Chapter 11: The Auguries

It was not in Aiden's nature to ignore ill omens. So, when she woke up on Boxing Day, having just dreamt a tragically pedestrian dream about a hooded man telling her that her destiny was to die; her Dark Mark acting up, she knew that she had to talk to Dumbledore again.

Aiden stood up, got dressed and strolled down the stairs, rubbing the Mark. Despite the rumors and dangers that shrouded the Dark Mark, Aiden felt that the thing was becoming more of a pain in the ass than a threat. It was like teenage acne.

Wish there were a cream to get rid of it...

Draco was in the common room, Pansy slobbering all over him. She had never noticed it before, but it bothered Aiden whenever Pansy was around Draco. Now, more than ever, since last night's strange encounter. Reaching into her blouse, Aiden fingered the necklace. She stared at Draco from a distance and for a brief moment their eyes met. After that was a series of steps: Aiden smiled, Draco sneered, Aiden scowled, and Draco turned back to his conversation with Pansy. Aiden stomped away.

What a waste of my time! That jackass! Who needs that rat face anyways???

Her anger only intensified when she went to breakfast and found that Harry was in morning detention with Snape and Ron and Hermione were too busy swallowing each other's faces to even acknowledge her presence. So, as she rampaged through the abandoned corridors of Hogwarts, Aiden was in no mood to play word games with a protective gargoyle. She simply teleported into Dumbledore's office. Dumbledore was at his desk writing something. At the same time, he was stroking a magnificent red bird (according to Harry, it was a phoenix). Aiden pulled out her parent's school portrait and her grandfather's pin and slammed them on the table.

"Thought you could blow me off with a Polaroid and a piece of sentimentality, did you?!"

With a dogmatic attitude, Aiden sat down in the chair that faced Dumbledore. Despite her anger, Dumbledore smiled, with that extremely annoying twinkle in his eye.

"Miss Wang. I was wondering when you would be coming back to see me. I was expecting you yesterday, but today is just as nice."

"I want my family tree lined up and laid out. Starting with my great grandparents and ending with me," Aiden said in a very no-nonsense tone.

"Very well."

He pulled out a blank piece of parchment and picked up his quill. Patting it on the head, Dumbledore whispered something to the phoenix as it flapped its wings and took off, only to return moments later with a large, leather-bound book in its talons. The bird dropped it on the desk.

"Thank you, Fawkes. Now let's see... Ah yes, your grandfather's mother and father..."

In elegant cursive, Dumbledore wrote two names at the top of the paper and connected the two with a line. It said: Katie Ann Lee -------- Mason Wang

"For an old man, I have quite a good memory. I never knew your great- grandparents personally. All I knew was that both of them were Muggle. Not the most common of Muggles, I must say. Both were church ministers. Interesting choice for a profession. Anyways, January 1st, 1933, Katie Ann Lee, choosing to keep her maiden name, gave birth to a healthy baby boy, which they named Lucas."

He drew a line perpendicular to the one connecting Katie Ann and Mason. Under, he wrote Lucas Wang.

"Now, while Lucas was at Hogwarts, he and I had often had talks and we were rather close for a student and his teacher. From our talks, Lucas had told me that, growing up, he had a good life. Parents weren't around as much as he would have liked them to be, but Lucas knew they meant well. Life was normal for him until he was about nine. Then, he started to do things he couldn't place his finger on. Often, he'd find himself waking up in the strangest parts of his house. In the attic, or his father's study. Things began to disappear or Lucas would put it down, turn around and when he looked back it was two feet away from where it was before.

"It was only natural that Lucas was scared. Things like this didn't usually happen to nine-year old boys." Dumbledore sighed and Aiden knew that an anticlimax to this story was coming. In an almost angered tone that Aiden had never heard before, Dumbledore continued:

"And like a fool, Lucas told his parents. Of course, Katie Ann and Mason brushed it off as a child's mythical fantasy. But soon after, it became evident that this was no figment of anyone's imagination. It was Katie Ann that first noticed things seemed to move unnaturally whenever Lucas entered a room. The crushing blow, unfortunately, was when Katie Ann told Mason."

The glitter in Dumbledore's eyes had faded away. A knot formed in Aiden's throat, feeling tears form behind her eyes.

"What happened?"

"Well, Aiden. You know just as well as I do that Muggles believe witchcraft is closely associated with Satanism and being in that position in the church, Katie Ann and Mason could not afford to have a Satanic son."

Aiden's heart pounded against her rib cage and there was a dropping sensation in her stomach.

"They beat him didn't they...?" she whispered remembering the scars and bruises all over her grandfather's arms.

"Beat and starved him. They only kept him alive as penance for hurting him."

"Tell me there's a good part to this story somewhere along the way, Professor Dumbledore."

Dumbledore laughed.

"There will be. Just bear with me. On Lucas' tenth birthday, they sent him to an orphanage, unable to control him anymore."

"What do you mean? Like he became violent?"

"Not him. His powers. Not being able to practice magic that runs through the body is a dangerous thing. You were lucky Aiden. You were able to practice it everyday. Your grandfather had to suppress his, and it was overwhelming him. So he was sent away.

"It was at the orphanage that Lucas met Tom. But for now, that isn't relevant. When Lucas turned eleven, Headmaster Dippet and I invited Lucas, along with about seventy other students, to come to Hogwarts. Understanding Lucas' situation, I put him on a 'student loan' and paid for his trip here and his materials.

