Neurasthenia

Wizardy || iii

____________________

Date: 24th July 1991
Current Location: Wool's Orphanage

Lucille was always a troublesome young girl, At least, to Mrs. Cole.

In all the years Nancy Cole worked at Wool's Orphanage, she'd say that only two occupants managed to make her rethink how much she valued her retirement benefits. She was not unkind, but she was strict and did not tolerate any kind of nonsense. Lucille was full of nonsense.

Of course, she'd have to admit that Lucille was preferred to THE BOY.

'I don't even have to think a little bit to figure out who she was talking about' Tom thought.

No matter how much Mrs. Cole begged Professor Albus Dumbledore, the man refused to take THE BOY forever.

Whispers run through across the hall.

'Who is she talking about'

'Dumbledore not taking a boy'

'Is he also one of us'

'Probably a mudblood then'

'Most likely he is living in a muggle orphanage'

Tom of course got ticked with these comments, especially the last two. Glare sharp as a knife went to the direction the comments were coming from and they immediately went quiet.

Each summer he'd return to Wool's Orphanage, and each summer he scared and upset the other children until he turned sixteen, and he disappeared for good. After that, she, the head of Wool's Orphanage, had decades of peace.

Then came Lucille.

She was not a superstitious person by nature. She didn't believe in ghosts or vampires or any of that nonsense, but she truly believed that Lucille had something off about her, and Mrs. Cole had to disrupt many fights between Lucille and the others over the years — and yet, she was the second child ever invited to Mr. Dumbledore's mysterious academy.

"I don't know why you insist on the children you come for," the old woman said, and she stopped with her hand on the railing, huffing. She and Dumbledore had both aged wildly over the past fifty years and yet it seemed as though she was the only one feeling the effects.

"The advantages of being magical I guess," Rabastan said out loud to absolutely no one.

Dumbledore waited patiently for her to catch her breath. "She's a bad one", Mrs. Colr continued her pace up the stairs. "Just like the last one you took."

"He took someone from there?" Marlene asked Dorcas

"Maybe she's talking about the boy, whoever he is," Dorcas answered her with a slight blush blooming on her cheeks.

"Perhaps," Albus hummed. "But perhaps not. Tell me, Mrs. Cole, are there any concerns I should be aware of?

Mrs. Cole sniffed. "Well, she's no Tom Riddle, but she's out of control! She leaves her bedsheets tied to the rafters, I've no idea how she gets them up there, and– and she steals knives from the kitchen! She carves into her bedposts to the point where we've gotten her a metal frame instead. She makes Jennifer bishop go spitting man, and a few years ago a man came to adopt her– said his name was along  the lines of Lucy as well – and she disappeared for three weeks! Disappeared! Oh, Mr. Dumbledore, we had the whole of London looking for her. And then she shows up at breakfast without a scratch on her! Wouldn't even tell us where she'd gone off to!"