Chapter 1
It had been utter bedlam amongst the staff of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry when the name had first appeared upon the Book of Admittance in early February of 1890. At first, headmaster Phineas Nigellus Black had insisted that there must have been a mistake. Perhaps this was a prank of some sort commited by a rogue student or disgruntled staff member. Perhaps the powerful enchantments that had given sentience to the quill and book for centuries had begun to lose their touch.
However, both the quill and book remained just as accurate and powerful as ever, and the room in which they were locked remained as untouched as it had been in all its years of being there. There had been no tampering or failure that had brought this on, it simply was fact. A fourteen-year-old girl, with no prior magical history or education, had been accepted into Hogwarts.
It was then that a rather livid Professor Black had made inquiries with the Ministry in a final effort to have this child's name expunged from the list. They could not possibly be expected to accept a muggle-born student of such an age. She was practically non-magical! How else could she have reached fourteen without showing a trace of magic? But the protests of Phineas Black fell on deaf ears and the Department of Magical Education had insisted that he would, "simply have to make this work." And so Professor Black had begrudgingly met with his staff and charged them with the task of settling this inconvenience.
Between Professor Black's attempts to avoid the situation entirely and the shock of trying to decide just what to do in a situation that none of the faculty, even ghostly Professor Binns, had ever encountered before, it was nearly the end of April before the staff of Hogwarts had pulled together a plan for this student. Matilda Weasley met with Professor Black and insisted that they would need to send the student a mentor to prepare her for the upcoming school year. Black had been not at all pleased at the idea of sending off a professor while the current school year had yet to end but eventually conceded and told her to assign the task to Professor Eleazar Fig as, "the man had been completely useless since his wife had passed anyway and he was sick of seeing him sulk about."
And so it was that Eleazar Fig found himself in the bustling city of London, standing before a large and worn dark wooden door on a busy city street.
****
Hallie Elizabet Edmund was seated at a desk in a small bedroom upstairs facing the street. The sun shone brightly through the curtains and a light breeze flowed in through the open window, but Hallie paid it no mind, only glancing up to the window on occasion. Instead, she was rather focused on the page that laid before her and the soft, rhythmic scratching sounds of her pencil against the page. The only time she ever seemed to feel at peace was when she had a pen in hand or a page before her. When she found herself focused on her latest sketch or engrossed in a good book, the problems of the world seemed leagues away. These were the only things that seemed to bring her much joy anymore.
These were the only things she seemed to be any good at as well. She thought back bitterly to all the hours she spent struggling to stitch and embroider in Miss Abbotford's Finishing School for Fine Young Ladies. Four years of finishing school and her needlework still wasn't half as good as the other girls. And if her needlework wasn't bad enough, her talent with instruments was utterly abysmal. She paused in her sketching for a moment to rub her knuckles absent-mindedly, remembering the sharp pain of the instructor's cane cracking across them whenever she failed to press the correct piano key.
Hallie could say with confidence that she did not miss finishing school one bit, but she couldn't say she liked it any better here either, if anything, here was worse. A little more than two years ago, Hallie's elder brother Charles had been given custody over her when the ship their father had been captaining over had sunk on a voyage. Charles was her only remaining relative and although he despised her, here she was. His first act as her guardian had been to withdrawl her from the finishing school she had been boarded at from the age of eight and bring her here. He had told Miss Abbotford rather haughtily as he withdrew her that, "he would not be wasting his money on schooling her when she could learn all she needed to know for free at home."
Hallie had returned with Charles to the Edmund family home and had been here since. Now her "education" consisted of the cooking, cleaning, and all the common housework. If Charles deemed it women's work, it was her's to do and it had better be done right unless she wanted to provoke his temper. It was never good when Charles got angry, which was unfortunate, because he very often was ill-tempered. Hallie had found it best to just stay out of his way as much as she could and avoid mistakes at all costs.
Setting her pencil down on the rough wooden desk, she leaned back and stretched against her chair. It was nearly mid-morning now and Charles would soon be expecting tea before he left to meet with his business partner. Hallie rose and attempted to quietly make her way down the staircase as the stairs creaked slowly underfoot.
