A/N:- I am not dead, and I am not planning to die anytime soon.
Italics = Elsa's thoughts.
Disclaimer: If I actually owned ant of this stuff, don't you think that I would put this in the original story instead of fanfiction?
CHAPTER 1 - BACK TO THE FUTURE.
For as long as Elsa could remember, there had been only darkness. For as long as she could remember, there had been only two voices. One on them was her voice. The other was her voice, yet at the same time, not her voice. The other voice was destructive and manipulative. Her voice had been at war with it since the beginning of her memory. The other voice had started off extremely weak. That time felt like a million years ago. But over time, it had grown stronger. Elsa's voice would not suppress it. It wasn't like she couldn't. She could have crushed the other voice easily, she still could. But she wouldn't. Because she wasn't a killer. She remembered her first memory as swearing to herself that she would never kill again. Again? I do not remember killing anyone. I do not remember anything apart from this eternity in darkness.
The other voice had terrified Elsa. It was everything she had worked against. It had even told her necessary information, and even of some of her past before the darkness. Elsa could instinctively tell when the other voice was lying, and that was extremely helpful. Problem was, it worked the other way to. Not only that, but it seemed as if her other voice could read her mind. That had been emotionally disturbing. When the voice was weaker, it had confronted Elsa about her past failures and had gloated over it. Especially about the incident with Anna. For some bizarre reason, that was the one thing Elsa had not forgotten. Elsa nearly had a mental breakdown, but had quickly noticed that the more panicked she became, she stronger the other voice got. She was more terrified of the voice than she was of hurting Anna. So she had fought. She had gotten over her fear of hurting Anna, and had focused on the voice. That day, Elsa changed. While she would always run from her fears rather than confront them head on, it was kind of impossible to run away from your own mind. Not that she hadn't tried. Now, the idea alone sounded stupid to her, but back then, she had panicked. She had quickly learned that the voice was always a step ahead of her. She had no choice but to face the greatest fear of her life.
Recently, something had changed. A little while ago, the darkness had changed. Elsa had begun to feel…..different. It was a good different. She had been able to feel beyond the darkness. It had also made the other voice much angrier. When Elsa had asked about it, the other voice had said that she was 'waking up', whatever that meant. She thought that at one point, she heard a little girl screaming her name, and at other times, she felt a powerful presence probing at her. A familiar presence which she couldn't put her finger on, except kinder. But the presence always made her feel uneasy, and she blocked it every time.
The darkness had begun to disperse. She could distinctively see red. It took a long time, but she eventually managed to open her eyes.
She was in a dimly lit white room, and was lying on a bed. Now, with the darkness gone, all her memories came back to her. Her playing with Anna, her hurting Anna, her protecting Anna, killing all those men and women, and especially, unleashing her fury at that woman. Elsa gasped in shock at what she had done, and tears began to flow from her eyes. Mustering all her strength, she managed to push herself up and sit straight. She scooted back and propped up her pillow so that she could lean on it. She stared at the ceiling and sobbed silently.
Only a minute after she had woken up, Elsa heard the door to her room opening. She wiped the tears from her eyes, and was shocked at how much effort it took her just to lift her hands. Then he stepped into view.
The man in question was very tall. He wore half-moon spectacles and a robe, and had a white beard so long that he had to tuck it into his belt. He wore a kind expression, but there was something about him that felt familiar in more ways than one. It took Elsa only a few seconds to recognize him as the same person who had been probing at her mind while she was asleep. The second way in which he was familiar was his aura of power. It was calmer and slightly weaker, but there was no mistaking it. It was the same power that the Augurey had wielded.
The man approached Elsa. She immediately shied away from him. "Hello." he said "My name is Albus Dumbledore. It is a pleasure to meet you."
"Stay back." she whimpered "Please, leave me alone."
The man raised his hands in surrender. "I mean you no harm, my dear."
"You're lying. I can feel it. You have the same power as her. And she tried to kill Anna."
"Now, now. Let's not jump to conclusions just yet. I believe that the person you are talking about is highly unlikely to bother you ever again."
"You don't know her. She would have easily destroyed a mountain if I hadn't stopped her. She is more powerful than you are!"
"Exactly my point dear. I don't have to stop her, because you already did."
Elsa was gob smacked "I did what? How?"
"Elsa, dear, do you know what day it is?"
"Wait, how do you know my name?"
