Arianna decided to keep what she had learned a few nights ago to herself. She didn't know if Professor Dumbledore or McGonagall knew about their relationship either, so she didn't want to mention it and ruin the rest of her school year.
But if Professor McGonagall did know, it certainly explained why she would get Arianna an owl for a Christmas present. Her mind was so full of possibilities and worries she began to feel overwhelmed. Taking a deep breath she decided not to think about any of that today, Hermione was coming back from her holiday, and Arianna couldn't wait to see her!
Later that day the four of them were sitting at the Gryffindor table, Ron was sorting his Chocolate Frog cards, the girls and Harry all watching him as they made small talk.
"Ugh, Dumbledore again!" Ron said tossing it to the side, Harry picked up the card and began to read the back casually.
"Look at you playing with your cards." Hermione said and her and Arianna giggled.
"What?" He asked slightly offended.
"It's pathetic." Hermione said, Ron was going to say something back to her when Harry errupted in excitment.
"I found him! Nicholas Flamel! I found him!" He practically burst! Ron, Hermione, and Arianna's heads snapped towards him, their mouths hanging open.
"Look, here read the card!" Harry said handing the card to Ron. Ron look confused at the card and began to read aloud,
"Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularily famous for his defeat of the Dark Wizard Grindewald in 1945, for the discovery of twelve uses of dragons blood, and his work on Alchemy with his partner Nicholas Flamel!" Ron read, the energy in his voice increasing as he read the name.
Suddenly Hermione's face lit up, "Of course! Follow me! Come on!" Hermione said rushing out of the great hall, Arianna, Harry and Ron all looked at her before running to catch up with her. They found themselves in the library, sitting at a table while Hermione went and got a very large book.
"I had you looking in the wrong section! How could I be so stupid! I'd checked this out weeks ago for a bit of light reading." She said slamming the large, heavy book down on the table.
"This is light!?" Ron asked earning him a glare from Hermione and Arianna. Hermione opened the book and searched for the right page, "Here it is! 'Nicholas Flamel is the only known maker of the Philosoper stone!'" Hermione read.
"Oh my goodness! I remember you telling me about that! How could we not have already thought of this!" Arianna commenting mentally slapping herself.
"The what?" Harry and Ron said in unison, Hermione and Arianna rolled their eyes.
"Honestly, don't you two read?" Hermione asked, "The Philosopher stone is a legendary substance with astonishing powers. It will transform any metal into pure gold and produce the Elixir of Life which will make the drinker immortal." She read to them.
"Immortal!?" Ron ask quite shocked
"It means you'll never die." Hermione told him casually
"I know what it means!" Ron said defesively, Arianna giggled while Harry shushed them wanting Hermione to continue.
"The only stone currently in exsistance belongs to Mr. Nicholas Flamel, the noted Alchemist who last year celebrated his 665th birthday! That's what Fluffy's guarding, that's what's under the trap door, the Philosopher stone!" Hermione said surely.
That night the four of them went to see Hagrid to see if he new anything about the stone.
"Hagrid!" Harry said as Hagrid opened the door.
"Oh, hello! Don't wish to be rude, but I'm in no fit state to entertain today." Hagrid said and began to shut the door.
"We know about the Philosopher stone!" The four yelled before the door closed completely. Hagrid opened the door and looked at them.
"Oh." he said letting them inside the hut.
"We think Snape's trying to steal it!" Harry explained.
"Snape? Blimey, you're still on about him are you?" He asked shaking his head.
"Hagrid! We know he's after the stone, we just don't know why!" Harry continued trying to get Hagrid to understand.
"Snape is one of the teachers protecting the stone! He's not about to steal it!" Hagrid told them trying to get them to understand.
"What?" Ron asked.
"You heard! Right now, come on, I'm a bit preoccupied today." Hagrid said trying to get them to leave.
"Wait a minute! 'One of the teachers'?" Harry asked looking a bit confused.
"Of course!" Arianna blurted out, "There are other things protecting the stone, aren't there!" She said.
"Spells and enchantments?" Finished Hermione, Hagrid nodded.
"Right, waste of bloody time if you ask me, ain't no one going to get past Fluffy! Ain't a soul knows how, 'cept me and Dumbledore." Hagrid said, his eyes going wide, "I shouldn't have told you that. I should not have told you that!" he said as a rustling noise came from inside the pot above the fire.
"Hagrid, what exactly is that?" Harry asked once Hagrid had taken it out of the fire and set it onto his table.
"Oh that! It's, uh, um." He stuttered, not wanting to tell them.
