Princess of the Night

With love, Morpheus

Dear Rizzy,

How are you?

What kind of owl did you use the other day?! Brainless bird flew all around my rooms and choked on the owl treat I offered it! The owl which brings this letter to you is yours now - my present to you. I hope you like him. Name him, and let me know, ok?

Nice to hear about Rose - although it must have been scary when she let the tables flying! But then, the first signs of magic are always special... I don't think you remember what you did, though. You were just two then, and I had come to visit you. Before you ask, yes. I have visited before, but only twice. No one knew who I was however...

Anyway, like I said, you were two years old when you showed your first signs of magic. Quite a young age, I should say. And what you did was magnificent. You were crying for some reason, and I guess you got really livid. Well, all the other kids were there as well, in the dining hall. And you blew up the entire dining table with a single yelp. There was food and pieces of wood all over the place and almost everyone was covered in the same. Everyone except for you, that is! You had at the same time defended yourself and were sitting there, smiling at everyone - happy that you had caused such mayhem! - and completely clean. I'll never forget the day. Although, mind you, I had to scrub myself clean in the bath and it took over an hour to do just that!

Rizzy smiled to herself. She was sitting in her bedroom, even if it was a nice and sunny evening, and most of the other kids were out playing. She had just recieved a letter from her godfather. She didn't know his real name, he just called himself 'Morpheus'.

For eight year old Rizzy, her main aim in life was to find out who Morpheus was. He was her only correspondent, and he was the only one who knew her family. Atleast that's what he told her. Through the years, he had told her that he was a friend of her father's and that her parents had died when she was just a small baby. He had apologised that, due to circumstances, he wasn't able to take her in, and that he wouldn't be able to show himself to her. But he always seemed to know what she liked, and what she wanted. He gave her small presents every now and then, and Rizzy considered herself much luckier than the other kids who lived at the Orphanage.

Sahara, the Orphanage for young witches, wizards, and squibs, was officially under the Ministry of magic. The ministry provided grants for the basic needs of all the kids and made sure none of them were mistreated, abused or ill-used in any manner. The "making sure of things" part included monthly visits by the Head of the Services to the Magical Community Department, and rarely, by the Minister for Magic himself. And this blue moon occurs only when the Minister feels like making it to the front page of the Prophet for doing something "good".

But the place did function properly, as it had a 12 member Board to look after the running of the orphanage. None of the members on the Board were part of the Ministry, and it was headed by none other than Albus Dumbledore, the eccentric headmaster of Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He often visited the place during July/August, when Hogwarts would be closed. And all the kids loved him, with his Sherbet Lemons, midnight-blue robes, half-moon glasses and the twinkle that never left his blue eyes.

And Rizzy had always wondered whether Morpheus and Dumbledore were one and the same. It would make sense, really. Morpheus had just told her that he had visited her, so he must either be in the Ministry, which she doubted, or on the Board, which was a possibility. Of course, other people visited sometimes, those who wanted to adopt. But then, Morpheus wouldn't really be one of them, now, would he? So Dumbledore wasn't a bad guess at all... But then, wasn't Dumbledore really too old to be a friend of her father's?

Rizzy liked her little guessing game, though there were hardly any people outside the Orphanage that she knew. And in Sahara, it was just the other kids. She had a few friends of course, but she craved for a family. All of them did. She wanted to know what it was like to be held by a father or kissed by a mother... The ones who went to Hogwarts had friends who had normal lives and families. They must feel jealous sometimes, Rizzy thought...

She loved talking to some of the older kids about Hogwarts and Quidditch. They had told her that once you're in Hogwarts, you won't feel like leaving. You're allowed to do magic all the time, that's the best part of it. She was still too young to attend the school, but she already knew a lot about the teachers and ghosts. And of course, the caretaker Filch and his cat Mrs Norris. Every single student she had spoken to, irrespective of what house they belonged to, loathed Filch, and most of their dearest ambition was to have Mrs Norris fed to a dragon. Rizzy knew that there was a lot of rivalry between the four houses, especially Gryffindor and Slytherin. She wondered which house she'd end up in. She had even asked everyone she knew about how they were sorted, but no one gave her any proper answers. Why spoil the fun, they said. Of course, there were some who had nothing better to do than scare all their unfortunate victims, and they told the younger kids stories of how every new student who joined Hogwarts had to fight Trolls...

Once she had decided none of them were going to tell her anything, she decided she'd ask Morpheus. But he said the same thing as well - Why spoil the surprise? Rizzy had a feeling that all this 'surprise' business would actually mean the end result was an anti-climax... But no use worrying about all that.

For now, she had her latest letter from the one person she was longing to meet... One of the many letters that were neatly spread out in her own shoe box, where no one but she could reach it...