To Meet History

Chapter 3-How She Came to Live and to Be at Hogwarts

For nine years old, little Le-Annette was already strange. She wouldn't pay attention when her mother tried to show her the way to keep up with a household. She would rather be outside with her cousins, learning to horseback ride, or joust. She would stay out very late at night, watching these things, and refused to cover her self to keep warm. This is what they blamed the illness on.

It began with a simple cough. Then it progressed into vomiting and to her looking rather pale and blue around the face. Finally, she was bed ridden. Her mother cried over her. Her father comforted her mother and looked at Le-Annette in such a way that it confirmed the little girl's suspicions about her illness. She was going to die.

That was, until, one night as she lay asleep in her bed. She was awakened by the windows in her bedroom flying open. She got out of bed to close them. She had to hold on to one of the posts of her bed to keep herself standing; she was so weak. Suddenly, a voice from nowhere, it seemed, filled the room.

"Do not strain yourself, little one. You know you are not strong,"

Le-Annette gasped and looked around. Standing in one corner of her room, was a tall man with shoulder length red hair and dark eyes. He smiled at her.

"Who are you? How to you come to be in my room?" Le-Annette asked him.

He stepped into the light, where she could see his smile more clearly. His incisor teeth were that of fangs. Le-Annette cowered in fear.

"You are a demon!" she said, now hugging the bed post.

"Of sorts. But you must believe me, I will not hurt you," he said, walking closer to her still.

"Don't turn me, please! Think of what my family would say!" she begged.

He bent down and picked her up. She struggled, but to no avail. His grip on her was strong, but gentle. He sat down upon her bed and placed her in his lap.

"I am here to make you well. But you must do as I say," he said, gently rocking her back and forth.

"Why do you want to help me?" she asked, tears in her eyes.

"Because, little one, you have a great future ahead of you. You must be there to meet it,"

"How will you heal me?"

In response, the demon-man slit his wrist. A thick layer of blood soon covered the cut. Le-Annette looked away.

"No, no, Le-Annette. Look at me," he said, and Le-Annette reluctantly glanced at his wrist. "This is how you get well."

"No! You're lying! This is how I become one of you!" she all but yelled.

He laughed. "You know your history. No, I must drink from you first, and I will not drink. You will take only enough of my blood to kill the illness. I want you to drink now,"

Too afraid to more, the demon-man brought his wrist to her mouth. She drank slowly at first, then quickened as the power of it over took her.

"Stop!" the man said finally, having to wrench his wrist from her.

Le-Annette began to jerk, moaning in pain.

"Don't worry. It'll be over soon. Then you will be all better,"

He was right. She soon stopped jerking, and she could feel that her weakness had vanished. The man smiled down at her, and she was no longer afraid of him. To her, he looked as though he were an angel sent from the heavens above.

"Be well," he said, as he turned to depart.

"Wait!" she cried, running over to him and grabbing him around the waist. She found herself amazed at her rapid return to health. "What is your name? Will I ever get to see you again?"

"My name is Zion. I will visit you often, at night of course. Fare thee well, my little one," he said and left.

Zion kept to his word of visiting Le-Annette often. He visited her every night. He even visited her on the night, a little less than a year later, when she received a mysterious letter. He arrived as he always did, through her window, and sat down on her bed. She was staring intently at a piece of parchment in her hand.

"What is that, Le-Annette?" he asked her.

She handed him the parchment, which he read silently to himself. When he finished, he simply looked up and stared at her.

"It says that-that I can be a witch," Le-Annette stammered. "Is this the future you meant for me?"

"Part of," said Zion.

Le-Annette whimpered slightly.

"What is it, child?" he asked.

"You saved me for a life of evil?" she replied angrily. Zion laughed.

"You are still laboring under the delusions of your society. Not all witches and wizards are bad,"

"But, even if that is true, my parents won't believe me. They won't let me go!"

"Talk to your mother. Have you convince your father. I will be the one to go with you-tomorrow night, in fact-to get those items that that letter says you need. I must go again. I fare thee well and congratulations,"

And he left, leaving Le-Annette to have a restless sleep. The next morning, Le-Annette went to her mother, as she was instructed, and gave her her story. Much to the young girl's surprise, her mother agreed to try and convince her father to allow her to go to this school. There was the biggest argument that Le-Annette ever remembered her parents having as her mother told her father of the goodness that their daughter going to this school would bring.

