So, I hope you will enjoy reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Because this one I really did. I had to do a lot of thinking to make everything come together but I think I managed to do so. Thank you for the reviews and you new readers that pit me on your story alert!

Chapter 18

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"Alice, stop obsessing over that book you have class!" Daphne took the book out of Alice's hands. Alice gave her an angry look and then stood up.

"Is it true, you think? That we are the superior race?" Alice asked and took her boom back, putting it in her bag. "Don't you think it's strange? That muggles exist?"

"I guess, I haven't really thought about it", Daphne said, she looked confused. "We are superior though, isn't that obvious?"

"No. I mean, I can't see it", Alice said. Daphne looked worried.

"Well, we can do a lot of things that they can't", Daphne tried to explain. "If they were as good as us, don't you think they would have some special ability as well?" Alice decided to let it go; she wasn't getting any wiser from the conversation.

"Where's Blaise?" Alice looked around in the room. A fair few of the sixth years were missing.

"Quidditch practise", Daphne said, leading Alice out of the common room.

"What now?" They started walking towards the main entrance; Alice had Care of Magical Creatures class in a moment and Daphne had a free period.

"Qudditch, it's a game. You fly on broomsticks with balls going all over the place", Daphne said while gesticulating.

"Oh, yeah, the one where you score by catching that golden thing!" Alice said in delight.

"The Golden Snitch", Daphne said with a smile.

"Right", Alice said, still as happy as before. They looked out one of the windows by the main entrance; it looked like a blizzard outside.

"Sorry Alice, but I'm not following you in that. We'll catch up later?"

"Of course, I'll see you later Daph", Alice said, waving her off before hoping out in the snowstorm. The walk down to Hagrids' hut was rather unpleasant. Alice tried to cover the most part of her face with her scarf, but the wind was blowing so hard she even had trouble controlling her own arms. Once down to her destination Alice saw she was one of the few who'd actually managed or bothered to come there.

"Gather round", professor Hagrid said and waved his arms towards the small crowd of students, signalling them to come closer. "We're takin' a trip in to the forest today!" He said overjoyed and started walking into the forest. She walked next to Harper, a dark boy in her house. She hadn't really spoken to him before. But to chose between a group of Hufflepuff girls and Harper wasn't hard. Although they recognized each other's presence they did not speak.

As they'd walked for a few minutes the harsh wind was almost gone and the ground lay bare of snow. Hagrid stopped by a grove, Alice looked around his massive body and to her delight she saw a group of very familiar creatures. She rather enjoyed Hagrids lesions; they were mostly relaxing and she didn't mind getting out of the classrooms once in a while.

"Well, we aren't that many today but I still wanted to show you these fantastic creatures!" He said in excitement and held out his arms towards the Thestrals behind him.

"There's nothing there?" A short, blond Hufflepuff girl said.

"Has he gone mad?" she heard another of them speak.

"Either you're stupid or just blind. They're standing right over there", Harper said and stretched out his arm towards the black horse-alike creatures.

"No need to fight. Thestrals, as they are called, can only be seen by those who've seen death", Hagrid said, trying to take away the tension. Alice didn't really feel like fighting over something so stupid either, she walked passed Hagrid and greeted the Thestrals that curiously nosed at her. Harper walked up next to her, but held his distance to the Thestrals.

"Now, so even if you can't see them there's always useful information to know..." Alice stopped listening to Hagrid and patted one of the younger ones on the side of its face.

"My mum died a couple of years ago", Harper said and finally found courage to let one of them come to him. "Got a bit of a shock when I came back after summer to see the carriage being pulled by these."

"They're a bit odd. But I like them", Alice said without letting the Thestral out of her sight. "My mum passed away recently", she added and looked at him. A Thestral next to the one she'd been patting gently nudged her on the arm. She turned to it and it put five or six hairs in her hands.

"Thank you", she said, smiled and patted that one as well to show her appreciation.

"What did it give you?" Alice turned back to Harper and held out her hand with the hair. "What can you do with those?" Alice shrugged but smiled.

"Something amazing hopefully", she said and made a knot on them before putting them in her inner pocket.