"I know what that is!" Ron exclaimed excitedly, "But Hagrid, how did you get one?" he asked.
"I won it! Off a stranger I met down at the pub! Seemed quite glad to be rid of it as a matter o'fact." Hagrid said watching as it twisted and turned of the table and then finally hatch.
Arianna, Harry and Hermione gasped, "Is that a dragon!?" Hermione asked, no ones eyes leaving the small creature.
"That's not just a dragon! That's a Norwegion Ridgeback! My brother Charlie works with them in Romania!" Ron said facinated by the dragon on the table.
"Isn't he beautiful! Oh bless him, he knows his mommy! Hello Norbert!" Hagrid said petting it, under the chin.
"Norbert?" Arianna asked as she came around to pet him.
"Well he's got to have a name don't he?" Hagrid said just as the little dragon sneezed, the fire hitting Arianna's finger and Hagrid's beard!
"Woah! He'll have to be trained up a bit of course!" Hagrid said putting out his beard and handing Arianna a cold cloth to put on her finger.
"Alright there Arianna?" He asked as she wrapped her finget in the cold cloth, she nodded, nowanting to say anything for fear her tears would fall.
Getting a hold of herself she finally spoke, "Yeah, I'll be alright, just a little burn, I've burnt my fingers loads of times!" She said, Hagrid nodded.
"All the same, you should still see Madam Pomfrey about it." He said and she groaned. Chuckling Hagrid looked up.
"Who's that?" he asked seeing someone in the window, the four of them looked at the window, their eyes growing wide as the person ran away.
"Malfoy." Harry said rushing the four of them out of the hut and back up to the castle.
"Hagrid always wanted a dragon, told me so the first time I ever met him." Harry said as the walked the corridor.
"It's crazy! And worse Malfoy knows." Ron said.
"I don't understand is that bad?" Hermione asked.
"It's bad." Ron said looking up, the others looked up as well to see Malfoy standing next to a very not happy looking McGonagall. Arianna quickly hid her hand inside her robes and gulped.
"Good evening" McGonagall said through thinned lips. They could see Malfoy's smug face from behind her as they all went into her office.
"Nothing! I repeat nothing, gives a student the right to walk about the school at night. Therefore as punishment for your actions, 50 points will be taken." She said, Arianna looked at the floor afraid to look at the professor while she was angry.
"50!" Harry exclaimed shocked.
"Each! And to ensure that it will not happen again, the five of you will recieve detention." She said, Malfoy had been looking at the four Gryffindor's smugly until then.
"Excuse me Professor, perhaps I heard you wrong, but I thought you said the five of us?" He asked clearly confused.
"No, you heard me correctly Mr. Malfoy. See as honourable as your intensions were, you too were out of bed after hours. You will join your classmates in detention." She said, Malfoy looked discusted, while the four Gryffindors smiled and tried to restrain their laughter.
"Now back to your dormitories. Immediatly." She said but as the five of them began to leave she stopped them.
"Miss Winters, would you mind staying a moment, I'd like to have a word with you. Privately." She said and Arianna gulped. Looking at her friends she nodded to them, telling them she would be alright and that she would tell them about it after.
Arianna walked back to stand infront of Minerva's desk as the other students left her office.
"Let me see it." MInerva said, and Arianna looked at her befuddled.
"Your hand Arianna, let me see it." Minerva repeated guesturing to Arianna's burnt one, hidden inside her robes. With a slight groan she pulled out her hand and held it out to Minerva.
Minerva removed the damp cloth and looked at her burn.
"How did you get this?" Minerva asked inspecting the burn.
"I, um I came too close to the fire at Hagrids. It's not a big deal Professor, really, I've been burnt before, and Hagrid helped me, he gave me the cloth to put on it." She said trying to keep Hagrid out of trouble.
"Well, Hagrid did the right thing yes, but now we'll go and get Madam Pomfrey to look after it." She said standing.
"Oh, no it's alright, really Professor, I don't want to wake Madam Pomfrey for just a silly burn." Arianna said, really not wanting to go to the hospital wing, again.
"This isn't up for discussion. Madam Pomfrey is most likely already awake, checking on the other students in the wing, it will only take a few minutes. We wouldn't want your burn to take away from your studies." Minerva told her sternly, taking her hand and bringing her to the hospital wing.
"Poppy." She said once they had gotten there, and seeing that Poppy was indeed awake and tending to her students.
"Ah Minerva, how are y-" She was saying before noticing Miss Winters.
"Miss Winters? What's happened?" She asked motioning for her to sit on a bed.
