❝ what a shame, that the girl who once believed in fairytales and magic had to be struck with demons in her mind, and the fear of never being loved. ❞ — k. f.

"Breeze?" I asked in the most confident voice possible as I hesitantly stepped into her office.

My palms were sweating copiously and my heart was beating like a drum in unease, but I tried my best to appear calm. I found Breeze standing on a ladder, magically arranging some books on her shelves with her wand.

   "Polly?" sounded her confused voice as she turned her head sideways to look at me.

   After the book that was levitating toward the shelf fit into place, the blue-haired woman put the wand inside the pocket of her oversized trenchcoat and walked down the wooden ladder.

   She approached me, confusion plastered on her face.

    "What brings you here?" she asked. "How was your first week of school?"

"Uh, great, thanks," I replied with a soft smile, wanting to get straight to the point. "Breeze, I-I came here because I want to talk to you about something."

I swallowed and gave Breeze a pointed look. At first she seemed curious, an eyebrow wriggling up quizzically, but from my countenance, she probably understood that I wanted to talk about something of high importance and her face eventually grew more serious.

   "Okay, take a seat," she offered. I did as I was told as she also sat down on her chair behind the desk.

   I opened my mouth to speak but surprisingly no words came out. It was ironic, actually, because there were so many things I wanted to say and so many questions that were flooding my brain, begging me to open my mouth so that they could freely flow out. But the thing was, I just didn't know where to start.

   "Who am I?" were the words that finally managed to stumble out of my lips.

   It probably sounded like a foolish question, but I was sure Breeze understood very well what I meant. I knew I was a girl named Polly Kin, but this year I had found out that I was a witch, a Dolphinus and a murderer's daughter. This year I had found out my mum knew about my magical abilities all along but refused to let me know; that I was insanely rich because I owned a very ancient vault at Gringott's that I didn't even know existed; and that my father hadn't actually died in a plane crash but while running away from the law forces.

   Which all resulted in one thing: if I thought I knew myself before, I had absolutely no idea. Now I needed to know more about my identity, more about the life I never thought awaited me, and to be prepared for whatever was about to come.

   Breeze heaved out a deep sigh and looked at me straight in the eye.

   "Polly," she said after a short pause. "I know you're a smart girl and you've probably already noticed some . . . strange aspects about yourself."

   "I'm a Dolphinus," I said simply. Breeze's face froze at the mention of this word, the color draining from her face, as if I'd just said the name of You-Know-Who. "What does that mean? Why am I dangerous? Why does the Ministry send out people to schools in order to imprison these sorts of people? How can I prevent getting executed? How can I prove I'm innocent? What—"

   "I think it would be best if you calmed down first," Breeze cut me off calmly, flashing me a gentle smile.

   I anxiously bit my lower lip. I wanted to know as much as possible, but I just felt too eager and nervous about it all that the questions had flown out of my mouth one by one. The thing that didn't happen before had happened exactly now.

   "Please tell me something," I practically whispered. "I'm tired of all the secrecy."

   "I understand how you feel, Polly," Breeze said gently. "But please do understand that it's not an easy easy task for me to just . . . tell you everything. I don't know how you will handle it."

   "It doesn't matter, Breeze, I need to know. I deserve to know," I persisted.

   "Polly," Breeze began, "before I tell you more about yourself, I have to tell you everything about your father first."

   "Yes, please," I said, a little too enthusiastically but I was way past the point of caring. Whatever Breeze was about to tell me would be way better than nothing at all, and I couldn't wait to find out more about all the secrets that had been kept hidden from me throughout all the years.

   "Your father, Polly," Breeze started speaking, "used to be my student years ago. He was raised in an orphanage and had never known his true parents. He was an intelligent and hardworking child — and I probably should not be saying this, but truth is that he was one of my favorite students."

   She paused for a moment, looking down at her lap.

   "When the people from the Ministry of Magic came to Hogwarts, little Robert Kin was unaware of his fate. So, when he conjured his Patronus and a silver dolphin came out of his wand tip, everybody was shocked, including him. That's when he panicked. He ran towards his dorm room, grabbed his broomstick and flew away.

   "Frustrated, the Aurors tried to go after him, but your father was a fast flier. One of the best Chasers that the Quidditch team has ever had, actually. So after a few hours of restless pursuing, they decided to give up. They believed that, being nothing but a twelve-year-old kid, he would not manage to survive for long on his own."

   "What happened then?" I asked, shifting on my seat, my voice trembling.

   "For fourteen years, I heard nothing about your father," Breeze replied, her eyebrows furrowed. "I was positive that he was dead indeed, but a few months after he was married to your mother, he decided to pay me a visit and tell me everything about his life throughout the years.

   "When he left Hogwarts, he flew for hours and hours until he reached America. He settled down in a muggle village and built his own shelter, protecting it with different charms and spells to keep people out."

   Breeze paused for a moment, looking at me straight in the eye. Her greenish-brown eyes wore a melancholy expression. They appeared so glassy and vulnerable, it almost hurt to look at them. I never thought a day would come that I'd get to witness somebody as stiff and serious as Breeze tearing up.

   "When you told me that day at the coffee shop about your adventures and everything you had gone through on your own . . . you reminded me so much of your father," Breeze murmured. "You look a lot like him too, Polly. The same piercing eyes, blonde curls, short stature . . . Sometimes, when I look at you, it feels like I have little Robert right in front of me. It feels like it's him that I'm talking to."

