❝"I want to save them."
"You're just saying things that I already know, Nellie."
"You're not going to try and stop me?"
"On the contrary, my little Witch. I'm going to try and help you."❞
***
Viatorem Atramento: Ink Travellers. That was what Noell...
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Noelle was stuck under the scrutiny of harsh green eyes the moment Madam Pomfrey left. Unsurprisingly, she felt rather uncomfortable. "Can you stop staring at me, please?" she muttered, fiddling with the sleeves of her maroon sweater. "It's a bit daunting." She was left momentarily surprised at her ability to form coherent sentences, what with the muddle her mind was currently in.
"Oh — sorry. It's just that I haven't seen you around the school before," he explained sheepishly, still not shifting his inquisitive gaze. "Are you new here? Like a transfer student, or something?" Noelle looked up at him and met his gaze. If by transfer you mean literally transferring from one world to another, then yes, yes I am.
How the heck was she supposed to answer that?
Moments passed in silence, and Noelle was still struggling to think of a decent reply. His voice brought her out of her jumbled thoughts.
"Now you're the one staring," he said, giving a small boyish grin. Noelle broke eye contact and breathed a laugh in embarassment.
"Sorry, I'm just a bit overwhelmed," Noelle said timidly, before continuing. "Did you say I'm in — in Hogwarts?"
He nodded, looking faintly concerned at how she continued to pale even further. It was either that, she mused, or he was just worried about how she kept on asking the same question. "Are you okay—?" He stopped short. "Um, sorry, I don't know your name..."
Noelle blinked a few times before shaking herself out of her stupor. "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm—"
The door burst open again, interrupting Noelle's self-introduction, and in walked a man that confirmed her presence here, in Hogwarts, making Noelle's heart momentarily stop.
"She's here, Headmaster, although I must request that you refrain from giving her any stress—she was found in the Black Lake, after all, cold as a block of ice, broken arm and all," huffed Madam Pomfrey in a protest she seemed to know she would lose. "She's still recuperating, and she is under my care."
Bloody hell.
Long white beard, blue eyes twinkling with curiosity behind half-moon glasses — it was Albus Dumbledore.
***
Portraits of old wizards, the previous headmasters, loomed over Noelle, gazing keenly at the strange girl sat in the office. Noelle stared back at them, looking at everything with poorly hidden disbelief.
"Sherbet lemon?" came the questioning voice of the old man sitting before Noelle, a bowl of ovally shaped yellow sweets hovering in front of her. She shook her head, kindly refusing the offer with a small smile. "I have a sweet tooth for candy; I'm rather fond of hard sweets like sherbert lemons. I've drifted from other delicacies, especially after an unfortunate encounter with Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans — vomit isn't a particular taste one would enjoy. Don't you agree, Miss Black?"
Noelle's eyes snapped up once she heard her name.
"Sir, how did you...?" She began, but trailed off at the soft smile he presented her. "Legilimency?"
His eyebrows shot up, and he considered Noelle with a contemplative air for a moment before speaking. "Not in this case, no." He paused. "I know who you are, Miss Black — because I know what you are. Your mother was an extraordinary being."
"What?" Noelle asked, not even bothering to hide her bewilderment. Her mother? What does she have to do with this? And what did he mean — was she not human? Noelle subconsciously glanced down to search for an extra limb or something protruding out of her, any discolouration or random marks. Last time she checked she was perfectly normal -— unless her father was an animal or something and she's secretly a hybrid.
The soft fluttering of paper brought Noelle out of her thoughts and she looked up to see Dumbledore waving his wand, before looking down to see two envelopes. One was yellowed slightly, with a red wax seal in the centre, the Hogwarts crest imprinted in the middle. Instinctively Noelle's hand drifted over towards this letter and she flipped it over.
There was her name.
Noelle Black.
Her mouth suddenly felt dry and she could hear the blood rush in her body as her heart rate sped up. Is this what I think it is?
"Miss Black, are you aware of what this is?" Dumbledore's voice came from somewhere in the distance. Is this really what I think it is?
"My Hogwarts letter?" replied a shaky voice. It sounded vaguely like her own.
"Indeed. It's been here since the moment you were born," confirmed Dumbledore.
Noelle's mind was blank — and that's when she heard it.
'You belong here,' said a voice at the back of her mind, the same one she had heard in the pathway.
Noelle's eyes drifted toward the second envelope: plain, white and thick. She reached out for it, but as soon as her fingers brushed the smooth surface, inky smoke burst out into the air and coiled around her, shrouding her in a thin sheet of darkness. The ghostly wisps were forming foreign shapes and words that Noelle, somehow, could decipher.
'This world is yours, and you need to protect it.'