"It's nothing really Madam Pomfrey, I've only burnt my finger." Arianna said embarressed that she had to come.
"Let me see it." She said taking Arianna's hand, "quite a nasty burn, just wait here a second ladies and I'll be back in a moment with something to fix that." She said as she walked away and soon came back.
"Here we are," Poppy exclaimed opening a small jar with what looked like an oitment. She took some out and put it on Arianna's finger. Her berath hitched, making Minerva look at her concerned.
"It stings." She said quietly, Poppy smiled and nodded.
"It wont sting for long. Put this on it for the next three days and it should be fine. Now would you stop getting injured, you know I love seeing you but you don't have to get hurt to come see me!" Poppy joked and Arianna smiled.
"I'll try, thanks Madam Pomfrey." Arianna said jumping off the bed, Minerva mouthed a thank you before leading Arianna out of the wing and walking her down the hall.
The first bit of the walk was quiet. Arianna was debating whether to ask her about what she saw in the Mirror of Erised or not. Finally she decided.
"Professor." She said nervously as the walked, Minerva looked down at Arianna waiting for her to continue.
"Can I ask you a bit of a personal question?" She asked looking up at Minerva.
"Yes, you may." Minerva said as they kept walking. It seemed like Arianna was fighting herself trying to ask what she wanted to, but it wasn't coming out. They stood outside the Gryffindor Portrait hole, Minerva looking at Arianna curiously. Finally it seemed as if Arianna gave up.
"Nevermind." She said and quickly said the password and running into the common room.
Minerva stood outside looking fairly disappointing. She wanted to know what her daughter had to ask her. And more than anything she wanted to tell Arianna that she was her mother.
"So what did McGonagall want?" Ron asked as Arianna came in.
"Did you get in trouble even more?!" Hermione said overlapping Ron.
"No, she just wanted to see my burn, and then she took me to Madam Pomfrey." Arianna grumbled. Harry chuckled knowing how much Arianna had been in the hospital wing, and knowing how much she didn't like to make people go out of their way for her.
"It's not funny Harry!" She said lightly swatting at him, "Goodnight, I'm off to bed, I'll have to sleep in order to stay awake for detention tomorrow." She grumbled heading up to her rooms, followed by Hermione.
She lay in her four poster bed, hoping she would be able to get some sleep that night. But apparently her mind had decided against it. Just as she had fallen into a deep sleep she began to dream.
She was in a large house, with her parents, her real parents, they were laughing and smiling at her, but then her father had to leave, her mother was worried, but let him go. He kissed Arianna goodbye, saying he loved her and that he would see her in the morning. After he left her mother brought her up the stairs and into a bedroom, a baby's bedroom. She was set down in a crib and sang a soft lullaby in a language Arianna guessed to be Gaelic.
Soon she felt herself drifting off to sleep. But what felt like no later than a second, she was jolted awake by loud crashing and banging and screams. Suddenly a red light came shinning through the crack of her door, and she heard something slam into the wall on the outside of her room. She began to cry louder, crying for her mother, then someone came into the room.
She stopped crying for a second, then once realizing it wasn't her mother, she began to scream. The stranger picked her up roughly and threw her over their shoulder, as they exited the room she could see her mother in a crumpled heap on the floor, her arm reaching out to her daughter, crying out Arianna, Arianna.
"Arianna! Arianna!" Minerva cried trying to wake the screaming girl. Finally she jolted awake, fear written all over her face. After realizing where she was and who was there Arianna calmed down, trying to slow her breathing.
"Shh, shh, it's alright, it was just a dream. You're here at Hogwarts, safe. Shh." Minerva said pulling Arianna into her chest to try to calm her down. 'It must have been some dream to make her this upset!' Minerva thought. Once Arianna's sobs had been reduced to mere hiccups, Minerva pulled her out of her hug.
"What was your dream about?" She asked calmly.
Arianna hesitated a moment wondering if it would be a good idea to tell her, but then decided to tell her, "Um, it was awful. You were there! And so was Professor Dumbledore, and these horrible people with silver skull masks!" Arianna began, tears coming down her face, the dream truly frightened her! It seemed so familiar to her! Minerva's face fell, as she remembered the night her daughter was taken from her, surely Arianna couldn't remember that, she was so young!
"It was like you were my parents," Arianna continued, choosing to pretend she didn't know Minerva was her mother, just in case.
"Professor Dumbledore had to leave, and you looked worried but you let him go, and then you put me to bed, and then I woke up to crashing and other noises, and then there was a strange light, and someone grabbed me and took me away but you were on the ground trying to get to me but you couldn't! It just seemed so familiar, so real!" Arianna said looking at her hands and then up at her Professor.