   I looked down at my knees, swallowing hard. This time, I was the one who was fighting to keep the tears from spilling. Nobody had ever told me all these things about my father before . . . how much I resembled him, both in looks and character. Why did people hate my father so much when Breeze was talking about him in a tone full of pain and nostalgia? How did he even become a dark and dangerous wizard?

   "Go on," I whispered.

   "He gave magic up and decided to live the life of a muggle," Breeze carried on, her voice stronger. "For years he worked amongst muggles and fought hard to make a living. Bold little fellow, that Robert Kin was. Only twelve years old but still managed to survive, all by himself."

   "Why didn't he try to reach you before?" I asked.

   "Like I mentioned, he gave up his life as a wizard. He didn't want to have anything to do with magic anymore. He thought that things had just been too horrible for him ever since he got his acceptance letter. He didn't want to get in touch with people from his past, and a part of him was afraid that perhaps we'd tell him off to the Ministry right away."

   "I understand," I said. "But why did he decide to drop a line all of a sudden?"

   "A few months after he was married to your mother, he knew that sooner or later they'd be expecting a baby," Breeze said. "He knew that the chances of his child being magical were higher than those of it being not, so he had to do something to provide his child a good life in the wizarding world.

   "But with a past like his . . ." Breeze shook her head to herself, biting her bottom lip. "Hard for a child to blend in with the rest and live a normal life when their father is a supposed murdered who was supposed to be dead long ago. He had to clear his name somehow. But it's not common for twelve-year-olds to manage to survive for fourteen years on their own . . . unless they have something that differentiates them from the rest. If that person also happens to be a Dolphinus, well, that does not play well with the Ministry. Its people are not ones to believe in coincidences.

   "If he went directly to the Ministry, his punishment would be much worse than what it would have been had he not run away from them in the first place. He'd receive instant execution. But Robert didn't want his future child to grow up no father, so he decided to talk to me first. That's when he told me everything."

   "What happened next?" I asked.

   "Unfortunately, there was no hope that your father could ever get his name cleared," Breeze said, breathing out a sigh. "There was no way to change the Ministry's view on something that's been going around for centuries. My last suggestion was that he changed his identity, physical appearance and voice, and came back home as a completely different person.

   "This way, there would be no suspicions that he was actually Robert Kin. The best thing to do was to also erase his memory, so that he could freely apply for a job in the wizarding world, without leaving any clues about his past whatsoever, even if somebody forced a Veritaserum down his throat. That was the only way you could be granted a normal life."

   Breeze looked out of the window, her brows pressed together in a line. The sun was setting over the castle grounds, bathing the scenery in warm light and pastel colors.

   "Everything was supposed to go smoothly," she continued. Her voice was strained and tired. "Our plan was supposed to succeed. When he came back home, we would try to convince him that your mum was actually his wife and that she soon expected a child which would be his. But there was unfortunately an unexpected turn of the events."

   "W-What was it?" I said, not knowing what to prepare myself for. My heart was now acting like a wild animal that wanted to get out of its cage.

   "When we erased his memory, he totally forgot that he was, in fact, a Dolphinus. There were bits and pieces of memories left in his brain, but nothing that he could really make sense of. So, by hearing people say all the time that Dolphinuses were dangerous and needed be eliminated, he got the wrong impression of them. Now he wanted to work hard to eliminate them . . . so he applied for the job of a Dolphinuses' executioner."

   The office fell silent. Whatever background noise that was coming from either the instruments that Breeze had on the shelves or the birds outside seemed to have temporarily stopped.

   It felt like somebody had just hit me with a body-bind curse. My head was spinning around dangerously fast; I felt like the ceiling had just tumbled down, colliding over my head, crushing me with its weight.

   I wanted to run. Run and run and run and run and never look back.

   My dad was a Dolphinuses executioner. My dad, my own father . . . He had been the one who had imprisoned those Durmstrang kids and—
  
   I'd be his next target.

   "I-I'd better go," I stammered, dizzily getting to my feet. I held my head with both hands, breathing unevenly. I was going to throw up.

   "Polly," Breeze said cautiously, her voice laced with worry.

   She got up and approached me, but I was already at the door, about to turn the knob and get the hell away from there as fast as possible.

   "Polly, please. I still have so much left to tell you."

   I didn't stop. Nor did I turn around and return to my seat. As soon as I opened the door, I broke into a run. I trod down the spiral staircase and passed the gargoyle statue. I ran and ran and ran and didn't stop. Thrusting and nudging my way through overpacked crowds of pupils, running down the hallways, exiting the castle and passing the courtyard.

   I reached a spot by the Black Lake on the shadow of a big willow tree, behind a few shrubs and brambles of wild roses that prevented anybody from seeing or hearing me. At that moment, I collapsed to my knees, and for the first time since I'd left home in July, I started crying.

   Crying for everything that had happened so far in my life, too fast and too bizarre for me to get a grip on. Crying for every secret that had been kept hidden from me, and for everything I hadn't been told a thing all those years.

   But most of all, crying for my destiny that I could do nothing about. There was no point in running away, no point in hiding somewhere in the muggle world like my father had done.

   My fate was already clear to me. I was destined to be executed, for being me, and the one to perform this cruel act would be none other than my own father, who actually had no idea that he had a fifteen-year-old daughter named Polly Kin, whose life couldn't get more screwed up than this.