Faerie Folly and Wizard Wands

Chapter Ten

He threw the powder into the fire, yanked on her arm, and pulled them directly into the now green flame! Before she could yell, she felt a great jerk behind her belly, and they spun out of control, then were spit into a room.

This room, she saw, was filled with strange and wonderfully magical objects. The office, she perceived, had a deep, decorated rug, and large windows, with a heavy dark wooden desk. Bookshelves on all sides were filled with titles and authors unheard of, and she smiled at the permanence. Suddenly, through a door at our backs, a man came, announcing-."

"Sirius! You've brought her! Well, Miss Sabine-I am indeed delighted!"

She spun, releasing Sirius and saw an old man, full of immense energy, with a great joyful power and fairness coming from him. He had long hair and an even longer beard, snow white and wore multilayered blue robes, a tall pointed hat, and half moon spectacles.

She smiled, about to answer him, and then his voice registered, and his eyes met hers.

Brilliantly lit from within, an amazing cobalt sapphire blue, his eyes pierced her with understanding and struck a cord in her now-opened mind.

Albus Dumbledore...her father.

Her gaze faltered, and she began to tremble. Her mother, she knew she could never find again; never-she had long forgotten her. But he-her father-this man, no! Wizard! He was a great one indeed."

"Sabine, this is Professor Albus Dumbledore." Sirius put his hand on her elbow, and introduced them. "He's the great wizard I've told you of. The great enemy of Lord Voldemort."

Her eyes lowered, but the discovery of this man of her dreams, her father, this was too much to withhold.

As he took her hand, she fell to her knees, grasping his strong, long fingers. Sirius tried to catch hold of her, but she was too determined, and knelt, holding her father's hand to her cheek.

"Miss Sabine! No need to bow!" he laughed, but she continued to kneel, until finally she brought herself to look again to his face.

"Father!"

Sirius made a choking sound behind her, and she felt something powerful and magical pass between their hands. Professor Dumbledore stooped, then brought her with gentle pressure to her feet.

"You are not Sabine."

"It's what they have all called me," she returned.

"Your mother?"

"She gave me no name."

At this her father smiled soft and sad and went to sit behind his great desk, and waving a wooden want that seemed to appear from nowhere, he brought two chairs to sit near him.

"Sabine, Sirius, come sit."

She took the chair nearest him, and stared at this energetic, kind man.

"My mother, she called me wee 'un."

Her father laughed quietly.

"She would not name you, my dear little Saquoya. I named you a name from my people, a name she did not know, nor cared to learn."

"Wait! Stop-Professor...and Sabine...so, then...I'm rather confused." Sirius put in.

Her father, his white shimmering hair shifting, gazed at the two.

"Saquoya, you are indeed my daughter. Even your appearance."

He pointed to a mirror behind them, and she turned, listening.

"You have your mother's emerald eyes, and my hair-but your hair is not my fire red, it is a prettier, golden bronze, and you are slender as your mother, and tall like me...and you have potent blood, my Saquoya."

She looked to him.

"Father-dear father-why did you leave us?"

"I was journeying in America on holiday, Saquoya, when I was wandering the deep green of the miry wild. Your mother, Luelinea, the greenwood faerie, she saw me, and was not afraid. For some oddness, I, too, fell deeply in love with the pixie. She lured me, and I went, quite willing, to the wild woods. There, I met your mother's people. Tall, they were, and clear-eyed. They sang as elves, and flew as birds. All were lovely to behold; slender, quick, and flitting, but your mother was the most beautiful of all."

Here, her father's eyes softened, and she remembered how my mother's face had lost its immortal hardness when speaking of her father, the great one.

"I joined with her in her faerie world, and stayed many months, forgetting my cares, forgetting m worries. I did not return to my work, and I forgot much responsibility."

He looked at her. "Ah, but that was two decades ago. My hair was shorter, and fire red, then, and I did not wear glasses...I was younger and more carefree. And, you, my little Saquoya, you were the fruit of my love with your mother."

Sirius burst quietly: "You have aged quickly, then, Albus."

Her father gave him a queer look. "Do you think I don't have excuse for this?"

Sirius inhaled quickly, looked away, and nodded, but then interrupted again. "Professor...is this why you never married?"

Her father chuckled. "Sirius, I am married." He suddenly bent with sorrow. "Married am I, to a fairy I love dearly, and who I know loves me well as she may. But my wife is of the faerie world. She stays with her people, where she must stay. She is a hard immortal-I am all that has ever broken into her heart. Even you, Saquoya, her wee'un, her daughter-you could not touch her whimsical way of feeling."

She sat silent, then asked quietly, "But still, father, why did you leave us?"

He sighed heavily. "Dear daughter...when you had just been barely born, an owl-wizard mail-found me, and told me of Voldemort's rise to power. My presence was needed. It was necessary I return to leave the witches and wizards of the Light against Voldemort."

"My mother never called you a man-she always called you 'a great one'" she said quickly.

"She would be right," he chuckled again quietly. "In a way, that is. She knew I was not a mortal man, she knew I had powers that she had not, but then again," he mused. "She held powers alien to me."

He sighed, then continued. "Indeed, Saquoya-I am not a man. I am a wizard...and I am grateful for the few humans you have known in your life, for then I fear your past would be impossible for you to accept."

He looked at her sharply.

"Your mother-she sent you to Mathilda Greyson, in truth?"

"Yes. Granna." she nodded.

Her father leaned back, his eyes, brilliant and blue, danced. "Good. I said to her when I left-'Luelinea, you must keep the child with you.' She had laughed, saying you were amusing and cute. 'But she will get older' I said 'She will need to eat as I do-she cannot live on light and air as your kindred. Send her to the wise woman of the red house, when you tire of her' So, she did then, eh?"

Sabine-Saquoya-nodded again. Sirius put in, "Tildie brought her home to England."

Albus Dumbledore smiled. "Indeed. I told Tildie to watch for you, but I daresay I did not know this Sabine that Sirius spoke of was my daughter."

He paused, and stared at the wall. Uncertainly, she glanced at Sirius, who gently and silently patted her hand in a brotherly fashion. Oddly, she was not nearly as shocked by much of this; perhaps because her life had forever been peculiar, or perhaps because she remembered her past-or merely because she knew she had much power. Whatever the reason, she felt herself able to slip into this world, this wizarding magical world, and in this mystical wilderness, she would stay.

Her father took a deep breath, and looked at both of them.

"Saquoya, you are older now. And, I am sure, older in your mind and heart than in youthful bodily means." He smiled warmly, almost as if he was seeing her mother in her face.

"Before I say more, I must let my curiosity rule for a moment. I ask you, Saquoya-what powers do you hold?"

Sirius snorted. Apparently, he had not told Dumbledore all of it, but she did not pause to wonder, and turned full attention on her father.

"I can fly, father. It is easy. My blood is light and airy, and I can lift. I've been afraid to further inspect such a power, but I've discovered I can. And I can make things grow-the earth and all her fruit respond to me in full. And I can sense-there is something about people I can sense. Just as I sensed Sirius watching me often before I knew of him, or that he was a man-wizard-I can feel people and all the auras around them. There are many things, father, and I do not still know them all."

He nodded, and the faraway look sifted into his eyes for a long moment. Sirius shifted, and suddenly she sensed that her father was ready to divulge some secret of sorts.

It fell on her heavily, a weight. And she held her breath.