Chapter Six
As Arielle put her clothes in the dresser and changed clothes to a crimson dress with light red ribbons, a light red waistband and short sleeves, she looked around herself. Her room was the epitome of the word `girlish' and she liked it. As professor Snape had told her, it was her room. Her own. And that made her feel all warm inside. It was the first time she had something of her own, and now she owned all those wonderful clothes, two pets, a room, and all those books and other Wizarding things.
She crossed the room to look at the owl as she petted the kitten that was once again in her arms. The kitten had told her that her name was Caeryn, an old name which Arielle liked very much. It was easy to pronounce and it was a really nice name. Now, she wondered what to call the owl. She wanted to name her after her colour. She was all white after all and she was a female, professor Snape had told her after she asked what gender the bird was. Suddenly she knew. "What do you think about Coco?"
The owl hooted and Arielle could almost understand what the owl said. She knew that the owl liked the name, but how she knew that was a mystery to her. Petting the owl for a little more, she made her way to the living room to find professor Snape sitting in one of the armchairs, reading a book. She slowly approached him, but before she could say something to alert him to her presence, professor Snape lowered the book and stared at her. Motioning for her to take a seat next to him, she obeyed and sat at the corner of the armchair looking up at the professor with curiosity.
"I do believe I promised you that we would talk later today, did I not?"
Arielle nodded and put Caeryn on her lap and started petting her tummy. It was really soft after all and it seemed as if Caeryn loved that particular petting place as she started purring loudly, and murmuring her approval in Arielle's mind. She smiled down at her and then looked back at the professor. "That kitten isn't a normal cat, you know," he said after a moment of watching the two interact. Arielle nodded and said, "Yes, I know. She can talk to me in my head." Professor Snape nodded and continued, "What you don't know is that this kind of cats is named the Zenko Cat, named after their creator Darren Zenko. They were bred with the power to use Legillimency and Occlumency."
Arielle listened to the professor with rapt attention. How he knew all those things she'll probably never know, but that was okay, as long as he knew them. "What's Legimensy?" she asked. "Legillimency," professor Snape corrected her with a sigh.
"Legillimency is a magic of the mind. It is used to `read the minds' as you'd probably understand best. The opposite of Legillimency is Occlumency which is a power to block the intruders from your mind."
"Occumensy?" said Arielle confused. "No, Occlumency," corrected professor Snape again. After she got it right in her second try, professor Snape started talking about her past. He told her about Voldemort and how he rose to power about twenty years ago and how they called him You-Know-Who or He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named because they were too frightened to call him by his proper name. While the professor did tell her his name, he called him the Dark Lord. When Arielle asked why he called him that, professor Snape explained to her that he was once his servant and thus had to call him like that, but also explained that he wasn't on the side of the evil anymore, but that no one could know that, and that was the reason he couldn't be nice to her in class.
They talked about her parents and how they died, professor Snape keeping the distaste of her father in check and spoke in monotone. He explained how she came to be the Girl-Who-Lived and why. He also explained some of the basic things about the Wizarding World, such as the subjects that the students took at Hogwarts and sports and families that were prominent. He also told her about the discrimination against Muggleborns and Half-bloods. Arielle was quiet the whole time, trying to take all the information in at once. It hit her really bad when the professor told her that her parents were murdered and that they didn't die in a car crash. She told him that her uncle and aunt told her that they died in a car crash while drunk and the professor got such an expression on his face that she didn't dare speak further, instead she stood up and went over to the bookshelves.
The room was quiet and the only sound that was heard were the footsteps that Arielle made as she browsed the extensive library that professor Snape owned. She didn't understand half the books or what they were about, but she still saw many Muggle books, including the entire collection by Shakespeare and Tolkien. That reminded her of her Mithril wand and she gasped loudly as she held a finger on one of the books by Tolkien.
"What's wrong?" she heard professor Snape ask her. Shaking her head she turned around and said in a hushed voice, almost afraid of sharing the knowledge. "I remembered where I heard of Mithril before. It's the dwarven metal that was used in making armours in the Lord of the Rings!"
Professor Snape shook his head at that and wondered what else would happen to Arielle.
"Maybe the books were true?" she asked a few moments later, looking wistfully towards the collection. "Well, Tolkien was a wizard," came the reply from the professor. That left her stumped. Tolkien was a wizard as well? Then… Then the books really could be true and it really happened! And hobbits, and elves really existed! That was so cool!
The rest of the day was spent talking about various Wizarding subjects, playing with Caeryn, and reading from her school books. They were really quite interesting! When the time for dinner came, professor Snape told her that they would eat in the Great Hall with the other professors. That made Arielle feel shy and a little scared. She was never in that big of a company. Normally, when the Dursleys had visitors, she was locked in her cupboard with a plastic bottle of water and some bread to eat, if she was even allowed to do that.
Just before they went to dinner, the professor looked her over and said, "You look respectable. I am sure that they will like you." Arielle smiled shyly up at him, knowing that he only tried to make her feel better.
ooOoo
* Mithril is a fictional material from J. R. R. Tolkien's universe, Middle Earth. It is a precious silvery metal, stronger than steel but much lighter in weight, which was mined by the Dwarves in the mines of Khazad-dm. The name mithril comes from two words in Sindarin - mith, meaning "grey", and ril meaning "glitter". Mithril was also called "true-silver" by Men, while the Dwarves had their own, secret name for it.
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