referred to in the prophecy?
Albus and Severus needed to know.
Mrs. Jones noticed their reactions, but misinterpreted them.
"Please don't think Elizabeth is crazy or anything." she said quickly. "They were both young girls, traumatized, and children's minds often invent these kinds of fantastical tales to help them accept their traumas - to help them to accept what happened and what they saw."
Neither wizard was about to tell Mrs. Jones that the tale the two girls had told her about the night of the fire was very, very real.
"Of course we do not think that." Albus said, once he had regained his control. "However, even if Elizabeth were not of sound mind due to the fire, I do not believe I would be able to blame her." he added, his thoughts turning, as they often did, to his deceased sister, Ariana.
"Precisely." Mrs. Jones agreed. "After that...no one could blame her."
"We would like to speak with her now." Severus spoke up suddenly, his voice carefully controlled, calm, yet holding a slight tightness that only Albus was able to pick up on. "Please." Severus added, a rare occurrence, and perhaps a sign of just how much this news of Voldemort's attack on Elizabeth Potter's life again had truly shaken the potions master.
"Of course." Mrs. Jones rose from her desk and led the way out of the office.
Albus and Severus, of course, followed.
"You still want to accept her into your school, even now that you know of her situation?" Mrs. Jones questioned as she led the way through the orphanage, fixing concerned eyes on the two wizards over her shoulder. "Don't misunderstand me, I'm very pleased that she's been accepted into a school for the gifted, especially if her parents attended, since the poor girl doesn't know a thing about them, but..." Mrs. Brown's concerned eyes narrowed. "but I'm afraid for her, that she'll be an outcast, bullied, even, at this school of yours. She is, here, even two years after the fire. Elizabeth is nearly a mute, she almost never leaves her room, and she'll never be parted from Dot."
"I don't think Elizabeth will agree to go." Mrs. jones finished, a little sadly, a little warningly.
While that all may have been true, Dumbledore acknowledged silently to himself, with this revelation of Voldemort's attack on the orphanage - on Elizabeth Potter - it was all the more apparent that Elizabeth Potter would have almost no CHOICE in going to Hogwarts, for only at Hogwarts would the girl be truly safe.
Dumbledore was already thinking that he would need to pull a few strings at the Ministry to allow the girl to stay at Hogwarts over the summer.
"I am certain that, after speaking to us, she will agree to attend." Albus politely, shortly, countered the matron.
She had to.
They arrived outside the door to Elizabeth's room, and Mrs. Jones gave it two soft knocks.
Albus barely heard the soft, breathy whisper of a voice that responded from within with a simple, "Enter."
He had no trouble hearing the second girl's voice that followed the first in adding, in a tone that was all amusement, "At your own peril." which, Albus mused, must have belonged to young Elizabeth's friend Dot.
Mrs. Jones opened the door and motioned Albus and Severus in. She didn't follow, and she closed the door behind them.
Two girls lay together on the bed, and when Albus's eyes fell upon them, he knew in an instant which of them was which.
One was tall, blond, cheery and blue-eyed, and not at all marred. The girl could only be Dot, for the OTHER girl could only be - based on Mrs. Jones's reminiscences; the story of the fire - Elizabeth.
Elizabeth's face was a mask. A mask of burned, melted flesh. Furrows and valleys, little ridges - like melted wax.
Her left eye was closed, the eyelid as wretchedly burned as the rest of her, and it was drooping, as if it were eternally crying. The missing eye Mrs. Jones had mentioned.
Elizabeth's nose was gnarled, and looked like a button; there was no tip to the nose.
Her left ear was nothing but a nub, perhaps useless for anything besides the purpose it was currently serving: to hold her hair behind her.
The melted wax skin was not limited to just her face. It went down her neck and throat, and still further, over her bare shoulders and down the backs of her arms.
Her left arm ended in a stump just above the elbow, but her right arm was whole, whole and as scarred as the rest of her body, and so, too, was her right hand.
The left leg was the same as the arm, ending in a stump, though the leg stump was hidden beneath the skirt Elizabeth wore, and so Albus only saw its general shape under the fabric.
The only features Elizabeth Potter possessed that were untarnished and whole were her right eye, which was the exact same shade and shape as her mother's, and her long, dark red hair that was, like the eye, so shockingly Lily's.
Albus finally tore his gaze away from Elizabeth, swallowed his shock and sympathy, noted the two muggle prosthetic limbs on the bedside table - an arm and a leg - and looked to Severus.
The potions master looked much as he had ten years ago, in Dumbledore's office, on the day he had learned of Lily's death - ashen-faced, eyes moist, and an expression of utter heartbreak that included a twisted, parted-lipped frown.
The gaze of Elizabeth's bright green eye fell on Dumbledore. She looked him up and down, slowly, coolly, and intensely, for a long moment. Her gaze slid to Severus next, and she examined him just the same. The examination took almost a full minute (far longer than the girl had spent on Albus), and during it, Severus regained his composure.
Apparently satisfied with whatever she had determined about Severus, the cool gaze of Elizabeth's green eye returned to Albus.
Still she didn't speak. Neither did Dot, who was totally still, and totally fixated on Elizabeth, as if waiting for a cue - or a command.
Ignoring the sinking feeling he was having, Albus greeted them jovially, and with his usual twinkling eyes.
"Elizabeth, it is a pleasure to see you again. My name is Albus Dumbledore and my companion is Professor Severus Snape. And you must be her dear friend, Dot." he added to the blond girl.
"Nice to meet you." Dot replied, all good cheer and humor, after looking at Elizabeth and receiving a nod and a smile.
Or at least, as much of a smile as Elizabeth could manage. Most of the muscles in her face seemed to be either barely functioning, or not at all.
Suffice it to say, Elizabeth's "smile" hadn't been particularly endearing or attractive.
"Good evening." Elizabeth finally spoke, her voice a soft whisper.
"Elizabeth, Professor Snape and I came to invite you to a school for gifted children." Albus said quietly.
Elizabeth just nodded. "I know."
"We know about everything." Dot added, quite cheerfully. "Hogwarts, magic, Voldemort, all of it."
"How...how could you know?" Albus had to choke to get the words out, his composure utterly shattered by pure, overwhelming shock.
"Well," Dot said slowly, with obvious relish. "It's-"
Albus felt some amazement as Elizabeth cut Dot off in mid-sentence simply by putting her hand on the blond girl's leg.
"Not yet." Elizabeth whispered, her green eye fixed on Dumbledore.
Dot gave a nod, her cheery demeanor giving way to a seriousness, a heaviness, that Dumbledore had never seen in a child before. "It's a long, sad story, and we don't want to tell it yet." she said quietly.
"But she wanted you to have these." said Elizabeth, rummaging around in her bedside drawer and pulling out two envelopes. Her green eye was on Severus, and her hand held the envelopes out to him, patient, waiting.
"Who...wanted me to..." Severus began, completely nonplussed.
Elizabeth smiled as well as she could. "Lily Evans."
