Can't read my, can't read my

Albus Dumbledore

Albus was rubbing his temples as he felt a migraine coming on. He could easily allow Minerva to handle discussing with young Ms. Degurechaff her actions in Defense Against the Dark Arts class on the first day of school, but the situation both felt like something he should personally handle and left him wanting to ask some delving questions about the girl's history. And the only way to be sure he got what he wanted was to use Legilimency on her.

Using Legilimency to read surface emotions to determine if someone was being truthful was not too onerous even without verbally casting the spell, but the focus required to cast it silently and without the other individual aware of any intrusion at all to get more than the most surface level information always gave Dumbledore such a headache. Even thinking about the task was enough to start a migraine forming.

Albus became aware of Ms. Degurechaff's arrival and straightened himself up. "Come in," he called at her knock on the door.

In stepped a young girl. Small, delicate features on a pale face under a messy mop of blonde hair growing out of the style created with her last haircut and surrounding large, piercing, bright blue eyes. There had been several individuals who had passed through the illustrious halls of Hogwarts that could be described as doll-like and Ms. Degurechaff was possibly the one who could most easily be mistaken as just a large porcelain doll if she was to sit on a shelf.

"You wanted to see me, Headmaster?" Ms. Degurechaff asked as she entered the room, eyes quickly scanning over the furnishings, never lingering as she stepped towards the chairs across from Albus's desk, nothing having really changed in the couple of months since her last visit to his office.

"Yes Ms. Degurechaff," Albus agreed, giving her a gentle smile. There was no reason to be stern with the girl yet, no matter how worrying her actions may have been. This was not the first time Ms. Degurechaff has come to his office after having killed some creature, though the number of witnesses to her methods and her methods in question left Albus with little choice but to have this discussion. "Have a seat."

Ms. Degurechaff held his gaze easily, making the task of attempting to read her mind much easier. The eyes were the windows into a person's inner self, making the connection easier. "How was your first day back?" Albus asked as he attempted to enter her mind to see how she saw her day.

Attempted to enter her mind, only to hit the brick wall of her mental defense. Without decades of experience, Albus may have let something show on his face about his attempt to enter her mind, but she simply answered without seeming to have noticed the attempt at all.

"It was good sir," she answered with a smile that did not reach her eyes. "Actually, I was just helping the first years set up a study group when I got your summons and wanted to discuss starting a Yearbook Committee for the students."

Ms. Degurechaff wore her emotions and honesty openly on the surface of her mind, as dull as her emotions often were. Albus had failed to realize the strength of her mental defenses previously as he had only skimmed the most surface layer of her mind in the past, but to find the majority of her mind locked down so hard was interesting. Even many skilled Occlumencers would have had difficulty creating a defense that allowed emotions and honesty to sit on the surface while keeping everything else hidden.

"Really? And what prompted this?" Albus asked.

Thinking on it, Albus supposed it could be that the reason separating part of one's mental self out of the defenses erected around the mind could be that the goal most Occlumencers sought out was to keep others from gaining any information. Severus would probably be a good person to discuss Ms. Degurechaff's mental defenses as he used a style of mental defense centered around misdirecting mental attacks. Leaving out crumbs the intruder would latch onto and be trapped by without giving away anything of value.

"One of the first years brought a camera with him and I was worried about the problems he could cause in his enthusiasm if left to his own devices. By putting him on a yearbook committee as the official photographer, I was hoping his energies could be directed in a more productive manner."

No emotion attached to that honest statement.

There was no serious issue with a yearbook committee. One sticking point was ensuring that such a book would not upset any parents and cause Albus or Minerva unneeded hassle trying to soothe the rustled feathers of a prudish individual.

"I'll bring it up at the next staff meeting," Albus promised. "Certain measures will need to be put in place, overseen by a member of staff, but I do not have any objections to you starting the committee."

Looking closely, there was a lack of warmth to the polite smile Ms. Degurechaff put on. Hardly any emotion other than a dull satisfaction.

"That isn't why I called for you though. Do you know why I called you in?"

Tanya leaned back, pursing her lips as she thought about it. "While I'm sure it could be to arrange for the language lessons to continue, you would likely have waited for the weekend to set a meeting for that. So I'm guessing it has something to do with my conduct today. Was it perhaps my actions during Professor Lockhart's lesson?"

Albus nodded his head. "Correct. Why don't we start with you explaining what happened and I can determine how to go from there?"

"Certainly. The class began with a surprise test, that in the hand of a competent instructor would show which students are capable of noticing small details within the texts for the class. Unfortunately, as I only had about a week between getting the books and the class, I had not gotten around to reading them at all so I have no doubt I failed said test horribly and had to improvise answers."

No emotion either on her mind or tone. Tanya was just drolly stating facts.

"After that, Professor Lockhart," a small spark of irritation that was quickly quashed, "brought out a cage of Cornish Pixies. Before he released them, I confirmed that they are considered unintelligent pests. As he released them, he told us to deal with them. If he is as competent an instructor as he is portraying himself, then that is a clever way of gauging how we react in a crisis and how to teach us going forwards.

"I then dealt with the pests."

No elevation of voice. No other emotional response. Just words calmly and carefully said.

"And in dealing with these pests, did you perhaps threaten the teacher?"

Surprise. A tilting of the head as a flurry of emotions quickly goes through Tanya's mind. The emotions slow down as Tanya thinks back to the lesson and tries to find what could possibly result in such a question.

