The halls of Hogwarts seemed empty with the students away for summer hols. Arianne had been transfigured a room near Professor McGonogall's office on the first floor, complete with her own house elf. Her cold cleared up by the kind mediwitch, she'd sat near the fireplace reading an old potions book left on the shelf, but mostly wondering where Headmaster Dumbledoore was. But he'd been preoccupied with Snape and the aftermath of the dark-haired man's potions overdose.
"My dear, cheer up, surely things can't be that bad," the mirror over the fireplace said.
"You're a mirror, you can't possibly know my situation. I kindly suggest you shut it," the girl intoned without looking away from the book.
"Perhaps I can help you with your situation Miss Turtleson, if you'd come to my office," Dumbledoore's voice floated over the Victorian-decorated room.
Arianne closed the tome, holding it in the crook of her arm as she and the headmaster winded their way to the topmost tower.
"I suppose you will be visiting me a lot in the next few weeks, Miss Turtleson. Please note that my password is 'Hershey's.' "
The stone gargoyle swung open and Arianne found herself floating up toward a speck of light. A chintz chair popped itself into existence for her as the headmaster moved to sit behind his desk.
"Your phoenix seems to like me," Arianne said as the plumed bird nestled onto the back of her chair.
"Fawkes is a good judge of character, Miss Turtleson. Would you care for a sherbert lemon? No? Now, tell me how you came to Hogwarts."
"Mum said she was part of an order and if anything ever happened to her to come here. She disappeared a few weeks ago after going to check up on a guy named Abe."
"Ahh, yes, the yet-to-be-named Graham Abelard," Dumbledoore sighed. "She was protecting him, wasn't she?"
"Yes. But there is no news. I don't know if she or Abe are dead. When Mum didn't come back, I put our plan into play.
"And that was...?"
"To get to Hogwarts without using magic. Mum said the Death Eaters can track magical signatures and that if she'd been captured, they could easily track me by my magic."
"Hmm," Albus stroked his white beard. "And where did you come from?"
"From our house," Arianne replied.
"Yes, I realize--"
"I can't tell you. Fidelius, sir. Though it was quite a long trip."
"Your mum made you the secret keeper." The beard was stroked again. "Probably not an unwise choice."
The two wizards stared off into space for a few moments.
"And your father--"
Arianne jerked out of her stupor. "You know him?"
Dumbledoore coughed momentarily into his teacup. "No child, I was going to ask you about him."
"I never met him. Mum doesn't talk about him much. Says it's undignified to speak of the devil."
"Well, I'm sure he was a good man. But he's out of the picture for the moment. Perhaps when we find your mother, we'll rectify that situation."
"You mean he's alive? You do know who he is, you were lying when you said you didn't."
Dumbledoore sighed, he was getting old, to have let that 15-year-old secret out of the bag. "What I meant was that--"
"Don't lie to me! I can see it in your eyes," Arianne screeched, her dark eyes starting to flash green. Glass rattled in the window pane and Fawkes began to croon lowly. A vein above the girl's eye started twitching madly. Dumbledoore stood slowly.
"Arianne. You are a natural-born Legilimens, like your father, but there are things going on here that could endanger everyone involved. If I reveal the identify of your father to you, it could have grave consequences for both your mother and you and him."
He reached out and smoothed the teen's forehead in a calming manner. "Voldemort may well have your mother. But I will not let him get your father too by divulging secrets. You must understand child. And you must be careful to use your gift wisely. I rarely let my guard down, but your mother is like one of my own children. I fear for her safety as do you."
Arianne leaned into the headmaster's soothing touch, the fire that had been burning in her settling back into her chest. He was becoming the grandfather she'd never had. The grandfather she'd never known, on either side of the family. At the least, an adult who cared in her mother's absence.
"Mum never says anything about our family, headmaster."
"She has been protecting you in more ways than what you can see Arianne. You are all she has left."