"Your family told me. Not to worry, they are safe and sound."
An expression of pure relief crossed over Elsa's face. She let out a sigh of relief and mumbled "They're okay!"
"Ahem. Elsa, do you know what day it is?"
"Well, I fought that woman on winter solstice. Why?"
"What year?"
"Pardon me?"
"In what year did you battle her?"
"This year, of course!"
"Today is the third of May."
"I WAS ASLEEP FOR FOUR MONTHS?!"
"Not quite. As I asked before, what year was it?"
"It was 1840. Why? This is 1841, isn't it?"
"My dear, this is the year 1991. I found you on the winter solstice of 1990. you had been frozen for exactly 150 years."
Elsa's thoughts came grinding to a halt. "One hundred and fifty years….."
"One more question. You are ten years old, are you not?"
Elsa nodded mutely, still dumbstruck.
"Well, apparently, your body has not aged at all. Someone might as well have found you a million years from now and you'd still be the same."
"Oh." Elsa said, her eyes unfocused. Suddenly, her head snapped up. "My family! Are they….?"
"No need to worry, they are still young and healthy. Although your power didn't affect them as much."
"What do you mean?" Elsa asked, her voice filled with dread.
"Your family aged while they were frozen, but not quite significantly, especially considering for how long you have been frozen."
"How much? How much did they age?" Elsa asked, her voice trembling.
"Your family aged two years. They survived and grew on your power. In a way, you can say that you kept them alive."
Elsa slumped back in relief. She had originally imagine Anna to be a hundred-year old woman.
"However, there is something I must tell you about." Dumbledore said in a grave tone.
"What is it?"
"Your sister has been affected by your power in more ways than one."
"What do you mean? Is she okay? Are my mama and papa okay?"
"Do not worry dear, they are all just fine. Your parents woke up three months ago and your sister, two months ago."
"But what happened to her? You said that something happened to her." Elsa said, beginning to panic.
"Like I said, it is nothing serious. It is just that the minds of the young are easily affected. Your sister has lost two weeks of her memory. As a result, she doesn't know of your power over the winter elements. She only knows that bad people attacked her, and that her very powerful sister stopped them using magic so powerful that it froze them in time for a hundred and fifty years."
"She knows I have magic?"
"Yes. Your parents agreed on telling her that much. But she only thinks that you have ordinary magic, not ice powers."
"Why would you tell her that?!"
"That brings me to the second side effect. You see, while the minds of children are easy to influence, their bodies are also open to the greatest changes. Being in your presence for a hundred and fifty years has given her the power of magic. While she can never perform at your level, she will become a very powerful witch."
"Don't call her a witch!" Elsa snarled.
"Oh, my apologies. I forgot that you don't see the word 'witch' the same way we do. A witch is a female who is able to perform magical feats. We do not think of it as a curse. In fact, every magical girl strives to earn the title of 'witch.' I myself am a wizard, and my mother was a witch too."
"That is going to be difficult to get used to."
"I know. Several people have that problem."
The two sat in silence for a while. "So what now?" Elsa asked "What am I supposed to do now? I can't very well march into Arendelle and claim the throne after being missing for a hundred and fifty years. And I don't know how the world works now either!"
"I can help there." Dumbledore offered.
"How?"
You could come to my school. I am Headmaster of Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. You could learn everything you need to know about magic, and your sister too."
"Really? There is a school for magic?"
"Not just one. There are hundreds of them spread across the world."
"Will I learn how to control my powers?!"
"That and more. You will be able to use them to their full potential, use them in ways that you haven't even thought of, and even how to use them in combat, although after seeing the state of the valley where I found you, you will have no need of that last one." Dumbledore said with amusement evident on his face and in his eyes.
Elsa suddenly looked down and started twiddling her thumbs. "Err…. Well….. you see, the thing is….I've never been to school before." The last part came out as barely a whisper.
Dumbledore just laughed. "Never mind that dear. From what your parents tell me, you are quite the scholar as it is. Not that it will be necessary, mind you. Magic schools are fundamentally different from muggle schools."
"Muggle schools?"
"Muggles are non-magical people. Your parents are muggles, and your sister was a muggle. Although try not to make that common knowledge. No muggle has ever been able to become a witch or wizard. It would be disastrous if anyone found out. But back to the point. While muggle schools require mathematics, magical schools focus on things like charms and spells. Although, knowing math is extremely helpful."