"No sir." Honesty. Not a hint of deception. "I can't imagine what would give the impression that I threatened Professor Lockhart. Well…"

Tanya paused as she thought a bit more. "My methods of dealing with the pixies may have seemed threatening to someone not familiar with the control I have."

Albus nodded and allowed a smile to grace his lips as he thought back to several displays of both power and control young Ms. Degurechaff had over her magic.

"Would you mind demonstrating what magic you performed?" Albus asked.

"Of course not," Ms. Degurechaff said as she stood up, pushing aside her robe to reveal her wand holstered securely to her side. With a practiced ease, she pulled out her wand, pointed it at the fireplace, and sent a gout of flames barreling out.

The flames were hot, but kept to a tight, incredibly straight stream that ended precisely at the entrance to the fireplace. Not entering and not igniting, showing the extremely tight control Ms. Degurechaff had as even a little slip in control would see Albus having a cozy fire going.

But what was far more notable to Albus was the silence. There was no crack of the spell going off, no roar of the flames, no sizzle in the air. And no spell spoken aloud. Ms. Degurechaff simply willed the flames into being and it was done.

Albus was incredibly familiar with fire spells, even having invented a couple. In this familiarity, Albus was aware of the full scope of what he was seeing. Ms. Degurechaff likely had many ways to deal with the pixies. That she chose to burn them said she wanted to impart a message.

For who and what the message was, Albus had a few guesses, but the important thing is that she had not put any of her fellow students in danger. At least, not for now.

That she resorts to such strong violence so quickly was very concerning and the root of Albus's frustration with the situation. By nearly every metric, the girl across from him was a perfect student. Popular among her peers, studious, polite, and helpful.

But there was another student very similar to her many years ago, that Albus suspected killed another student, before going on to be one of the worst Dark Lords of all time and the worst one in living memory.

Was young Tanya Degurechaff another Tom Riddle? A bright mind bent towards horrible ends that will go on to be the next Lord Voldemort? Was she already a killer?

Or was Albus seeing ghosts in the youth that are not there?

These were the thoughts pounding his head as he tried his hardest to read her, but unlike young Tom Riddle, her mind was not nearly as open a book as his was when they first met.

Dumbledore carefully put one arm below the desk and slid his wand into his hand, watching as Ms. Degurechaff slipped back into the seat.

"Very impressive," Albus complimented. "I must admit curiosity where you learned to do that."

"Fire was possibly the first human invention. Creating fire magically is an incredibly simple thing to do."

Deception through deflection. Albus did not need to read the avoidance coming off of Ms. Degurechaff to see this. His political acumen made the maneuver as obvious as water being wet.

Albus sighed, his headache increasing. It was a risky move he was about to take, but confirmation would help so much one way or another.

Leaning forwards, and establishing a hard eye lock with Ms. Degurechaff, Albus asked a simple question. "Have you ever hurt someone?"

Surprise briefly flickered before being snuffed out. Nothing replaced that surprise. Not anger as Albus would have expected nor confusion if she was truly innocent of what he thought.

"Sir, I do not think this is an appropriate conversation."

"Please, Ms. Degurechaff, just tell the truth," Albus tried his best to give as friendly a smile as he could give.

Ms. Degurechaff closed her eyes as she took a deep breath. Opening her brilliantly blue eyes and locking them to his own, Albus saw a history there. An age long gone. He still was unable to delve into her mind, though if he just cast Legilimens fully he could probably push past her defenses and look at her memories directly.

"I had no other options." Ms. Degurechaff said, honestly. "Or, at least, at the time I did not think I did. It was my life or theirs. Kill or be killed."

Albus saw the weight of that statement. The truth of it. He leaned back in his seat, his grip tightening around his wand. "Do you regret it?"

"I regret a great many things, sir."

Albus was able to keep a neutral face towards Ms. Degurechaff even as he deeply frowned in his mind. She was being honest, but there were things she was hiding. He could tell so easily that the chambers of her mind held many secrets.

"Would you tell me about it?" Albus asked, pushing for more information.

"No."

Albus had expected her to dance around the issue, try to avoid it. Not flatly deny his request. It looked like this meeting was coming to an end soon.

Gilderoy's concerns about Ms. Degurechaff were cleared. She was not threatening a teacher. At least, not directly, but whether or not she was a threat was left unanswered.

Albus set both hands on the desk, releasing his hold on his wand. Ms. Degurechaff's eyes honed in on the wand.

"That is an interesting design," she commented about the wand.

"It is an old wand, from before anyone alive now was born," Albus admitted.

"I thought that wands were paired specifically to the user."

Albus nodded with a smile. "Indeed that is how most wizards and witches come to find their wand, but there are a few wands that have been passed down. This one fell into my hands many years ago and has been a most adept companion."

"If you don't mind sir, I would like to get some dinner."

"Of course, Ms. Degurechaff. And know that my doors are always open if you ever want to talk about anything."

"I will keep that in mind, sir," she said with a nod as she turned and left the room.

Albus collapsed into his seat with a sigh.

"If I didn't know better, I would think she was from my family," Phineas Black said from his portrait.

"I dare say she certainly would appear to fit in," Albus agreed as he turned to his long time feathered companion. "What do you think, Fawkes?"

He got a trilling song in response that soothed Albus's headache and relieved some tension he had been feeling.

"I do hope you are right, old friend."