"I remember when he sat on the sorting stool with the sorting hat on his head. Funniest thing. He was shrimpy little child. Not nearly as well built as you are."

"Professor. I don't understand why he was put in Slytherin. He seems like such a good person, I mean for now."

"Indeed, he was a good child. But when you're eleven everyone thinks you're a good child. The Sorting Hat sees past that. The Hat saw the vindictiveness in your grandfather's mind. The cruel spite he constantly thought about. The constant crave for revenge against his parents."

Suddenly, a thought crossed Aiden's mind.

"I know this might be a little off topic, Professor, but, umm. What about my grandmother?"

A look of humorous nostagia filled Dumbledore's face. He drew a line next to Lucas Wang and wrote: Aiden Andrews (for personal knowledge, she has dirty blonde hair, hazel eyes, and is half British, half Irish)

"Aiden...? Aiden was my grandmother's name?"

There was a momentary pause and Dumbledore continued with a knowing smile.

"I don't think I've ever met to people who hated each other more. Those two let it be known far and wide that Aiden Andrews and Lucas Wang despised each other. Not even what James Potter and Severus Snape did to each other could match the antics Aiden and Lucas used on each other."

"Why??"

"To this day, not even I know. Rumor has it that to them, life at Hogwarts was a competition. Everything they did was exactly the same and just as good. Lucas was the best student in Slytherin, aside from Tom of course, and Aiden was the best student of Gryffindor. Both played for their Quidditch teams. And both hated each other's guts."

"Then how did they, you know, get married?"

A ponderous look crossed Dumbledore's face and he shrugged.

"They grew up. The fights became meaningless and soon the competitions became healthier. A sort of 'may the best man win' idea. The two began to respect each other and then love each other."

"What I saw in the pensieve, Professor... The Chamber of Secrets... Did my grandmother know about that?"

His face became somber.

"Your grandmother was a genius. Nothing much got past her. She did know. And she tried to stop her two closest friends from doing it..."

Another pause.

"Lucas asked Aiden to marry him that night. Right after Moaning Myrtle's body was found in the girl's bathroom. She agreed because she knew that something was going to go wrong and she couldn't live with herself if she didn't try to save your grandfather."

Dumbledore reached out for the book that Fawkes had dropped. He flipped to a page and turned the book to Aiden.

"There they are. Who would've ever believed these two hated each other once?"

Dumbledore was pointing to her grandparents, but the only thing Aiden was looking at was Tom Riddle. Never had she felt such hatred towards someone.

This bastard ruined my grandparents lives...I'll kill him.

Yet again, Dumbledore wrote a name down on the family tree under Aiden Andrews and Lucas Wang. It read: Gabriel Wang.

"Your grandparents had made quite names of themselves after they left Hogwarts. Ironically, both had chosen to be Aurors. Between the two of them, hundreds of dark wizards were sent to Azkaban. Heroes of their day, I'd say. So when they had a son, the world celebrated, thinking some sort of messiah had descended upon them. Never was there a more normal boy than Gabriel."

He winked as Aiden laughed.

"Your father was so normal, sometimes I wondered how he could possibly be related to your grandparents. He was not a great student, just barely scraped passing. He was not a heartthrob. Didn't like studying, liked playing pranks. The only two things he inherited were Quidditch and music."

Next to Gabriel, he wrote: Jenna Parker. Then under that, he wrote: Aiden Wang

In a sort of finality, Dumbledore said: "And then you were born..."

After the excruciatingly long stay with Snape on his holiday detention, Harry dashed out of the dungeons ready to just have some fun. He had just spent the last four hours cleaning out cauldrons caked in dragon's heart and newt's blood and other things that Harry did not like to discuss in normal context.

Figuring that Ron and Hermione were off somewhere mashing their faces, Harry set off to find Aiden. She wasn't in the Great Hall, the North Tower, so the only place he figured she'd be would be in the Slytherin common room, which Harry wasn't too keen on going to. But he went anyways, down a zillion flights of stairs. On the way, he passed Draco and the two shouldered each other violently.

"Watch it, Potter! You're taking up the whole bloody staircase!"

Not about to get sent to detention again, Harry ignored him.

"Oy, where's Aiden?"

Harry whirled around.

"How the hell should I know? You're the one constantly bugging her and stalking her."

Sneering, Draco retaliated.

"Jealous, Potter? Afraid that for once, someone doesn't like your golden boy act?"

"You know what, Malfoy? Sometimes I really wonder why she even bothers with you. She's always saying you're a good guy, you're a nice kid. What'd you do? Brainwash her?"

"You think you have her all figured out, don't you Potter?"

"On the contrary, you're the one who doesn't have a clue. She's going through so much crap right now! The last thing she needs is you playing with her feelings and destroying what's left of her life."

This struck something in Draco's mind as he remembered the day he found Aiden sitting at the top of North Tower. He never did find out why she was up there. All he remembered the sorrow in her eyes and the tears she tried to hide. Draco felt this conversation had gone on long enough.

"Whatever, Potter. If you see her, just say that I was looking for her."

In a huff, Draco walked away. For a moment, Harry just stared. Then, he sighed.

Aiden... You could do so much better than him...