Minerva was using everything in her power to keep her tears from falling. She reached into her robes and pulled out a calming drought and a dreamless sleep potion.
"It was only a dream, you still have many hours of sleep ahead of you, drink these and you'll sleep well for the rest of the night." Minerva said her voice wavering a tad. She handing Arianna the potions, watching as she drank them and then stood to leave.
"Could you stay, until I fall asleep, I'm scared to." Arianna called weakly.
"I can't stay tonight, I'm sorry," She said not wanting to cry in front of her daughter or her other students, "summon up that Gyrffindor bravery I know you have, it's there, you've used it many times before." Minerva said hating to leave her daughter but knowing it was the right thing to do right now.
She went down to the common room, telling the other girls they could go back up to bed before leaving and heading to Albus' rooms.
Saying the password she climbed the stairs to his office, and then back to his chambers. She had held the tears in until now, remembering that night for her was awful. That was the night that her whole world came crashing down, and to think that her daughter remembered it and still didn't have her parents there to tell her it was going to be alright, just destroyed Minerva.
She came into his room crying, Albus woke to the other side of his bed dipping.
"Minerva?" He asked, "Minerva what's wrong?" He asked more concerned when he saw that she was in tears.
"She remembers that night Albus! She remembers being taken and she has no one to tell her it's going to be okay. Albus I need to tell her! I can't take much more of this!" Minerva sobbed into her husbands shoulder. Albus rubbed her back and calmed her down before speaking to her.
"I'm sorry Albus, I don't know what came over me." She said wiping away her tears and once again returning to the strong woman she always has been.
"You have no need to apologize my dear. Our child was taken from us. You were there when it happened and you have carried on with your life in the best possible way that you could. You don't need to be strong 100% of the time. We have our daughter back, and even though we cannot yet tell her of our relation to her, I believe that she knows. And I feel that soon we will have our daughter back in every way." Albus told her, a friendly smile on his face with his twinkling eyes, making Minerva calm down some.
The next day Arianna couldn't stop thinking about her nightmare, firstly she was embarrassed that she had been screaming, but secondly she couldn't help but feel like it wasn't just a dream.
Hermione had noticed that something wasn't quite right with Arianna, so when the two had finished their supper, Hermione brought Arianna to the library to talk.
"Are you alright?" She asked sitting down at a table.
"Yeah, it's just that I don't think my nightmare, was just a nightmare, I think it was a memory, of something that happened to me long ago." Arianna said looking at the table trying to think of how to explain everything.
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked looking at her, her head tilted and brows furrowed. Arianna took a breath, she had to tell someone, Hermione was her best friend, and she couldn't keep it to herself anymore.
"I think, no I'm sure that Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore are my parents." She said watching as Hermione's eyes went wide and her jaw dropped. Arianna began to explain everything, the mirror, what Professor Dumbledore had told her about it, all the things she had noticed about Professor McGonagall that had seemed odd, everything.
"So if I'm right, and my dream is a memory, then it means that they did want me, that they didn't just give me away like I thought at first." Arianna told her.
"Arianna, you have to ask her to be sure! I have a feeling that you're right, but you wont get anywhere unless you ask her!" Hermione said. Arianna looked unsure.
"I can't, what if I'm wrong, and they really did give me away, what if my dream was just something I wanted to think happened so I wouldn't have to face the truth?" Arianna whispered.
"You have to ask! If you don't you'll never know the truth." Hermione whispered back. Arianna looked down and twiddled her thumbs, she hardly ever did that, but she couldn't help it. Suddenly there was a noise that sounded like an alarm.
"It's time for our detention." Hermione said quietly while turning off the alarm. 'Saved by the bell' Arianna thought.
The two walked in silence to the front entrance, where they would all meet for their detention. Filch was already waiting there with Harry, Draco and Ron. He smiled evilly as the girls came up.
"Good of you to join us." He said and led them outside heading to Hagrid's.
"Pity they let the old punishments die, there was a time when detention found you hanging by your thumbs in the dungeons. God I miss the screaming." He said, the children's eyes widening and mouths opening in horror as they kept walking.
"You'll be serving your detention with Hagrid tonight. He's got a little job to do inside the dark forest." He said as the came up to Hagrid's hut. Hagrid was outside getting his cross bow ready, sniffling as if he were sad.
"Oh good go, you're not still on about that bloody dragon are you?!" Filch asked him.
"Norbert's gone. Dumbledore sent him off to live Romania to live in a colony." He said to the kids,not answering Filch.
