Hogwarts Houses Divided~A Harry Potter Story

Evil Mark of Grindelwald

Grace gave no word, but Dumbledore came back to school the day after Rose did. He called the group into his office, to discuss the events.

“Ms. Opal with continue staying with the Barrisons for the mean time before her mother’s trial. She is moving in as we speak, keeping herself busy. Now, I realize that a certain journalist caught wind of Ms. Opal’s situation and wrote a very detailed and exaggerated article and for this I am truly sorry that it happened, but we cannot change it. I suggest we downplay the details that we know and maybe some other gossip will overtake the rumors about Ms. Opal, although I highly doubt that this will happen,” he told us, stroking his beautiful Pheonix on his desk.

I always admired how Albus Dumbledore spoke, with such calm and at the same time with such authority that it was nearly impossible to argue or detest anything that left his lips. It almost made me re-think my playing in the plan for Rita Skeeter, but it most certainly didn’t change the twins’ mind, so I decided there was no going back.

“Sir, should I go home to them?” Rose asked.

Dumbledore’s eyes twinkled with amusement and his small smile grew. “Ms. Opal told me to tell you this if you asked that question, I quote ‘have fun with your twin and I promise you when I get back, I’ll have fun with mine’,”

I snorted and hid my giggle behind my hand, while Rose flushed with embarrassment and the twins high-fived from behind her head. “But, it is ultimately your choice,”

“How about we go to the trial?” I offered.

“I think that is a brilliant idea,” Dumbledore complimented me. “I will be attending myself and will be happy to accompany you to the courtroom. I believe it will help Grace out immensely,”

We all nodded that we would go to the trial and I suddenly remembered that the last time I saw Grace’s mother was on the platform to school and I didn’t even say a word to her. It was odd to fathom her being put away for murder, although I never trusted her to care for Grace. I would invite her over many times just to give me some peace of mind, I suspected her drug problems for a long time. I almost felt relieved that she would no longer have custody of Grace, which made me feel guilty for thinking that. It was just a horrible situation altogether, no one truly won.

“Thank you sir,” I said, quietly. I stood up and turned to the door, but before I could walk out the door with the others, Dumbledore stopped me sharply:

“Ms. Diggory, could you stay?”

He looked like he had walked through a ghost without knowing it, for those who don’t know it’s quite unpleasant and feels like you just walked through a shower of ice cold water. His tone was tense and alarmed, his eyes bright and alert. And staring at the palm of my right hand.

“Yes, sir? What is it?” I asked, tensely.

“What happened to your hand?” he asked me, slowly pointing his long elderly finger to my palm.

“Um, professor. I was meaning to talk to you about it,” I stuttered, unable to find my words. “There were these dreams. It was just nightmares at first and then they stopped for a while, I took some dreamless potion every night for most of the semester. But, when I didn’t take one time I had a dream and woke up with this weird burn on my hand,”

I held out my palm with the odd triangle symbol on it, the burn I got from the first dream I had. “Kora, do you remember the dreams?”

“Um, yes sir,” I said, hesitantly. “I was standing somewhere, well it was actually kind of nowhere and then I saw someone. It was only an outline, because it was hard to see. Like foggy or something, but this person reached out and grabbed my arm and said ‘you have to finish it’ or something and I felt it burn. I woke up and this was burned into my palm,” He turned my hand over and then impatiently reached for my other hand. I gave it to him. “And then the next night, I forgot my potion again and it was similar to the first, but it was easier to see. I saw a woman, I’m pretty sure because she sounded like it. She told me that I couldn’t finish it, that I had a choice and these were my options. Then grabbed this hand and burned it,”