"Is it true you and Blaise Zabini are going out?" Alice raised an eyebrow towards him.

"Why do you ask?" She said. Hagrid and the Hufflepuff students were having an intense conversation and didn't pay much attention to the two Slytherins' standing not ten feet away.

"Well some of the guys were talking back in the common room, how it's nice with a fresh breeze", he said and looked his most innocent. "Some might have mentioned that they were going to ask you out..."

"I am", Alice said to answer his previous question. "With Blaise." She filled in.

"Oh, okay. Some of the boys are going to be disappointed", he said and smiled at her. The wind started interloping between the dense wall of trees as well.

"Class dismissed", Hagrid said and closed his coat tight around himself. "You've to get back to the castle before we blow away." They walked together up to Hagrids hut where the blizzard had gone out of proportion. Harper went in to Hagrids for a moment, and came out with a bag and a broom.

"Are you on the team?" Alice asked and pointed at the broomstick.

"No, I'm substituting as seeker for Draco Malfoy", he said and put it over his shoulder before they started walking.

"Draco? Why isn't he playing?" Alice had to yell to overcome the howling wind.

"Don't know. Said he was sick, looked that way as well", Harper said. Alice didn't say anything. Sick? She hadn't seen him for almost a week, except for very uncomfortable looks across rooms.

"This is mad", Alice said and stopped. It didn't feel like they had moved a foot from Hagrids hut. "Take my hand." Harper looked sceptic before he took her hand. Alice snapped with her fingers and with a bam they landed right inside the main entrance.

"How'd you do that?" He asked. Alice looked at him, unsure of what he meant.

"Do what?" She asked and started walking down the corridor.

"Apparate, here in Hogwarts", he said and ran to her. "You're not supposed to be able to do that", he said.

"I didn't know, I just did it", she said. She'd never had problem Disapparate anywhere, why wouldn't she be able to do it her? Ever since their house-elf Gary had shown her how to; she'd done it. Well, not for unnecessary purposes. Only when she needed to, like now, with the blizzard.

"I'm going to go and find Blaise", Alice said and smiled at Harper. He smiled brightly back and waved her good-bye. Blaise was probably in the library; he did a lot of studying there now these days. Besides, Alice wanted to see if she could find some information about Thestral hairs. She walked after Harper up the stairs. A group of first year Rawenclaws walked down the stairs, Harper walked straight through the group, making some of them fall over. It seemed odd; he'd been so nice to Alice. Why would he act like that now?

Alice put the thought in the back of her head as she made her way to the library. She walked over to the section for books of magical creatures and looked over the titles. Most of them were dull and simply wrong. She couldn't look through all of them either.

"Excuse me", Alice said when madam Pince walked passed. The old woman raised an eyebrow towards her.

"I was wondering if you could help me find a book, madam?" Alice said and put on a gentle smile.

"What are you looking for?" She said harshly.

"Well, professor Hagrid gave us an assignment to write about Thestrals and the use of their hairs, ma'am," Alice said in her most innocent voice.

"Don't think you'll find any of these books here. They're in the restricted section. Come back when you have a signature from Hagrid", madam Pince said and stared walking away. Alice picked up a piece of parchment, took out her wand and taped it once on the paper. Hagrids handwriting, telling whoever read it that Alice had permission entering the restricted section appeared.

"Ma'am! Excuse me, I have it already", Alice said, walked up to madam Pince and handed over the paper.

"Oh", she said and put down the books she had in her hands. "Well of course, give me one minute and I'll bring you some books."

"Thank you", Alice said. She'd seen Daphne and Blaise in the corner of her eye and made her way over to them. They were both deeply in the books in front of them while writing on an assignment they had. Alice cleared her throat and smiled when both of them looked up.

"Make room for one more?" She said and out down her bag beside the empty chair. They pushed the books to the sides on the overcrowded table.

"What are you writing?" Alice sat down beside Blaise.

"Transfiguration, we have a paper about human transformations", Blaise said before he put his nose down one of the books again. Madam Pince came running with a pile of books that went over her head and put them down before Alice with joy. It was if she'd never been more excited about giving a student the books they were looking for.

