For the briefest of moments, Thana thinks she is a child again. Arms outstretched towards an old man that seemed to regard her as something odd... something dangerous.  She could still feel the piercing stare that had once made her want to spill all of her secrets, ones she did not even keep.  Now those same eyes stared at her from a thick wooden frame. It still had the power to make her stop. To freeze her heart over. She felt shame and anger wash over her all at once.  She walks over to him. Instead of the usual cold and calculating stare, there was only sadness in those eyes... and... regret?

She finally finds her voice.

"Are you?..." she doesn't continue the question, doesn't know how to. Dumbledore merely looks at her like she was still a girl who couldn't make magic work.

Footsteps approach, making her skittle back towards the window. The girl named Granger had a wand pointed directly at her, her face full of determination and confusion. The two boys she had also hit earlier stand behind her.  An old witch, with a pointed hat, in emerald robes comes into view. Her uncle was right behind her. Thana straightens herself, her eyes flicking briefly over at Dumbledore and then at the group of people before her.

Her uncle seems to look flustered and afraid at the same time. Thana doesn't move, merely stares at the gathering crowd before her. She levels her eyes at the old witch, not wanting to show any sign of weakness.

"Minerva," Dumbledore's voice echoes around them. Thana sees the old witch's eyes flicker only briefly before she finds Thana's eyes again. A hint of doubt stained her eyes now.  Thana watches as the three young people, the Granger girl, the boy named Harry, and the Redhead, look her over as if they were sizing her up but also confused as to why Dumbledore knew her name.

The old woman - Minerva, shot a hand out at Granger, motioning her to lower the wand. Thana does not look or follow the movement, her eyes trained on the old woman who was also keeping eye contact.

"We do not want to hurt you, child," the old woman says and Thana looks at her uncle. She waits for him to give her a sign. A flicker of movement that tells her this woman was lying. Her uncle merely stares at her with pleading eyes and Thana relaxes before turning to Dumbledore again.

"You did not come back," she says, sounding more like a child who was on the verge of tears than someone dangerous. Now Hermione and the others were really confused.

"And I would be sorry about it forever, Thana," Dumbledore continues. "But now you must listen to me, listen to these people. Your uncle has taken good care of you-"

"Are you dead?"

Her questions hang in the air like an anvil waiting to fall. She could hear the silence, the raw emotion in her voice, and the pain in the eyes of the woman before her. She didn't draw back, didn't shrink away from the portrait. She knew the answer before he had even said it. It was from the way he looked at her, like all the regrets of his lifetime were piled right in front of him and he was forced to look at it.

He had only ever looked like that once before. When he left. Thana hears someone gasp beside her and she looks at the Granger girl as her vision starts to blur, hot tears and a buzz ringing in her ears. She cannot breathe, she cannot see. A heavy weight settles inside her and she struggles to control the anger that comes with it. She looks at Dumbledore, a pleading look on his face. Her uncle who looks at her like he knows what is happening. It is too late when he says to cast a protective charm around her.

Thana turns away and starts for the window, the anger hot and alive inside her. The grief, unbearable. She jumps out the window without thinking as Hermione casts a spell that envelops her in a barrier.

They don't hear her scream, but they see her break apart.

—

When Thana wakes up, she is in another room. It no longer smelled like herbs and infirmaries. It actually felt warm and homey even, as if Thana was back in the warmest and most comfortable parts of her childhood.

Moments later, a figure comes into form in front of her. Beautiful eyes, curly light brown hair. She looks down at Thana as if she was an injured animal. Thana pushes herself up, easing out of the discomfort from watching someone look at her with concern.

"Are you alright?" The girl beside her asks, it was only then that she realized this was the girl from earlier. The one called Hermione. Thana looks at the concern on her face and shies away. It was not normal to be around a girl her age and have that said girl look at her as if she was everything but a monster.

"Finally up I see," The woman with the pointed hat and oval glasses walks up to her. Thana had not seen her come in. In fact, Thana did not even realize she was in a room with 3 other beds. She gets up from the bed, swinging her feet over as Hermione tries to help her up.

"I really don't think you should be standing up," Hermione reaches out to hold her steady but Thana moves her body away from her. She didn't like being touched. Hermione seems to sense this and angles her body away, but her hands were still ready to catch Thana if she ever fell down.

