Chapter Two: Purpose
Alessa woke with a start. Sitting up quickly, she threw her blankets off and tried to stand, only to sit back down as her head swam. It was raining and a flash of lightning lit her room. As the resulting thunder rolled through the room, she thought that it was the rain that had woken her in the middle of the night, but as she blinked and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, she felt uneasy. She grabbed her wand from her bedside table and muttered 'Lumos' under her breath.
As the light filled the room, she looked around for anything that was out of place. She had warded her apartment with all the protection spells she could find, just as a precaution. There wasn't really a need for strong protections anymore. The war had ended nearly two years ago, and as the Aurors had rounded up most of the remaining death eaters, the wizarding community had never been safer. Most people still warded their homes and were jumpier than normal people, as a lingering habit from a time when that was needed to survive.
Alessa had not participated in the war. Most wizards in London didn't even know that the final battle had happened until days later when the Daily Prophet reported that the Dark Lord had been killed. She had turned up at Hogwarts with hundreds of other people who wanted to help with the rebuilding of the castle. Between the multitudes of people who wanted to help, and the donations from many old wizarding families who wanted to prove their innocence through money, it had only taken a few months to rebuild the castle. It had been open in time for the new school year.
Alessa had been living in a quiet part of wizarding London for nearly three years now. She had been working as a secretary at St. Mungos, simply because it was nearby and she needed something to pass the time. As the last remaining descendant of the Williams family, she had inherited a sizable fortune from her fathers deceased family. Her parents had also left her their vault in Gringotts, which held money from her mothers family as well as any money her parents had made through the years of brewing potions for a living.
Alessa had opened her own vault at Gringotts when she had moved to London. She had taken only a small portion of gold from both of the family vaults, just enough to get started on her own, and then she had added her pay from St. Mungos to her own account, preferring to live off her own income rather than family money.
She finished searching her small flat for anything that shouldn't have been there. Not finding anything, she went to the kitchen to turn on a kettle. Some calming tea was just what she needed now. It was only five in the morning, according to the clock about her couch, but there was no point in going back to sleep now. She would have to be up in an hour and a half for work anyways. This was the third night in a row when something had awoken her early. Last night it had been her neighbors slamming their door as they came home from a night shift. The night before there had been sirens from the muggle street below. She sighed. At this rate she would be tired all the time.
The kettle whistled to let her her know it was finished heating. She loved this muggle invention, it was the one of the only ones she used, though the building had originally been a muggle one before the witch who currently owned it had bought the building and enchanted it so that muggles didn't even know it was there. The building had working electric, and the owner had left all the muggle appliances in. The witch had shown Alessa how to work things like the stove and the refrigerator when she had moved in, but Alessa found it easier to use those things as little as possible. She did, however, use the lights. And the toaster. But most of the other muggle things went unused.
Alessa had poured the water into her favorite mug to let the tea steep and settled onto the couch before she felt something unusual again. Just for a second, she had felt like something was pushing against her chest. She stood, setting her mug on the low table in front of her. She stood completely still, mind blank as she waited. There! It happened again, and she was struck with the sudden need to floo into work early.
Hand pressed against her chest, she remembered a conversation she had had with her great aunt years ago, about the Pull, and what it would feel like. At the time, she had assumed from the way her aunt had explained, that it would feel much like a port key. Now though, she was sure this was what her aunt had described, and it was nothing like a port key, more like something heavy sat on her chest, causing her breaths to come in short gasps.
Alessa slipped on her shoes and ran out her door, down to the lobby where the owner had installed a fireplace connected to the floo network. Alessa grabbed a handful of powder from the jar above the fireplace and stepped into the flames.
"Zabini Manor," she said in a clear voice as she threw the powder down. She spun through the fireplace, making sure to keep her arms tucked in, and then she stumbled, coughing slightly, into the Zabini's sitting parlor. She brushed the ash from her pajamas and wished suddenly that she had taken time to change into something more appropriate for a visit to her aunt.