Turning down the hall at the base of the stairs, she could hear papers rustling in her brother's study from behind the door as she passed by on her way to the kitchen. He must be working on some last-minute train engine designs for work. Charles had dedicated the last several year of his life to engineering trains in a partnership with a few other engineers. If he wasn't out drinking, or away with his fellow engineers, he could be guaranteed to be found in his study.
The kitchen was on the smaller size with a small circular breakfast table seated off to the side of the room beneath a large cracked window. In fact, each of the windows of the kitchen, as well as the glass pannels of the china cupboard were heavily cracked. This had caught her eye and sent small chills down her spine each time she spotted the glass ever since the cracks had appeared in February. The circumstances of their appearance still failing to make sense to her.
She pushed the thoughts from her mind quickly. The events of that day weren't something she particularly enjoyed dwelling on and try as she might, she had yet to come up with any plausible explanation in the months since.
She had just finished pouring the freshly made tea into a cup as Charles entered the kitchen wearing a dark suit on his tall frame. He took the cup and fixed her with a glare with his dark brown eyes but thankfully said nothing. Although both her and her brother had inherited their fathers thick brown hair, Hallie's resemblance to him ended there. Charles was the spitting image of their father, tall and chiseled-jawed with wavy brown hair and eyes to match. He could have attracted a multitude of suitors if he didn't care so much for the bachelor's life. Hallie on the other hand was rather short and slender with pale green eyes and soft oval face framed by her long brown hair. She was often told that she very much favored her mother.
Charles breathed a heavy sigh and set his empty cup down, "make sure the foyer and sitting room are clean today, Gerald may come back with me this evening."
"All right." Hallie responded.
Charles grabbed his briefcase and left the room just as there was a knock at the door. She could hear the front door open and then voices speaking from the foyer.
To her suprise, moments later she heard Charles call out to her, "Hallie!"
****
Eleazar took a breath and knocked softly at the door. It was always fascinating to see how people reacted when one of the professors were sent out with the letter to greet new muggle-born students and their families and explain Hogwarts to them. Although, admittedly, lately he had found it hard to be too very interested in much of anything. Ever since the news of Miriam's death, his mind had been clouded with questions and guilt surrounding her loss. It had all but consumed him in recent months. He thought with a pang that perhaps he wasn't the best person to be chosen for this right now. Matilda had insisted, though, that perhaps a change of pace might do him good for a while. She had told him that teaching a student one on one for a while, rather than overwhelming him with classrooms of students and coursework might be just what he needed.
Even he could admit that he was a bit curious anyway, given the unique circumstances of this particular student. He always had been a sucker for an adventure. It was a penchant that had often gotten him into trouble in his lifetime and undoubtedly been among the reasons he had been sorted into Gryffindor house in his youth. The door opened only moments after his knock and he was greeted by a tall man with dark features who appeared to be in his mid-twenties.
He smiled brightly at the man, "Hello, my name is Professor Eleazar Fig, is this the residence of Miss Hallie Elizabet Edmund?
His smile faltered a bit when the man fixed him with a foul look, "I am her brother and guardian, the names' Charles, Charles Edmund. What exactly is it that you want with my sister?" He demanded bluntly.
Well, Eleazar thought to himself, a bit taken aback by the man's demeanor, straight to the point then. Clearly he was not dealing with a patient man.
"Yes, well, as I mentioned I am a professor. I teach at a particular school for children with, shall we say, special abilities. Your sister has been accepted into this school," he said as he waved the letter in his hands slightly to indicate towards it. He bounced slightly on the balls of his feet and clapped his hands together brightly.
"But perhaps we can speak more in detail about that inside, shall we," he suggested with a slight edge in his voice as he peered at the man blocking the doorway.
"Fine but this had better be quick," Charles said gruffly as he stepped to the side to allow Eleazar in. "I have places to be."
"Of course."
