The general hubbub of the Leaky Cauldron didn't falter for even a moment as Vulpecula hurried in from the Alley. She was so used to everyone stopping and gawking for a moment whenever she entered a room that she froze for a moment in the doorway. Taking a breath, she relaxed and approached the bar, leaning against the structure and glancing around while waiting for the barman to approach her.
The establishment looked almost exactly the same as when she had seen it the first time in the 90's. It was markedly cleaner, she noticed. The wooden surfaces were still light and shining, missing a couple decades worth of grime, but the general details and the clientele remained the same. There was still the odd spell scorch mark on the walls and ceiling, groups of friends carousing, even the oddly smelling drunken hag passed out in the corner by the stairs. Perhaps that's why, when Tom the barman asked if she needed anything, she nearly fell over.
"I- I- wha-?" Vulpecula floundered for a moment, and prayed that the odd french accent helped explain her confusion.
"How can I help you today?" Tom repeated, a bit more slowly.
Vulpecula blinked, her mind still taking a moment to register. This was the same Tom that she had met in her first time, except not. This Tom still had his sandy brown hair and all of his teeth. He stood behind the bar in a neat robe, straight backed as he wiped his hands clean from whatever it was he had been doing last. It was rather disconcerting to see what the bald, toothless, hunched over wizard had started as. Perhaps the stress of running the most popular wizarding establishment through at least two wizarding wars took a harsh toll on the man.
"O-oh, Pardonne moi." Vulpecula stammered, barely suppressing a shiver as the french unexpectedly came out of her mouth. "I am supposed to have a meeting with Headmaster Dippit. Has the professor arrived?" She smoothed her hair nervously, hoping that she appeared rather frazzled and nervous to cover her moment of disorientation.
She needn't have worried. Tom gave her a reassuring smile and pointed her to one of the private tables on the balcony.
"He's right up there, miss," he said kindly. "The old wizard in the muted red robes asleep by the fire. He's a brilliant wizard, and very kind as well. Adores his work educating our youth. If he falls asleep in the middle of your conversation, please don't take offense. He's old, even by our standards. I believe he recently passed his third century within the last few years."
"I see," Vulpecula murmured, finally feeling relaxed in a somewhat trivial conversation. "And how should I awaken him?"
"I would knock on the table," Tom chuckled a bit, as though laughing at some joke he told himself. "Though if that doesn't work I would just prod him lightly. He usually wakes up pretty easily."
"Thank you," she smiled at Tom in thanks and started to head up the stairs.
"It was no problem Miss," Tom smiled in a friendly manner as she walked away. Clearly he liked meeting and talking to new people. As she headed up the steps she noted that he had already moved on to the next customer who came in after her.
It was a young witch with riotous black curls that were trying to escape their pins, and expensive looking robes. Something about her looked vaguely familiar, but Vulpecula brushed it off for the moment. The witch was probably the ancestor of someone that she knew in passing back in the 90's. After all, she had recognized several of her friends' features on random witches and wizards today. Family resemblance was usually quite strong in the wizarding world after all.
Vulpecula reached the balcony and approached the table with Headmaster Dippet. He was clearly very old, with his stark white hair and lines crossing his bearded face like a spider web. Regardless, she agreed with Tom's assessment. He did appear very kind, with deep smile lines and crow's feet adorning his cheeks and temples. Before him was a tea set. A half empty cup sat in front of him, the barest hint of steam wafting from the liquid. One other cup was set upside down on the saucer in front of the empty chair.
Vulpecula sat down in the seat and poured herself some tea, taking care to clack the tea set a bit louder than normal, but still within the bounds of politeness. She dropped in a single sugar cube and just a splash of milk, clacking her spoon as she stirred. Professor Dippet awoke with a light start as she set her spoon back on the table and took her first sip.
"Oh goodness me," the professor exclaimed softly. "Do forgive me. I seem to have this terrible habit of nodding off at the worst moment." Dippet straightened up in his chair and extended his hand courteously. "I am Professor Armando Dippet, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It's a pleasure to meet you Miss Peverell."
"It's an honor to meet you too Professor," Vulpecula shook his hand and smiled. There was just something so genuine about Dippet. She liked him already. "You said that because this is my first year at Hogwarts you wanted to go over what to expect?"
"Yes," Professor Dippet nodded sagely as he took a sip of his tea. "Switching schools in the middle of your education is an extremely stressful thing. Especially as this is your OWL year." He tactfully didn't bring up her 'father's' death. "So I wanted to ensure that there are as few gaps in your education as possible. Curriculums change from teacher to teacher, let alone from school to school. So I've compiled the syllabuses for each of the classes that you've enrolled in, and the one for the year below, so that we can spot any glaring holes and if need be, assign you either self study or a tutor to make sure you're all set for the coming year."