"That's even worse! I have no idea how to cast any spells except for exploding snowballs! I don't even have a wand!"
"Don't fret, princess. Honestly, I have never before had to tell someone to calm down so many times in a whole day, and you broke the record in less than ten minutes." Elsa blushed "Now, as I was saying, you needn't worry. All students start at Hogwarts when they are eleven years old, and most of them barely know how to do anything. Trust me, you'll do just fine."
Elsa buried her head in her hands and moaned.
"Are you all right?" Dumbledore asked.
"A hundred and fifty years. I, a hundred and sixty-year old girl, am going to school for the first time, with eleven year olds, all of whom can perform magic. It's just… quite a lot to take in."
"You handled it better than your family did. Your parents fainted, and your sister spent the first month trying to escape the hospital tying to, and I quote 'Get chocolate from over a hundred years in the future from the shop across the street.' She was also especially glad to know that she is now only half a year younger than you, biologically speaking. She said that now you won't be able to boss her around as much as you did when you were little."
Elsa stared at Dumbledore for a few seconds. Then a small giggle made its way past her mouth. Then some more. Within half a minute, Elsa was laughing so hard that tears were coming out of her eyes. That was just so Anna. Of course she would try to sneak out for chocolates. She could imagine Anna running after chocolates with dozens of doctors running after her. Dumbledore was chuckling too.
"So, can my sister go to your school with me?"
"Not exactly. She will go to Hogwarts, but she will be a year behind you."
"She's not going to be happy about that."
"She wasn't. Sulked in her room for a week. I had to give her her weight in chocolate frogs for her to start talking again."
"Well, that's good. Can't have my baby sister in the same year as me, can I?"
"Ah, the joys of sibling rivalry." Dumbledore said, with a smile on his face, but for a second, Elsa thought she saw sadness in his eyes. She dismissed the thought.
"One more question." Elsa said.
"Yes, dear?"
"Why does your power feel exactly like that woman's? It's calmer and less sinister, but I can tell that it is the same."
Dumbledore sat up straight. He looked around the room. He drew his wand from his robes and flicked it. Immediately, the door sealed itself and the windows closed instantly, leaving the room in the dark. "Lumos maxima" Dumbledore muttered, and the room was lit by a light shooting out of the wand and hovering in the air.
"Listen carefully, Elsa. What I am about to tell you is information of which only two people are aware. Under no circumstances are you to share it with anyone, understood?" Dumbledore would normally not endanger a child by giving them such knowledge, but from what the girl's parents had told him, knowledge only made her stronger. Also, it was best not to leave someone like her in the dark. An ice-user, especially one as powerful as her could not be allowed to be manipulated by someone. And in a foreign world, in a foreign time, the only way to make sure was to give her all the knowledge that would not impede her growth or interfere with his plans.
Elsa noticed that the cheery headmaster had gone from happy to dead serious in a second. And she was quite intimidated by it. Her pale face illuminated by wandlight, she nodded.
"This is my wand." Dumbledore said, holding his wand in front of Elsa "And this is the wand which that woman used." He said, bringing out a wand which looked exactly the same, except for a crack along its length.
"What..?" Elsa began to ask, but was cut off.
"They are exactly the same, Elsa."
"So, what does that mean? What's the matter if they look alike?"
"It is more than just looking alike. They don't just look the same, they are the same. That woman you fought travelled back in time from the future, which should have been impossible. But somehow, she managed, or should I say will manage to get a hold of an incredibly powerful time-turner."
"That….. explains a lot, actually. Including their disastrous fashion sense. But I don't understand. What's so important about the wands being the same…. unless she took yours?"
"That's not the important part. What is important is that this is the most powerful wand in the world. This is the wand of destiny."
"So that's why….." but Elsa was cut off again.
"But that is not the worst of it. The wand can only have one true master. The wand chooses the most powerful witch or wizard to give its allegiance to."
"How does that work?"
"For the wand to choose a new master, its previous master has to be defeated. then, the wand belongs to the victor. While only disarming is sufficient, for thousands of years, people have killed for this wand. By some miracle, I managed to disarm a dark wizard and won the wand. Now, the woman you fought must have won it, because the wand has chosen a new master." Dumbledore looked expectantly at Elsa, waiting for her to figure it out.