Eleazar stepped into the foyer as Charles closed the door behind them and called out into the home beyond them, "Hallie!"
"So, do please explain how my sister could have been accepted into this school," Charles said crossing his arms as he turned to face Eleazar, "I have not submitted any applications into any schools on behalf of her."
"This isn't the sort of school one could usually apply to, rather, it is a school that invites students to attend based their abilities,"
Charles scoffed, "What sort of school doesn't get its students through applications? How could you have even gotten her name for the list without one?"
Eleazar smiled as a shy head peered around the corner of the hall and a pale young girl stepped lightly into view as she entered the foyer.
He looked back towards Charles once again and replied with a twinkle in his eyes, "Why a witching one of course!"
****
Hallie's steps faltered as she rounded the corner into the foyer. There in the foyer beside her brother stood a man who appeared to be in his sixties or seventies and dressed rather eccentrically. Hallie had never seen an outfit quite like his. He wore a blue robe accented in brown and golden patterns with a scarf to match, a brown collared shirt, and blue pinstriped trousers.
Hallie thought to herself that she surely must have misheard the man as she entered the room, because she thought she had heard him say the word "witching." Why on earth would they be discussing something like that? Why was this man even here at all and why would this involve her? She had never had any visitors before and she certainly had never met this man before.
"Is this your idea of a jest sir, I have no time for nonsense," Charles responded to the man in a slightly raised voice. He was visibly annoyed now and he was glaring at the stranger.
"Sir, I assure you this is no jest. Your sister it seems, is most certaily a witch, and I have been sent here to deliver to her a formal invitation to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and to answer any questions you might have," the man replied evenly. He didn't look like he was joking. In fact, the look on his face spoke of seriousness.
Before Charles could reply, the man then turned a piercing blue gaze towards Hallie and gave her a kind smile. In his outstretched hand he held a envelope sealed with a bright red wax insignia that she didn't recognize.
"And this, belongs to you," he said as he stepped foreward and placed the letter in her hands.
A numb sort of shock seemed to fill Hallie as she took the letter. She felt mystified as she tried to process the words she was hearing. This had to be a strange and rather vivid dream she was having. Things like this don't happen in the waking world. Odd, she was sure she had been awake.
At that moment it seemed that Charles had found his voice again and it was full of shock and anger as he spoke, "My sister has not been practicing anything as untoward as witchcraft sir, of that I assure you! We are a respectable sort of folk here and I do not appreciate accusations like that!"
"Bah, nonsense," the man scoffed, turning has gaze back to Charles. "I am aware that muggl- er non-magic folk have a low opinion on what they perceive to be magic, but I assure you that the reality of the matter is entirely different. Tell me, have you not as of late experienced anything strange, anything at all that you cannot explain?"
Hallie felt like she had suddenly been snapped back into focus at this. She could almost see her brother mulling over the man's words as well. His eyes widened and then narrowed slightly and for a moment he glanced at her before he seemed to return to being lost in thought. She knew without a doubt that his mind had gone to the same place her's had. The glass!
Had she not been wondering just earlier how the glass had seemed to shatter all at once with seemingly no reasonable explanation? For months she had tried to explain it away and always fell short of doing so. And that wasn't all, not two weeks ago she had been rather frustrated at a particular drawing she had been working on and had watched in amazement as the paper had shriveled away to nothing before her eyes.
Last month she had been cleaning the mantle in the sitting room and knocked over several of the decorative glass ornaments that sat upon it. She had been sure they would shatter and that her brother would undoubtedly kill her for it but to her shock and relief they struck the floor and bounced back upwards unharmed as though they had been rubber balls.
Hallie looked up with a small smile beginning to ghost her lips and noticed the man watching her with a knowing look on his face and a small mischievous grin.
"You see, magic isn't exactly something you do, it's something you are. And until you learn to control it, im afraid, you'll find these strange things happening to be hard to avoid," he said with sparkle in his blue gaze.
"Yes, well, i'm not about to pay for her to go off to some school to learn to be a damn magician. You can forget it! She will simply have to learn to get it under control on her own," Charles stated flatly as he glared evenly between the man and her.