Vulpecula was rather touched. She had expected that they would simply look at the scores for her final exams in Beauxbatons (very good but not extremely outstanding, thanks to Time setting everything up) and tell her that she was fit to continue on to the next year level. This was the kind of personal touch and care for education that Dumbledore had lacked, distracted as he was by gaining political power and his several other political positions. That Professor Dippet was taking his own time to ensure that a new student wasn't getting left behind academically made Vulpecula want to cry.
They sat there for a bit over an hour, going over topics and summarizing the major points of theory, and occasionally having Vulpecula demonstrate her proficiency with certain spells. Summoning charms, locking charms, explaining why transfiguring one living creature to another was so dangerous, and why inanimate to animate transfiguration was difficult. They went over several difficult potion preparation methods, and the importance of preventing cross contamination. He also ensured that she knew how and when to use elder futhark runes vs hieratic or greek symbols, and the reasons they don't mix (with the one universal exemption).
"Well then Miss Peverell," Professor Dippet said, leaning back in his chair. "I do believe that you'll have no issue joining our 5th year students. In fact, because you are ahead in a few subjects, I would personally recommend that you focus more on making friends with your new peers. I've always seen that it's the social aspect of moving to a new school that causes the most distress, so find some good friends and the rest we can fix later if need be."
"Thank you Professor," Vulpecula nodded, understanding exactly what he meant. She hoped that she would be able to make some genuine friends while she was here. Of course she had her goal of making a better future, but it's much harder to push for change if she didn't have any proper support.
"Speaking of friends," Dippet continued, an excited gleam in his eye. "Would you like a tour of the castle? And then we could provide you dinner. The elves always miss having students to dote on in the summer months, they would love to have you eat their food."
"That sounds lovely Professor," Vulpecula agreed quickly, excited to see her old home once more.
"Excellent!" the old wizard exclaimed, his eyes nearly lost among the wrinkles of his bright smile. "It's easiest to Floo there directly. The address is Hogwarts Headmaster's Office. If you just say Hogwarts you'll be dropped in the middle of the great hall. Don't know why, considering there's no fireplace there to begin with."
As he spoke he dug out a galleon and left it on the table as payment for Tom, and then pulled out a small bag of floo powder. The green dust glittered in the flickering firelight. Dippet took a pinch and proffered the bag.
Vulpecula was suddenly very strongly reminded of her very first trip via floo. Coming out into Knockturn Alley, even in broad daylight, was quite the experience for a twelve year old girl. Especially a famous one who was recognized immediately by the denizens of the alley. She remembered being mobbed by the smelly, dirty, terrifying people who lived there, and the utter relief she felt when Hagrid had pulled her out to familiar safety.
Not that she had truly been safe with the weasleys, she thought to herself as she reached for the powder, taking a large pinch and throwing it into the flames. They turned a wicked emerald green, and she stepped inside. She had made sure to take a deep breath beforehand, and tried her best to avoid inhaling as she spun like a top. She spoke clearly, with a single breath, making sure to keep her eyes closed and elbow tucked in.
One thing that she had never been taught in her previous life, was that in order to exit with any sort of dignity, you had to take a step directly forward as soon as you felt yourself slowing down in the direction that you had been spinning. Like a ball being swung on a rope suddenly being released, all of the centrifugal energy had to be directed into forward momentum. Otherwise you kept spinning and ended up arse over tea kettle on the rug of your destination.
Vulpecula exhaled the last of her air before breathing in a fresh breath and opening her eyes. It was a shocking difference to the office that she had been accustomed to in her time. Instead of the bright red carpets and delicate instruments whirring away on little side tables, the floor was covered in deep blue carpets of varying styles. The shelves and tables were adorned with books and astronomy tools such as telescopes and astrolabes.
As she looked up, Vulpecula marveled that the ceiling had been enchanted, similar to the great hall, to show the sky above, however it was showing the sky as they would have seen it without the sun blotting out the rest of the stars. It was still there, disorientingly large compared to the rest of the bodies, but never before had she seen the sun surrounded by stars in such a way. She was so entranced that she didn't even bother looking as the fireplace wooshed, announcing Professor Dippet's arrival.
"I've always loved watching the stars," Dippet said conversationally, sitting in one of the chairs in front of his desk. "Took quite a bit of runic enchantment and charm work to get this working. Took ten years' trial and error to get it working just right."
"It's beautiful."
"That it is," Dippet was watching her, his eyes soft with understanding. "The sky is not quite the same as it would be in France. Polaris is a bit higher in the sky due to the latitude change, but I enjoy seeing the surrounding constellations dance around as the days go by."
"I can't see Leo," She murmured, a bit sad. "He's always so proud in the sky this time of year."
"That's because it's still daytime," Dipet comforted smoothly. "He'll be out proudly when the sun sets."
