Chapter #9

Eleanor P.O.V,

Eleanor makes her way through multiple halls, expertly moving around the incredibly ridiculous castle she now resides in. She sighs annoyed when she reaches a door that is colored white and has a sign, 'Do not disturb' projected on it. She ignores it and opens the door to see a wide room. It has warm magic all around it and seems to wrap around her… or more specifically her cloak. It seems to seep into the cloak and surround her. In any scenario, it would have completely pacified anyone who walked into the room but it only seems to annoy her more.

She makes her way to another door that lies at the very end of the one she entered. While making her way through the room to her destination, her eyes narrow down on the many little trinkets that seem to be placed beautifully adding an artful feeling to the otherwise empty room. She even spots a portrait of the founders of this castle. It is a simple picture however and not some magical signature of them.

She opens the door to find an office that seems to be messed up beyond recognition. Devices seem to be lying around the entire room and take up most of the space. The remaining space is taken up by the many piles of paperwork lying around. Everything seems to be incredibly chaotic and would drive a normal person into some form of minor panic.

Eleanor ignores it with the ease of someone far too used to it to be considered sane and directly floats herself lightly and makes her way to the desk that is piled up with papers and nothing can be seen beyond it. She moves to the sides to see a young man asleep at the desk. He looks terrible. His white hair, which seems more like silver at times, is disheveled and disoriented. His eyes have big black circles beneath them that add to the stress on his face. This doesn't detract from his handsomeness which seems to increase in this state.

Eleanor looks at the man and smiles warmly for a moment, a very short moment before she forces a disapproving expression on her face and waves her left hand and makes everything in the room disappear. The man instantly sits up before looking around in confusion at his reaction. He spots Eleanor immediately and smiles warmly at her which she returns before looking around in confusion. He spots his empty clean office and the smile turns into a grimace.

Eleanor's smile widens at that before but before she can say anything, he rushes to a corner and unlocks a small cabinet. She calmly makes her way towards him and simply grins at his side. He smile seems to return as he spots a device within the cabinet. He locks it again before turning to look at Eleanor and sighing.

He begins speaking, his voice filled with anguish, "Why Eleanor? What did I this time? I remember grading all the quizzes and even remember taking your theory lessons… Did Ariana put you up to this?"

Eleanor who is simply looking at him with undisguised fondness says, "Yes, but also because you stayed up late last night."

Albus sighs loudly, he waves his hand through his hair and it seems to fix itself. He makes his way to the toilet and Eleanor calmly sits in his chair before reading through what he was working with last night. In the few months since Hogwarts began, she has learned more in a few months than what most students have in years. In the ten main subjects that she was advised to take yearly in sets of 2, she is acknowledged by many professors as one of the best witches of all time due to her sheer talent.

This however did not occur until after a period of 2 months. It all came from an accident when a child lost control of his magic and caused an incident. None of the professors were there so Eleanor stepped forward and took care of it within moments. Since then, she was unconsciously treated as the leader of the 1st years. This reached the eyes of the professors and when it came out that Albus was teaching her, this put with her previous achievement made them test her and resulted in this.

Eleanor thought back to her very first day at Hogwarts.

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1st P.O.V,

I stepped out of the train, still a little bit in shock that it was actually here. It looked magical, but was not like the one I remembered. It was similar enough to ignore the differences. I looked back to see Ella step out and stand next to me and start talking about how nervous she was. I inwardly rolled my eyes but still listened because being nervous was common for children in any new environment.

She looked much happier than the last time I saw her. Her name was Ella Potter now and the visible change from her blood adoption was the change in her hair color. It was reddish brown now instead of the brown it was previously. Her blue eyes had also lightened now and seemed gray when she would get excited.

I had found a seat in the train after a confusing lecture from Aunt Ariana. She asked me to be careful and think very wisely and maturely about what decisions I make. She said this in private after casting a spell that obscured us to the surroundings. As she finished, I naturally nodded as I wasn't some child like I looked physically.

