Chapter 1 – Albus Dumbledore
The morning of June 30, 1927 was balmy and Mrs. Cole could tell that the day would be nice. She knew that the children would insist on playing outside and she tried to sort out which of the workers could be bothered to watch them—probably Martha, since she was the oldest. The woman, barely in her 40s, had lost her husband the year previous; after a period of mourning, she accepted the position of matron at Wool's Orphanage.
The woman sighed as she made her way to the front door to set out the empty milk bottles for the milkman, every step she took was accompanied by the bottles clinking together. When she opened the large door, though, she paused and stared at the cradle containing a baby sitting on the welcome mat. Mrs. Cole was not at all surprised by this since this happened all the time; she set the bottles aside and picked up the baby swaddled in a rich blue velvet blanket. She peered into the sleeping child's face, noting that it looked more like a doll than a baby, with wispy white hair and skin the colour of bone china with purple veins visible under the transparent surface.
Mrs. Cole noticed the small card that had been pinned to the blanket, only containing two things written in elegant script: Calypso Delaney, March 13, 1927. The matron was relieved that the child was, at least, named. The baby began to stir and made a quiet nose before her eyes fluttered open, revealing lavender eyes that focused on the woman's face. The child blew bubbles of spittle and laughed, causing the matron to smile—what a precious child!
The woman took the baby into the orphanage and closed the door behind her, unaware of a lavender eyed crow watching from the building across the street.
July 20, 1938
Calypso had been reading in the sitting room that doubled as Mrs. Cole's office when there was a knock at the door. Annie Jones, one of the girls that worked at the orphanage, opened the door right away so the young girl didn't even bother to move from her perch on a well-worn arm chair. She also didn't bother to listen to the exchange, what did it matter to her?
"MRS. COLE!" Calypso crinkled her nose in distaste. Why couldn't Annie just climb up the stairs to get the matron instead of bellowing? With a sigh, the young girl tried to focus on her book again, ignoring what was happening in the entry way, until someone cleared their throat in her vicinity. She peered up from her book and noticed that Mrs. Cole was giving her a stern expression.
"But Mrs. Cole, I was here first!" she protested, bottom lip jutting out in a pout. The brightly dressed man standing behind the matron appeared amused, his blue eyes sparkling with merriment.
The matron sighed in exasperation and pressed her fingertips to her brow. Calypso was normally obedient, but on the rare occasion that she rebelled, a headache was sure to be on the horizon. "I don't care, Calypso. I have a visitor and I would like to use my office. Go read in the Dining Hall." Mrs. Cole's voice was firm, sharp eyes narrowed into a stern glare.
"But the children won't give me pea—"
"Calypso!"
"Fine! I'm going, but I'm not happy about it!" The young girl snapped her book shut and huffily got to her feet before marching out of the room. Mrs. Cole and the strange man made room for her to get through at the door. As she was passing the man, Calypso stuck her tongue out at the man.
"Calypso!" Mrs. Cole reprimanded and the girl made a startled sound before scrambling away, in the direction of the Dining Hall. The matron sighed again, she felt like she was a hundred years old. "I am sorry about her, Mr. Dumbledore. She can be very stubborn."
The man, Dumbledore, only smiled and shook his head. "It's quite alright," he said, smiling kindly. "I knew a girl quite like her once."
"Mmm." It was a noncommittal sound and Mrs. Cole nodded her head without looking at the man's face, missing the way his eyes danced as his shoulders shook from restrained laughter. Truly, the matron was at a loss—she was torn between being appalled and laughing at the man's strange appearance. "Please, take a seat," she muttered, gesturing towards a rickety old chair sitting in front of her desk.
Dumbledore smiled as he settled into the seat, ignoring how unstable it was. "Was that Calypso Delaney?" he asked, but he already knew who he was. She looked too familiar to be anyone else.
"Yes…" the matron said as she sat herself in her chair, giving a sigh of relief at finally being able to get off her feet. "Now, what is it that I can help you with?" Mrs. Cole was only a woman in her early 50s, but running an orphanage as large as Wool's was tiring. She regarded the man with weary eyes, lips pursed—she wanted him to leave as soon as possible, there were far too many things to deal with.
"Yes, well," Dumbledore began, seemingly unaware of the matron's distaste. "I am here, as I told you in my letter, to discuss two of your wards, Tom Riddle and Calypso Delaney, and arrangements for their futures." He smiled kindly, knowingly. It was time that they knew where they really belonged.
Calypso had found a quiet spot in the corner of the Dining Hall and she had glared at any of the younger children who had dared to bother her. Normally, she was more willing to play with them but at that moment, she only wanted to know about what would happen to Bilbo Baggins and the Dwarves of the Lonely Mountain. She had gotten to the part where they were invited into the shape-shifter Beorn's home when someone interrupted her quiet by sitting right across from her.
She peered up from the pages of her book and tilted her head at Mrs. Cole's strange visitor. "Hello," she said shortly before ducking her head to read again.
