The Muggle Who Lived ☆ h.p au

Y E A R S I X

Hogwarts Castle. August 29th, 1996

It's been two months since the Battle of the Department of Mysteries and nothing felt the same for Zoë Dumbledore. After she woke up from passing out she felt no emotions. None at all. It was like Tom Riddle has taken out all her feelings and left her a hollow figurine that just walked around and played the part. Even when Evanora and Hermione came in smiling to see her again in the Hospital Wing, she felt nothing. No desire to smile and no desire to hug back. But she realized quickly that she has caused enough trouble for now to worry everyone again, so she just did her best to laugh back and hug like she meant it.

The only real thing she has felt was surprisingly being with Harry Potter, which Zoë suspects have to do with the connection of the scars. But even then she didn't feel herself. All she could think of was how angry she was at Tom Riddle for what he has done and every night passed with her causing his end.

Since it was the end of the year when she was attacked, no students came into the Hospital Wing, which still left her slightly invisible, with the exceptions of Harry Potter, Ronald Weasly, and the others from the group that day: Ginny, Neville, and Luna.

By the time the people of the Ministry came and witnessed the return of Tom, her Uncle Albus had already taken the Invisibly Cloak and placed it over her. She was carried back to the Castle and ended up in the hands of Madam Pomfrey, who luckily for her knew her existence from before.

With it being summer, Zoë got to roam the halls of Hogwarts like last summer, but it wasn't the same. Before she would run around laughing to herself and talking to the portraits, but now she just walks, welcoming the silence. She would hate herself for not being able to recover from what happened as quickly as Harry seemed to have. Zoë blamed it on her weak muggle body, in comparison to Harry's body full of magic.

Zoë left the Castle and walked along the safe border of the outside. She turned around, however, when she felt a slight shift next to her.

"Oh. Hello Uncle Albus."

Dumbledore nodded his hello back. Zoë has noticed that Dumbledore has also changed. He seemed a bit weaker and something dark had started to form on his right hand, as well as a glamorous ring. Everytime she asked about it, her uncle just stayed silent, so eventually, she stopped asking.

Zoë did her best to smile at her uncle. "And I was here thinking that I wouldn't see you again for the summer. Severus is fun and all but I've missed my uncle." Dumbledore has been gone for some time but he never told Zoë why, instead leaving her with Severus Snape, the only man he truly trusted.

At this comment Dumbledore stopped and just wrapped his arms around Zoë. Zoë was caught off guard, but eventually hugged her uncle back.

"You know Zo...I couldn't sleep when you disappeared last year. I'm just glad I have you back." Zoë only hugged him tighter and apologized for what she had caused. As they were walking back, a question popped up in Zoë's mind.

"Hey Uncle Albus, what happened to the blue orb I had?"

"It broke when you dropped it taking off Harry's Invisibility Cloak. But don't feel too bad about it, Harry's orb also got dropped."

This was something that Dumbledore would never say and Zoë knew that, but instead of asking any more questions she nodded and walked a little faster to get to the Castle faster. 

She wanted to be alone, away from all this.

In the following last days of summer, Zoë did the usual walking around the halls and staying quiet. Of course Dumbledore noticed, but something greater was happening. No matter what happened to Zoë, Dumbledore needed to protect her till his end.

The days past, and it was finally September 1st, and as students entered the Howgarts Express in platform 9 3/4, Zoë entered the room she would have to stay in for the next 9 months.

A/N: Hey! I hope you enjoyed the introduction to the next year of adventures. I can't wait to write the rest. I'm sorry in advance for any spelling mistakes. Bye!