She still seemed unsure but smiled at me, as she was about to remove her spell, we both saw how Albus, now that the place was empty and Aberforth was taking the children to the train, almost stumbled while walking. He walked over to the kitchen table and made the temperature low before placing his head on the table and snoring.

I naturally freaked out and was about to shout until Aunt Ariana stopped me and simply said that she will take care of it but asked me a favor.

I agreed to do it and she looked at me in consternation before telling me how dangerous it is to simply accept something before knowing what it is. I was lectured severely for 10 minutes after which she calmed down and asked, "Just take care of him please. You know how he loses track of time and simply stays awake for entire days before finally shutting down. While we will be at Hogwarts as well, you will be with him for most of your free time for your lessons." She also looked surprisingly angry at herself for asking me but her emotions said that the reason was complicated.

I nodded my agreement as I would have done it anyway. I hadn't forgotten what happened 2 days after I finished getting some clothes. I knocked on his door as per usual but he wasn't there so I suspected he would be in the lab and headed there. On my arrival I found him in the lab, around a completely messed up room sitting leaning on the wall. He looked like death swarmed him over and I could see the tiredness on his features. He also looked like a character that died while leaning on a wall.

I called him but he didn't even move. I made my way through his 'toys' and ignored most of the lab and on reaching him found him completely still with no signs of breathing. I freaked out and was about to scream in panic before my mind suddenly noticed the magic coming off of him. I measured his pulse from his wrist and he didn't flinch at that, the pulse was there and I relaxed. He woke up and groggily blinked before looking around and on seeing me he apologized. I was about to scream at him for scaring me but he looked so tired that I just decided to keep silent.

He asked me to give him a few moments while he freshened up and I promptly headed to Aunt Ariana to ask for some advice regarding what this was. I learned a lot that day, including how Grace used to remind him that his body actually still needed sleep and how to make him comply with common sense.

I made my way to the train with her as she told me that the ride would be long. I reassured her that Al had given me some books he had written, more like dictated to a pen, to read and entertain myself on the way to Hogwarts.

I enjoyed the books but ended up going through the ones I had before realizing that I kept the others in my bag. I slumped in my seat for a moment but then Ella stepped in. She immediately squealed before hugging me excitedly. I got up but remained blank. She looked well-fed and I felt satisfied with that, I dismissed my emotion before she started talking about her family.

While it was admittedly informative and informed me of many things regarding how ancient families work, I can admit to myself that dealing with any child is exhausting.

She grinned at me while I looked at the ridiculously huge castle in front of me. Apparently, her brother was a sucker and lost a bet and had to show her his memories of the castle. It looked dark and radiated magic that felt comforting all the way here. Fascinatingly enough, I could sense Al's magic from the castle's magic as well. He seemed to sense me too as his magic wrapped around me in that way it did whenever anyone he was fond of approached.

I smiled at that before heading in. The sorting ceremony was unique for the wizarding world and Hogwarts. Every wizarding child would go through it once every year for his '7' years of education, the hat only choses those who are above and beyond the rest or have a personality trait that strongly aligns with the house values.

Apparently, to have a house is to have a specific reputation in the world. The Hat doesn't just sort students of Hogwarts; it also sorts students from every recognized magical school. It is possible to belong to more houses than 1.

Being in a house grants special privileges to students, for example, you have to be a Gryffindor at least once in order to be a prefect. A Hufflepuff to be a head-prefect, a Ravenclaw to take more than 2 subjects or tutor someone, and a Slytherin to assist a professor and so on to gain points that you can cash in at the end of the year to get some things.

Anyone who is selected by a house belongs to it forever. There is no such thing as being resorted. You simply gain another house and more prestige. There haven't been more than a few head-prefects of Hogwarts due to this reason. You needed to be of both Gryffindor and Hufflepuff to become one.

Albus was part of all 4 houses at one point. It wasn't particularly surprising anymore that he was breaking records like that.

I headed towards the large gate where the other children were gathering up. The children from the orphanage looked at me and promptly gave way for me to take the lead which I ended up doing as I had gotten a bit used to guiding them all.

