Ariana's favorite lesson that first day was definitely Care of Magical Creatures. Hagrid she thought was a wonderful teacher. She could tell she was going to continue to enjoy her lesson in his class, were it but for one thing. The Slytherins. The general consensuses in her house were they were evil. That consensuses had spread throughout the school. She decided early on she was going to give them a wide birth. She had to keep her head down. Not that it was easy when she was Albus's sister and seem to have none of his brilliant ability. When she asked she didn't lie about who she was.
Her brothers had considered trying to create a cover story for her. Say she was indeed a long lost relative (not that that was a lie). But there was no way she could have carried it off was what they thought. She was too sweet; it wasn't in her nature to lie as it was in theirs. She would have tripped up to easily. No, she could say the truth. Albus had enough power now to fight off any one who tried to rob them of her. And at the castle he was Headmaster. He said who stayed and left. And he said, she stayed.
It was Wednesday. One of the only two days she had lessons all day long. She begun that day with Transfiguration. She wondered what year group she was going to be tutored with she hadn't been told as of yet. It hadn't been written on her time table, as it had been with all the other lessons.
"Ariana do you want me to take you up to the Transfiguration class room before I go up to Divination?" asked Harry over the breakfast table.
She nodded. She didn't know how to get up there on her own. Ron and Hermione looked at one another and shrugged. They knew the two were friends, but apart from with them and Sirius, they had never seen Harry bond so quickly with some one. It was as if he felt a need to look out for her. Which was understandable. After all she had been through (which they only understood the bare bones of), she did need some one to look out for her. "Yes please." she replied.
"No need for you to do that." Harry heard a voice behind them. It was Sirius. "One, no god son of mine is going to be skiving off class," said Sirius who knew he had to face up to his responsibility. "and two, Dumbledore has already asked me to take Ariana up to her first class, as well as to remind her she has to eat so me thing before she goes."
Ariana had looked up at the top table where albums was sitting, giving her a friendly, but stern look. He had sent Sirius to her then. Picking up the toast, she knew she didn't want it.
"I don't want to, I'm not hungry." she said she said to him as she had told her mother and brothers so many times when she had been sick.
"Come on Ari just one bit," said Sirius too her. He wasn't going to take her up to class until she had filled her belly with something. He knew Albus had been watching her the day before and she hardly ate a thing.
She looked at him annoyed but knew she had to. He had taken the same tone with her as her family might. "Good girl," he praised her as she begun to eat it. Sitting down with the rest of the Gryffindors, in between Harry and Ron, he saw a few of the other students move further away from the group, though Neville didn't and had also joined them for breakfast. He thought it was cool personally that Sirius was teaching. He had seen him about the school the day before when he had been docking points from Slytherin anyone who did that as fairly as he had made it seem was ok with him. He seemed like he was going to be a good influence for the house. If the prophet said he was innocent then he was. Simple as that for him.
"What of the rest of you starting off with today then?" he asked them.
"Divination." Ron replied.
"Somebody pulled the short straw." Sirius said as he picked up a bit of toast and begun eating it himself.
"Yeah, we know. All she does is predict Harry's death." said Ron to him.
"Nice…tell if she does it again, I'll go up there and hex her in to next week through." he said jokingly, but protectively. No one was taking his boy off of him. "So who is going to be entering in to the Triwizard tournament?" he asked them.
"We cant, we're too young," Hermione reminded him.
"So what? Come on Harry you'll try and get your name in the goblet wont you," he said to him. "It is the kind of thing me and your dad would have died for when we you're your age." If James was there then Sirius was sure he would want Harry to get his name in to the goblet. Lily was another matter. Harry had been thinking about how to reply to that when the bell went. He was saved.
"I'll see you later on," he said as he picked up his bag and went off to class. Sirius was left stunned. He had been sure James's son would have been up for it.
"Come on then Miss Dumbledore. We can not have you late for your first class with old McGonagall." he said to her cheerfully, hiding his disappointment. She nodded.
"Have you not got a class this lesson?" she asked him.
"Nope, it is one of my free lessons." he said to her, as he checked she had finished her toast. Hardly.
"You can't have had more than four bites." he said to her.
"Sirius, I'm really not hungry," she said to him looking up pleadingly. She did not want to eat any more.