Hallie felt her heart drop. Of course, Charles was never going to agree to send her off to a school of any kind, certainly not a school of magic. Bitter disappointment filled her heart as she looked down at the rough wooden floors at her feet.
"Tuition at Hogwarts is covered fully by the Ministry. You won't need to concern yourselves with that. As for any notion of attempting to quell her magic, I would highly recommend against it. The magic will come out whether it is wanted to or not and attempting to prevent it would have disastrous and deadly results. I must stress to you the importance that she attend a school," a dark and very serious look had come over the man's face as he spoke. Hallie could tell that he had meant every word of this warning. A cold tension had settled over the room as though he were daring anyone to disagree with him on the matter.
A muscle in her brother's jaw seemed to jump. Clearly, he was considering his options heavily. When he spoke at last, it was with less bitterness than before, "You can teach her to control it?"
"Yes. She will need tutoring before the next school year, but that is why I am here," the man replied, relaxing slightly as he did so.
"Fine. Do what you must," Charles replied in a clipped tone. He pulled out his pocket watch, "I am late. I have to go."
Charles grabbed his briefcase off the floor, stuffing his pocket watch back in his coat pocket as he did so and stormed out the door, leaving Hallie standing, dumbfounded, in the foyer alone with the stranger.
He clapped his hands together and gave her a bright smile, "Well, aren't you going to open your letter Miss Edmund?"
She smiled shyly and stammered a bit, "O- Oh, right."
She quickly pulled at the wax seal of the envelope and slid the first of two pages out to read the letter within:
HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Phineas Nigellus Black
Dear Miss H. Edmund,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as a fifth-year student. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on 1 September.
The Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery prohibits the use of magic by those who are under the age of seventeen outside of school. However, due to your unique circumstances, the Ministry has graciously agreed to allow Professor Eleazar Fig to help you hone your spell-casting prior to the start of term before escorting you from London to the castle for the start-of-term feast and Sorting Ceremony.
Yours Sincerely,
M. Weasley
Professor Matilda Weasley
Deputy Headmistress
Hallie looked up from the letter and to the man as he smiled at her and said, "I am Professor Eleazar Fig. Im sure you have questions. How about we sit down and and have a chat about it over some tea?"
She could only smile and nod eagerly at him as she led him into the sitting room with a mixture of nerves and excitement in her gut. This was turning out to be quite the day indeed.
****
Eleazar had in fact been right. She did indeed have questions and lots of them. They had spent nearly all of that first day simply on trying to answer her questions and explaining what she could expect in the months to come.
Hallie had brought fresh tea in and they had settled themselves in the sitting room, each on one end of the sofa. Eleazar had dove right into explaining.
He couldn't help the bemused smile that crept across his face at how tentative she had been to accept that what he was speaking was the truth. Perhaps it had been stunned shock and disbelief that had caused her near-silence throughout their initial meeting. It hadn't been until he had finally drew his wand and transfigured his empty teacup into a pocket watch and levitated it from his own hands into her's that she had begun to come around to the idea.
At the sight of the spell her eyes had seemed to light up with a burning curiosity and her silence gave way to shy questioning.
"W- Wait! How... " "So ... magic is real ... and you think I can wield it and, and..." "Hold on, how can you be sure that I can ..."
Eleazar merely chuckled at her rapid-fire questions, "Yes it is very much real and I have no doubts that you are a witch. The Book of Admittance has never been mistaken. But what better way to prove it than to try something simple, hmm?"
He reaching inside his coat and pulled from it a second wand, holding it out to her, "go on then, take it, I will show you what to do."
She took the wand tentatively as Eleazar demonstrated one of the most common and simple spells taught to first-year students, "Verdimillious!"
A small steady stream of green sparks shot from the tip of his wand. They shot upwards and then floated back down peacefully in a sparkling shower over the coffee table.