I spotted Al standing there with his eyes closed waiting. He seemed to spot me before giving me a small smile and smiling widely at the children. The children I hadn't seen even once were many and part of magical families. I had met all 'Muggleborn' children at one point when they came to the orphanage for more information.

They seemed to stare at me and the children following me in slight shock. Once they spotted Al, they all let out gasps of shock and seemed to go silent immediately. I ignored that reaction and took a look at Ella to see how she was doing and she seemed to be doing well enough.

Al began speaking as a hush fell over the children; he introduced himself and welcomed them to Hogwarts before asking us all to follow him to the sorting ceremony.

We arrived in the main hall in a few moments to see a huge hall, filled with children talking loudly, having fun. Al stepped in and as soon as they noticed him, a silence fell over the crowd. He gestured at us to follow him and led us to the front of the hall before stepping over to the podium. He gestured, respectfully, at a very old-looking man to come down to it but the man refused at which we all heard the crowd start laughing.

Al's smile twitched and I could spot Aunt Ariana holding both her hands to her face with her shoulders shaking frantically. Aberforth was grinning from ear to ear like most of the professors. Al sighed before stepping on the podium and he started his speech.

"Welcome back to Hogwarts to all previous students. I am certain that most Professors like me have missed your company dearly. Who doesn't miss children almost killing each other on a day-to-day basis, what joy...! "

He seemed to give a vicious look at a small table in the front; it had a lion on it. The residents of the table were laughing silently. He sighed loudly while pinching his nose on top at which the children started laughing again.

He continued, "For those of you who are new, welcome to Hogwarts for the next 7 years of your life. Here, you will learn to control the most wonderful gift of all, your Magic…"

He spoke for 2 minutes more, aweing the children and even me for a while before he ended with, "- and not to forget the most important thing you will learn during your years here, our venerable Headmaster, who will stay so until he dies…"

All the people in the hall other than us began laughing loudly. The headmaster sighed but even he smirked lightly at those words.

He began explaining the details of the sorting and what benefits are there for belonging to a house before he called the children with me one by one. Most of them were not sorted until finally Ella's turn came. I smiled at her in encouragement which seemed to surprisingly help her and she walked to the stool where the sorting hat was to be placed on her head.

What surprised me more was how the sorting had looked the same as I remembered it… but I waited for the results of her sorting. Finally after a span of 2 minutes, a voice sounded from the hat, 'Hufflepuff!' it said, loudly. The entire hall began clapping in surprise and glee. I suppose it is quite rare to be sorted in the first year… I even saw Al applauding brightly.

Finally, my turn came and I headed straight for the hat, it was placed on my head after Al gave me an encouraging smile which I returned. The hat began speaking in my head, "My… what a wonderful personality you have… such talent and such potential for greatness… oooh ambitious as well… what to do. What to do?"

I asked, "Are you reading my mind?" I was scared of that as it contained my previous life memories…

The hat replied, "No, I was not built with that purpose in mind, your soul is older than your body but that isn't anything I haven't seen before… quite recently as a matter of fact." I was immediately about to question who as it could be a reincarnate like me… but the hat moved on. "You would do great in Slytherin, such ambition and resource-fullness would lead you far…"

I rejected immediately as I did not want to be dragged into any power plays as they are a staple of the house according to Al.

The hat sighed, "Maybe Hufflepuff… you are hard-working, loyal and have much patience…" I rejected that as well before the hat said, "Very well… let it be-"

I interrupted before it could finish and asked who it that was that was so similar to me and the hat seemed to laugh before saying, 'Hmm… you are Salazar's descendant aren't you? How about this then little Slytherin, you finish your primary education in all subjects taught at Hogwarts and then I will tell you his identity.'

I was about to interject but he finished, "Better be Ravenclaw!" The entire hall broke out in applause and a blue raven seemed to manifest on the back of my school robes. I walked over to the blue table where many teenagers were sitting; we completely ignored one another other than a welcome.

The sorting continued and no one was sorted into any house after Ella and me. They had plain black robes that had no other color on them and sat behind the 4 tables that belonged to houses.