They sat silently for a few minutes before Dippet let out a surprisingly soft snore. Vulpecula chuckled under her breath for a moment before she carefully prodded the old professor awake. Thankfully it didn't take more than a single prod to get the man moving again.
"Goodness!" he exclaimed, his arms flying up to his head to make sure his hat was still in place properly. "I do apologize. We should get on with the tour before it gets too late!"
They walked around for about an hour, during which time Dippet had shown her the entrance hall, all of the relevant classrooms, the staff room's location, and had even shown her exactly where the entrances to each of the common rooms was, and from there how to get to the entrance hall again.
"Most of the older years are already aware of roughly where the entrances are. However each of the houses guards the exact location and ways of getting in jealously, so don't let anyone know I showed you where they are."
"I take it that the houses don't always get along?" Vulpecula asked, pretending- poorly by her own standards- that she was learning all of this information for the first time.
"Definitely not," Dippet said, an amused grin stretching his lined face once more. "But that's the nature of competition. Now."
Dippet stopped in front of a completely blank section of wall between two torch sconces. They were only on the ground floor, having just emerged from seeing the stack of barrels that hid the hufflepuff common room entrance. As far as Vulpecula knew, there was nothing special here.
"The last two stops are the hospital wing and the Library, and I'm going to take you there quickly!" he gave a conspiratorial wink before placing his hand on the wall and kicking it rather hard. "Fuck!"
The shock of watching the wizened old professor intentionally hurt himself was doubled by hearing such sudden profanity from him. All that she could do was stare at him aghast. Then the doorway appeared where there wasn't one before, and Vulpecula's jaw dropped even farther.
"Oof I despise doing that," Dippet said as he stepped forward gingerly. "This will take us straight to the hospital wing doors. Which is good I suppose. Especially since I seem to have to injure myself to make the proper sound to get that wall to open."
Vulpecula was stunned, but followed the old man up the newly discovered stairs. Parseltongue, she realized. He hadn't sworn at all- well, at least not knowingly. He had to make some kind of hissing sound, and the door was probably coded for parseltongue. Of course it was a lucky(?) coincidence that the pained hiss from Dippet happened to open the passageway in such a profane way. Regardless, Vulpecula decided that she would test a couple other ways to open it just using parseltongue to see how it reacted.
They did, in fact, exit the dark secret passageway at the Hospital wing doors, which Dippet swung open and marched in. A rather young looking Poppy Pomfrey looked up from her cauldron of what looked like pepper up potion and sighed upon seeing the headmaster hobbling along.
"Professor, you didn't trip again did you?" She asked, pulling out her wand and placing the potion in stasis.
"No, no," Dippet smiled brightly. "Just stubbed my toe on one of those darned staircases. I suppose one of them decided that it wanted to be a bit taller for today."
"Alright then," she said, a note of suspicion in her voice as she made to turn back to her potion. "Oh! Hello there miss," The young Madame Pomfrey waved shyly at Vulpecula. "I'm Poppy Pomfrey, and I'm the new mediwitch on staff. It's nice to meet you."
"Hello," Vulpecula was caught rather off guard. The madam Pomfrey that she knew was never shy about anything. Not even when she had to teach young Harry about her first period at age fourteen a week after the first task. It was difficult to consolidate that madame pomfrey with the self assured, but still shy Poppy Pomfrey that stood before her.
"My name is Vulpecula Peverell," She continued, mirroring Poppy's wave. "I'm going to be a new fifth year student this coming school year. It's lovely to meet you, Miss Pomfrey."
"Please call me Poppy when I'm not treating you for injuries," Poppy grinned. "I'm only twenty five."
"That sounds wonderful Poppy," Vulpecula smiled back, hesitating a bit before the name came out. It felt odd to refer to the mediwitch so informally, but it was worth it, as Poppy's grin lit up her face, threatening to burst her cheeks with joy.
"Oh, I so look forward to getting to know you better. Not in one of my beds of course, but us new people have got to stick together!"
"Of course Poppy!" she said, trying to get used to the feel of the name as she said it. "Perhaps I'll stop by for tea during the first few days of class? It'll be good to relax with a familiar face."
"I'll look forward to it!" Poppy gave one last smile before adopting a no nonsense visage that Vulpecula was more familiar with. "Now run along you two. I've got a bunch of potions that I need to restock before the week is up. I'll see you when the term starts Vulpecula!"
And with that, Vulpecula and Professor Dippet were chivvied out into the hallway and the great doors shut behind them loudly.
"Lovely," Professor Dippet said, clasping his hands together joyously. "Now you know at least one person around your age. Poppy is lovely and I'm sure you two will get along splendidly."
Dippet prattled on aimlessly as they meandered through the corridors. He occasionally pointed out some of the portraits on the walls, and greeted a couple as though they were old friends. Vulecula's mind, however, was somewhat distracted.