He had her practice both the incantation and wand movement separately a few times and then when he felt confident she had it right he gave her the go ahead to try it, "Now the most important thing about magic is that it requires intent. It isn't as simple as only waving a wand and saying an incantation. You have to be confident in what you are doing and you have to mean it. Now, ready your wand, and focus!"
He watched her intently as she locked her eyes onto the wand, uncertainty clear on her face, "Verdimillious!"
Only a couple scattered sparks of green light emitted from the wand and floated almost immediately downwards to the floor, sputtering out into nothing before they could reach it. A mixture of suprise and disappointment colored her face but Eleazar was pleased. He had not been expecting a great show on her first attempt. He offered her a kind smile and said, "Well done! Now don't be discouraged, you did wonderfully for that to be your first attempt. No one gets it perfectly on their first go. Try it once more, focus ... yes that's it! Excellent!"
Her second attempt proved much more successful than the last. This time she managed to produce a lovely stream of green sparks shooting upwards from the wand, smaller than his own, but executed correctly.
He chuckled lightly at the small open-mouthed 'O' her lips had formed and her bright wide-eyed stare, a small sensation of pride rising in his chest. It really was a joy to see a student learn magic for the first time. He leaned over with a smile and spoke, "Well, I can't say that leaves any doubt to be had, can you?"
She blushed shyly and shook her head with a small smile, "No, sir."
****
Learning and performing her first spell was a sensation that Hallie could describe in no other way but exhilarating. It felt right in a way almost no other thing in her life ever had. She had to fight with herself internally to resist the urge to bombard the professor with more questions. She did not want to make a poor impression on the man.
However, her heart sank when he explained to her that most children receive their invitation to hogwarts at the age of eleven and that after much deliberation, given her age, they had decided that she would be starting her magical education in the next year as a fifth-year student. A mixture of fear, confusion, and hurt suddenly seemed to fill her chest like a heavy cloud, pushing at the confined spaces between her ribs and up towards her throat. She cast her eyes down at the floor and stared as hard as could at the swirling patterns of the rug at her feet.
"Why did my letter and acceptance come so late," she asked slowly, swallowing the lump in her throat.
Professor Fig seemed to understand the muddled feelings that were floating around inside of her. Sympathy shined in his eyes as he replied, "Presumably your magic must have come in later than most children's or perhaps there was never an instance of magic significant enough for the book to allow it before now. Admittedly, we can't know for certain the reason why. Your circumstances are quite unique."
Great, Hallie thought to herself, even in a world where witches and wizards exist, she was a freak.
"How am I ever going to catch up to four years of magic in just four months," she said lowly. She couldn't keep the bitter fear she was feeling from creeping into her voice.
"Yes, well, that is where I come in. From here on until the start of term I will be here every weekday to train you in your magic. Rest assured, we have a plan and you have an entire team of skilled witches and wizards who have been working diligently to help you," Professor Fig replied. He seemed to notice she was still feeling unconvinced because then he leaned foreward and said in a kind tone, "How about this? Let's make a deal, shall we? You, focus your mind on learning and I shall handle the rest. Leave your worries to me."
Hallie looked up from the rug and at him and considered him slowly as he looked at her reassuringly. She could try to do that, she supposed. She gave him a slow nod and sighed, "Okay."
For the rest of the morning Professor Fig had explained to her what she could expect to be learning in greater detail. She would mostly be studying the more important details of each of the core classes that every student at Hogwarts was required to take: Transfiguration, Charms, Potions, History of Magic, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, and Astronomy. The goal, Fig had told her, was to get her spellwork and general knowledge to a point where she could at least understand her fifth-year classes and be capable of learning and casting the fifth-year level spells once term began. They would fill in as much of the gaps as they could with any spare time they had and begin practicing with electives when he felt she had mastered enough of the core classes. She would also be taking additional lessons with nearly all of her professors, including him, during the term. For now he wanted her to focus on only what was necessary to learn.
It was hard not to feel overwhelmed by it all as she watched Professor Fig stack a layer of first-year level books on the coffee table in front of them. How was she ever going to learn all of this? She tried to swallow the sinking sensation in her stomach that told her she was going to fail. She had to try. She had to do this.