The door cracked open and light flared into the room. Alessa blinked at the sudden brightness.
"What are you doing here? It's five in the morning and you set the wards off," Blaise said, stifling a yawn.
"I'm sorry. I need to speak to Aunt, it couldn't wait," Alessa explained warily. She had hardly spoken to Blaise when she had lived here, but over the last three years, they had become, not quite friends, but they didn't ignore each other either. Alessa had never really spent time with the boy, maybe they could become friends if she did, but he was always busy doing something or other, and she worked a lot. Now Blaise looked at her in curiosity.
"Is everything okay?" He asked, taking in her ruffled appearance.
"Yeah, everything is fine, I just remembered something I needed to ask Aunt," Alessa said, lying a bit.
"I don't know if she's awake yet, but you can try," Blaise said, turning back down the hall. Alessa followed.
Blaise turned into his room and shut the door behind him, and Alessa continued down the hall a bit farther. She came to a stop in front of her great aunts door and hesitated, then knocked. Her aunt opened the door mere seconds later, already dressed and ready for the day.
"Alessa, I had a feeling you would come by today, though not so early."
Alessa followed her into the room and closed the door before casting a silencing charm.
"Aunt, I think I felt the Pull this morning. It woke me up," Alessa explained as her aunt walked around the side of her bed, making it up.
"Grab that end over there would you dear?" Alessa walked to the other side of the bed, pulling the blanket up. "Now, what was the Pull telling you to do?"
"I think⦠I think I should quit St. Mungos. The idea just came into my head the second time," she said, tucking the blankets edges under the top mattress.
"Second time?" Her aunt asked, fluffing up the pillows and arranging them neatly on her bed.
"Well, the first time I felt it, it woke me up. Then I was making tea and I felt it again," Alessa explained.
"So are you going to quit your job?" Her aunt asked, sitting in a chair near the door and watching Alessa pace around the room.
"I don't know. What would I do with my time then? I can't just sit around in my flat," Alessa said, frowning.
"So you are going to ignore the Pull?" Her aunt asked, raising her eyebrows though she kept her voice politely even, letting Alessa know that she wouldn't lecture the girl if she chose to ignore the previous lessons.
"No," Alessa shook her head as she paced. "Of course not, but what if it's not the Pull? It doesn't feel like something is pulling me in any certain direction, it feels like something is pressing down on my chest."
"Well," her aunt said, standing and opening the door. She beckoned to Alessa to follow her. "You will do whatever you think is right, Alessa." They walked together down the stairs to the dining room where two elves were busy putting out plates and silverware for breakfast.
As they sat together, Alessa thought about what to do. The elves brought out different kinds of fruit and other breakfast foods for them. The two women ate in silence, and as the elves cleared their plates away, Alessa stood.
"Alright. I will leave my job today," Alessa said, having thought it over. She gave her aunt a hug. "Thanks Aunt."
"I didn't do anything at all dear. You came to your own decisions. Now run along, you wouldn't want to be late for your last day of work."
Alessa sat writing a letter to her great aunt. It had been nearly a week since she had left her job, and she was starting to go crazy without anything to do. She finished her letter and started to reread it to make sure there wasn't anything else she could say. The letter was mostly chit chat, and also an invitation out to lunch sometime.
She had just finished folding the letter when a knock sounded from the front door. She tucked her wand into her sleeve where she normally kept it before going to peer out the peep hole in the door.
"Mrs. Jacobson, how are you?" Alessa asked, opening the door to her elderly neighbor.
"I'm well dear, I just came to ask a favor of you. I hate to be a bother, but my knees are aching something fierce today. Would you mind terribly if I asked you to pick up a few potion ingredients from Diagon Alley for me?" The short woman asked.
"Sure, I need to stop at Flourish and Blotts anyway," Alessa said, glad for something to do. "I just need to finish a letter and then I'll be on my way. What do you need?"
