Chapter 1
"AURORA!" The voice bellowed throughout the home. I sighed while wrapping my arms around my legs and setting my chin on my knees. I guess that meant they had found the dead rat I had put in the house mother's bed. I enjoyed the moment of solitude I had for the moment before I knew it would be broken by the arrival of an angry women. I had hidden myself up in the attic of the house behind some old dusty boxes and a pile of children books that were so worn and faded from the sun that there were no words or pictures left. It wouldn't take her long to find me though, somehow she always able to tell where I was. I listened to the banging of doors and curses being thrown around for a minute before the door to the attic was thrown open and a very angry house mother stormed in. She truly was an ugly woman, not in looks mind you; in fact if you looked at her closely she was rather quiet plain. Her name was even quite plain, Mary, but she was nothing like the Saint she was named after. No what made her ugly was her soul. She knew nothing of mercy and kindness, but rather believed that everything should be beaten out of you; which is why I often go about showing how wrong her philosophy's are.
"You wretched, wretched girl! I should tan your hide and not feed you for a month for what you just pulled!" She screamed grabbing me roughly by the arm and pulling me across the room, knocking the boxes and books over in the process. She must've found out that I gave some of our food away earlier too. She normally wouldn't be this angry over just the dead rat. "Wasting our good food on those beggars…" she muttered angrily to herself. I narrowed my eyes at the back of her head while she took me downstairs. Sure we didn't have any food to spare, but I'd rather go hungry for a night knowing that I gave my food to someone who goes hungry on a regular basis.
"No dinner for a week! And you're in charge of cleaning duties the rest of the month." Mary cried practically throwing me into my room I shared with the rest of the girls.
I groaned at the punishment. I could handle the missed dinners, but cleaning duties meant I had to scrub the entire three story house everyday by myself, which meant I would never be truly done with cleaning. There was always some new mess being made, although truthfully I did make up a good percentage of those messes. Mary slammed the door to the dormitory in my face and I was left to wallow in my cleaning misery.
"Seriously Aurora? Again? Why can't you stay out of trouble for once?" I heard Lauren, the eldest girl here, ask.
"What would be the fun in that? Besides someone needs to show her I won't go down easily." I defended through my nose in the air. If there was one thing I prided myself on it was my inability to go down without a fight.
"This is why you got kicked out of your last two orphanages." Lauren's friend Julia replied snidely. "I heard if you get kicked out of here they're going to put you in a reformatory school and we all know those are just prisons for children."
"Oh stuff a biscuit up your arse!" I growled, shoving Julia off my bed where she had been lounging comfortably. I smiled quietly to myself with the loud thud she made as she hit the floor. No one is aloud near my things and she should've known better. She crawled back to her own bunk but made no more comments toward me, smart as it would've just come back to bite her.
I spent the rest of my free evening reading through my mother's old books on spells and magic. I had decided since no one else would, I would teach myself.
It wasn't going very well.
Because I had no wand I really had no way of performing the magic I was reading about. There were some spells I could do here and there with wandless magic, but for the most part I was the most useless witch to have ever lived. I groaned and buried my head in my book, I wonder what my mother would think if she could see me now. What would she think if she knew Hogwarts wouldn't even take a freak like me; honestly I should've known better. After all my father was and is the most hated wizard to have lived; how could I have been accepted into the school with such parentage? I stopped my little moment of self-pity and continued reading my book. I didn't have time for pity; it wasted time and energy. Besides it was three years ago, it was time I moved past it.
Easier said than done it seems.
As the rest of the girls started entering the room to ash up before dinner I shoved my book under my mattress. Some of the girls can get a little too curious for their own good.
"Are you not coming down for dinner Aurora?" One of the younger girls, Tanya I think her name was, asked as she and the rest of the girls started to leave.
"Not today, part of the punishment was no dinner for a week." I told her shrugging.
"Oh, would you like me to try and sneak you back a roll?" She offered. It was sweet really, but I knew the punishment for her actions and I figured I'd save her the grief.
"No thanks, but I appreciate the offer." I replied.
She nodded and smiled at me sympathetically before leaving with her friend, whose name I had never bothered to learn. The dorm was quiet again and I could finally get back to my reading. I was deep in a chapter on the differences between incanted and canted magic when I heard a knock at the front door. The girl's dorms where positioned right next to the front door, which it easy every time I wanted to sneak out, unfortunately though the walls of the house were paper thin so you could hear every someone was at the door.
Since I knew everyone else was at dinner I figured I would answer the door. I rolled off my bed and took a moment to straighten my shirt, which had gotten turned around in the process, before going to answer the door. The sight I was met with was one of the strangest I'd seen.
At the door stood two men, one was very old with a long grey beard. He was wearing strange blue robes and a blue pointed hat to match. Next to the old man was an unruly and large fellow who smelled of several different animals. He had a wild look about him and his clothes were well worn and covered with mud. The two men could not have seemed more different, yet it looked as if they had come together.
"Ah hello there, would this be the Saint Mary's House for the Orphans?" The elderly gentlemen asked with a kind twinkle in his eye.
"Yes this would be the place, but everyone's eating dinner right now. Can I help you with something?" I asked a little suspiciously, we rarely received visitors.
"Yes, we're looking for a Ms. Aurora Riddle, could you please fetch her for us?" The man replied. My mouth dropped open. They were looking for me? I tried thinking back to if I had done anything that could've been considered illegal, but I couldn't think of anything. Besides these men looked nothing like the police.
"Well actually that would be me..." I informed them. The unruly fellow's eyes widened in surprise, but the older gentlemen looked as if he had already known.
"Wonderful, much less trouble then," The gentlemen smiled
"But, but, Dumbledore sir! She looks to be 'bout 14! How can she be a new student?" The unruly man asked dumbfounded.
