magic • j. hale [✓]

Chapter 38

Ariella approached the Golden Trio on the first day of the Easter Break. She was quite surprised when she stumbled onto a conversation about Marietta Edgecombe. The person who is responsible for the temporary disbandment of the Dumbledore's Army. "Now, now. That's hardly a way of talking about your classmates, now, is it?"

"Ariella!" Hermione gasped. "I-I mean, Professor Swan!"

"Oh, dear. Please just call me Ariella like you always do." Ariella winced at the professional sounding name. "I'm only Professor Swan during classes, not during breaks. Although, I am still a professor, so Ron, no matter how much I loathe Marietta Edgecombe, I'm afraid I'm going to have to take five points off for that."

"What?!" Ron sputtered. "B-But you said you hated her too!"

"Ron." Ariella looked pointedly at the redhead, who looked defeated.

"Fine," Ron grumbled. Ariella slid into the seat beside Harry's.

"Hey, what are you thinking about?" Ariella nudged Harry, who seemed to be deep in thought.

"Apparently, his Occlumency classes with Professor Snape is done." Hermione rolled her eyes. "He says he's not been having weird dreams anymore."

Ariella took Harry's chin gently, and looked into his eyes, silently using Legillimency on the child. When she was able to break through easily, she broke eye-contact and shook her head. "I was still able to breakthrough. You've still got loads to learn, Harry."

"W-What? You know Legillimency?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, I learn loads of things, you know." Ariella shrugged. "But, anyway, if you would like, I can continue to teach you Occlumency in place of Snape. Just tell McGonagall, I'm assuming she already knows you're taking Occlumency lessons from snape, so she should approve of me teaching you Occlumency as well."

"You would do that?" Harry asked meekly.

"Of course." Ariella smiled at the boy.

"By the way, Ariella, you look much different than you did last year." Hermione pointed out. "You're much paler, but you look much more beautiful as well. And your eyes are golden."

"Oh, you don't want to know." Ariella grimaced as she remembered the way she was turned.

"I want to know." Ron chimed in.

"Well, I nearly died during a car crash," Ariella recalled and watched as trio's face distorted into grimaces. "And then, there was a family. They helped me, and in change, I became like this."

"You look like Cedric." Harry pointed out, ignoring the ache in his heart when he mentioned the so-called-dead boy's name.

Ariella growled. "I know."

The trio glanced at one another, and immediately diverted the subject away from Cedric. Ariella stood up, saying that she had lots of other things to do, including paperwork. Before she left, she said to Harry, "By the way, Harry, your parents were amazing, that much you shouldn't doubt. Sure enough, Lily loathed James through most of her Hogwarts years, and James actively chased after her like a lost puppy. However, during the end of their sixth year, and throughout their seventh year, James actually showed that he can be mature. He stopped hexing people for fun, and he lessened his torment to Severus. Upon seeing this, Lily fell in love with him and agreed to go on a date with the man. Don't doubt your parents, Harry. I can tell you that they loved each other very much so."