So people have spent a thousand years killing each other for what? A stick? Why would they do such a thing? Does this mean that woman killed someone in order to gain it? And I killed her, which means…. Elsa's thoughts came grinding to a halt as soon as realization crashed into her. Her eyes shot wide open and she turned to look at Dumbledore.
"Don't tell me" Elsa rasped "That I am the master of the most powerful wand in the world?"
"Yes. Which is why it is imperative that you never lose in battle. And if you do, win it back immediately."
"I…..I don't want it!" Elsa sobbed "I don't want something that has the blood of so many people on it! It is proof of what I did! I killed all those people, without regret! I'm a monster! I'm the last person who should have that kind of power, in addition to my own! Why me?!"
Elsa was crying by the time she finished. Dumbledore let her rest her head against him while she sobbed. It was five minutes before she stopped. "I…. I sho…sniff… shouldn't have ….sniff…. killed them in cold blood!"
"What we should and shouldn't do, did and didn't do doesn't matter after it has been done. What is important is what you chose to do now."
Elsa looked up at him with shining eyes. He continued, staring off into space.
"I too, have made many, many horrendous mistakes. Maybe one day I'll tell you about them, but today has been sad enough. The point is, I learnt from my mistakes. I accepted that what I had done was wrong, and I started working from there, trying to atone for them. I am still working."
"I'm sorry." Elsa said and tried to give him a hug. Dumbledore patted her on the head.
"Elsa, do you by any chance know who that woman was and how she got the wand?"
Elsa immediately wiped away her tears and let go of Dumbledore, glad to have the subject changed.
"I think she called herself the Augurey. There was some nonsense about master of pain and torture, but she said she was the daughter of dark lord… something? I think it had something to do with mould."
"Voldemort?"
"Yeah, that's him. She also said something about winning the wand of destiny from someone…. I think she mentioned a hairy carpenter or something."
"Harry Potter?"
"Yeah, that's it." Elsa paused and reviewed the last two questions. "Wait, Voldemort and Harry Potter, how do you know them?"
"It's a long story. Although what you said has given me quite the surprise. I did not know that Voldemort had, or will have a daughter. I am also surprised that she will manage to defeat Harry, who will have somehow gotten his hands on the wand of destiny."
"You still haven't told me. How do you know those two?"
"Well, Harry Potter is going to be your classmate next year. And Voldemort is a very long story indeed. But seeing as your body is in no condition to move properly for the next few months, I suppose I can tell you. It began fifty years ago when…"
Dumbledore spent the next six hours telling Elsa the whole story of Voldemort:- About his mother, his development, his turning evil and muggle-hating, and eventually how he was stopped by Harry Potter. He left out the part about the horcruxes, though. There were some things that he didn't think she was ready for just yet. He also conveniently left out all of his own past. That was a story for another time. By the end of the story, Elsa was dumbstruck.
"So let me get this straight" she said "The most evil and most powerful dark wizard of all time was defeated by the power of love."
"Indeed. It also stopped the second most powerful one as well."
"Really? How?"
"I believe you know that better than anyone else. After all, your love for your family stopped her."
"Hold on, I thought she was just average! How on earth did I beat her? I was only ten!"
"That, Elsa, is because it was winter solstice, and the fact that your powers had been held back for over three years."
"I assume my parents told you about that as well." Dumbledore nodded. " So what if I had been holding my powers in? That couldn't make me stronger, could it?"
"While I would focus on first saying that suppressing your powers is wrong…."
"How could it be wrong?! They killed all those people!"
"….that is a conversation for another date." Dumbledore continued as if Elsa hadn't spoken at all "Right now, I will only focus on the less important facts. Because you held your powers back for so long, they gave you a temporary, but drastic rise in power."
"What do you mean?"
"Think of it as a dam. Your powers continuously generate stunning amounts of energy. Over the years, you kept on gathering energy, increasing your own power."
"So when I let it go, I was using three years' worth of power at once?"
"Close, but not quite." Elsa looked at him in confusion "The winter solstice gives you a massive increase in energy production. It is as if the flow of the river increases by a hundredfold. Not only that, but it also greatly amplifies the energy you already have stored. Which means that you survived out of pure dumb luck and coincidence."
"Nice to know that instead of my skills, I was saved by dumb luck." Elsa muttered dejectedly.
Dumbledore laughed "While many may think along the same lines, I have been through enough experiences to know that there is no such thing as coincidence."
