July 25, 1972. 1pm.
"You are certain she has a place at your school? No matter what I tell you?" A young woman asked the aged man behind her office desk.
"Of course, she has had her name down since she was born." The tall man, with a long silvery beard told her, smiling kindly.
"There are things... dark things that girl does." The caretaker of the orphanage muttered darkly.
"Like what?" Dumbledore kept his voice steady, unfazed by this news. Many new witches and wizards did not know how to control their powers and in doing so may cause unnatural things to happen.
"Well.. she scares the children. She does something.. I don't know what but they don't talk to her."
"That's interesting." Dumbledore said thoughtfully.
"Oh! She's still excepted at You're school isn't she?" The woman asked nervously.
"Definitely." Dumbledore smiled.
"Good. I mean she needs some sort of education besides the books we have. She doesn't like the school we send the children to.. last time we sent her there one of our caretakers resined. The poor dear was so scared." The woman sighed.
"The girl?" He asked, intrigued now.
"No, the woman!" She said scandalized.
There was a pause as Dumbledore thought, "can I speak with her? About her position in the school."
"Oh, yes, let me take you to her room." The caretaker shimmied out from behind her office desk.
The woman lead him up two flights of stairs before she turned to the door first in the hallway. The stairs and hallways were just as dark and gloomy as the caretakers office.
"She's just in there." The woman opened the door and left.
Dumbledore creaked the door open wider smiling kindly at the blonde haired girl with pale skin and dark eyes that was sitting on her bed; the book she was reading nestled between her knees.
"Hello Ethel," he stepped into the room and closed the door behind him.
The girl looked lazily up from her book, turning the page, "who are you?" Her voice was light but dull at the same time, there was no life behind her words.
"I'm Professor Dumbledore," he walked and sat at the edge of the girl's bed.
"I didn't say you could sit down, Doctor." She said in the same lazy tone, Dumbledore took the seat attached to a small desk.
"Doctor?" Dumbledore asked her.
"That's what 'Professor' means doesn't it?" For the first real time she looked at him, her dark eyes narrowed, "they want me looked at. Think I'm evil all because I don't like children." She sneered.
"Why is that?" He pressed, watching her go back to her book.
"I don't feel like talking, Doctor." She turned the page again.
"Would it make you want to talk if I told you I was a teacher. Of a magic school." He added at her glare again.
She stopped reading and put the book down on her bed, "Magic? There's no such thing. You can leave now." She was now turned to him scanning his face, looking for something to prove him wrong. That he was in fact a doctor.
"But I am not lying, the school is called Hogwarts." He smiled at her, seeming to take that she was interested.
"Prove it then, I'll talk after, if you can't I wish for you to leave and never come to talk to me again, no matter how much the nurses are paying."
"Bold coming from such a young girl," Dumbledore said darkly.
"I have my ways, Professor." She spoke, the words ominous.
At those words Dumbledore lit the book on her bed a flame, "how dare you!" She shrieked, looking murderous.
The flames died away and the book was unscathed.
"That, my dear, is just a simple parlor trick," Dumbledore said simply, "however if you come to Hogwarts and learn along side of other magical children you will know of a lot more things."
It was Ethel's turn to be intrigued, "is this why I can do the things I do? If I don't feel like talking I can make people's mouths sew shut, or how the other day I made the lion at the zoo roll over?" She asked almost feverishly looking down at her hands.
"Yes, that is, however I didn't just come here to tell you of the school, I came to take you school shopping if you accept of course?" He looked at her, a twinkle in his blue eyes behind his half-moon spectacles.
"Of course! Anything to leave here." She started getting up.
"There is one condition," Dumbledore said getting up and looking down at her, "because I am a teacher you must treat me so, along with any of the teachers at Hogwarts."
"Of course, sir." She said instantly.
"Good. Now, let's go tell that kind lady downstairs where we're going shall we?"
He did not get an answer as Ethel was already by the steps of the stairs.
"Sir? ...oh never mind." She said as she glanced nervously down at the steps.
"What is it?" He asked, looking down at her, his eyes now scanning her face.
"What if you're wrong? About me being magic? What if I am just.. looney?"
There was yet another pause as Dumbledore chose his next words carefully,
"There is a book, in Hogwarts, locked away where nobody can find it, when a child of magic is born in Britain, Scotland, or Ireland, it writes their name down. They then are added to the roster in which year they shall arrive."
Dumbledore peered down at her, watching her eyes shimmer with excitement and wonder.
They left the orphanage shortly after, Ethel following the strange aged man, interested in everything around her. She was caught up in everything, and had to jog to keep up with the professor's strides.
"This place we are going to, it has all of the things you will be needing for school, but it can only be seen by those who are magic, whether half-giant or goblin or wizard or witch, you will see it." Dumbledore explained as they followed the twists and turns of the London streets.
Finally they arrived at The Leaky Cauldron, a ramshackle of a pub.
"It's good to see you Albus! I haven't seen you much besides in the paper now with your new Headmaster job and all!" Said the barman behind the counter.