I started at the name he had called him. Dumbledore? The Dumbledore? "You're…from Hogwarts?" I asked quietly, not quite believing what was in front of me.
"The one and only, sorry that we're a little late, we haven't been able to find you for the longest time." Dumbledore replied apologetically.
I leaned up against the door frame in shock. "You mean, you're letting me attend?" I asked, in disbelief. I hadn't been forgotten after all?
"Of course! Now I don't mean to hurry you, but we are running late, would you be ready to leave now?" Dumbledore asked. "Hagrid here," he said patting the man next to him on the shoulder, who bowed his head toward me, "has already acquired everything you will need for the school year, except for your wand of course. He'll take you to go get that, before heading off to school."
My own wand? I couldn't believe it. I must be dreaming. I pinched myself just to be sure. No I wasn't dreaming. "Let me go get my things." I said, before dashing back into my room to grab my suitcase and my book. I had never even bothered to unpack. I eagerly returned to the front door, feeling once again like the 11 year old girl who had the same excitement those three years ago, except this time, there was someone waiting for me.
Hagrid easily picked up my suitcase like it barely weighed anything at all. I turned to look back one final time at the orphanage before turning back to Dumbledore and Hagrid. "I'm ready." I told them, a genuine smile on my face.
"Hagrid will take you to get your wand, and I will meet you back at the school Aurora." Dumbledore replied matching my smile. I appreciated the fact that he called me by my first name and not my last.
"Alright Aurora, are ya ready to go?" Hagrid asked me. "We're going to be late getting to school if we don't get going."
"I'm ready," I nodded to him. I turned back one last time to tell Dumbledore goodbye, but he was already gone.
A motorbike and sidecar I had not seen earlier we're waiting for us at the curb. Hagrid quickly tied my luggage to the back and helped me into the side car, before he got on the bike. "Make sure ya wear your helmet there, we want you to get there in one piece." Hagrid warned pointing to the helmet that was sitting on the floor in front of me. I took his advice and quickly put it on.
It didn't take us long for us to arrive in London. We traveled around several city streets before we finally stopped in front of an unmarked shop. "Ah here we are, the Leaky Cauldron." Hagrid said getting off the bike. I exited the sidecar and left the helmet in the seat.
"Is this we're I'll be getting my wand?" I asked excitedly looking around and trying to take everything in while Hagrid grabbed my suitcase.
"No, no we'll be going to Ollivander's for your wand, we just have to go through here to get there." Hagrid explained as he opened the door. Inside I could see that the Leaky Cauldron as rather an inn. People milled about, most were drinking and eating, others were reading, everyone looked up however when we entered. "Hullo everyone!" Hagrid called out as we moved through the room. I tried to no make eye contact with anyone, I didn't want anyone to figure out who I was.
"Who you got with you there Hagrid?" Someone called out to us.
"Oh, just a new student at Hogwarts." He replied cautiously and for that I was thankful.
"Looks a little old to be a new student." Someone else commented.
"Special circumstance." was all Hagrid said before we exited through the back door into a small empty courtyard. "Sorry bout that, sometimes they can be a little more nosy that what's good for them." Hagrid apologized.
"It's ok, I can understand why they're curious. Thank you though." I told him. "So where are we going exactly? There's nothing here." I pointed out.
"Just watch." was all he replied, before he began to tap at a few of the bricks on the wall. Immediately the wall began to separate and reveal an entirely new world to me.
"Wow..." I said entering the opening that had been created and stepping into the crowded street. People rushed about carrying dozens of boxes and books. Some had brooms and others had owls. Families walked around in groups, in and out of stores.
"Welcome to Diagon Alley Aurora." Hagrid said smiling. "Normally we would be stopping in all of these stores to get your things for the school year, but since we're running behind I went ahead and did that for ya. All that's left is your wand and that would be Ollivander's right over there." Hagrid said pointing to the store.
"Well lets go then!" I said confidently walking forward with Hagrid lumbering behind.
The store was empty when we entered, boxes of wands were piled everywhere and a strong layer of dust covered everything. I was amazed that the owner was able to find anything in the chaos that was his store.
"Hullo? Anyone home?" Hagrid called out in the quiet store.
An ancient looking man popped his over the railing from upstairs. "AH yes, hello, I'll be down faster than you can say horntailed dragon!" the man called.
He appeared down the stairs a moment later stopping just short of the bottom when he saw me. "Oh Merlin's beard. I'd never thought I'd see the day..." he said as if to himself.
"This here is..." Hagrid started.
"Aurora Riddle, yes yes, I am well aware of who stands in front of me. You look so much like your mother, the same enchanting green eyes...Yes everything but the hair, dark like your father's." He said looking me over as if I were a ghost come to life.
"We're here to get Aurora here a wand for school." Hagrid interrupted.
"Yes, of course let me see..." He rushed off too look among his thousands of boxes. He returned a moment later and handed me one. "Try this one." I gave the and a little wave and knocked one of his many shelves over. "No, no, no not that one he said quickly taking it back before running off to grab another. He took longer this time, several minutes in fact. I wondered if he would return. When he finally did come back he had a hard look on his face. "Try this one." He said handing it to me.
I pulled the wand from the box and tried again. It was like everything fell into place, the shelf I had knocked over righted itself and the and felt good in my hand. Ollivander nodded like he thought as much. "13 and a 1/2 inches, blackthorn wood with the core of Thestral tail hair, this is your wand." He said as I turned it over looking at it from all sides. "Good at almost any sort of magic, but it is wand of death." I looked up at him sharply while he looked upon me with a grave expression.
"What do you mean?" I demanded.
"When I made that wand I had a premonition that death would closely follow anyone who held that wand."
I suddenly wasn't as excited about finally getting my wand.