The Miraculous Effects of Darkness

Chapter Nine

Anika lay awake that night staring at the top of her four-poster bed trying to work out which of her dorm mates was the one snoring. She suspected that it was Donna, but she couldn't be sure. This was the first time in her few months at Hogwarts that Anika had struggled to sleep in the beyond comfortable bed provided for her in Gryffindor tower.

The conversation that she had with Dumbledore earlier that day was so stuck in her head that she felt as though she was reliving it over and over again. Not much clarification had come from the conversation, however, Dumbledore had asked Anika to go to his office the next morning to meet someone. 

When Anika had enquired who she would be meeting Dumbledore had not replied, but simply given her a knowing smile.

"Do you mind if I keep this?" Dumbledore asked. He was still holding the small vial of golden blood.

"N-no," Anika stuttered. 

"Good, good." The man placed the vial carefully in a pocket within his robes. 

"What does this mean Professor? Is there something wrong with me?" Her mind had been running rampant about what strange magical disease may have caused this anomaly.

"Nothing is wrong with you my dear Anika." Dumbledore offered her a warm smile, "on the contrary, you may be the most fascinating thing in existence." Leaving her on this strange note, Dumbledore left the Hospital Wing.

Anika fell into a restless sleep, waking several times after dreaming about golden blood and Dumbledore's strange serine smile. 

*

Anika knocked twice on Professor Dumbledore's office door before entering. She had never been inside the office, so gave herself a few moments to marvel at the tremendous collection of magical artefacts that Dumbledore had amassed.

"Please sit down here Anika." Professor Dumbledore was sat at his desk. He gestured for Anika to take a free seat on the other side of his desk. In the chair beside the one which Anika took, was an old man.

"Indeed Albus I believe that this is my Amelie," said the old man, he had one very dark brown eye whilst his other eye was very light blue. Almost identical to Anika's own eyes.

"What's going on Professor?" Anika asked Dumbledore, tearing her eyes away from the man who continued to stare at her.

"This is my friend Nicolas Flamel," said Dumbledore, gesturing at the old man, "he was very eager to meet you from the moment that I mentioned you to him."

"Why?" Anika's voice shook slightly as she spoke.

"Because I created you," said Nicolas Flamel. "Give me several moments to explain and I assure you that I will be able to answer all of your questions."

"Okay," said Anika in a small voice.

"Several years ago-"

"It was almost 100 years ago Nicolas," Dumbledore interjected.

"100 years ago I began to experiment with the capabilities of the Philosopher's Stone-"

"What's the Philosopher's Stone?" Anika asked.

"It's a stone that allows a person to create the elixir of life, which grants the drinker immortality," said Flamel, "I created it many years ago."

"You're immortal?" Anika asked incredulously.

"To an extent." Flamel gave a reassuring smile, "anyway, I began experimenting with the elixir's capability to create life. After many failed attempts, I was finally able to create a baby girl, who my wife named Amelie. We intended to raise her as our own, but she was stolen from us by someone who wanted the elixir of life more than perhaps anyone else in the world. We never saw that baby girl again."

"You think that I'm her?" Anika asked the whole thing seemed very strange to her. She had never really been curious about where she came from, thinking that she would never find the answers.

"I know that you're her," said Nicolas Flamel, "The elixir does strange things to a person's body, the eyes that we share being just one of those side effects. Your hair also stands out to me as being one of these, although I myself wouldn't know if this were true, as I have had white hair since long before I began taking the elixir."

Anika stared at him with her mouth hanging open. It was several moments before Anika could speak, her mind was running wild at this new revelation.

"I don't have a belly button," Anika blurted out.

"That would be because you were created, not born," said Flamel, allowing the young girl time to adjust to the new information.

"Would you be able to tell us, my dear Anika, where you have been for the last 12 years?" Dumbledore asked after several more moments of silence.

"Borgin and Burke's," she said, "I was left on the doorstep when I was a few days old. They thought that I had some kind of dark magic in me so they took me in, at least that's what I overheard Mr Burke telling someone once."

Nicolas Flamel and Dumbledore exchanged a significant look. This had confirmed their suspicions about who had stolen Anika because there was only one person who sought immortality and had worked at Borgin and Burke's around the time of Anika's disappearance. 

"My wife Perenelle will be so happy to meet you," said Flamel, changing the subject as quickly as he could so not to worry the young girl, "and I myself am very curious."

"Does this mean I'm not real?" Anika asked the man, "I'm not really human?"

"You're very real my dear," Flamel assured her.

"But I'm not human," Anika said.

"You're just as human as the next person," said Flamel, "if you weren't human you would function as one. Tell me, what do you do when you're hungry?"

"I eat." Anika frowned, unsure where the conversation was going.

"What do you do when you're tired?" asked Flamel.

"I sleep," Anika replied.

"Then you're just as human as anyone in this castle," said Flamel, "More so than some even," there was a glint in his eye, which was that of a scientist who's breakthrough was sat right before him. Anika took a deep breath, trying to arrange her thoughts and accept all of this new information. She wasn't sure what any of it meant, but she could tell that her life would not be the same.