Twice Chosen | Esmerelda Potter

3. Dinner and a Story

We decide that we would be staying at the Leaky Cauldron tonight, since it would take too long to get back home. Harry and I sit at a long table, waiting for my mother and Hagrid to bring food. There aren't any other people besides us at the tables tonight.

"Do you think that we could get Hagrid and Dora to tell the story?" Harry asks. 

I pause for a second.

"Probably. I mean, we are eleven now!" I say. He laughs, as did I. "Besides, I haven't asked for a while," I say quietly. 

Hagrid and Dora come over with platefulls of food. They place multiple variations of meat and salad in front of us. We hadn't had lunch in Diagon Alley, so we eat quickly and without any conversation.

When all the food is eaten, I decide to ask.

"Dora, do you think you can tell us what happened that night?"

"What night?" she replies. 

"I think you know which night," I say.

Hagrid and Dora look at each other for a long time and they finally nod. 

"Very well." Harry and I glance at each other in victory.

==========

"So this is what happened ten years ago. A dark wizard named... Voldemort... arrived at your childhood home," Dora starts.

"Voldemort?" I say.

"Shhhhh! We don't say his name," Hagrid speaks. I jump at the harshness of his words. Whoops.

"Anyway, he brutally murdered your parents. But your parents put your needs before theirs. That love protected both of you when it came time. He-who-must-not-be-named shot the killing curse at Harry first, hitting his forehead, where your scar is. It backfired and repelled him away and also hit Esmerelda on her thumb too because of the repelling radius. At least, that's what I was told," Dora says.

I glance at my thumb and run my fingers over the star-shaped scar. Although it isn't a perfect shape, it still resembles a star. I did know where it came from, but after hearing the story, it seems even more important. It is a relic of my past. 

"You both are the only people in the entire world to have survived the killing curse. That's why you both are called 'The Boy Who Lived' and 'The Girl Who Lived,' simply because you are the only people to do so. It's why you are so famous!" Dora pauses.

"Now, back to the story. Many wizards stated that Esmerelda's body vaporized because of the curse, but not at all. They never found Esmerelda's body and only assumed that she died from it. Esmerelda must of crawled away or something, I'm not quite sure, but somehow ended up on the streets until someone found her after taking a late-night stroll."

"Gloria," I mutter.

Yes, anyway, Gloria took you into her home and raised you, up until a few months ago, and she died."

"Of a heart attack," I finish for Dora.

I remember coming home from school that afternoon and watching Gloria knit all night. But just before I was about to go to bed, she hunched over in her chair and stopped breathing. She had just had a deadly heart attack.

I had just watched my best friend die.

"Since I was their neighbor, I knew Gloria and Esmerelda, even though I just recently moved into the neighborhood. I heard plans of taking Esmerelda to an orphanage across the country, considering you didn't exactly get along with most of the people that you knew, but I made the decision to adopt her in order to keep things more natural, although I was extremely young at the time. Besides, I wouldn't have had the heart to just send her off to an orphanage, considering I was your babysitter anyway when Gloria did her errands."

I gape. I never really knew about this, I just assumed that Gloria had written something in her will, although thinking about it, it never would have made sense.

"Anyway, Dumbledore owled me the morning after and told me everything about your magic abilities and made sure that I would want to really do this. Not sure how he knew, but that's Dumbledore for you. After some thought, I decided to keep you because I didn't want you to suffer in an orphanage."

"Harry, however, was around when Hagrid searched the house ten years ago. Hagrid took you to your aunt and uncle's, which was where you both were going to go. You stayed there for a while, until yesterday night, I guess. That's all there is."

I am amazed, as is Harry. For once, I can't come up with anything to say except, "That makes a lot of sense."

There is a long pause and I can feel it, but I don't want to break it, so I stare at the ceiling and count the lights above. 

"Alright, time for me bedtime," Hagrid says, suddenly in a very jolly mood. He disturbs my light-counting process. Hagrid stands up, while shaking the table, and carefully goes up the stairs and ducks through the arch.

"You two best be going up too. You can catch up tomorrow," says Dora. I did not want to go to bed, but I take the stairs up anyway.

"See you tomorrow!" Harry says. 

"I'll see you!" I reply.

I find my room quickly after going down the hallway. I lay on the bed. I'm still a bit shaken up after hearing more about the past, but I believe it was worth it. I lay on the blankets, which are quite cozy. I try to come up with a name for my owl, while also trying to sleep. If I don't think of one now, I'll think of one tomorrow.

I sit up in bed instantly. "I've got it!" I think.

I walk over to my owl, being careful not to trip over my trunk and its contents, which are sprawled around the floor, when I read them before dinner.

"Come here, Captiosus!" She tweets and flies onto my arm. 

Captiosus is Latin for smart, and she obviously seems to be smart. I stroke her feathery head and she flies gracefully around the room. 

Side note: the owl above is supposed to be Captiosus.