"Thank you so much dear. I'll get my list, just a minute," Mrs. Jacobson said, turning to walk across the hall back to her own flat. Alessa left her door open and went back to her writing desk. She lit a candle and let it burn for a few second before dripping the melted wax onto her finished letter. She pushed a stamp of her family crest into the hot wax, then waved the letter in the air to cool it. Finally she made her way over to the big window in her living room. Her owl stood on a perch in front of the open window, sleeping. When Alessa had prodded him awake and fed him a treat, he offered a leg for her to tie the letter to, then took off out the window.
Alessa put her dark blue traveling cloak on over her casual clothes. It was the beginning of summer, but the days still turned chilly sometimes.
Mrs. Jacobson had returned with the list of items she needed from the apothecary, and Alessa went down to the street and into a nearby alleyway to apparate to Diagon Alley.
She spent a good part of the afternoon wandering through the many book shelves in Flourish and Blotts, looking for interesting titles to take home. Finally she settled on three new books, visited the apothecary, and set off back to the Leaky Cauldron to apparate home.
She was just passing a brightly colored building when she felt that push over her heart again. It was as if someone had cast a summoning charm on her, she felt compelled to enter the building.
She walked up the front stairs, glancing at the window which held a brightly colored assortment of objects and posters. As she pulled the front door open, a barrage of smells and sounds met her, and she felt intrigued by the variety of strange objects she could see. The shop was somewhat crowded, many of the patrons had children with them. Said children were everywhere, running up and down the isles, laughing, and playing with toys. A group of girls stood near the window giggling over a steaming display of pink potions. A group of school aged children stood near a shelf that held different colored boxes of candies.
From what Alessa could gather, this was a joke shop, full of instruments used in pranks. She could feel the happiness and joy from the other people in the shop practically rolling off of them, and she smiled, letting some of that emotion into her mind rather than pushing it away as she usually did. She wandered through the isles toward the other end of the store, stopping every now and then to look at something on the shelves.
Since she had been letting the happiness of the place into her mind, Alessa noticed immediately when a cloud of sorrow swamped over her, if she had been pushing away the emotions like she usually did, she might never have noticed, but now she frowned, looking around for the source. She ended up back near the front of the store, by the check out counter. The red haired girl working the counter was smiling at the customers, and Alessa determined the sadness hadn't come from her, though she wasn't as happy as she acted either. The door to the back room opened and a tall redheaded boy came out, holding a box.
"Excuse me," Alessa said suddenly to the girl, making her turn away from the boy and smile politely again.
"Yes, can I help you find something?" She asked. Alessa thought she looked vaguely familiar and remembered seeing her around school a few times, but she couldn't recall her name.
"Actually, I'm looking for a job," Alessa said without meaning to. She had meant to ask the girls name, but her brain had other ideas.
The red haired girl smiled brightly at her.
"That's great, we really need some help around here, the summer is the busiest season. I'd love to talk to you now, but it's a little busy. Do you think you could come back around eight tonight? That's when we close, and then we can talk," the girl said quickly, as though rushing to get her words out before someone cut her off. "I'm Ginny by the way, my brother George is the one who owns this place. What's your name?"
"I'm Alessa Sarati. I can come back at eight, it's no problem," Alessa said, shaking the hand the girl held out over the counter for her to shake.
"Brilliant. Well I'll see you later then," Ginny said, smiling again. Alessa returned the smile, then left the building, her mind spinning. She hadn't meant to come here looking for a job, but now that she had possibly found one, her mind was full of ideas. She had been wanting a change for a while, why not move to the residential part of Diagon Alley? She had considered moving back into her parents house, since she had paid to have it repaired a few years ago, and there were two house elves there now, keeping the place in working order. She hadn't returned since her parents had died. When she had moved to the Zabini's Mansion, her great aunt had sent their house elves to collect her belongings, so she had never had a reason to go back, and it was also her great aunt that had suggested hiring elves to keep up the place.
Now she felt a sudden desire to move to Diagon Alley rather than back out to the country.
She carried her bags of books and potion ingredients back to the Leaky Cauldron and apparated home, still smiling.
