" And they said "There goes the last great American dynasty"
Who knows, if she never showed up what could've been "
--CHAPTER NINE--
September 14, 1977
Wednesday
Arabella was sure that Dumbledore was ignoring her. Every time she would try and catch him in his office, he would mysteriously vanish. All she wanted was an update on when they would start looking for the Horcruxes, but he wouldn't even give her that. If Arabella was honest, she didn't trust Dumbledore like she used to. She felt like he had underlining intentions to all his actions. She knew that he did things for the greater good but at what cost? The lives of the innocent? That is something Arabella couldn't get behind. So, this time around, she would do everything in her power to save all the collateral damage she could.
That weekend, as promised, Arabella had gone to see Hagrid. She thought it was exciting to talk about her favorite creatures with a man who was equally as passionate as herself. They had talked about most of the creatures that they had on the Hogwarts grounds. He even had a few baby bowtruckles on the trees right outside of the forbidden forest. They seemed to like Arabella, so she promised them she would return as soon as she got the chance.
Hagrid also took her to look at the thestrals. Apparently, word got out about her Patronus, and Hagrid wanted to make sure she knew where they were, knowing that the girl might have some deep connection with the gentle creature. They had made plans to meet up again to have more tea and hopefully welcome some new baby nifflers that were about to arrive any day.
It was now the second week of school, and Arabella found herself adapting to the busy life of Hogwarts. A few students stopped by, mostly first years trying to master simple charms during the first week. She was lucky that her seventh-year students hadn't stopped by. Arabella was also trying to avoid them, again. She knew that she shouldn't have shown them her powers because now, every time they looked at her, she knew that they had a billion questions on the tip of their tongues.
But Arabella knew that she couldn't avoid them all the time since she had to keep an eye on them. She had to make sure peter wasn't hanging with the wrong sort. She also had to keep an eye out for Regulus, and some of the death eaters that Arabella knows are currently students. Arabella had a lot on her plate, and she couldn't be avoiding her issues.
She walked down the corridors of Hogwarts, making her way to the library to see if she could research her mysterious abilities. She felt like it was a good time to look for an explanation to make sure that it was safe and not something she needed to tell others about.
Since she was a little girl, Arabella could absorb magic at her will. Like actually take it from other people and different objects. Also, when Arabella was younger, she could make the ground shake when she was mad or set things on fire by just thinking about it. She didn't know if it was because of the magic she came to possess and if the two things went together.
She didn't know what it was, and she had never looked into it. She thought that because it wasn't causing any harm to anyone that it must not be dangerous. So, Arabella never told her parents or professors. The only people she did tell were her three best friends, and they vowed to keep it a secret. Her powers came in handy when they were looking for the Horcruxes. She could easily distinguish which was dark magic and which weren't. Arabella didn't tell anyone then, and she was certainly not going to tell anyone now, especially Dumbledore, since that man could take advantage of her like he did countless times to others.
Arabella figured that the library would be empty of prying eyes since most of the students were currently in classes. Saying a quick hello to Madam Pince, she went straight to the restricted section, knowing that her questions would most likely be answered there. Her ability was so strange to her. She had never heard of people being able to take or notice the magic in or around other things. It was impossible, but Arabella had already done the impossible before, so what's one more thing to add to her list?
Arabella looked through everything having to do with magical cores and different curses that could explain everything. She even looked through a book of rare magical creatures from other counties to see if her powers came from them, but she came up empty. Finally, she got to the section of the library on parental lineages from around the world. Arabella figured that it would be a good idea to check if her family had anything to do with this, so she took the book off the shelf, stored it in her bag for safekeeping, and left the library.
Making her way back to her classroom, she entered but left the doors open if a student wanted to come in. Arabella set her bag down on her desk and began to unload everything she was carrying that day. The first book was on curses and defensive spells that she had gotten to brush up on her knowledge of the area. Then the second book was about standard potions for her first and second-year students. And the last book was taken from the library's restricted section on ancient magical lineages in America and Europe.
Arabella flopped down on the couch and lit a cigarette. Hermione would say a nasty habit, but it relaxed her, and she wasn't there to tell Arabella off. She grabbed the potions book and started reading.
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"Guys, I don't think she's in there..." said Dorcas Meadows.
Currently, Dorcas, Marlene, Lily, Alice, Mary, Remus, Sirius, James, and Peter were all on the way to Arabella's classroom for some studying time. The teachers had all decided that the way the students would learn was to give a lot of homework, and the group found that it was tough to study in the library due to Madam Pince breathing down their necks.
Alice shook her head, "she must be. She wasn't at lunch, and I can literally hear music coming from her room."
