Magical encounters

Chapter two: Aberforth's Gift

Disclaimer= I don't own HP

Ariana wiped the sweat from her forehead as she sat up in her bed. She had woken up before her alarm had rung and decided to get ready ahead of time for what was sure to be an eventful morning. She dressed in a long sleeved blouse and her favorite and most flattering air of jeans, she was determined to impress. She grabbed her alarm clock and shut it off so it wouldn't wake any of her friends and headed down to the kitchen where Mary would be, probably cooking breakfast for everyone.

Ariana walked into the kitchen quietly and sat down on the table, watching Mary work efficiently over the stove her mousy brown hair getting bigger and bigger by the minute. Ariana smiled slightly and thought about all the things she would miss about this orphanage, the smell, the people, and of course the memories. Ariana looked again to Mary and saw her spreading more butter on the frying pan, the butter was popping occasionally and every time it touched her skin she gave a little jump.

" Hey Mary?" Ariana called out making Mary jump even higher, "Can you tell me how I got here again?"

"Jeez Ari, you scared me!" Mary exclaimed as she turned down the temperature of the stove and faced Ariana. "What do you wanna know, kid? I don't know much, back then my mom was running the place and I was just helping out for an extra buck."

"oh," Ariana replied, obviously disappointed. " But you know something, right? Like, maybe where I came from or something."

"Honey," Mary said, sympathy in he voice. " I wish I knew more, but you kinda showed up outta nowhere. There you were on our doorstep on September 1st, a note came with you though." Now Mary closed her eyes as if in thought. " I think it said…um, that… oh gosh I can't remember but I think we might have it in an album some where. Keep an eye on these," she said pointing to the eggs. "I will go look for it."

Mary rushed out of the room and slammed the door as she went. Ariana got up and grabbed the spatula quickly and rushed over to the stove, grateful for something to do to calm her nerves. As she flipped the eggs in the frying pan she began to hum while wondering what awaited her. Ariana also thought about her dream and how terrified the little girl had been.

I wonder who she was, Ariana thought. she looked so familiar, but I just can't remember who she is.

Just then Mary strode back inside the room and dropped a huge photo album on the long rectangular kitchen table. She and Ariana switch places and as Ariana sat down she saw the large gold letters on the purple background of the photo album. It simply spelled her name in pretty letters, but she couldn't help but be mesmerized by it. This was her album, she didn't even know Mary and the other ladies had kept one of these, they took pictures often enough but she had never seen an entire album dedicated to one person.

Ariana grabbed at it greedily and opened it as quickly as she could, turning to the last page and deciding unconsciously to start from the end. There she was, just yesterday sitting with her friends and smiling at the camera at her fake eleventh birthday party. Under it there was a caption saying when it was taken and what event it was. She turned the pages to find out that all her birthdays were documented along with all the other important events of her childhood. Her losing her first tooth and riding a bike and taking her first steps, the Ariana in the pictures got younger until finally she was on the back of the front page. Looking down at it Ariana saw a little baby snuggled up in blankets, it was comfortable in the arms of a young girl that must have been Mary as a teenager, Mary's mom was beside them both smiling. The caption beneath it read, Ariana on our doorstep, September 1st.

Ariana took a deep breath and turned to the first page and there it was, the note Mary had mentioned. It was written is a messy script and next to it there was the picture of a man who was quite old and more than a little fat. He stood in front of a pub looking extremely proud of himself yet not overly cocky. Then he looked at Ariana and smiled. He moved! And to Ariana's shock he continued to move and wave and smile. Ariana thought she was crazy and simply looked away from the picture to the other contents of the page.

There was a key taped down about two inches away from the note that was on the page, although there was no caption explaining what it was for, there was an arrow pointing to the note. Ariana drew up all her strength and looked at the note. It was short and looked as though it had been rushed and Ariana knew this was probably the only thing she would ever have of her parents. The note read:

Dear Ari,

When the time comes find the room that can't be found and unlock the passage of your dreams. When you find the mirror broken and blocked, find its whole sister and the memories which now are rightfully yours. The key is for Gringotts. I love you

With all my love, I wish I could be there,

Aberforth Dumbledore

Then in a much more rushed and messy script:

Document her life, her name is Ariana Dumbledore after my sister, take care till she leaves for school.

Ariana read this over and over again examining the first part very closely before deciding that she couldn't make heads or tails of it. She sat back against the chair and stared at the man in the picture who was now laughing with one hand behind his head and the other on his bulging belly. Ariana's giggle was stifled by a sob that he hadn't seen coming. She looked down at her shirt and saw the teardrops on it, she hadn't even realized she had been crying.

