For the next two years, the pair continued to keep to themselves. They talked to snakes together and grew flowers together and said Grace together. But mostly, they read. They read everything they could get their hands on. They even taught themselves Latin just to be able to read the books meant for the older children who had already taken the course. Tom and Cecilia were both incredibly intelligent and had an insatiable thirst for knowledge.
Their teachers adored them, praising the two of them as often as possible, mostly in front of the whole class. Tom reveled in the attention, Cecilia was much more modest about it, often blushing brightly whenever she was brought up to the front of the class. Tom always felt proud of Cecilia whenever she was called to the front of the room by the teacher in order to demonstrate something, even if she alone was called up and not him. It was an unusual feeling for Tom, feeling pride for other people's accomplishments but he supposed, since it was Cecilia, it was fine. Cecilia felt the same way whenever Tom was called up by himself.
Cecilia had called Officer Jimmy several times over the years, the first time was to tell him how she was settling in and all that. She told him about Tom and how good of friends they were. She didn't tell him about the snakes and the flowers though, she knew that would sound odd to the man. He visited on Christmas, her birthday, which he remembered from when they had done paperwork with Mrs. Cole, and Tom's birthday as well once Cecilia and he had pried the date out of the boy. He even brought presents for her and Tom, saying that just because they didn't have family didn't mean that nobody cared. And Officer Jimmy became one of the only people who cared for the two little orphans, taking them for walks in parks and showing them around Scotland Yard. The other constables and bobbies took a liking to the two of them as well, giving them sweets and biscuits whenever Jimmy brought them to the station.
It was soon noticed that, even when they were going on trips to Scotland Yard with Officer Jimmy or to the beach with the rest of the orphans, the two of children were never without each other. The pair of them became inseparable. You rarely found one without the other and, if you did, the one would be looking for the other. By the time time that the two of them were eleven years old, their friendship was stronger than ever. They were sat on Tom's bed one afternoon, reading, when Mrs. Cole knocked.
"There's a visitor for you both, look sharp," she called. Her voice was slurred. She had been drinking again. Mrs. Cole picked up the habit of drinking after her husband passed a year and a half ago. She wasn't even drinking to drown out the pain anymore, she drank just to get by now. The door opened. Standing next to the swaying Mrs. Cole was a tall man with auburn hair and the most ridiculous suit the pair had ever seen. Cecilia and Tom exchanged a look and then turned back to the man. Mrs. Cole had left at this point and the strange man had invited himself in.
"Hello, Cecilia. Hello, Tom," the man acknowledged them both. "My name is Professor Dumbledore," Cecilia became concerned, Mrs. Cole had tried, and failed due to the children's connections to Scotland Yard, to have them both examined psychologically. Maybe she had found some sort of a loophole and was going to have them taken away. Tom shared his friend's concern but was more annoyed with the look in Dumbledore's eyes. It was a look that seemed to speak of an all-knowing power nobody possessed. Dumbledore sat on the chair at Tom's desk. "I'm sure you're wondering why I'm here," he began. "I am here to represent Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and to give you these," he reached into his suit and presented the two with identical parchment envelopes with their names and their individual addresses, right down to their rooms, scrawled on them in black ink, not from a pen but the type you'd find in an inkwell. What in the world? The pair thought, looking at each other in shock. They flipped the envelopes over only to see a wax seal of a crest sealing the letters. The crest had a coat of arms that was split into fours: the top left section had a lion, the top right had a snake, the bottom left had a honey badger, and the bottom right had an eagle. Above the coat of arms was a banner that simply said HOGWARTS and below it was a banner that said DRACO DORMIENS NUNQUAM TITILLANDUS, which was Latin for 'do not tickle the sleeping dragon'. What the hell kind of school is this? Tom thought. He could tell by the look on her face that Cecilia was thinking much the same thing. They looked at each other shrugged and then opened the letters. As they began to read their acceptance letters to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Dumbledore began to speak again. "I'm sure you both have many questions, it is my job to attempt to answer them," and so, the inquisition began.
"Is this some sort of sick joke? A Magic school? Is this some way to get us committed without actually doing it?" Tom went in first.
"No, Tom, this not a joke, you are both Wizards, well Cecilia here is a Witch of course. Now I know this is a shock to you but this is not a trap to harm you or whatever you may think. It is a school for children just like you to learn and grow their Magic," Dumbledore explained calmly.