And indeed, there was music playing. The group came to a halt at the doors of the room to see Arabella singing along to Fleetwood Mac and watering her plants at the same time. They noticed that the room smelled heavily of smoke and lavender. Arabella hadn't noticed their presence, so Remus, being the most familiar with her, went up to her and put his hand on her shoulder. Like when she first met Benji, Arabella showed off her quick reflexes and pointed her wand at her attacker's neck, but quickly realized that it wasn't an attack but Remus Lupin standing there.
"Remus John Lupin, do not ever do that again; you scared the shit out of me!" Arabella yelled and playfully smacked him on the arm.
Remus looked shocked, "damn, Bella, your reflexes are insane! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, but we were all standing at the door for a few minutes, and you didn't seem to notice."
Indeed, Arabella looked over, and there they all were, standing with a mixture of shocked and amused expressions on their faces.
"Oh, sorry about that! Can I help you a lot with something?" she asked.
"We were wondering if we could study in here? Madam Pince basically kicked us out of the library." Lily said, shooting a glare at James and Sirius, most likely the cause of the punishment.
James and Sirius merely stuck their tongues out at the witch.
Arabella smiled, "yes, of course! Make yourself comfortable. You have full access to the books I have, the muggle and wizard ones. You may also practice spells in here, but please, for the love of gods, don't hurt my plants, or I will hurt you." She finished with a stern look in her eyes.
"Yes, ma'am," Sirius saluted.
"If you need help, I'll be at my desk. You may change the music if you like." She said as she went to pick up her books that were scattered around the room.
The group sat down on the couches and the table and started taking out their books and parchments.
Sirius walked around the room, looking at the different decorations and plants Arabella had put up. He came across the device that was playing music. It was a Walkman. Sirius only knew that because he had a similar one. Arabella's looked bigger and newer, a version he had never seen before; it looked more high-tech.
Mhmm must be American. He thought.
"Hey Bella, where do you keep the music cassettes?" Sirius asked.
"Bottom drawer of my desk." She answered without looking up from her spot in her book.
Sirius walked over to her desk and pulled out the drawer. He was amazed by the amount of music she had. She had everything from Queen to Bruce Springsteen.
"Jeez, how do you have so many cassettes?" he asked.
Arabella looked down to see him staring at the drawer in awe. "I don't know. I kinda just pick them up wherever I go."
Sirius nodded and finally picked out a cassette, popped it into the Walkman, and walked back to his place on the couch. Slowly the track started playing to reveal that he picked Dream a Little Dream of Me by Ella Fitzgerald. Arabella never pegged Sirius for a Fitzgerald fan, but she had learned over the years to never judge someone before getting to know them, and if she was honest, she didn't really know Sirius. She was always closer to Remus in her old life, having only really interacted with Sirius while living in Grimmauld Place. Arabella was excited to get to know this Sirius.
Arabella nodded in approval of the song and went back to reading.
Mary and Marlene asked for her help in their transfiguration essay, and Peter asked for help in herbology.
It was still odd interacting with Peter. She tried very hard not to let her feelings get the best of her, and she was actually succeeded. Arabella had learned that this was a very different peter than the one she had met. This young peter was nice and shy. Definitely not a leader but a follower. Arabella believed that all he wanted was the approval of others. Overall, he's not a bad kid, just slightly misunderstood.
Arabella made sure to check up on the others and see if they needed help with their homework. Remus was working on his arithmancy essay. Lily, Dorcas, and Alice were all working on ancient runes. Lastly, James and Sirius were working on their stair charts for astronomy.
Arabella was thankful that they didn't bring up the incident that happened on the first day of school. Even if they had questions, she certainly didn't have answers, so she didn't know what she'd say to them.
With that in mind, she made her way over to her desk once more and picked up the book on ancient lineages, and started flipping through it. She knew that Santiago and Goldstein's last names were pureblood, but she didn't know if they were gone all the way back to be considered ancient. The first country she came across was Spain. Arabella looked for her mother's name, but nothing noteworthy came up. She quickly moved on to the United States of America, where she knew her father was from. She searched for the name Goldstein, and it wasn't until the last page that she located a whole page dedicated to the name.
It read...
The noble house of Goldstein originated from Manchester, England. They were one of the first wizarding families to move to England along with the others in the Sacred Twenty-Eight.
Though unlike the 28, the pureblood British family relocated from England to America. They settled in the English colony of Massachusetts on a small settlement called Salem. They lived in a small community of witches and wizards; from a no-maj (muggle) perspective, there were just the local farmers. The Goldstein and other pureblood families like the Stevenson and the Whitfield all created the first council of wizards in America. In later years, this council would relocate to New York and be called the Magical Congress of the United States of America.
The witches and wizards of Salem lived unharmed by the no-maj until the late 1690s. Religious no-majs called puritans accused and persecuted folk for witchcraft, later being called the Salem Witch Trials. One of the families accused were the Goldsteins. The majority of the family were convicted and burned at stake for their crimes.' All except for one, Gerald Artemis Goldstein, who was 17 years old, managed to escape.
