Sasha Liliana Jackson & The Secrets of Hogwarts

Chapter Eight: Meeting The Headmaster

Sasha was surprised to be walking alongside Professor Snape, he had told her that Professor Dumbledore needed to have a word with him as well as the other professors. Sasha and Penny had both been released from the Hospital Wing.
After Professor Snape had entered the password, they both stood by the huge golden eagle statue and it soon spun around. It soon revealed a large and beautiful circular room, full of funny little noises. A number of curious silver instruments stood on spindle-legged tabled, whirring and emitting little puffs of smoke. The walls were covered with portraits of old headmasters and headmistresses, all of whom were snoozing gently in their frames.
There was also an enormous, claw-footed desk, and, sitting on a shelf behind it, a shabby, tattered wizard's hat — the Sorting Hat.
"I'll go and look for him," muttered Professor Snape. "I'll be back."
Sasha watched as Professor Snape walked up another staircase as he searched for the headmaster.
Then a strange, gagging noise in front of her made her look up at the desk. Standing on a golden perch behind the door was a decrepit-looking bird, with dull amber feathers.
Sasha stared at it and the bird looked curiously back, making its gagging noise thought it looked very ill. Its eyes were dull and, even as Sasha watched, a couple more feathers fell out of its tail.
Sasha was just thinking that all she needed was for Dumbledore's pet bird to die while she was alone in the office with it, when the bird burst into flames. Sasha yelled in shock and backed away into the desk, while Professor Snape watched on with interest.
She looked nervously around in case there was a glass of water somewhere, but couldn't see one. The bird, meanwhile, had become a fireball; it gave one loud shriek and next second there was nothing but a smoldering pile of ash on the floor.
The office door opened. Dumbledore came in, looking very somber, with Professor Snape walking behind him.
"Professor," Sasha gasped. "Your bird — he just caught fire—"
To Sasha's astonishment, Dumbledore smiled.
"About time, too," he said. "He's been looking dreadful for days, I've been telling him to get a move on."
Sasha remembered hearing stories about birds exploding into flames and rising from the ashes, reborn and refreshed.
"Your bird is a phoenix?" asked Sasha curiously.
"I've seen you had met Fawkes." Professor Dumbledore waved Sasha towards where Fawkes was at. Sasha looked down in time to see a tiny, wrinkled, newborn bird poke its head out of the ashes. It was quite adorable in Sasha's opinion.
"It's a shame you had to see him on a Burning Day," said Dumbledore, seating himself behind his desk. "He's really very handsome most of the time: wonderful red and gold plumage. Fascinating creatures, phoenixes. They can carry immensely heavy loads, their tears have healing powers and they make highly faithful pets."
"He's pretty cute as a baby bird," Sasha said as she looked at the reborn baby phoenix in fascination.
In the shock of Fawkes catching fire and seeing a baby phoenix, Sasha had forgotten what she was there for, but it all came back to her as Dumbledore settled himself in the high-backed chair behind the desk and fixed Sasha with his penetrating, light-blue stare.
"Sasha, I need to know how much Miss Snyde was bullying you and the other students," said Professor Dumbledore. "But from your selfless act I shall grant you more freedom to exercise your independence and resealing the cursed vaults."
Sasha gulped slightly and was stunned that Professor Dumbledore had gave her such a gift before she said, "Thank you, Professor. But I know that Merula was bullying many of the first-year muggle-borns on the train ride here and Merula had started picking on me before the Sorting Ceremony. According to Penny, many of the first-year students had been bullied by Merula in and outside of classes or during free time."
Sasha watched as Professor Dumbledore got out a tiny flask and gave it to Professor Snape. She felt her scars burning on her left arm again, she hissed in pain and started clutching her arm. Tears of pain started to streak down her face.
Professor Snape looked at her uncertainly, but Sasha caught his eye. He was afraid for her, not of her. Sasha nodded and flinched Professor Snape carefully collected the tears from Sasha's face. When he was done, Professor Dumbledore had led them towards his Pensieve.
"Sasha, do you wanna stay out or see through your memories?" asked Professor Dumbledore gently.
"I have to face my past one way or another," Sasha stated grimly with a sigh.
"Very well my dear." Sasha joined the two of them, unsure of what's about to happen.
The Pensieve lay in the cabinet where it had always been. Professor Snape heaved it onto the desk and poured Sasha's memories into the wide basin with its runic markings around the edge. To finally reveal her painful memories would be a blessed relief. The memories swirled, silvery white and strange, and without hesitating, with a feeling of reckless abandonment, Sasha dived after the two professors.
Sasha fell headlong into sunlight, and her feet found warm ground. When she straightened up, Sasha saw that she and the professors were at the forest's edge. She flinched as she watched her five year old self ran away with tears in her eyes from a group of neighborhood bullies, who were yelling, "Freak! You're a freak!"
Sasha was surprised to see Professor Snape's dark eyes had started to become filled with tears. Sasha caught sight of Professor Dumbledore's saddened and guilty gaze. Sasha refused to believe it was either of the faults of both Jacob and Professor Dumbledore, they both have their reasons. But Sasha wasn't sure what to make of Professor Snape, he seems heartbroken when he saw Sasha's late godmother and her younger self.
Sasha watched as Aunt Lily had stepped from the picnic table and started scolding the bullies, nearby her uncles were lecturing and arguing with the parents of the bullies. She felt herself trembling with anger and sadness, while Lily (Sasha was getting tired calling her younger self "Past Sasha" and decided to use her middle name) had secretly ran off into the forest.
Lily started looking around the forest and started gently placing lilies on the sparkling lake. She soon heard howling and barking from behind her, Lily looked up and was stunned to see a huge pack of wolves: many of them are in the colors of gray, white, reddish, black, tan, and brown. The biggest one was a dark silver wolf with amber eyes and a graying muzzle. One of the pups tumbled over and Lily hesitatily petted the playful wolf pup. The wolves watched her curiously and non-threateningly on the hill.
It was midnight and Lily had came across the pack again. The dark silver wolf looked at her before he said, "We welcome you Alpha Wolfwalker." Lily and the professors both looked stunned as the wolf spoke. "Yes. I am speaking to you Sasha Lily Jackson. You had learned much about the life of us wolves after you had been bitten."
A flashback of a wild black wolf with fierce green eyes had came out and had bitten fiercely into a screaming Lily's left arm. A mix of magic and pain had painted the room gold and red. The screams and yells from Lily's family can be heard. The bleeding scars of the Wolfwalker was the reminder of the blessing and the curse had been given to Sasha in the past.
Lily was in her wolf form again and was running with a brown eagle as her guide. Lily jumped onto the other side of the ledge and had managed to create a distance between them and a pack of werewolves. Lily snarled at the werewolves before she slipped away again with the boy on her back and the eagle had flown away.
Lily — in her human form — was walking through town with some groceries. She blinked back the tears when she saw kids around her age whispering to each other and not taking their eyes off of her. The adults either looked wary or sympathetic, but they held their children away from her. None of the kids had came over to Lily and continued staring at her warily.
Lily was in wolf form and her gaze was looking up at the full moon in the slightly cloudy night sky with a mournful look in her eyes, tears streaked down her face before she lifted her muzzle and had started howling mournfully. Her loneliness and mournfulness can be shown through her song, but it was followed by her faint determination and hope. She misses her brother and her late godmother, but she loves them nevertheless.
Sasha, Professor Dumbledore, and Professor Snape all rose up out of the Pensieve. Professor Dumbledore looked at Sasha with a guilty and upset look, while Professor Snape was looking at Sasha with concern and empathy. But Sasha wasn't looking at them, she was still trying to recover from her emotional scars.
Before the silence can become awkward, Professor Dumbledore soon said, "Come. We have a student to suspend in the Great Hall."