"I am so sorry," Hermione explains. " I didn't cast the spell right and it sort of hit you before it effectively stopped you from falling. You really shouldn't jump off like that, even wizards can die from a fall that high."

Thana was not paying attention. She wanted to leave this place right away. She wanted to leave and pretend she was never here. Maybe it would take away the fact that Dumbledore was dead. She falls forward. This time, when Hermione reaches out to help her, she relents. It was like all the air was sucked out from her as the words kept echoing in her head.

Dumbledore. Dead.

Thana knew this empty sinking feeling inside her had always been there more than a year ago. She knew something had happened but deep inside she hoped she was wrong. Just once in her life, why couldn't she be wrong?

"Hey, easy," Hermione helps her get back on the bed and she smells the same scent on her and on the sheets of the bed she was lying in. She lets the dizziness pass before she sighs again as Headmistress Mcgonagall stares at her from near the door.

"Well, it would be my responsibility to inform you and your right to know that you have officially been enrolled in Hogwarts," She explains and Thana hears the words but nothing makes sense as she closes her eyes and lets herself calm down. She could feel it inside her, the growing anger and sadness. She tries to stop it, because somehow she didn't want this Hermione girl to get hurt.

No more deaths.

She doesn't process what the headmistress says when she finds herself drifting off to sleep with thoughts of Dumbledore and her uncle. She doesn't understand why she is so tired but she sleeps soundly and when she wakes up, she is alone in the room and it is already dark out. The moonlight flits through the windows and she recalls her dream. Gray eyes. She shakes her dream away and is startled to find Hermione beside her, her copper hair falling in ringlets all over her face. She was sleeping on a bed directly next to her, an opened book on the floor just below her dangling hand. Had she fallen asleep reading?

Thana gets up, her feet surprisingly feeling the cold floor. She picks the book up, looking at the page Hermione was at and realizes it was a book about old famous wizards. Why the girl had any interest in them was beyond her but she placed a piece of paper on the page before closing the book and placing it on the bedside table near Hermione.

She then looked around the room a little further, realizing there were two other beds in the room but neither were occupied. She tiptoed towards the open window, the reason for the cold room and floor and reached out to close it only to stop as a figure came into her view below. The figure, shrouded in black, was walking quickly- almost floating, towards the trees that bordered the whole school. Thana's eyes followed the figure, almost pitching forward when Hermione let out a strangled gasp.

It startles them both, with Thana spinning around too fast and hitting the candle lamp that was by the window. It breaks and the candle rolls on the floor. Hermione looks at her, but Thana notices something different in her brown eyes. A kind of feral emotion layered with fear and confusion. Hermione glances away, seemingly embarrassed but Thana notices her pulling the sleeves of her sweater down her arm.

"Are you alright?" It felt weird to use her voice and ask another person a question. Even weirder when Thana actually felt the concern in her own voice.

"Yes, sorry- did I wake you?" Hermione fumbles at the blankets around her legs as Thana shakes her head. "Ron says I talk and mumble a lot in my sleep..."

"No, I was already awake-" she stops and turns back quickly to the window. She could see nothing but the light of the moon casting an eerie glow on the grounds below.

'What is it?'

Thana shakes her head. Probably a normal occurrence in this place and she shouldn't even try to get involved. She turns to find Hermione up and picks up the broken lantern.

'Reparo,' the lamp quickly fixes itself and emits a faint glow. 'Well, you better get some sleep. Important day for you tomorrow.'

Thana doesn't stop the confusion from showing on her face. Hermione gives her a smile. 'It's going to your sorting tomorrow, I do hope you end up in Gryffindor, but either way the houses are not as divided as they were before. Still, we need good people to win the house cup this year. Ravenclaw has been working way too hard.'

'I don't feel like sleeping anymore,' Thana mumbles quietly and blushes when Hermione lets out a faint chuckle.

'I'd expect so with the amount of sleeping you've been doing,' she sighs, stretching her arm so that the lamp spills into the rest of the room. Thana notices more books sprawled across the floors and tables. 'Well, if you're up for it, how about a good old Hogwarts tour?'

They leave the dorm rooms a little after dawn, the sky just turning a light blue, bundled up in warmth (Thana had to borrow Hermione's clothes), despite telling Hermione the cold did not bother her.