Gerald moved north to the French territory of North America and settled in a town called Trois- Rivieres, which was primarily a wizarding settlement. At the age of 25, Gerald Goldstein married a powerful witch named Marie Dubois, who belonged to an ancient line of elemental witches and wizards from France. (learn more about the Dubois family on page 450). Some notable people from the Goldstein line are Porpentina and Queenie Goldstein. Both witches fought against Gellert Grindelwald in the Global Wizarding War. The Goldstein blood continued to be pure and still reside in North America up until recently.
Arabella quickly flipped to page 450.
The ancient house of Dubois originated in Nice, France. The Dubois was the first-ever recorded elemental witches and wizards in the history of Global Wizardry. The Dubois family was all destroyed and killed due to the persecution from muggles. The only one who survived was Marie Dubois. At the age of 20, Marie fled to North America for a better life in 1700. She settled in the town of Trois- Rivieres, a French territory in Canada. Marie Dubois married Gerald Goldstein, therefore marrying into an ancient pureblood family of England. Marie was not able to pass on her abilities to her offspring. She became the last elemental in her bloodline. There are no other known elementals in the world. Marie Dubois was the last powerful witch of her line.
Arabella was shocked. She had never heard much about her parent's side of the family, only having met her grandparents once or twice during her childhood. She had never heard of people being elementals; they were all legends. Controlling the individual elements was rare but not uncommon; being fully able to manage all four was impossible. Never in a million years did she think that she would be a direct descendant of these powerful witches.
But Arabella was also confused. The book clearly stated that the elemental bloodline died with Marie Dubois. How is it possible for her to possess them hundreds of years after? And that did not explain how she can absorb magic. Her head was spinning until she heard a soft voice.
"Arabella? Are you there?" asked Alice.
Arabella shook her head, "yea, yea... is there anything you need, Alice?"
"No, I just wanted to ask you if you wanted to come to dinner with us?"
Arabella looked down at her watch and noticed that it was already dinner time.
"Yes, just let me clean up here." She said as she stood up from her desk. She quickly grabbed her books and her bag and made sure to turn all the lights off and lock the door. Arabella walked through the halls of Hogwarts, silently following the group.
Sirius noticed this and slowed down to catch up to her, "Hey, are you alright?" he asked.
She snapped out of her daze and turned her head to the black-haired boy.
"Mhm, I'm fine."
"Bella, I can literally see your thoughts going a million miles per hour. You know you can trust me, right?"
Arabella nodded her head, trying to form a vague question in her head.
"You're a black, right?"
Sirius laughed, "last time I checked, I was, though I don't really associate with my kind."
"Right, sorry that sounded weird...Your family knows a lot about dark magic, right?" she said, hoping that it wasn't offensive to ask that.
Sirius stared at her suspiciously, "I suppose... is there a reason for that question?"
"Yes, have you ever heard of elemental magic?" Arabella asked.
Sirius looked down in thought. The word sounded familiar, but he couldn't be sure.
"Um, I'm not sure I mean, I know what elementals are, but I wouldn't say it's dark magic, it's called earth magic. Though elementals haven't been around for ages, I'm pretty sure that line of powers died out."
"Yea, I know that's what I thought," Arabella mumbled.
Sirius looked at her, "why do you ask?"
Arabella panicked. She couldn't possibly tell him she believed to be one. Sirius would think she was crazy. So she quickly lied by saying, "oh, you know, just research purposes. Though there isn't a lot I can get from books, so I'm not sure who to ask."
"Well, why don't you ask Dumbledore? I mean, doesn't that man know everything?"
Dumbledore? No, she couldn't go to Dumbledore about this. Arabella didn't want him to know anything about her abilities. She didn't want to be used.
Arabella shook her head, "no, I already asked him, and he wasn't ever helpful... I don't think there is anyone alive that knows about this stuff since it was thousands of years ago." she lied.
"Then why don't you ask someone who isn't alive?" Sirius innocently asked.
Arabella was about to reply when she got to thinking. Someone who isn't live? She didn't know dead people, did she? Then the realization hit her like a truck—the portraits.
Arabella stopped walking, and Sirius noticed and stopped too. He looked at her expectantly, but she only said, "my gods Sirius you're a genius! Why didn't I think of that!"
Sirius never got to answer her, as Arabella quickly grabbed his shoulders, shook him violently, letting out words of praise and gratitude, and ran off to gods knows where.
Arabella ran as fast as her little legs could carry her. She dodged students as they were going the opposite way she was. Finally arriving on the fourth floor, to the portrait of a wizard she hadn't visited in years. The wizard in question looked her up and down with a blank expression.
When Arabella steady her breathing, she composed herself and said,
"Hello, Mr. Merlin."
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the last great american dynasty by Taylor swift