Ariana sucked in a big breath and looked up towards Mary, only to see that the stove was off and Mary was standing there looking at her. Mary came closer until she was next to Ariana, she sat down in the chair beside Ari and took her hand.

"I forgot about it after my mom died," Mary began. " But when I went looking for the note I remembered it. The album itself was with you when we found you, my mom thought it would be right for us to listen to his wishes, we thought they sounded last the type of thing you would put in a will."

"You think he died?" Ariana asked already feeling like she knew the answer.

"Yeah, I do." Mary said, giving Ariana's hand a squeeze " I mean he said he wished he could be here so why would he have given you away."

" Yeah, I guess you are right. But what's up with the picture of him? It like moves and stuff."

" I don't know but when mom and I saw it we just figured that we shouldn't tell anyone since they would think we were crazy."

" Right," Ariana said, noticing that more and more people were showing up downstairs. " Well the professor person should be here soon and everyone is coming down for breakfast but thanks or showing me this. Sorry for asking but, can I keep it?

" Of course," Mary smiled, hugging Ariana. "I love you Ari and I will miss you. You can eat then just hang out with everyone and pack, I don't know when you will have to leave but I think you should make the most out of your time here."

~*~*~*~

The morning was uneventful and Ariana spent it and most of the early afternoon talking to people and packing her belongings into a huge trunk Mary had gotten her. Occasionally however Ariana would sneak away into a private corner or cupboard and look at the album and most of all the note and the picture on the first page. It was while she was in one of these private places with her head in a far away place that there was a commotion in the orphanage.

It seemed that a most peculiar, particularly rotund man had arrived in search of the very girl who was hidden away in her own thoughts. He introduced himself to Mary as a professor at the Hogwarts school and asked her if she would be willing to have a word with him. Mary of course said yes and welcomed the man, who now told her his name with Neville Longbottom, then they retreated into Mary's office.

"So," Mary began watching the man's cheeky face for any bad intentions, but all she saw was kindness. "Ariana has been accepted to your school."

"Yes," Neville replied. " She is very special and she will get the very best education she could possibly have here. But, um, would you mind telling me a little more about her? Is she a good girl? Things like that."

"Ariana is a sweetheart Mr. Longbottom." Mary said, her initial cold shoulder fading. "She is always helping her friends and me around here. She is nice and the only thing I have ever found unusual is that she often has dreams about herself over and over. Oh and she tends to be able to make things happen."

" What do you mean?" Neville said, his curiosity aroused.

" She has dreams about herself in a house she reckons she has seen before, but it's in the future. Actually sometimes its even in the past. " Mary said looking sad. "They freak her out quite a bit, but she always just puts them aside, in fact she hasn't told me about one since last week. Of course she might just be keeping to herself. As for the other ting well lets just say that she tends to make good things happen."

Mary was silent for a while as if deciding whether she should tell this stranger something personal.

" Like once," Mary said a weird look in her face like she was pleading with Neville to believe it was true. "We had a little girl with cancer and Ariana thought up a way to fundraise but no people would show up but when she realized that Ari started saying it would happen every night. Then in three days so many donations came in, and they kept coming until we had enough money then they just stopped. Then, unfortunately the transplant didn't work and every one was so sure that the little girl was going to die, everyone except Ariana. Ari went to her room every night and sat there holding the girls hand saying that the cancer was going to go away and that she would take it away. No one believed her of course but she kept at it every night, and every night when she was done saying that and talking to the girl, Bridget, Ari would kiss her forehead and leave. After about a week of this every night we all noticed Bridget looked better so we took her for some tests and somehow the cancer was in remission. Bridget was completely better within a year and got adopted by a family too."

Mary looked at Neville with a scared expression thinking he was going to say she was nuts instead Neville looked at her calmly and smiled.

"She sounds perfect," He said. "Can I see her to let her know how things work? It would have to be in private."

" Err, yeah I will send her to the meeting room if you will meet her there." Mary said slightly shocked at his calm reaction.

" Of course," he said standing to walk out. " I will meet her there, then. See you soon."

Then he swiftly walked out and found a young man to lead him to the meeting room and left Mary to her task.

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Thanks for reading please R&R. Next chapter will be up soon hopefully and we will get to see what happens when Ariana finds out what she is and the truth about the school she has been invited to. Hope you liked it =]

Becca