-Hogwarts Houses

Values

-Gryffindor

Bravery, helping others, and chivalry.

-Hufflepuff

Hard work, patience, loyalty, and fair play.

-Ravenclaw

Intelligence, knowledge, planning ahead, and wit.

-Slytherin

Ambition, cunningness, heritage, and resourcefulness.

[Taken from Web (Rights belong to Respective owners…)]

1st P.O.V End.

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Eleanor shook her head as she heard the sound of a shower and the ring on her finger glowed. The dark black ring faintly glows a pale red before a small setup materializes. She lights a fire at the bottom of the setup and the water begins to heat up. She begins faintly humming to herself as 2 cups materialize and she begins pouring some sugar into them.

She pours the boiling water into the cups that have tea bags and waits for a few moments while waiting for the flavor to seamlessly blend before she adds milk.

The room becomes silent as the sounds from the shower disappear and she pours the milk in before mixing the sugar and milk.

Albus steps out, fully clothed and looking fresher, with a tower wrapped his shoulders. His hair look frazzled for only being his upper shoulder length. He smiles in gratitude at the tea before he sits down in front of her.

Eleanor smiles in amusement as she stares at him while he is looking at the piles of paper on his desk. His smile seems to stay on his face as he says, "Don't get too excited Eleanor, and I remember finishing this before blacking out."

Her smile widens as she says, "That is great news! We can finally eat breakfast with Aunt Ariana today!"

"Don't you have a class in a few minutes?" [Al]

"I convinced Professor Slughorn to take it later." [Eleanor]

"You convinced Horace to postpone his class indefinitely?! How?!" Albus says in shock before sighing and simply sipping his tea.

Eleanor smiles faintly at his shock before saying, "I asked Ella to do it for me. Her 'brother' was more than willing to talk with his old Professor for a new venture into unknown territory."

Al smiles faintly at her before he waves his hand and the desk seems to clear up. They both finish sipping their tea and Al walks towards his wardrobe and picks out a cloak to wear. Eleanor wraps up the now empty kettle and cups. They both step outside in quick movements as Eleanor says, "Ella will be joining us tonight for a lecture on Transfiguration."

Albus nods faintly, "Hmm… and how 'far' exactly are you for her?"

Eleanor says, "Not too much… just last few months short of becoming an expert."

Albus smiles, more amused at her, "Not too far ahead are we young expert?"

Eleanor doesn't say anything as she keeps moving through the hallways. Albus smiles warmly at that before asking, "Your year is about to end Eleanor, which subjects do you intend to take next year?

She says, "I intend to finish the main subjects by my second year. I will take 4 new subjects and completely opt for self-study with taking the exams in my 5th Year."

Al hums before saying, "That is completely logical and I approve." He sighs before saying, "Truly worthy of being a Ravenclaw."

Eleanor snorts, "Says you! You are also a Ravenclaw!"

They arrive at a room that seems to lead to a table where 2 seats are already filled by Ariana and Aberforth. Eleanor says, "I brought him Ab! You owe me!"

Aberforth chuckles at that before agreeing and says, "Of course, how do you like it now Albus! Go ahead and try to sleep on me again!"

Al shakes his head before saying, "Don't tempt me! I already apologized to you! And it happened once!"

Aberforth laughs, "Once is one too many! Ariana, you truly selected the best one to take him to task!"

Ariana who is now having tea and talking with Eleanor just hums while looking at both of them with deadened eyes. She looks like she is stuck between a rock and a hard place and seems to glare at Aberforth at his words. She remains silent however and cows him into silence.

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Ariana P.O.V,

'I want to scream.' Is the only thought running through me as I look at Ab. Does he have no awareness of Eleanor's crush?! He went ahead and provided her with the key to his room that she ended up decorating a little to suit her own tastes!

I wasn't here in Hogwarts for 2 days and this is what happens?! And Albus!

My bastard brother! How could you let Eleanor keep a key to your room? Does he even know she has a key to his room!

And the thing she is telling me right now. How she made some tea for them both like she has been doing for months! How did I not notice this!

