CHAPTER 2
September 2nd 1971
Helene Clearwater
As I stepped through the grand oak door, a fine piece of carpentry that showed my personal favourite Beedle the Bard tale, 'The Fountain of Fair Fortune', I was struck by the grandeur of the office. It was a large circular room, with a high domed ceiling and arched windows that gave a spectacular view of the extensive grounds, particularly the Black Lake. Nearly every inch of the stone walls were covered in oil paintings of previous headmasters, many of whom were dozing, including Phineas Nigellus, who let out a loud snore that ricocheted off the surrounding walls, creating an echoing effect. Rickety tables supported several whirring silver instruments, which I knew were related to astronomy from the little research I had done upon receiving my Hogwarts acceptance letter. Several of them were twirling round simultaneously, almost as if they were performing ballet at the English National Opera. In the centre of the room was a solid mahogany desk, which had numerous leather bound books stacked up high on it. Sitting at the desk was a tall, thin man who wore a cloak of shimmery silver that was embroidered with stars. He had a long white beard that was kept neat by a chain and wore a pair of half-moon glasses that sat upon his crooked nose. He looked extremely wise and his warm smile offset his intimidating appearance and made me feel right at home. The old wizard slowly began to rise and walk towards me until the faint scent of peppermint and cinnamon was dancing around in my nose. His startling bright blue eyes, that shone like the brightest star on Midsummer's Eve, pierced my bubble and caused me to look directly at him. His gaze was different to what I expected, not necessarily the curious look that people shot me every few seconds, but more tender and affectionate. He kept doing so until I started to feel slightly uncomfortable and threw a confused look at my transfiguration teacher. She cleared her throat lightly, but the headmaster continued to stare.
"Albus…" Still no reply came from the wizard in front of me. Professor McGonagall let out a brief smile and gave me a very uncharacteristic wink, before adopting her terrifying teacher persona. "ALBUS PERCIVAL WULFRIC BRIAN DUMBLEDORE WILL YOU PAY ATTENTION TO ME WHEN I AM SPEAKING TO YOU?" Professor Dumbledore's head immediately shot round and he had an expression that reminded me of a scared school boy or perhaps a frightened puppy. To this day that face never fails to make me laugh and moments when I felt down I used to recall that memory several times in my pensieve until I felt better. I remember letting out an infectious giggle leading my professors to laugh loudly and the serious atmosphere to dissolve.
Albus Dumbledore
Albus Dumbledore, you barmy old coot, pull yourself together. Despite this thought, I still found it incredibly difficult to pull my eyes away from the girl. When she first entered it felt like the universe had done a somersault, as if my whole life had lead up this wondrous moment. I didn't know why for the life of me. After Minerva's slightly severe warning, actually very severe, now I come to think of it, I realised that I was acting very unprofessional and had to continue. It was obvious why she had been brought here, I could sense it from the moment she entered; she possessed an extremely high raw magic potential. In fact, I have only ever seen three other people have it to such a standard, one of them standing directly next to me, another who seemed to have vanished off the face of the planet and Tom's whereabouts was currently unknown, and the other was me.
"Hello Miss Clearwater, my name, as you just heard our dear transfiguration mistress exclaim, is Albus Dumbledore. Well, at least that is the shortened version, life is too precious to spending time reciting my whole ridiculous name, so you may call me Professor Dumbledore. I take it that it's your first full day at Hogwarts School, how are you finding it?"
The young witch paused for a second, to ponder on how she should answer the question. I initially thought it was perhaps because she felt slightly out of place in my daunting office, however I was quite wrong, for her answer was confident and strong, reminding me slightly of a younger Minerva McGonagall. "Admittedly, I was slightly scared at the prospect of starting this whole new chapter of my life this morning, but I couldn't possibly feel more different now! The castle is truly beautiful and I feel very fortunate to be given the chance to be a part of Hogwarts' rich history. I'm very curious and excited to find out more about the wizarding world and starting the rest of my classes, for I thoroughly enjoyed transfiguration this morning and I hope that all of my lessons will be as interesting." Well, she was definitely enthusiastic, a trait of a true Gryffindor. Minerva let out a tiny smile at the mention of transfiguration, conveying to me that Helene had definitely created a positive first impression on his deputy.
"I'm sure you will, Hogwarts is place of hope and opportunity, but one can only receive what they put in, naturally. I hope that you will work hard, whilst enjoying the time you spent at the castle as-". I was rather rudely interrupted by the sound of the tower's distinctive chime, signifying the start of lunch. "Oh, it seems as if we lost track of time. It was a pleasure to meet you Miss Clearwater, I expect I will be seeing you sometime in the near future. You may go down to the Great Hall for lunch now, Professor McGonagall and I will be joining you shortly." She bode us a polite farewell, before leaving the chamber.
"I see why you brought her here Minerva. She reminds me slightly of yourself on your first day, bursting with intrigue. I see she possesses a very strong raw magic potential, how did she perform in class?"