Sasha had arrived to the Great Hall a little early and to be jumped on by a concerned Rowan. Sasha nodded to the professors before she walked alongside her best friend. Sasha was pretty surprised of how worried and concerned that her classmates were showing towards her, they usually pretend that she's not even there. They both sat down next a little away from Tulip, who looked serious for once, and the silent Ravenclaw boy that Sasha had saw in Potion class a few days ago.
"Umm... Hi? I'm Sasha Jackson," Sasha whispered to the Ravenclaw boy.
"I know who you are," whispered the Ravenclaw boy. "My name is Talbot Winger." He glanced up at the stage as he quietly added, "The Gathering is about to start."
Everybody had all looked up to see Professor Dumbledore walked up to the stage. Sasha was surprised to see a furious looking brown-haired woman on the stage with the other professors. Everybody watched as Professor McGonagall and Professor Quirrell had escorted an humiliated and embarrassed looking Merula to the stage. The two professors both sat down on their chairs on the stage and Merula stood in front of the stage with her head bowed.
"Miss Merula Snyde," addressed Professor Dumbledore, his eyes for once weren't twinkling. "From the bullying and threatening that you had done to this school you shall be suspended for two weeks and when you return, you shall have detention for three months after classes. You are not allowed to look for the Cursed Vaults, I had picked a handful of students to perform for this mission. But when you are done with your detention, you must apologize to every student that you had bullied at this school."
One by one, many of the students had started whispering excitedly. Sasha could see that everybody was secretly relieved to have Merula off of their backs. But everybody fell silent as Merula's aunt had whispered something fiercely and angrily at Merula. Whatever she had said, it had made Merula break into tears. Sasha and everybody else had all watched as Merula was dragged away from her aunt's sharp grip. Sasha felt a stab of pity for Merula, but her decisions had made her get one of the worst punishments imaginable.
Sasha felt Rowan's hand gently squeezed her wrist. The two girls inched closer together, their shoulders touching. Sasha turned to look at Tulip, who had passed Sasha something to her across the table. It was a small golden key on a piece of deep blue thread, Sasha looked up at Tulip in confusion. Tulip caught her eye and winked at Sasha with a knowing smile. Sasha had a faint suspicion that Tulip knows more than she lets on. Sasha nodded her thanks to Tulip with a smile before slipping on the necklace and hid the key underneath her jacket. They'll never know of what they might be facing in the future.