"So there are other people like us?" Cecilia asked both excited and dejected, she was happy that she and Tom weren't the only ones who could do special things, Magic apparently, but she and Tom had always liked the idea that they something special, something unique and to find out there was a whole school full of people like them, well, it took the wind out of her sails. She could tell it upset Tom as well.
"There's an entire world of people like you. You are not alone," Dumbledore said in an attempt to be comforting. It didn't work.
"Oh," Tom started sadly. "We just thought that we were different from the rest of the world," Dumbledore pursed his lips.
"Well every Witch and Wizard has a unique type of Magic to give to the world. Since one normally is able to discern their gifts at about this age, why don't you tell me what you both can do?" He was trying to cheer them up, they knew, although it was a lousy job really but they told him anyway.
"We can grow flowers out of nothing, we can make dying plants bloom again, we can move things without touching them, we can make animals do things we want without training them," Tom began to list.
"All of that is quite common, although I must say that the growing flowers from nothing is very much impossible, you must be changing the flower from something else into the flower form," Dumbledore told them seriously. Deciding that they would prove the man wrong, the pair cupped their hands and then slowly opened them, both of them revealing a small flower blossoming in their hands before Dumbledore's very eyes. Cecilia had grown a bright yellow daisy and Tom had made a beautiful white rose. The girl smiled and placed her flower in the lapel of Tom's coat, he blushed lightly and quickly plucked his rose out of his hands and tucked it behind her right ear, causing her to blush as well, giving the boy a smile. There were no thorns on his rose this time. Dumbledore sat astonished. This pair of misfit orphans had done the impossible, they had made something out of nothing. And they had done it right in front of him. He could not deny what he saw. He then remembered something Mrs. Cole had said, something he wanted to address. When he figured out where he best thought the boy would hide things, he silently set it on fire. It was his wardrobe. The girl screamed and jumped into Tom's arms, crying while the boy looked at the professor in confusion, shock, and anger as he wrapped his arms around Cecilia, to comfort her.
"What are you doing?! She's terrified of fire, she lost her family in the blazes of one only two years ago!" Tom cried out over the roaring of the flames. Dumbledore looked shocked then ashamed, dousing the fire immediately.
"I apologize, I didn't realize fire scared you so, child," Dumbledore tried to soothe Cecilia. When he realized that it wasn't going to work, he stood to inform the pair why he had set the wardrobe on fire in the first place. "I was told by Mrs. Cole that you've been stealing things, thievery is not tolerated at Hogwarts," the man declared.
"We've never stolen anything!" Cecilia exclaimed, still shrunken into Tom's side but her face was irate. "All that was in that wardrobe was clothes, provided by the orphanage, books, also provided by the orphanage, and presents from Officer James Moore of Scotland Yard. Check if you don't believe me. Talk to the Yard if you have to. We didn't steal anything from anyone!" Tom nodded in affirmation.
"Go on, take a look, Mrs. Cole has always hated us so of course she would say something like that to you!" Tom insisted. Dumbledore looked. Everything that was in there was as Cecilia described. The newest present hadn't even been unwrapped, therefore it's tag still read To: Tom From: Officer Jimmy Happy 11th birthday, Tom. Margaret and I wish you all the best. I hope you like this one, it's a first edition. He took the package out of the wardrobe and showed it to the pair.
"Why would an officer at Scotland Yard be giving you a first edition for your birthday, Tom?" Dumbledore asked, clearly skeptical. Tom launched up from the bed and snatched the package from the man's hands.
"Because," Tom began, shaking in his anger. "He actually cares about us! Is that so wrong, Professor? For someone to give a damn about a pair of measly orphans?" Cecilia held back a gasp at Tom's cursing, he never cursed in front of others but she most certainly understood why he did in this case. How dare this man, she thought, how dare he think the worst of us, of Tom, and not even try to know us? She got up from the bed and went over to place a gentle hand on Tom's shoulder. He was still shaking. Her normally light brown eyes were dark and cloudy. She was seething.
"Get out," she demanded lowly. The man looked startled at her command and the amount of anger directed toward him. He still hadn't left. "Get! Out!" The girl shouted at the old man, the door to Tom's room flew open, and a gust of wind was pushing Dumbledore out of it. Professor Albus Dumbledore realized two things as he quickly left Wool's Orphanage. The first being that he had just made some powerful enemies in those children. The second was that the pair of them could take over the world if they wanted to. And he would do everything he could to stop them.