All she could think was run, run and don't look back, don't look at what might be following behind. Just focus on the winding path ahead. The endless forest of trees thick and tall and dark stretched in all directions, left and right had long been lost, the only direction Liora knew was away from the noise. The trees felt as if they were closing in on her from every direction, the darkness ripping at her skin and clothes. Her feet were sore and scathed by the rough and uneven ground which almost tripped her up at every turn. It was all she could do not to let herself fall over and lie in the dirt waiting for them to be upon her and take her back. But the prospect of that place and those people kept her moving forward. All the time, the pain in Liora's wrist was still searing up her arm; the ink, as if possessed, seeping through her veins and embedding itself in the skin. The pain wound itself around the mark and beyond, rendering her left arm immobile and useless against clearing twigs from her face. Liora couldn't bring herself to look at it again. She didn't need to; the mark that her father, "my father" a whisper of shock escaped her mouth once more, had forced upon her arm was implanted in her mind forever. And Liora knew what it meant, what it marked her as.
"Even if I did get out of this, no one would believe me, I wouldn't believe me. I would sound mad to anyone back home" Her breathing pattern quickened even more. "How could I call it home?" Her thoughts rushed about like the wind snarling through her hair "Especially after that, now I know the countless lies told to me my whole life. The hidden secrets, hidden too deep even my mum didn't want to know. Any way you look at it I don't have a home anymore. Orphaned." As Liora continued on, the noises of them behind her dwindled out leaving the only audible sound her breathing and the faint hum of the forest. "No, being an orphan would be better than what I am, better than the truth." Abruptly Liora averted her gaze to her left, the sound of horses and men rang through the wind, but she soon dismissed it as "the pain making me delirious." Her legs began to buckle with every stride. As she contemplated giving up the escape, the trees began to thin in density and the paths widened underneath her. Under her bare feet the ground started to be covered in a soft grass, a relief after the endless bristle and twigs. She could feel a breeze in the clothes beaten and torn to barely covering her body, and as Liora finally stumbled out of the forest line she saw signs of life and people. A large castle was looming in the distance, with large metal gates. The gates opened as she approached, and in dire need of some sanctuary she continued, unfazed, to the courtyard where what looked like school children were gathered. Liora yelled out a pleading cry, and stern looking women in a large black hat turned to face her direction as she blacked out onto the cold stone floor.
As Liora came around, a bright light immediately disabled her form fully opening her eyes, the weight of her throbbing feat held her down as they started to come back to feeling. A vaguely audible mumble and whisper was coming from two men in the corner of the room, one incredibly old and dressed in full purple robes, and the other too similar for comfort to those she had escaped from. From her bed, Liora heard the first whisper her name followed by his "lord voldemort, Severus, there is nothing else to it, she is most definitely his daughter",
"But not of pure blood." replied the man denoted as Severus
"Ah. But Riddle was not a pure blood himself, and still she has his blood running through her veins."
"Then we must restrain her, contact the ministry," the first man must have gone to interrupt Severus, as he continued in even more hushed tones "the mark, Albus, she has the mark."
Liora's mind sent her into a panic, she couldn't stay here; "they know." But the placed looked different to the one she had escaped from, it was clean and grand. But the knowledge of the two men, and what she had been through the previous night still loomed over her. And the crushing weights of exhaustion caused sleep to, once again, overcome Liora's mind and body.
