She was running. Thana was running in the forest, shooting spells in all directions. She had a very bad aim, for someone who had exceptional magic in her, she could not kill someone directly, could not even hit them with an unforgivable curse without feeling like she had been kicked in the gut.

Her eyes remained on the figure ahead of her, running with a bag clutched against his chest. Her uncle was powerful, but age changes a person, especially one who had been reduced to watching over a girl nobody wanted to keep.

She stopped a single moment, turning around, with all her might she commanded the roots to uproot themselves, dangling against each other, creating a barrier too high for any normal human to push through.

The roots continue to tangle against each other. She hears their pursuers curse and then she is running again. She runs as rain falls heavily against her skin, she feels it weigh her down, thinking of what she had been told.

Dumbledore. Dead.

She stumbles ahead, her eyes trained on the one person ahead of her. She couldn't lose anyone else. She could not. They run, waiting to feel the moment they have crossed the barrier that stopped them from disapparating.

A curse flies past her head, hitting the place where her uncle had just been seconds ago. She curses, throwing a curse behind her. She felt the dull pull in her chest when she heard someone scream in pain behind her.

She had hurt someone.

They made it to a clearing, her uncle breathing heavily. She knew he was strong, but even this amount of running would affect a man of his age. He pushes the bag against her chest, before waving her hand away when she had tried to help steady him.

"If you keep treating me like a fragile old man," he scolds. "I would get used to it and then break the promise I made to Dumbledore." He looks up at her, dark warm eyes against the cold grey world.

"And I do not like breaking promises, Ariana."

It had been so long since he had called her by that name. A second name was given to her by the one who created her and until now she didn't know if it was out of spite, or out of guilt.

Their pursuers reached them by the clearing. She had to fight.

"I need you to keep running," the man whispers beside her, steadying himself and readying his wand. Thana could not believe he would try to fight all these four - three, pursuers on his own.

"No," her voice is even, despite the grief that settled like a lump in her throat.

"Thana Ariana-" He never gets to complete his scolding. Thana reacts immediately, countering the curse that would hit her uncle square in the chest. The curse rebounds as she is pushed to the ground. Her uncle is unconscious.

The grief that settled in her throat transformed into something horrible. Something evil. Something familiar.

She lets the burning sensation travel across her body. The world goes silent, she could see them talking and screaming at each other. Curses fly towards her, and she no longer runs.

That is right, Thana. Feel your anger. Feel the cruelty of it all. You, hidden all your life in a world that should celebrate your power.

She lets go.

------------

Thana wakes up staring into a high ceiling. She looks around and finds moving portraits trying to be discreet in watching her. She felt a dull pain against her rib, pushing herself up only to feel the pain grow stronger.

"Easy now," a nurse, by the looks of it, shuffled into the room where she was sleeping. She had a kind face, almost as if she cared and was worried about her. She raises her hand instinctively.

"Before you curse me to death," the woman was now saying, seemingly not afraid of it. "I suggest you take a drink of this first or all your broken ribs would not heal properly."

She shoves a bottle against Thana's chest. "Also, you would not want to murder on school grounds, child. That would send the ministry coming and Headmistress McGonagall would not want that. And you never want to cross that woman."

School? Why was she in school?

"My uncle-" Thana starts, surprised at how soft and weak her voice sounded.

"Is fine," the nurse pushes her slightly back down on the bed by her shoulders. "He did not sustain any injuries, which should come off as a surprise to anyone who witnessed the magic you had performed. Even Hagrid tells me he hasn't seen that powerful of magic since-" the woman stops abruptly, shaking her head and thinking better of what she was going to say, decided not to.

"Get some rest, the headmistress would like to talk to you soon," she says gently, with a pat on Thana's arm. She walks off, the smell of medical herbs and plants leaving the room with her.

When Thana was sure no one would be bursting into the room anytime soon, she got up from the bed. Her heart had been hammering against her chest the moment she awoke to such an unfamiliar place. Had they been captured? Had she fainted? Where was her uncle and why was she alone?

She walks out the door, to find herself in a more complicated place. She didn't know how to navigate through here. She was aware that she was only wearing a thin shift of a nightgown as she walked around the halls. Glancing outside the tall opened windows, she knew it was still early into the night.

She walks the halls, checking each corner if the halls were empty before making her way through them. She had to get out of here, but first, she had to find her uncle.

She walks through an open archway, which she had thought was deserted, only to find herself in a rather very crowded place. All eyes turned to her, feeling the sudden weight of too many stares, Thana Ariana does what she is used to, and runs.

She is vaguely aware that no one seems to be pursuing her, but she had to get away. She curses against every blocked path and every locked door. It was damn near impossible to navigate through this castle. She passes by painting after painting who made it a point to ring or scream an alarm when they saw her.

"Headmistress, she is down the hall to the Gryffindor common room!" they would scream, making her think they had some kind of weird connection to the one who ran this school.

She runs past a long hall with so many faces peering down at her, with curious expressions. Stopping only to read a sign that said 'Heroes of the Third Wizarding War'.

She runs down the rows of portraits, bumping into a girl with thick curly hair who stared at her like she was about to get the scolding of a lifetime. Thana was suddenly aware that she had knocked a few books off this girl's hand. She almost bent down to help pick it up when someone screamed behind her.

"Stop her," it was a woman's voice and Thana turned away from the girl without helping her pick up the books. "Granger! Stop that girl, do not hurt her."

Thana bumps into two more people who were only a few steps away from the Granger girl.

"Harry, stop her!"

Thana could feel an arm that suddenly clasped against her and then it was gone. She stared back up behind her to find Harry on the ground, staring up at her in bewilderment with a red-headed boy kneeling beside him, the same look on his face.

"Aresto Momentum," a girl screams beside her, and Thana almost gets hit by it but instead the spell hits the poor girl who was standing frozen watching her.

She turns a corner and almost hits someone else in her running. She hates the castle already. Who would want to stay in such a place that can barely be navigated?

She could feel this person's eyes on her and she spares him a glance.

Grey eyes.

She felt something tug against her memory. Something that told her to stop running. To stop. But she doesn't. She severes the familiarity she feels when she sees him and finds her only exit.

Window.

She runs toward it, a foot over the ledge when a familiar voice rings against her ears.

"Thana Ariana-"

She freezes, her eyes trained on the ground below. Her bones would break if she made that jump but she would recover quickly enough to keep running. Instead, she pulls her leg back, breathing heavily, and turns.

Her heart seizes as her eyes fall on the portrait before her.

Dumbledore.