By the time evening had rolled around, Professor Fig had explained to her in greater detail the contents of each subject. She did feel a tad bit better knowing what she could expect to learn in each subject.
She felt quite eager to get into more hands on learning and spellcasting but by the end of the time they had for the day, they had completed only a short verbal lesson in charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts as they looked over the books he had laid out. Professor Fig had said that he didn't want to overwhelm her on the first day of learning. It was a lot to take in all at once.
"I do believe that is enough for one day," he said as he closed the book they had been looking over and stood. He handed her the book. "You can hang on to these and look through them in your free time if you'd like some extra preperation but you'll understand that I will need you not to do any spell-casting whilst I am not present to guide you. I'll take the wand with me each afternoon when I leave, at least until you get your own," he said with a wink.
Professor Fig took the wand as she handed it to him and bade her a short farewell as they reached the door, assuring her that he would be back the next morning for their next lesson.
As soon as the door closed behind him, she bolted back into the sitting room to retrieve the remaining books he had left and rushed up the stairs to her room. Eagerness to absorb all she could about the subjects seemingly rushing through her veins.
****
Three weeks had gone by since Eleazar had begun to teach Hallie in preparation for attending Hogwarts. He felt quite pleased with her progress thus far. As it turned out, she was a rather bright student, albeit shy, and he quickly saw in her an eagerness to learn.
He had been quite suprised when he had returned on the second morning to find that she had read several chapters into each of the books he had left. At the end of their first week she had presented him with a sheet of paper filled with questions she had thought to ask him about the books as she read them.
He had laughed joyfully at the sight of the list and did his best to answer her questions. After all, lucky was the professor who's student had an eager mind to fill. He had encouraged her to continue the practice.
Now she had nearly completed reading the books. Of course, that didn't mean he didn't still have much to teach her. Reading about spells and potions were an entirely different kettle of grindelows from executing them. But it helped that she had taken the time to read the books. She had been moving along in learning quite nicely.
Eleazar arrived at the door to her home right on time. His mind occupied with what he was hoping would be an engaging lesson on transfiguration today as he knocked softly at the door.
Several minutes passed by with no response. Odd, she had been quick to fling the door open each day previously. He wondered with a chuckle if sometimes she wasn't waiting eagerly by the door for his arrival. Perhaps she had not heard the door but he thought he heard the faint sound of glass shatter from inside the home, he knocked again.
Once again there was no response. As the minutes dragged by he felt an uneasy sensation sinking into him. Something felt wrong. The longer he stood there the stronger the feeling became. Perhaps these were only the paranoid thoughts of an old man but he weighed his options and with a brief glance over his shoulder, he drew his wand quickly and unlocked the door.
He stepped into the foyer and glanced into the sitting room - empty. A loud thud echoed from down the hall. That had come from the room Hallie's elder brother spent most of his time in when he happened to be home during their lessons.
The man had been in an increasingly ill-temper all that week thus far, slamming the door behind him each evening when he arrived home and causing Hallie to jolt in her chair each time. He thought with a huff that it had rather disturbed her studies. On Tuesday, she had caused the feather she was supposed to be levitating to shrivel and burn instead of float when the door had slammed during her attempt. She was quick to his beck and call too, dropping whatever she was doing at his demand and returning with a shy apology afterwards.
He found it all rather perturbing, but when he had thought to question it she had grown quiet and brushed him off with thin excuses. He was hesitant to push the matter, lest she clam up even more. He gripped the doorknob, perhaps Charles would be in a better mood today and tell him where he could find Hallie, -locked.
Unlocking the door with his wand, he swung the door open. The room was a disaster, shattered glass and porcelain coated the floor. More alarming than that however, was the sight of Charles holding a struggling Hallie up of the ground, his hands clenched tightly around her throat. Her skin was a sickening shade of purple and blue and her feet kicked and slid uselessly against the wall.
He had no time to think, raising his wand and pointing it at Charles, he shouted, "DEPULSO!"