She was unaware at first of the magnitude of the situation, but as her senses began to readjust a panic flooded over her causing her mind to jumble and her thoughts to become erratic. The man who called himself Severus bared extreme resemblances to those she had escaped from, and nothing would shake the feeling of unease from her mind. In an attempt to quieten the little memories that she had left of her ordeal, Liora closed her eyes and buried her eyebrows over her eyelids. She heard another whisper from the corner, the two men were back, or had remained there whilst she slept. She couldn't make out what they were saying, but knew they were talking about her. The large wooden doors at the far end of the room filled with empty beds creaked open. A woman entered the room, round and plump she ambled towards Liora's bed. "How are we know, my dear?" She asked in gentle tones. Liora opened her eyes allowing them to once again adjust to the bright light. She looked at the women, but failed to reply as her face burrowed into a frown of pain and confusion. The women unfazed by the lack of a response poured a glass of a fowl purple liquid and gestured for Liora to drink, "for the pain" the women nodded, and pleased with herself patted Liora on the side and joined the two men in the corner. The elder of the two parted and with an air of calm and knowing walked towards Liora and sat on the bed opposite. Liora began to feel shaky again, not wanting to look at the old man who calmly looked at her. Subconsciously Liora pulled her sleeve further down over her inked arm and slowly made her way to sit up. The old man gestured to the purple liquid on the bedside counter; "it really will help"
As Liora adjusted herself upright she managed to get a proper look around the room, the ceiling was extremely high, and of grandeur expected from the inside of a castle. The windows were stained glass and arched, which seemed to contrast the rows of hospital like beds and medicine cabinets against the walls. Then there was Severus wearing an entirely black cloak and staying on the shadows of a beam, looking directly at Liora. His face somehow seemed familiar, but not from that dark place, from sometime before. His gaze was still holding, and her arm began to tingle again, signalling a deeper pain yet to come, which Liora wanted to avoid at all costs. Averting her sight from Severus, she reached out her untouched arm and drank the fowl coloured liquid, which too her surprise tasted like freshly baked blueberry pie.
"Now, that's better" Albus smiled at her "I have some questions for you my dear, and some answers. But first, is there anything you want to know?"
Liora looked at Albus, She had questions, countless questions to ask the men, but the challenge lay in forming them into words. She nodded and stumbled across what to ask first, her throat felt horse and dry despite the purple liquid. She gently croaked, "Where am I?"
"Well my dear, that question is broader than you may think. In the immediate sense, we are in the infirmary, in Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry." Albus cleared the silence.
Liora didn't know at first if she could believe the man. So much had changed in just a few short weeks, since those two men found her and took her. Liora could remember that part vividly, how the rugged man with black hair appeared in her bedroom, as if from thin air, and grabbed her before she had time to scream, how he muttered something about knowing her father and taking her to him. How he took her to her kitchen where a second man with silvery hair was holding her mother and pointing a decorative black stick with a silvered handle at her mother's head. Liora could still see the faint green light that was produced from the stick when the man with silver hair uttered the strange words "obliviate". And most vivid of all, Liora remembered the look on her mother's face, one of obliviousness and confusion as she looked into the eyes of her daughter and said the last words Liora heard from her: "who are you?" Liora could no longer dismiss the existence of magic, witchcraft and wizardry, but she hadn't yet seen it associated with anything good or moral. But this old man with his beard tucked into his belt and long purple robes and half-moon glasses seemed harmless enough. She looked up at the man and asked, "How did I get here?" as she wiped the tears from her eyes, composing herself.
"That is what we were going to ask you" Severus spitted, as he emerged from the corner and briskly walked towards her bed.
"Now, now, Severus…" Albus quietened the man with an air of authority, and to Liora continued, "Why don't you tell us what you can remember?"
Not wanting to delay on the memory of her escape, Liora told the men how she'd climbed over the stone wall, and ran away from that place. How she ran into and through a forest which continued getting thicker and darker. She told them she came to a clearing and found the castle, now known to her as "Hogwarts". She told them that the gates opened for her, that she saw the woman in a large black hat.
As she was talking, the same woman entered the infirmary, "and then I brought you here."
Severus looked up at Minerva's voice, as she continued to Liora. "However, I never had the opportunity to ask your name."
"Um, Liora... Rid- Bennett. Liora Bennett." Liora stumbled over her words, not wanting to say his name, the name that had been shouted at her in that place.
"Good, well Liora, my name is Professor McGonagall, and we, Professor Dumbledore" she gestured towards Albus, "and the other staff here, have decided that we can take you in as a student here for the coming year."
"Wha–"
"Well, you are most definitely of magic decent, and you have that magic in you."
"You would let me stay?"
"Of course my dear," Dumbledore replied, "you have magic, your particular… situation meant that we didn't know about you. And for that, we give our apologies. But, now, now you are here."
McGonagall smiled "you'll be able to join the sixth year here. You will be sorted along with the new first years in the welcome feast tonight."