"Good afternoon, Miss Delaney." Calypso peered up again and the man was smiling at her kindly, obviously wishing to speak to her. She suppressed a sigh and closed her book, setting it aside before giving the man her full attention. "My name is Albus Dumbledore and I am a professor," he introduced himself when she said nothing else.
The young girl tilted her head—Albus Dumbledore was quite an odd name. "Hello, sir," she greeted politely. "I'm Calypso Delaney, though it seems that you already knew that." She grinned cheekily, lavender coloured eyes dancing.
"Ah, yes, there is a reason for thaty." Dumbledore only smiled as he rummaged around in his suit pocket before pulling out a blue leather bound book and offering it to her. Calypso wondered how it could have possibly fit in his pocket as she accepted the book. She stared at the cover where the name Delaney was etched with fading gold ink, eyes wide with wonder. "That belonged to your mother."
"My mother?" the young girl whispered as she stroked the fading letters in and almost reverent way. She then swallowed audibly and opened the book to the first page. A startled noise left her lips, the book unceremoniously clattering onto the table. On the open page, the photograph of a happy family smiled and waved. "I-It's moving!" she whispered, frightened.
Dumbledore only chuckled. "Yes, I certainly hope so." He didn't seem to be surprised by this fact. Calypso knotted her eyebrows together and peered at the portrait again, examining it closely and taking in each face. The woman was lovely, with pale hair and light eyes; Calypso could see many of her own physical traits in the woman. The man had darker hair and warm eyes. Calypso touched her nose—now she knew where it came from. Lastly, she looked at the little girl standing in between the two adults; she took a sharp intake of breath, thinking that she was seeing a portrait of herself. However, beneath the portrait, it was not her name—the caption was Aislinn Delaney, Bartholomew Delaney, and Deirdre Delaney (1917) written in an elegant script. Calypso touched the names, committing each to memory.
"Those are your grandparents and your mother," Dumbledore explained. Calypso tore her eyes away from the picture and fixed the man with a questioning gaze. He smiled and folded his hands on the table top. "You see, Calypso I went to school with your grandmother, Aislinn. She was my junior by four years, but we were friends none-the-less. She was quite clever, your grandmother. By the time she was out of school, she had been offered many positions, but she was ever only interested in one." Dumbledore paused to see if Calypso was still listening, gaze intent. "You grandmother had…certain talents and when these talents became publicly known, an evil man named Gellert Grindelwald tried to convince her to join him, but she refused, believing that her talents should only be used for the greater good. Because of this, Grindelwald vowed to end her family line for Delaney is an old and powerful name. He was a dangerous man so, your family, of course, went into hiding after this threat. Grindelwald found your grandparents shortly after your birth…" he trailed off, his expression turning sad as he thought of the death of one of his closest friends.
Calypso's gaze did not falter from the man; she was determined to hear as much about her family as she could. "And what about my parents?" he voice was quiet, breathless.
"Your parents fled, leaving everything behind to keep you safe. They even kept your existence a secret. However, it soon became evident that they couldn't keep running. She wrote to me and told me where you would be. She left you on the doorstep of this orphanage with only your name and your birthdate—the less you knew about your family, the safer you would be she thought. Grindelwald found your parents the next day, but here you are alive and well." Dumbledore smiled gently as he finished his tale without so much as a flourish and Calypso took a deep breath, letting everything he said sink in.
She had lived in Wool's Orphanage for eleven years, always wondering why her parents did not love her enough to keep her, but all this time they had left her there because they loved her all along? "But…but why couldn't you take me? Why couldn't my father's family take me?" she asked as she widened her eyes to keep the gathering tears from falling. She dug her fingers into the tabletop, her fingertips turning red with the pressure.
Dumbledore gently patted one of the girl's hands. "Because you were a well-kept secret; if anybody that knew your parents took you in, Grindelwald would have surely known and you would have been in danger. As it is, he does not know that you exist. Your parents gave you up so that you could live." He then fixed the young girl with an intense gaze that she avoided by ducking her head. "You should not spurn their choices."
"Is that why you're here? To tell me about my family?" she asked quietly, touching the moving photograph again.
"Oh, certainly that is not all!" he said cheerfully as he once again rummaged around in his pockets. "I'm certain it is here somewhere," he muttered. "Aa! Here we are." From his pocket, he drew a thick yellow parchment envelope with a purple wax seal and written on with bright green ink. Calypso accepted it and turned it over in her hands, reading the words that had been scrawled on the back:
Ms C. Delaney
Wool's Orphanage
1 Bower Street
London
Care of: Professor Albus Dumbledore
She turned it over again to examined the wax seal, studying coat of arms of a lion, a snake, a badger, and an eagle surrounding a letter H. "What is the 'H' for?" she asked curiously.
"It stands for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." Dumbledore smiled, his blue eyes glinting mischievously. "You, Miss Delaney, are a witch." Calypso's lips parted and she stared at him, eyes wide.