"Professor," She asked softly
"Hmm? Yes dear?"
"Poppy is the new Mediwitch. What happened to the old one?"
Dippet slowed to a stop and frowned, for once looking his three centuries and change.
"She retired," he said sadly. "Stress of the situation got the better of her. Or at least that's what she said in her letter of resignation."
"What situation?" Vulpecula prompted. She was curious, but she had a sneaking suspicion of what the situation had been.
"A creature got loose in the castle." Dippet leaned against the wall. He looked suddenly old and frail, with a haunted look in his eyes. "One of our students had brought it in. Was caring for it as a pet. Unfortunately one of the other students died before the creature was driven out. Someone saw it going into the forest. If the forest wasn't forbidden before we would have made it so. I just wish we could have saved Miss Warren."
Vulpecula felt sick to her stomach. Myrtle Warren had already died, and Tom had framed Hagrid for it. There was nothing she could do about it. Of course there was no reason for him to be caring for an acromantula within the school, however it rankled a bit that she wouldn't be able to prevent Tom from framing her future friend for something he didn't cause.
"I apologize Miss Peverell," Dippet said, pushing off from the wall and standing on his own once more. "That's not the kind of thing you'd want to hear about your new school, but I suppose it's better you know the facts from me rather than some half twisted rumor from your fellow students."
"I appreciate your honesty professor," Vulpecula said, giving him a sad smile. "Now I believe you said that we still have to see the library? And then something about dinner."
"Yes, yes!" Dippet exclaimed, and continued leading her around to the library. "We have one of the largest collections. Any topic in the world, we have at least something on it. Our professors and alumni have dedicated so much to us that I'd say it's one of the largest and most varied private collections in all of England, if not the world!"
Dippet swung open the small double doors and Vulpecula breathed in the familiar scent of thousands of leather bound tomes. The Library hadn't changed much, if at all over the intervening years. The lamps on the tables and the ladders on the shelves looked exactly the same as she remembered them. The one thing that surprised her was that there seemed to be a table occupied by a young, dark haired man. His back was to the door, but he had stacks upon stacks of books in front of him.
"I wasn't aware that there would be students here over the summer holidays?" Vulpecula whispered the question, trying not to disturb him.
"Normally there aren't," Dippet replied at the same level. "Occasionally we grant special permission to stay here over the holidays but it's very rare. If the situation last term hadn't been resolved as quickly as it was, I probably wouldn't have allowed it at all." Dippet smiled at her one more time. "Why don't you go take a look around. Familiarize yourself with the various sections. I'll have him bring you back down to the great hall in twenty minutes or so for dinner. Then We could go over any questions you come up with. Does that sound alright?"
"Yes Professor, that sounds lovely," Vulpecula grinned and went off to explore the shelves.
Dippet smiled and watched her disappear into the aisles, her fingers brushing lightly against the spines as though she were greeting old friends. She was a very bright girl. Part of him hoped that she would be sorted into his old house of Ravenclaw, but another part of him disagreed. She was too sharp, too aware. Perhaps Slytherin would be able to keep up with her instead?
With a sigh and a shake of his head, he went over to interrupt his student. Perhaps the pair would be friends?
Vulpecula was thrilled to be back in the Hogwarts library. The extensive rows of books and scrolls was like a labyrinth of knowledge. There were hiding places galore if you knew where to look. In fact, this was where she had mostly retreated when she wanted to be alone. Ron avoided the place like the plague, and Hermione and the rest of the school had thought that she didn't know which way a book opened, let alone loved immersing herself in new knowledge. And so she hid here. Until she had discovered the room of requirement. Regardless, she missed being here, and gently caressed the spines of the books she passed in greeting.
The books seemed to sigh and warm in welcome. They were always welcoming, loved new people opening them and absorbing the knowledge stored inside them. But this felt familiar. They remembered, through time, and welcomed her back.
"Time wanted you to have somewhere comfortable," Death said as they stepped out of a shadowed corner.
"Tell her that I say thank you," Vulpecula pulled out a book that seemed particularly excited to see her and opened it. It was a book on defensive spells and shielding techniques. One of the ones she had poured over when she had first started teaching Dumbledore's army.
"I'll pass on the message," Death said, gently caressing her hair as she read through a couple pages.
Having Death there felt comfortable. Felt very much like she had a friend standing next to her. Surrounded by welcoming books, and with death playing with her hair, Vulpecula felt truly relaxed and at home.
"Hello," a new voice intruded upon her miniature sanctuary.
Vulpecula's head whipped around to face this new person. Death had retreated back a step, a low frustrated hiss slipping through their bared teeth as they glared at the tall dark haired boy before the pair of them.
"Headmaster Dippet asked me to find you and lead you down to dinner after twenty minutes. Miss Peverell, was it? It's lovely to meet you. My name is Tom Riddle."