Zia gazed at the man standing in her kitchen. He had long, auburn hair and beard, and was wearing shocking yellow robes. His blue eyes twinkled kindly down at her, peering from behind a pair of glasses shaped like half-moons. It seemed to her that they twinkled more through the glasses than they did not, but perhaps that was because of the light reflecting off of the glass. He was very tall, and overall made quite an impression. Perhaps not necessarily an imposing one at first, but it was certain that he was impossible to miss. She walked forward and held out her hand.

"Professor Dumbledore, it is a pleasure to meet you. I'm Zia," she said to him, in somewhat of a state of awe. He took her hand kindly and shook it.

"The pleasure is mine," he said politely. Regulus was also in the kitchen, she noticed now, but he blended into it much more than this eccentric looking man. She had not been picturing Dumbledore like this, but Zia should have known that a much younger Dumbledore would most likely look quite a bit different than the one she had read about. Tom bounced excitedly into the room a moment later, and stood at a place just in front of Zia's knees, staring up at Dumbledore with unmistakable fascination.

"Are you Professor Dumbledore, then? And you teach magic? At a school for magic?" Tom asked excitedly, bouncing up and down a fraction of an inch as he spoke. He jabbed his small hand up, holding it out for Dumbledore to shake. It was clear that her son was a fan, and she wondered what kind of impact the yellow robes had made on him. "I'm Tom Riddle, this is my mother, but you've already met." Dumbledore's eyes sparkled as they watched Tom's face and he bent down and shook his hand dignifiedly.

"Pleased to meet you Mr. Riddle," he said with a smile. "And yes, to answer all of those questions."

"So. You must be especially skilled with magic, I can't honestly believe they'd have somebody teaching others how to do magic who wasn't unusually gifted," the child stated. It was not a question. It was a simple statement of what he himself took as an obvious truth.

"I'd certainly hope they wouldn't," Dumbledore said, agreeing with him. "And you young man, your name is already in the enrollment books for our school, so I hope that you'll come when you turn eleven." Tom nodded eagerly.

"Yes. Of course I will. I've got to learn everything I can so that I can do my best in the world," Tom informed him. "I'm already quite a way ahead of the other Muggle children my age in school there, so I'm looking forward to a different type of learning."

"The pursuit of knowledge is indeed a worthy goal, if I do say so myself," Dumbledore told Tom. The difference between this meeting and the meeting as outlined in the book was vast. Instead of suspicious and concerned, Dumbledore appeared pleased with the kind of attitude that Tom was presenting, and Zia knew that it was all entirely genuine. Watching the kindly older man's way of speaking formally to her son made it clear to her that Dumbledore understood the child enough to realize that speaking down to Tom would be unproductive and an insult to his ability to converse.

After a few minutes of question and answer between Tom and Dumbledore, Regulus stepped forward.

"Tom, I think we need to let your mama and Professor Dumbledore get down to business. Would you like to practice more Quidditch with me in the Field Room?" Regulus asked the child. Tom tore his gaze reluctantly away from Dumbledore and looked at Regulus. Then he looked at Zia. Then one more long glance at Dumbledore and he walked to Tom.

"I think that's a good idea. Hogwarts will have Quidditch teams won't it? I think I heard you say that once? I'd better get practicing so I can keep up," Tom said happily, and the two disappeared through the door. After a few moments, Dumbledore spoke.

"An interesting child you have, Mrs. Riddle," Dumbledore said pleasantly. "He seems much more intelligent than his years would normally provide."

"Oh, I'm not Mrs. Riddle. I'm actually Tom's aunt, but I've raised him since he was very small. He's my son by love, not blood," Zia answered. "Yes, he is much brighter than most children his age. I don't think I've ever met one his equal actually. He loves to learn about new things, and I've found that it really doesn't matter what it is he's learning about if he feels it's important."

"I see. Well you have done an excellent job of raising him, I look forward to having him up at the school with us in a few years. Now about you. I received a letter from Regulus Black, not one of my more admiring students, to put it mildly, regarding your abilities as a legilimens," Dumbledore said, getting to the point.

"Yes. It appears that I perform legilimancy subconsciously, which I didn't know was possible. I am not exactly experienced with magic, despite what my own years would normally provide," Zia said, pulling the last few words from Dumbledore's statement about her son. "Regulus is also a recent friend, and he said the person he thought could best help with understanding the legilimancy issue was you."

"He's probably right, I have studied it fairly intensely. It's a difficult thing to do, for most wizards and witches. Even myself. I've never met someone who had any kind of natural talent for it before," Dumbledore told her. "At least not to the level Regulus described you as having. One may have an easier time than others learning it, but never have I heard of it being so subconscious."

"Yes well I didn't have any idea that was what I was doing until Regulus pointed it out a few days ago," Zia replied. "So it is subconscious, if I'm actually performing legilimancy."