He sighed. He had tried his best to try and get her to eat. Dumbledore told him he was going to have a job. Apparently Aberforth was best getting the kid to have a meal.
"Ok," he said. He couldn't very well force feed the girl. "We have to get you to class."
Relieved she had been let off she got up quickly and picked up her bag. The hall was quite empty now as the last of the students filled out. "Sirius do you know what year group I am with in transfiguration." she asked.
"Your not." he said to her. The teachers when they had been told she was going to start school had been asked if any of them would mind privately mentor her. She wasn't going to progress that well in class, and she didn't fit in to any. Herbology and care of magical creatures were different as they didn't involve an actual lot of magic. They were more hands on subjects, not 'wands on' as it were. Predictably, he thought to himself, out of the three who had been asked, only one had refused. Snivillous. She was going to have to go into a first year class he said if her brothers wanted her to take potions.
On the other hand, he and McGonagall had said they were only too pleased to give up a few hours a week to give her some time one on one. He did it because of the debt he owed her, and because he wanted too. Still giving her flying lessons once a week wasn't going to make up for what she had done for him. She had giving him his life back. She had caught Peter, and she had given him Harry as far as he was concerned. They all had a second chance at life now. They had to help one another along their paths. They were intertwined as far as he was concerned.
They got to the class room on time and McGonagall was at her desk as they entered.
"One Miss Ariana for her first transfigurations lesson." said Sirius proudly as he delivered her to his old professor.
"Thank you Professor Black." she said to him nodding.
"You calling me professor…aww you're making me blush." he said to her sarcastically.
"Despite what you think, professor, you are not too old to get detention…not from me." She said warningly. "Me and Miss Ariana need to begin, please, so if you wouldn't mind…" she said and he got the message.
"Good luck," he muttered to the young student as he turned and left the room, leaving her alone for the first time with her head of house.
Once he had left the room McGonagall turned her attention to Ariana. How was it that her brother could be so brilliant and she had ended up like this, she thought to herself. Ariana when she was young had the potential to be great, the way Albus had told it to her. And she had that robbed of her. Now, she feared magic. That was possibly the saddest story McGonagall thought she had ever heard, and was distressing for any witch or wizard to hear it.
"Sit down Miss Dumbledore." she said to her, showing her to a desk and taking the seat next to her. "Get out your materials." she said, and so Ariana pulled out the Standard Book of Spells: Grade One. "You are going to be following the same course that your peers completed in their first years here - your wand too please." she said noticing she had not got it out yet. She should have known she might do that. "It will be part of your materials for my class Miss Dumbledore." She said and her student sheepishly pulled her wand out. "Now where was I - yes, you will follow the course. Depending on how fast we work you may get on to the second book of spells by the end of the year.
"Now today we are going to begin by going through some theory, and then we will get straight on to the practical. Turn to page ten please," she asked.
Ariana did as she was told. She had got to grips with her numbers before summer had ended. "Then read allowed too Me." said McGonagall. Minerva saw the girls eyes light up with alarm. Still Albus had insisted she should read for herself, or try too. She couldn't just be given the answer. "Just take your time…" she said to her gently.
Ariana nodded, but there was a desire in her to run and hide.
"Trans-fig-ger-ation is a met-t-thod…" she begun.
Well, the class did not go as well as McGonagall had hoped it would. There had been no need for her to get her wand out. The theory took up far more time than she had planned it too. Ariana tried to work most words out for her self, but it was no wondered by the end of class she was frustrated with it all. McGonagall knew she had taken on a great challenge when she had agreed to mentor Ariana, but the enormity of the task only became clear in that first lesson.
"Well done." she said at the end of it, though it was clear her pupil felt she deserved no such praise. "You worked hard today… Now do you think you can get to the hut for care of magical creatures on your own." she asked her.
Ariana nodded.
"Well, your homework is to go through what we did today." she said to her, smiling kindly. The stern old witch couldn't help but feel sympathy for Ariana. "Go on," she said and Ariana rushed out of the door.
She did not much feel like going to Care of Magical Creatures though. Despite the fact she had enjoyed it the day before she felt as if she had completely messed up her lesson with McGonagall. Still, she couldn't skip class on the second day.
She wondered down the lawn, towards Hagrid's hut. Some of the others were already there. She noticed a blond haired boy with a pale, pointed face was. Hermione had told her the day before he was called Malfoy and he was thoroughly unpleasant.