I wish there was someone I could ask advice from regarding this situation… how do I fix this? She is eleven going 12 in a few days and too young to have such an emotion for Albus…

I sigh inwardly as I turn back, now having cowed Ab, to Eleanor to hear about her day at Hogwarts. It is pleasing that she joins us all for breakfast. Most students and orphans never join us, only Grace ever did and she was our niece in everything but blood. I suppose Eleanor is part of this family now. She has a friendship with Ab and is learning under Al. And I adore her as well.

She would be perfect! If it wasn't for her crush that makes me want to kill Albus.

And again! She is smiling so warmly at him which he unconsciously returns while drinking some coffee from his cup. I hope the staff don't get involved when she opts to privately study… it is a possibility if she is selected as part of the Hufflepuff house next year.

It seems more and more likely from how all the first years seem to follow her blindly. From what Albus told us, she is gathering her followers unconsciously as she is very charismatic. I hope she brings Ella again soon, Ella Potter formerly Allen, is her only friend and seems to follow her everywhere during school hours.

I suppose that anyone would befriend someone who owes an oath to them and was there for them in their hardest moments…

I sigh again as I notice Al chatting with Eleanor. Why does he treat her like an adult? I doubt that he realizes that he is doing that. Is this the fabled synchrony between two opposite alignments that Mom and Dad told us about?

End Ariana's P.O.V,

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Eleanor P.O.V,

As I have breakfast with them, I contemplate on some of their strange habits. It is fascinating to note the little things between them, the body language, silent eye gestures…

I have taken to following their unspoken rules while eating with them. Whenever they sit down together, it is a subtle thing, a very subtle thing but they both, Ab and Aunt Ariana wait for Albus to start. Whatever it is, food or some form of drink.

I noticed it very early on that while they both seem to generally be very carefree around him and incredibly frank, they show him the utmost respect in some of the very small things in day-to-day life.

For example, when they are all walking together, Ab walks faintly behind him, almost unnoticeable to the eye and with Aunt Ariana, she walks ahead of them both where both Al keeps an eye on her.

This even stretches to their seating in private. For example, this table I am sitting at. There is room for 4 but his is defined by being in the 'center'. His chair is also slightly raised and more elevated. It is also fascinating to observe their interactions during this period.

Al seems to be leading the conversation by telling them about his days and even seems to mention some international news from time to time at which they raise some eyebrows. He seems to be the head of his house which is expected as the eldest.

I pay close attention as Al's emotions change from (Joy) to (Joy-Mischievous) before he says to Ab, "Anyways Ab, when do you plan on giving me some nephews to spoil?" He says this so nonchalantly as if speaking about the weather.

Aunt Ariana doesn't seem to be paying too much attention as she is sipping tea but she suddenly spits in out before starting to cough loudly. She sounds adorably confused as she says, "Huh?! What did you say Al? I must have misheard you. Something about children from Ab…"

Ab sighs at this turn in conversation before he says, "No, you heard him right Ariana, he did indeed talk about me giving him some children to spoil…"

I stare in confusion at this reaction on their ends as it is just a joke before I notice Aunt Ariana making an extremely thoughtful face filled with complex emotions. She stares at him, Ab before she asks, "But you don't have any such plans right?" Her voice is filled with complex emotions as she stares beseechingly at him.

Ab gives a nasty glare to Albus before he smiles warmly at Ariana before saying, "Of course not! I have no intention of getting married or even having kids unless we are talking about adoption?"

Albus who has been stiff in his seat as soon as Ariana spoke up seems to sink into his chair with a pale face as he hears what Ariana asked Aberforth.

He completely misses Ab's furious glare directed at him but his absolutely ashen face gives the impression that he did in-fact see.

Aunt Ariana seems to completely gain her composure at that before nonchalantly sipping her tea again. Aberforth smiles warmly at her before he asks Albus a question about the current actions of international governing body which Al immediately jumps to.

I, who can sense the emotions of people close to me if I focus on them, however remain in shock as I immediately sensed the most dominant emotions in Aunt Ariana as soon as Ab having kids was mentioned.