"Fine!" her father had burst out at last. "She may go! But be warned that no amount of prayer could save her soul once she is initiated into it!"-and with that, he stormed out of their home.

"I didn't mean to make father angry with me," Le-Annette told her mother.

"It shall pass. Now, go to your room," she replied.

Le-Annette did as she was told. Soon, the sun set, and Zion came to take her to get her supplies. He told her he knew the entrance to the secret marketplace where she would find all that she would need. It was hidden behind a run-down pub, through a grimy wall. As the wall opened to reveal the marketplace, Le-Annette gasped with surprise. There were at least a hundred people behind there, that she couldn't hear until the wall had opened. They were all shopping for strange looking herbs, large cauldrons, and devices Le-Annette had only seen educated men use. Devices that could see the heavens.

"We shall start with your wand," Zion said, taking her to a store called "Ollivander's."

There where many, many shelves inside this store. All housed many, many, thin boxes. An elderly man, with his white hair standing all about him, approached Le-Annette.

"Come for your wand, little one?" he said kindly.

"Y-yes, sir," she said, and the man laughed as he walked off and returned with one of the thin boxes.

"Unicorn hair and willow, 10 inches. Give it a wave," he said, handing it to her.

She did so, and nothing happened. He took it away and brought another one for her. That one also did nothing. Finally, about five wands later, he brought one and said, "This is one of my newer combinations. Phoenix feather and oak, 10 and ½ inches. Here you go."

Le-Annette took it and gave it a wave. It instantly emitted green and red sparks. Zion and the man cheered. Zion paid for the wand, and they left to get her other supplies. They ended their trip by buying her her very first pet. It was a black cat, female, in which she named, "Luna-De."

Zion dropped Le-Annette off at her home, telling her that a special carriage was coming to pick her up for her school. She was to pack her things in the trunk they had bought her and then get a good night's sleep. Le-Annette stammered her thanks, and Zion departed. She packed all of her clothing-including the robes they had purchased just that day-leaving out only her best, woolen dress for her to wear the following morning. She then followed Zion's advice and went to sleep.

Indeed the next morning, a black carriage-somehow moving without the aid of a horse-appeared outside her very front door. Their were three other children inside the carriage. Two boys and one girl. The boys loaded up her trunk while Le-Annette said good-bye to her parents. She got a teary eyed hug from her mother and a gruff, "Good-bye" from her father. She then loaded herself into the carriage and shut the door behind her. It, much to her fright, lifted from the ground and took off into the sky, as though it were a bird and not a carriage meant for the roads.

"Don't worry," said the girl, her green eyes twinkling. "It does this. It is how we will get to school."

The girl's blond hair was tied up into a bun, and Le-Annette noticed that she wore the finest purple velvet. She tugged absentmindedly at the woolen dress she wore. It was a bronzish-brown and was darned many places around her knees. Le-Annette looked over at a red-headed boy that sat beside her with his owl in his lap. Luna-De was hissing slightly at the bird, who seemed to take no notice. Across from Le-Annette, sitting beside the blond girl, was a dark haired boy, who looked distinctly annoyed. The blond giggled.

"My name is Bathsheba," she said. She turned to indicate the dark haired boy. "This is Roland, and this-" she indicated the red head, "-is Nicholi. What is your name?"

"Uh...Le-Annette," she replied.

"Isn't this exciting? We're going to become witches!" Bathsheba said, and Le-Annette nodded.

As time passed in the carriage, the four children began to talk more freely amongst themselves. Bathsheba and Le-Annette became fast friend. Before long, the carriage began to sink back down toward the ground.

"We must be there!" Nicholi said, leaning over Le-Annette to look out the window.

The carriage came to a landing on the ground outside a large, magnificent castle. When Le-Annette stepped out of the carriage, though, she noticed that theirs were not the only carriage. There were indeed hundreds of them.

"Were they following with us?" Le-Annette asked Roland.

"Of course," he said.

Down the long stone steps from the entry way of the castle, suddenly came an adult woman, with long dark hair, and intelligent eyes. She gestured all of the children quiet.

"I am Rowena Ravenclaw. I welcome you all to Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," she said. "Now, if you will all follow me. I will lead you to the rooms in which you can change into your school robes before we do the sorting."