"Ah. Well, let's try it out, shall we? I'll sit here and you focus on my mind. Do you have a wand?" Dumbledore asked as he walked towards the table and pulled out a chair, gesturing for Zia to sit across from him.

"I do, but I've never used it for this," she informed him, taking the seat designated for her.

"You won't use it yet, this is a test to see what you can do without one. I'd like to gauge your control and how well you can do this without one. If legilimancy is indeed what you are doing, I will be able to tell fairly soon in," Dumbledore said. "I may want you to work with it later though, which is why I asked."

"Alright then. I'm going to start now," Zia said, and focused on Dumbledore. Suddenly, she was seeing images racing in front of her, sometimes a still frame and sometimes a scene played out. They flew quickly at first, but as she continued to focus, they slowed and she had more chances to examine them. Dumbledore as a small child running through a garden.

Then a scene where the child, slightly older, stared at a small blonde girl held in a man's arms. The girl was unconscious and looked as if she could die at any second. "I'll kill them!" the man was shouting to a woman who was standing over the girl with her hands over her mouth. "I'll kill every single one!" "Our daughter…our daughter…" the woman repeated through sobs, even as she pulled out her wand and bent down, trying to heal any injury she could see. The child Albus Dumbledore stared, eyes wide with horror, at what Zia realized must be his younger sister after she was attacked by the muggle boys. It was sickening.

She immediately pulled out of Dumbledore's mind.

"I'm sorry, I didn't intend to see something like that, I apologize," she said to Dumbledore. "I shouldn't have done this, maybe it's best that I don't learn more about this. Safer."

"No, no. I disagree. Although that was not a memory I would want shared, I did not take greater precautions. I admit now that I sorely underestimated your abilities, feeling that Regulus may have been exaggerating somewhat in the letter. I see that he was not exaggerating. That was powerful. Even when I attempted to invoke Occlumency, it made no difference. And this was without the use of a wand on your part?" Dumbledore asked. She could see the pain in his face, but it was mingled with an intense look of curiosity and interest.

"I wasn't using a wand for that, no. Although it is the first time that I have intentionally tried to poke around in somebody else's private affairs. Previously it was, as mentioned earlier, subconscious," Zia assured him. She was sickened by what she had seen in his memories, it was almost too grotesque to believe, but she knew it was true. Any parent who saw their child in that state was bound to be horrified and angry. She pushed the memory out of her head, not wishing to think about it any longer.

"Then I think it is all the more reason why you should be trained in this. Why you must learn how to control this ability. So you do not do it on accident when you have no desire to," Dumbledore explained. "Training will help you to contain this skill and unleash it when you feel it is necessary, and not at any whim."

"Understood. I will continue with the training then," Zia said slowly. "But please…now that you know what I'm capable of…please take greater precautions? I don't want to see something painful for you."

"Certainly. I suppose that is all we can do for today, then. I still have time, so why don't we go to this Field Room of yours and watch those two practice Quidditch?" Dumbledore suggested. Zia nodded. She was surprised at how easy and powerful it had been to enter Dumbledore's mind like that. Especially after learning that he had been trying to employ Occlumency to keep her out during part of it.

She was more surprised, however, that Dumbledore, who was extraordinarily perceptive and bright, had not asked her why she never went to a school for magic herself. As a teacher, the question was probably more likely to come up in his mind than in others'. She had an answer prepared, but knew that it probably wasn't good enough. And until she could arrange for various things, it was also possibly dangerous to use it with people who had ways to find out whether or not she was telling the truth. Dumbledore, as skilled as he was, was certainly capable of finding that out and finding the right people to talk to. Possibly he could use his own ability as a legilimens on her to determine whether or not she was lying anyways. Perhaps she should learn Occlumency herself.

As they moved out of the kitchen and towards the door that would take them to the holding room just before the Field Room, a flurry of air and the sound of wings beating the air warned her of the incoming of the phoenix just before it settled daintily upon her shoulder. She suppressed a sigh at its timing. Fawkes, as far as she could remember, had never displayed such clinginess in the books, despite possessing fierce loyalty to Dumbledore. This bird was strange.

"Curious bird," Dumbledore said softly. Zia watched it turn an intelligent looking eye towards him. "Although it is colored unusually, it has the form of a phoenix."

"It is a phoenix," Zia replied. "Even if it's not colored like they're described in all the books. I find it beautiful." Dumbledore nodded slowly.

"You are an unusual woman, Zia. It should be no surprise that you would have an unusual animal companion to match," Dumbledore said contemplatively.

"You have one too, Professor," Zia said in response.

"Indeed. And I fully admit that I myself am quite unusual as well, though not, perhaps, in as much of a mysterious way as you," the man said. She bit her lip and stared straight ahead of her. She had to be careful around Dumbledore.

If anybody could figure her out, it would be him.