"I'll try to come by again before term begins, but I really must be going. I'm taking this young lady school shopping." Dumbledore replied, placing a gentle had on Ethel's shoulder. She remained cold and didn't move when people waved at her kindly.
She exhibited the same behavior as to when Dumbledore first arrived, he frowned slightly.
"Alright then, I'll have the mead waiting for you then!" The man behind the bar said cheerfully and Dumbledore smiled at him and left, steering Ethel with him.
They walked out to the back and were surrounded by brick wall, Ethel looked at him curiously and was about to ask what they were doing, but Dumbledore simply took out his wand and tapped the brick and the wall slowly spread apart. Folding into itself it formed an archway.
What it revealed almost made Ethel squeal with delight, rows upon rows, shops and cafe's and a bank and it was all so colorful so much different then her plain grey room.
Dumbledore handed her a note, it had all the things she needed for school written on it and a sudden realization hit Ethel like a bullet, she felt sad, suddenly.
She handed the paper back to him and said softly, "I can't afford any of this," and turned around prepared to go back into the bar and back to the orphanage.
"Don't be silly," said Dumbledore grabbing her by the shoulder and producing a small leather pouch from his cloak and handed it to her.
Ethel didn't know what to say, so she just took the money and nodded him a quick thanks and was off finding all the stores. Glancing down at the page every so often.
Seeing as Madam Malkin's was empty at the moment she might as well go in and get fitted for her robes, so she went into the small little shop, the bell above the door rang short as the door was caught by a boy.
He couldn't have been a year older than she was, although complete opposite of what she looked like, they were both pale, but where she had blonde hair he had black and greasy, where she had almond color eyes his were black empty pits.
"Next time hold the door open for someone right behind you," He sneered, seeming to be sizing her up.
"I didn't see you," she said defiantly as he shoved passed her.
Madam Malkin was already sizing someone, hemming the ends of the girls robes she turned slightly, "I'll be with you both in just a moment deary's."
They sat and as they did so the boy pulled out an abnormally large book titled: Standard Book Of Spells Grade 2.
"Is that book interesting?" She asked skimming over the first few sentences on the next page.
"I didn't come here to make small talk," the boy sneered again.
"Of course you didn't, with an attitude like that it's a wonder how people even talk to you in the first place." She jeered back at him.
The boy was about to retort but Malkin had called them both to each stand. She measured each, made each one robes, all the while the children did not look at each other.
When she left, Dumbledore had maneuvered her through the crowd to Olivanders, a wand shop.
Olivander was a strange old man, even more strange then Dumbledore. Ethel had to go through three wands before she found her own.
Thestral with oak wood, ten inches.
"There aren't many Thestral cores in here my dear, treat it with the utmost respect and it shall do anything you ask." Olivander said handing her the wand.
"I will sir, thank you." And with that she left.
The next stop was Flourish and Blotts, to grab all of her school books, and then another store to grab all the necessity's like quills and parchment and cauldrons and other things.
It was another hour before Ethel got where she really wanted to check out. The Magical Menagerie.
She walked aimlessly through the aisles of the place scanning the animals in their cages. She was stuck between a cat or an owl.
Owls were more useful but Dumbledore had mentioned that there were school owls she could use lest she need to mail something. A cat she could cuddle and love on more.
Then she saw it, a slim black cat with great big crystal blue eyes, "This one," she said pointing to it.
The owner of the shop came over and took the cage down from the shelf for them and Ethel paid for the animal with the last five Galleons and ten Sickles she had.
Carrying all these things was a great difficulty, and she didn't want to put them in her trunk yet, so Dumbledore conjured her a seemingly endless rucksack where she then put everything in there except the cat and the trunk.
They walked back through the crowd and Ethel was side glancing at everyone, scanning for that boy at Malkin's he seemed to have most of his things already so maybe he had already left with his parents.
They walked back through the bar and through the winding streets of London, now seeming so boring and cold after being through Diagon alley.
They walked back up the steps of the orphanage and went to her room, however before Dumbledore left he stopped and turned towards Ethel.
"There is a train ticket in there in order to get onto the train to Hogwarts, in order to get there you have to run between the barriers of trains nine and ten. You have to be there before eleven and the date in which you go will be in that letter I gave you. Understand?"
Ethel nodded wildly.
"See you again Miss Jones at the beginning of term." He smiled and was about to walk out before Ethel caught him.
"Thank you for the money sir, I'll pay you back when I get a job." She didn't look at him, she was scuffing her feet along the carpeted floor.
"There is no need for that, Hogwarts always puts aside a little money for those who can't provide for themselves."
"Then I'll donate to that money when I'm older." She said defiantly.
Dumbledore merely smiled at her and shut the door behind him.
Ethel sat there for a moment, staring at the door and then she grabbed everything out of her rucksack and began to organize everything in her trunk, letting the cat out as she did so it purred and wound itself over and over around her feet.
A: Sorry for that extremely long chapter, but nevertheless I hope you liked it.
Please comment your thoughts( I love reading them) and vote if you enjoy!
Love ya ️
-Maddie
