16. Albus Dumbledore
After dinner, Bill and Charl walked over to me.'So', said Bill, 'someone wanted to sneak into the kitchen.''Yes, it's quite urgent.'Bill raised an eyebrow: 'And may I know what's so urgent?''Mind your own business', Charlie responded.'Well, then I suppose you do too and you don't need to be in the kitchen so urgently after all.''I want to bake something for Professor Dumbledore', I said, before he could change his mind.'For Professor Dumbledore?' Bill looked at me in surprise.'Well... he asked me into his office tomorrow night and..."'You want to slime in case you got yourself into trouble', he finished my sentence.
'Or you already know you got yourself into trouble.'
'No, I wouldn't know what I did wrong', I interrupted him.
Though I could list many things I did wrong.
'Okay, just follow me.'
He led us to the dungeons where a lot of Hupplepuffs were walking around. Would their common room be anywhere near here? We continued walking until we came to a painting of a fruit bowl. Bill tickled the pear. It started to giggle and a green door handle appeared. He opened the painting and we found ourselves in the kitchen. It wasn't just any kitchen, it was a giant kitchen full of house elves. When I was little, my mother had a house elf. It was just like I was the only one who felt sorry for him when the poor thing got so jaded. These house-elves showered us with treats.
'Well, I'll go then, you'll take care of yourselves', Bill concluded with his arms full of pasties.
In fact, the kitchen was almost an exact copy of the Great Hall. There were four long house tables and a teacher's table.
'Uhm... can I bake some lemon tarts here?' I asked a random house elf. Because that's what I intended to make. At first I thought I would make my favorite pastries, brownies, but maybe the old man liked something finer than chocolate.
'But we will bake you lemon tarts', answered the house-elf enthusiastically.
'That's very kind of you, but I'd feel better if I baked them myself.'
The elf grabbed my skirt and pulled me to a counter. 'What do you need?'
'A lot: lemons, flour, sugar, eggs, butter, cream...' I had barely mentioned it or house-elves from all sides came to bring me the ingredients. While I was making the batter, Charlie thoroughly enjoyed all the sweets. My end result was a box of airy lemon cakes, with vanilla cream in between and a raspberry on top as a finishing touch.
Exactly one day later I was standing at the entrance of the headmaster's office with it. The only problem was that the gargoyle guarding it only moved aside if you said the correct password. Professor Dumbledore hadn't thought of this.'Oh hello, what are you doing there?' sounded Hagrid's voice.'Professor Dumbledore asked me to come to his office now, but I don't know the correct password.'Hagrid hesitated for a moment because of the color of my uniform, but said anyway:'The password is Ginger Newt.' Hearing his words, the gargoyle moved aside to reveal a staircase.'Thanks Hagrid.'When I got to the door, I knocked.'Come in Belle', it sounded. The headmaster sat behind his desk. His office was filled with odd-looking stuff and portraits of former principals hung on the walls.'I made lemon tarts for you', I said as I handed him the box.'Ah how thoughtful of you Belle.' He put one in his mouth.
'If you ask me, they turned out really well. Lemon is my favourite.''I didn't know Professor.''Oh but maybe you did, deep down.' I gave the headmaster a strange look: I just happened to make tarts from his favorite fruit.'I'm surprised why you didn't choose divination as an elective.''I suppose I'm already too good at that for my liking.'At these words Dumbledor raised his finger of:"Told you so."'Belle contrary to what you've told everyone, you're a half-blood.''Sorry, I shouldn't have lied...' But he made a motion that I should let him finish.
'That's not a problem, it's none of their business. You tell them what you think is best to tell. But so, did you know that the magic in your blood doesn't only come from your mother's side, but also a little bit from your father?''Does my father have a wizarding family?''Not much, you have to go way back.' He unfolded an old document with a giant family tree and pointed to a box at the very bottom: 'Joseph Brown.' There was nothing underneath it. This is probably because I am an illegitimate child."Going upstairs we see that you are a distant descendant of Cassandra Trelawney. Does this explain much to you?''More than you think professor', I said in dismay.'This also means of course, that you're distantly related to Professor Sybill Trelawney.'
A family bond that frankly I wasn't very proud of. I've never met her myself, but I've already gotten a whole report from Jess.'Belle, you don't have to answer, but I still have to ask:'Have you had any visions or anything like that lately?'
'Well... they aren't really visions or dreams or anything. Some things I just know. Like the Thestrals who pull the carriages. I know they are there, I can see them, yet I don't see them. Does that sound weird?'
'Only if you think it sounds weird. Try not to think about it too much. But if there is something serious, please know that I would like you to inform me or one of the other teachers.'
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