"Well that's good isn't it? He'll be with his own kind!" Hermione said.
"Yeah, but what if he don't like Romania! What if the other dragons are mean to him! He's only a baby after all." Hagrid said, Arianna felt bad for him, they all did, with the exception of Malfoy.
"Oh for god's sakes! Pull yourself together man! You're going into the forest after all! Got to have your wits about you." Filch said enjoying the fact that the students were headed into the forbidden forest.
"The forest! I thought that was a joke! We can't go in there! Students aren't allowed! And besides, there are werewolves!" Draco said, clearly quite scared. Arianna rolled her eyes. Technically it was his fault they were here in the first place.
"Ah, there's more than just werewolves in those trees lad, you can be sure of that! Nighty night!" Filch said and walked off.
"Right let's go." Hagrid said picking up the cross bow and heading towards the forest.
Once they were in the forest, Hagrid split them up, Hermione and Ron went with Hagrid in one direction, while Arianna, Harry and Draco went off in the other. Their task was to try to find an injured Unicorn. Hagrid showed them a thick silvery substance on the ground, saying it was unicorn blood.
Arianna was last in their line of three with Draco in the middle. Her hands shook from both the cold and the fear that she felt from being in the forest. Suddenly she heard a branch break. She gasped and stopped dead in her tracks looking to her left where the branch had broken. Her hand flew to her wand and she pulled it out waiting for something to come out of the bushes.
She stood there her hear racing, for what seemed like hours. When she finally decided that nothing was there she turned to catch up with the boys only to find they were gone. Panic rose within her. She was lost in the forest. Surely this couldn't be happening, Filch would be pleased of course, and perhaps Snape, but now she would never know the truth about her family!
Arianna began to move forward trying to find her way out of the forest, only to get herself more lost. She jumped at ever sound she heard, trying to stay calm, but it was hard. Suddenly a huge thing came jumping out from the trees! It was half human and half horse, 'A centaur' Arianna remembered from her textbooks.
She took a step back, only to trip on a root and fall. She looked up in horror as it came towards her, she remembered reading that Centaurs sometimes weren't the friendliest creatures, and didn't have much of an appreciation for witches and wizards. She closed her eyes waiting for it to do something but it didn't. When she opened her eyes she saw it was kneeling in front of her.
"Do not fear Miss Winters, my name is Firenze. I will not harm you. I want to help you. You have gotten lost from your friends. Come sit on my back and I will take you back to them." He said kindly, a hand extending towards her. Hesitantly she took it and was lifted onto his back.
He walked slowly through the forest as not to scare her, then suddenly he stopped.
"Miss Winters, you must get off of my back now. I want you to stay right here until I return. I must get your friend Mr. Potter." He said calmly. Arianna slid off of his back and stood where he told her to, watching as he ran off through the trees.
She waited for a few minutes, trusting that he would come back. And after a few minutes more, he did. But this time Harry was on his back.
"Harry!" She said when she saw him, so relieved to see him!
"Arianna! What happened!? I was worried when we lost you!" He said from Firenze's back. Firenze helped Arianna back onto his back, behind Harry and she told him what happened.
"Where's Malfoy?" She asked as they moved along, noticing he wasn't with them.
"He got scared and ran off with Fang. We found the Unicorn, and Voldemort." He said explaining what had happened. Arianna was shocked! Soon they were back in a clearing, Hagrid stood with Hermione, Ron and Draco.
"Oh hello there Firenze! I see you've met our young Mr. Potter and Miss right there you two?" He asked and they nodded their heads, getting off of Firenze.
"This is where I leave you. You are safe now. Good luck." He told the two of them and went off back into the forest.
Later that night, Harry told Ron and Hemione what happened in the forest. The two were floored. They were shocked that Voldemort was living in the forest! And that he could have killed Harry.
"Wait a minute, we're forgetting one thing. Who's the wizard Voldemort always feared?" Hermione asked, when she got no response she continued, "Dumbledore! As long as Dumbledore's around, Harry you're safe. As long as Dumbledore's around you can't be touched."
Hello everyone! First of all I just wanted to thank everyone who has been reading and reviewing! Thanks for sticking with the story this far! Chapter 20! That's pretty exciting for me! It's my longest story yet, and the one that I can't stay away from! I will update my other stories eventually if any of you read any of those, but for now this one is my priority. So this is so much longer! And I know I wanted to make my chapters longer but this was WAY longer than I thought I would write, and I'm not sure it's my best chapter so I hope it's alright and I hope you all enjoy! Thanks again!