"So, I had so much dumb luck that it is making even a non-believer such as you admit it."
"Your sister was right. You have no sense of humor."
"Wha..?"
"You do realize that I was joking when I credited your luck, don't you"
"But the way you said it seemed right. I had three years worth of power to multiply, and I had to get that huge increase in power at the exact moment."
"Which is why she was after you. Had she successfully managed to manipulate you, none of us would have stood a chance against you."
Elsa was silent.
" Everything will be fine now, trust me. Your family has adapted well enough to the modern world. And speaking of your family, I believe that someone wants to meet you" Dumbledore said. He waved his wand and all the windows opened. The door unlocked itself and Dumbledore put his wand away and stood up.
"Wait, professor, you forgot this!" Elsa said, holding up the cracked wand.
"It is not mine to forget. It has chosen you as its master, and will obey you until you are defeated." He put his hand on the doorknob. But he hesitated and turned around. "A word of advice. It seems that you have become quite the legend. Apparently a lot of the citizens of your kingdom saw your escape. You have quite the reputation, and you are also mentioned is schoolbooks."
"I WHAT?!" Elsa yelled.
"Being famous is not the problem. The problem will arise if anyone of less than pure intentions finds about your true identity. Plenty of people are aware that you are alive and have magic as well, mostly because your sister and parents showed up again, back from the dead, but all of them see you as their rightful queen, ice powers or no. They all admire you, especially after what you did to save them. You are their hero."
"Now that just makes me feel worse. I had to kill three dozen people. I shouldn't be forgiven. I don't deserve to be."
Dumbledore sighed "I will not argue now, you are tired as it is. But one day, I promise you that you will know that what you did was right."
"How was this all advice?"
"I believe that advice is just information. Anything else is coercion. I gave you information. It is your choice on how to act on it. I will not tell you what to do, for you must find your own path."
With that, he opened the door and walked out. Elsa stared after him until he turned a corner and disappeared. She looked down at the wand which he had left behind. She picked it up gingerly and examined it. She could feel its power easily. She could also feel the power connected to her. She held the wand in her right hand, like she had seen the professor do, but it didn't quite fit. So she transferred it to her left. Her left hand and the wand were instantly surrounded by a blue light. Elsa was so shocked that she nearly dropped the wand, but she held on out of sheer morbid curiosity. Ice began to spread over her hand, and it filled in the crack in the wand. The ice continued to spread, eventually creating a very sharp point just above the tip of the wand. Ice also expanded from just below the original wand tip for a few millimeters. Then, six more sharp spikes of ice emerged from the newly expanded ice, all pointing in the same direction as the first. They continued growing until they reached slightly above the first one.
Half a minute after it appeared, the blue glow faded away. The wand also felt very comfortable is Elsa's hand now. She tried to balance it on the newly created ice spikes. The six external spikes were level with each other, forming a perfect hexagon. The seventh point, which had formed first, was only two millimeters from touching the surface of the table. She released her hold on the wand, and it balanced perfectly. Now that her hand was not covering it, Elsa was quite surprised to see that there was barely any ice on the wand. The only places where there was ice was the tip and the crack which had now been filled. Funny, I expected that the whole wand would be frosted over. Elsa's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of padding feet, rapidly approaching. The pattern was familiar, but each step was significantly heavier than the last time she had heard it. She looked at the door, and saw Anna running towards her at full speed, with an expression of pure joy in her face. Elsa's face lit up with a smile as well, before remembering that she had a very sharp, very powerful wand in her hand. Oh no. Need to hide the wand need to hide the wand need to hi… wha?! The wand had jumped out of her hand and had shot straight into the ceiling, where it impaled the stone and stayed there.
"ELSAAAA!" she heard Anna yell, before a mass of red hit her in full speed. Before she could realize what was happening, Anna had hugged her. Elsa just sat there looking nowhere in particular. She could not remember any time in her life when she had felt more happiness. Slowly, her own arms unconsciously found their way around Anna. Anna looked up at Elsa with those wide, green eyes of hers. Elsa looked at her and gave her a watery smile. Anna buried her head in Elsa's shoulder and hugged her closer, if that was possible. Elsa rested her chin on Anna's head, and let the tears flow freely. The two sisters sat there for hours, hugging each other as if their lives depended on it, until they both fell asleep.
R&R Please! Happy reading!
Next time:- Return to Arendelle.