On seeing the head masters sister walking down he sneered at her and she managed to keep calm and ignored him, wondering over to the only familiar student there. Neville. Harry, Hermione and Ron weren't yet there.
"Hello," she said to him.
"Hey." he nodded to her as the two of them entered a quiet silence between them.
Sharing a soft smile the two waited for class to begin, with Ariana constantly looking up the lawn for their friends. It took another five minutes for them to arrive.
"How'd it go?" asked Harry as he got to her side. Not wanting to admit the truth through embarrassment Ari gave him a grin.
"Not too bad."
"Good," he smiled. "What year did you get put with in the end." he asked her.
"Oh I wasn't with one, I was on my own." she said to him.
"She's mentoring you privately." he asked.
"Yup. And Sirius is going to be on Fridays too I think, in flying. Then I have Albus for reading and writing."
"Reading and writing?" said a voice behind them. Just what she didn't need thought Harry to himself as he turned about to defend Ariana.
"Shove off Parkinson."
"So the sister of the great Dumbledore can't even read and write." she squealed to her fellow Slytherins who all laughed at her.
"That's right, she can't. And she is still smarter than the lot of you put together," said Harry to them.
He turned back to Ariana. She looked terrified. She knew she was a freak but she had been assured by her brothers it wasn't going to be like that here. That people wouldn't laugh at her. She had to get out of there. When he had been talking, Ari turned. And she ran. She had to get out.
-
At break Harry went up to the common room. He hadn't gone after her at the time as he had thought she had needed time out. But he was determined to find Ariana before third lessonsl. It wasn't hard.
Going up to the Gryffindor tower he found her there. She had been crying obviously.
"Ari you can't let people like her get to you." he said as he dropped his bag and sat on the sofa by her.
But she hadn't been able to help to.
Nodding, she knew what he was saying was right. Burying her face in her hands she didn't want him to see her tears.
"I want my mama." she whispered. Kendra was all she wanted. All she could think of was her…
"I know you do. Shall I let you in on a secret…" said Harry to her taking her hands. They had known each other a month, and yet he could tell her things he told no one else. Because she took things as they came, and didn't try and make him in to something he didn't fell able to be. He wasn't The Boy Who Lived to her. He was Harry. "So do I."
She looked at him and nodded. She knew he did.
"Ari the only way she can beat you is if she is stronger than you are." he said. "I think you're ten times stronger than she can ever be. You can do this."
"I don't feel strong."
"You don't have to feel it to be It." he told her. "Pansy Parkinson is a bully. And they are cowardly and weak. I know that. You do too."
-
Albus had been concerned when he heard what had gone on in class. After returning to his office from the staff room he found his red eyed sister was there already. She had been crying. Minerva had told her how frustrated she had got, Hagrid had explained what had happened and he had been worried she wouldn't be able to control her magic and emotions. But through some miracle she had.
"Come here you," he said as he walked up to her and embraced her. Why had she not come to him sooner?
"Albus it was awful." she said to him.
"I know it was," he said to her gently. Rubbing her back, he held on to her tightly.
"Come. We'll have some sherbet lemons, some tea…" he said as he took her through to their quarters. Their's…had they ever been his? He begun to wonder…he loved sharing though.
Sitting down on his chair, she sat on his lap and held on to her brother tight. It was apprehensive at first, but then she relaxed in to him. She had never seemed so relaxed with him.
Five minutes later, she had fallen asleep on him. Apparently, school was wearing her out. He kissed her head and shut his own eyes. They weren't going to get any reading and writing down that lesson.
The last lesson of the day was potions. Renewed from her nap Ariana got there five minutes early, having been walked down by Harry. She had to try and take his comments on the chin if Snape said any thing to her Harry had explained. But compared to the other students, he barely paid any attention to her. She had chosen to sit on the end of the middle row, and from there she could copy down off the board easily. She just couldn't read what she had written, that was all. One day she would be able to though. And she listened carefully trying to take as much in as she could.
Snape, despite loathing the house Gryffindor, couldn't humiliate her though. He had seen hat she had gone through in her past. He had extracted those awful memories. She had been picked on like he had been. She had been through enough.
And so he said nothing to her, she said nothing to him apart from answering the register and they got along like that.