Dusk - Fred Weasley

1. The Leaky Cauldron

One : The Leaky Cauldron

Wind howled outside the creaking wooden walls of the pub, seeping through them and making the room cold. She paced across the room apprehensively, each light step breaking the silence of the other woman in the room. Her goosebumps covered the entirety of her body.

"Ms. Mallory."

The voice was gentle but shocked her still; she closed her heavy eyes and drew in a long, deep breath before facing him.

The man was older than she expected, much older, looking as though he was nearing his late nineties or early hundreds. His kind blue eyes pierced hers with a gleam of curiosity past his half-moon spectacles. His white beard down to his waist stood out against his royal purple robes, dotted with stars. He bore a smile, a friendly kind, one she had not been too familiar to.

"Yes?" Her voice was light like feathers, unfamiliar to her as his smile had been.

"Take a seat, if you please." He lectured to the chair in front of him. She sunk into the weak velvet. "My name is Albus Dumbledore, and I am headmaster at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." He watched her carefully, but her expression hardly changed. "I had taught both of your parents when they were my age and knew both of them 'til their death. I led the search party to find you and your mother. And now we found you." He gave a kind look. She peered at him with a deep look in her eyes. "I need to know your situation, everything that lead up to where we are now. Can you do that for me?"

A strange voice in the back of her head told her to not trust this man, but she ignored it. She had known him only for a few minutes time and something in his disposition made him trustworthy. She spoke.

"June of 1989, I had just turned eleven years old, and I was outside playing near the beech tree on the lake about a half a mile from home. It was growing dark and mother always wanted me home then." She paused to breathe and recollect the memory from the back of her head. Time had forced the unwanted memory far away. "When I returned home, at first, I didn't see anyone, and I called out their names over and over. B-but soon I walked around to my dining room and... he was d-dead. There was... blood, everywhere." She paused again, wiping a tear trying to fall. "I didn't look for my mother, I ran. I went straight to my room, grabbed a small bag filled with clothes, and ran. I was terrified..." Her voice faded into nothingness and all that could be heard again was the howling wind.

"And after that? Take your time, if you need it."

"And after that? I was here in London, begging for food and sleeping on the streets, while not knowing why my dad had been killed or where my mother had gone... I knew there was magic, but not where to find it. I couldn't run to a muggle about it, could I?"

A tear fell this time, and she let it. The other woman in the room slowly pet her knotted hair for comfort.

"And Dixie-" She pointed to the woman next to her, a lively woman with bright blue eyes and springy blonde hair. "found me outside the Leaky Cauldron. I think I passed out."

Dumbledore adjusted his spectacles, peering at her with a look she could not recognize. Care? Empathy?

"Thank you, Evren." He smiled. Evren smiled back. "I want to continue for the search for your mother. The search was put on hold because she and you had disappeared. But now that we've found you, they may start the search once more."

She smiled brightly, not something she found herself doing often.

"That means the world, sir, thank you."

"No need. Now, you recall me mentioning that I am the headmaster of Hogwarts, yes?" She nodded. The wind picked up even louder and everyone in the room drew their clothing closer to their bodies. "I'd like to offer you an education there."

Evren beamed, eyes swimming with joy. Her parents always told her she'd go there one day, and she looked forward to it since the young age of 6. Her mom told her all about Gryffindor, about the fun she had with her brother and his friends and her own friends. Her dad told her about Hufflepuff, his house, and Quidditch and the classes and her mother. He'd always tell her he liked her since they were second years in herbology together, but she didn't speak to him until they were 15 and they dated ever since. Evren had big dreams for this school, but at 13 she doubted her acceptance would ever come.

She beamed at Dumbledore. "Seriously?"

"Very seriously." He looked at her with an amused gleam in his eyes. Her shock was unmatched - even to that of muggle parents finding out their child has magical abilities. "You are quite far behind, but I believe you have the potential to catch up as much as possible in time for your fourth year."

"I- I can't thank you enough... I really thought this would never happen and" she rambled about how grateful she was before Dumbledore politely shushed her.

"You have nothing to thank me for. Thank Dixie here, because without her you'd never be found."

She was found, she realized, and she smiled to herself as they spoke of her future.

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A/N:
hey!! here's that book number two I spoke of and keep on rewriting (oops). leave me a vote if you enjoyed it, it'd mean the universe!!