"Exceptionally well Albus, she not only performed the complete transfiguration of a matchbox to a dormouse on her first attempt, but did so flawlessly. However, this is not the main matter that is occupying my mind. Would you care to explain to me what happened a few moments ago? It was as if you had an impediment jinx upon you, your eyes didn't leave her for more than a second."
Ah, so I hadn't been dreaming, I had made an utter fool of myself. Despite the fact I had a fiercely strong relationship with Minerva, I felt unable to tell her my true feelings. Partly due to the fact that they felt very private, but mainly as I wasn't sure how to put them into words.
"Really? I hadn't noticed; when one reaches my age you occasionally forget what you are doing. I think it would be best if we were to head down to the Great Hall for lunch now, we don't want to be late." She quickly cast me a suspicious look, showing that she didn't quite believe me, but she had sensed that I didn't wish to talk about it. I gave her a sly nod before leaving the room.
Helene Clearwater
As I entered the Great Hall, I was suddenly struck with an unfamiliar jolt of panic. I had no idea where to sit. Now, this may seem to you to be a petty worry and now I quite agree with you when you put it in perspective, however for an eleven year old in a foreign school on her first day, it was quite frightening. I cast my eye upon the Gryffindor table and searched for someone I recognised. Although it took several moments, my gaze lay upon a group of five students, four boys and a girl. I remembered that I had sat next to the girl in transfiguration this morning and shared a dormitory with her too. As I gradually made my way over to the table, I was conscious of a few people staring at me. My hand immediately flew to my French plait that I had hurriedly put together this morning, in fear that it had unravelled itself, but it was perfectly respectable. The group of five turned around to look at me and I was extremely tempted to turn away and head to the opposite end of the hall, where Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore had just taken their seats, when the girl extended her hand to me.
'Oh, hello Helene! I was just wondering where you were, I was going to offer you a seat with us, you seemed a little lost earlier. Come, sit next to me, I could do with a few more girls around here; these boys are doing my head in. Calm down Sirius, I wasn't being serious… oops, sorry, no pun intended, honestly. Here, try these crisps, they're delicious! My parents don't normally allow me to have them, but I suppose we're independent women now and can make our own choices, don't you agree?'
I immediately took to Lily Evans, gave her a friendly nod and accepted her delicate hand. It was only once I had sat down that I realised how hungry I was. Sandwiches were piled upon each other to the point where they resembled the leaning tower of Pisa. There were fragrant soups, crisp salads, oodles of crisps and so much more.
"You're the girl who performed that spell in transfiguration aren't you? Well, you've done well to win over old McGonagall on your first day. My name's James by the way, James Potter" I observed the boy over my steaming hot bowl of pasta. He had a cheeky manor to his face, his wild, unkempt hair sticking out at all angles and he had a twinkle of defiance in his eye. The boy next to him let out a weak cough, drawing my attention away from James. He reminded me vaguely of a mouse; his nose twitched at odd intervals and he had a tendency to blink slightly more than necessarily. To his left sat Remus Lupin, who me studied me through his intelligent eyes. I seemed to have passed the test as he threw me a broad smile. Finally, directly in front of me, was Sirius Black, the boy whom Lily had teased earlier. His eyes were a rich chocolate brown and his hair fell effortlessly around his shoulders. He winked slightly before returning to his plate. "Hopefully you'll be able to earn us a few more house points and then we'll be able to beat Slytherin this year, Merlin knows that they deserve to be put in their place." continued James.
"Don't count your snitched before you've caught them James, Slytherin haven't been beaten in over 5 years, our chances don't look to good" replied Remus.
"Well, I'll try my best; it would be great to win during our first year! Why do Slytherins need to be put in their place? What's wrong with them?" I asked.
"Oh, I forgot you and Lily don't know much about magic. Let me explain" began Sirius. "Slytherins are a pile of stuck up, arrogant, vile, foul, loathsome dragon dung. Gryffindors have hated them pretty much since the school was formed many years ago and I don't that's going to be changing anytime soon. The only thing perhaps more annoying than them is Peeves, although he can be a laugh as long as you're not at the receiving end of one of his water balloons when you're 10 minutes late for Potions." I couldn't help but laugh at this. I imagined a great creature with a massive head and eyes as big as saucers holding brightly coloured balloons, that repeatedly hit Sirius over the head until he was walking around, dizzy, in circles. Everyone else joined in too, perhaps envisaging the same picture as me. Several minutes later we were all hiccoughing into our pumpkin juice, when Sirius managed to say "Would you like me to show you him? Maybe we could even get him to put a dungbomb in Slytherin's common room, how funny would that be?"
"They're not too dangerous are they?" I couldn't help but think. The young boy merely rolled his eyes and grabbed my hand, before pulling me out of the Great Hall along with the three others, as we began the first adventure that our long friendship would take us on.