Her magic seemed to cover us all as she radiated (Possessiveness-Jealousy-Rage) towards both Albus and Aberforth. A bit more towards Aberforth... I am dumbfounded.

My mind is a whirlpool of shock and incredible surprise as I begin to realize that I have a huge obstacle in my path… to gaining/completing one of my goals…

My eyes twitch as I begin to realize why she never displayed anything but pity as she described Al as a flirter. She wasn't feeling pity for Al in any way but she was feeling it towards the girls along with malicious glee that I can now recognize.

I dismiss my enlightenment as I think about some of the Purebloods I have interacted with. None of them was surprisingly arrogant and very few of them even looked down on any 'Muggleborn'. They did seem to keep their interactions mostly limited to those who had accepted or chosen a family to get to know.

I do notice how they seemed to crowd around Ella at first. It was quite interesting to note how 5th Years were looking at us scheming something. I advised Ella to not have any interactions with that particular group of 3 and even let Al know that they looked quite weirdly at us.

Many of my… followers… I cannot believe that is what I am calling them… but many of them follow me on some days to Al's free time periods where many can observe our close relationship.

I informed Al that the way some of them looked at us was weird and while I saw no outward change, his emotions changed to a dark tone before he subtly questioned me jokingly on their appearance. I mentioned them slightly and he looked with twinkling eyes for a moment at one of my followers before giving me a slight nod.

He definitely used Legilimency on him and I also realized that day that he had effectively only promised to not use Legilimens on me and he simply said that he will try his best not to. I asked him clearly to explain how he could use it on a child to which he said, "This is a very serious accusation that you are leveling at those children. I need their exact faces to even start investigating such a serious accusation."

I remember staring at him in confusion as he continued, "I have, and will continue to keep my word to you about never reading your mind but somethings are too important to not take such quick action." I simply gave him a nod at which he sighed before he moved away.

The trio that was staring at us was found with some drugs in their rooms. They were all promptly expelled from Hogwarts and last I heard their parents were called to some hearing from Lord Arceus.

He moved fast as this was one of the few things he mentioned in his book that was written by Albus. He believed that many things could be a huge threat to our continued existence as a united race and one of them was highly addictive substances that anyone could ingest.

They were available and banned in many countries but under his leadership, he completely banned them and restricted their access. He hunted down black markets with a single minded focus and destroyed 5 ancient families that controlled this in the wizarding world. I suspect that he put them under his command but his book doesn't mention any such thing.

His book was published very recently, a year ago in-fact and the fact that it wasn't even written by him, just endorsed by him was surprising to many people. Interestingly enough, despite the book saying he did many things, no trace of any such thing can be found in the official articles. I remember looking them up for days with Ella's help but there was no such recorded incident.

Everyone however regarded it as the absolute truth and nothing less. None of his methods were stated, no personal motives could be gleamed from the small book and it was mostly a collection of things that he did and opinions. Most purebloods however regarded it similarly to the Bible and treated him more like a Lord than a man…

The pureblood children looked at him with a reverence equaling that of Merlin. It was quite interesting to witness and I confirmed many things by speaking to the writer of the book. My Albus.

He had the weirdest reaction when I brought to him the book. He seemed to stare at it in mortification before steeling himself. I only looked on in confusion as he looked at the book as if it was some bad joke that offended him on a personal level. Ab straight up laughed at the book and Aunt Ariana giggled at him when I brought it up at breakfast. He slumped in his seat at the book…

I dismissed my thoughts as I looked at them. They all seemed so content together as if they didn't really need anyone else but I felt some people missing… I could feel their magic taking a shape of 2 figures faintly but couldn't make out any details. Aunt Ariana placed a hand on my hand before she smiled and gestured at the empty cup in front of me.

I am part of this family… I realized. I smiled warmly at her, that she returned and before I took a sip of my tea and thought on my plans for this month… I can delay that till my 2nd Year but I should probably tutor Ella a little bit before Al's lecture. She can't embarrass me too much in front of him…

End Chapter.

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