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"Ah, Alice, please come in", professor Dumbledore said. "I think we are making these meetings a bit of a habit." Alice smiled at him and sat down before his desk, as always.

"I heard about your incident with Miss Parkinson last weekend", he said, his face showed no emotions. "Professor Slughorn told me about your conversation."

"You must understand professor; I did not mean to hurt her. I just..."

"Ah", he interrupted her. "You just... I'm not going to bark at you. We both know just how wrong you did. However it is my duty as headmaster to give you a warning. If anything like this would happen again I fear you might just get expelled." Alice looked down on her hands.

"I'm sorry, sir", she said, still not looking up on him.

"Never mind Alice, let's move forward", he said and she dared once again to look at him. His face was calm and his blue eyes looked at her without fear or disgust.

"I've meant to ask you something sir", she said. "You see the other day at professor Hagrids lesion something rather odd happened." She made a pause. "We were learning about Thestrals and paid them a visit down the forest. As we were standing there admiring the creatures one of them came to me and presented a gift. Six pieced of hair from its tail." Professor Dumbledore still didn't say anything. He just sat quiet, listening to the interesting story Alice was giving him. "So I went to the library, trying to find anything about what to do with the hairs."

"Did you find something?" Professor Dumbledore asked when she didn't speak.

"Not more than speculations", she said and gave him a weak smile. "Apparently rumour has it; the tail hair of a Thestral can be used as the core in a wand. Although, only one wand having used this substance as the core is known."

"What was this wand?"

"Well in had many names you see sir", she said, exhilarated that he seemed as fascinated as she was. "But many of the books kept referring back to a very specific tale, the one about the Three Brothers in The Tales of Beetle the Bard. The Deathly Hallows was also mentioned."

"You believe that the wand Death gave to Antioch Peverell had Thestral tail hair as core", professor Dumbledore said.

"Yes", Alice said, she leaned in and continue to speak; "So I started looking on history in the Wizarding world, especially here in Europe. Abnormal and unexplainable incidents accrue over the centuries and all of them refer to this one thing; the troublemaker seems to be invincible in duelling. Just as in the story, the wand Death gave away is said to be the most powerful wand ever made and that it would make the owner undefeatable. But just as in the story the owner in one way or another killed and the wand disappears for some years."

"What did you find out?" Alice smiled at the man, not her usual innocent smile. But the smile of knowing she was interesting and at the same time almost frightening him.

"Well, the last mentioned owner of this 'wand of destiny' is supposed to have been Gellert Grindewald. I asked Daphne about it; she said you're the one that defeated him which also would make you the owner of the Elder wand." Alice noticed how his hand twitched towards his wand that lay on his desk.

"If you believe in such speculations and stories I suppose I would", professor Dumbledore said. "But remember Alice, they are not more than speculations. There is no proof of any of the Deathly Hallows exist more than in that childrens story of the Three Brothers." Alice said quiet for a moment; she was convinced that the Deathly Hallows did exists, nothing professor Dumbledore said could change her mind about it.

"Let's say they do. Just for the facts of it. If I decided to make a wand out if one of the hairs I was given, do you believe it would be as powerful as the Elder wand is said to be?" Alice asked. "Would the owner of it be invincible in wizard duelling as Antioch Peverell was in the story?"

"No, I don't think so Alice. I do not doubt that it would make a powerful wand but as it is with all magic. The owner possesses the power, not the object that directs it", he said. Alice felt disappointed. But of course, a wand made by death. I would need that something as powerful made it.

"Alice, don't fixate your life on these Deathly Hallows. I knew a man who did and it didn't end well for him", professor Dumbledore said.

"What happened to him?" Alice asked.

"Well, even in his wisdom he could be naive and make mistakes that had greater consequences than anyone dares to admit", he said with a soft smile. "Let's just say; it's not optimal to fixate your life over guesses and speculations of what might happen." They say quiet for a moment. Alice wasn't going to fixate her life over these objects; she would just make it a part time hobby on the side.

"How long did it take you to figure all of this out?"

"Well, I started reading up on Thestral hairs the day before yesterday", Alice said and shrugged her shoulders.

"Three days and you figured all of this out? Impressive."