CHAPTER THREE - Ah-tor-ia

Upon entering the small, dusty shop, Hagrid sat down on a spindly chair and watched the two kids head up towards the counter.

An old man, presumably Mr Ollivander, came out from behind it. He immediately headed towards Harry, and began to speak to him. It was only until a minute later when he finally noticed Hagrid and Attuoria in the room.

"Now who might this be?" He asked curiously, peering at Attuoria through his silvery eyes.

Attuoria felt her breath hitch at the top of her throat as she once again realised she hadn't come up with a human name for herself. Luckily, Hagrid came to her assistance.

"She's another first year, don't got any parents either so Dumbledore put me in charge of gettin' her settled an' all." Hagrid said, a hint of proudness in his voice.

"Rubeus!" Mr Ollivander exclaimed, eyes flickering towards the giant, immediately launching into a lively conversation with him.

Apparently Hagrid had been expelled back in his Hogwarts years, and was told not to use his wand anymore. Attuoria noticed he clutched a pink umbrella in his hand tightly as he spoke, and heard from Hagrid's thoughts that the broken pieces of his wand were actually hidden in there.

After a few more conversations, Mr Ollivander began selecting wands for Harry to try out. It took a while before he found the right one, and Mr Ollivander had a lot to say about Harry's supple, phoenix feather, holly wand.

Then it was Attuoria's turn. As she stepped up to the counter, Mr Ollivander's magic tape measure immediately began to measure her body. She carefully watched the tape measure, wondering if it had a life of its own. Whilst that was happening, Mr Ollivander dug through the shelves around the shop.

"Alright," his voice rang out, and the tape measure went limp and crumpled onto the floor. "Try this," Mr Ollivander said, handing her a wand. "Cedar and phoenix feather, thirteen inches and brittle flexibility."

The moment the wand touched her fingers, she felt a surge of warmth through her body.

"Come on, give it a wave."

Attuoria awkwardly swished the wand in the air and all of a sudden, the air around her turned cold and her body, especially her wand-wielding arm, began to glow an icy blue.

Unlike the cheers Harry had received after his wand shot out red and gold sparkles, they all stared at Attuoria quietly, eyes wide.

"Well, that was quick." Mr Ollivander muttered to himself, gently plucking the wand out of Attuoria's outstretched hand and placing it back into its box. He handed her the box with the wand in it, and stared at her with his watery eyes.

"You have quite a peculiar aura for a young witch, and I see why this wand chose you," he said quietly. "I must say I am intrigued. You are a powerful young lady. Something about you is... unsettling. One thing I feel I must say knowing that a cedar wand chose you: know where your loyalties lie, and I hope you can see truths with unclouded eyes."

Attuoria blinked in response to his pale stare. Mr Ollivander had given Harry quite an ominous speech as well. It must be the common wand-buying procedure. She shrugged it off, paid for the wand with Harry (seven gold Galleons... she peeked into her money pouch to check if she was going broke- thank goodness she wasn't, yet), thanked Mr Ollivander and left the shop.

***

Feeling oddly satisfied with her magical purchases, Attuoria carried the items inside a makeshift bag she created from her large black "cloak" she was wearing early in the day. She, Hagrid and Harry sat down at a burger shop near the subway station that was to take Harry back to his home.

Attuoria wondered where she would go now. After all, she had nowhere to live.

"Hagrid?" Attuoria asked, and Hagrid grunted as a sign that he was listening. "I've got nowhere to live," she said, the words already leaving her mouth before she realised that this was her problem, not Hagrids.

Hagrid stared at her, waiting for her to continue.

"Actually, nevermind." She quickly said, tilting her head back down to stare at the burger in her hands. Harry was already halfway done with it, and she hadn't even taken a bite. This was human food. Humans had to eat food.

She heard Hagrid chuckle as he shuffled through his coat pockets again. "Don't worry, Dumbledore thought things through alrigh', he wants yeh to live with ol' Mrs Figg for now. It's the house righ' across the street from Harry's place. Harry, yeh know where it is." He handed Attuoria yet another letter, but this one was addressed from Dumbledore to a lady named Arabella Figg.

"Mrs Figg?" Harry exclaimed with a look of horror on his face, a small piece of lettuce hanging out from his mouth. He quickly chewed and swallowed the rest of his food before speaking again. "She's got a ton of cats and her house smells like cabbages! How does Dumbledore even know of her?" Harry turned to Attuoria with a sheepish look on his face. "Well, you're going to have fun. She's quite the bore."

"Could I come over to your place then?" Attuoria asked. Although she wasn't too sure if the smell of cabbages was supposed to be a bad thing, Harry made it sound rather nasty.

"Trust me, you wouldn't want to come over to my place either." said Harry, grimacing. "I don't know what's worse: Mrs Figg, or home with Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia and Dudley. But if you want, we could hang out outside the house."

Attuoria nodded, happy with the arrangement.

As the train arrived, Hagrid helped the two kids on and handed them each an envelope.

"Yer ticket fer Hogwarts," he said. "First o' September - King's Cross - it's all on yer ticket. Any problems with the Dursleys, send me a letter with yer owl, they'll know where to find me - Say, where's yer big bird?" Hagrid said, suddenly noticing that Attuoria's large Philippine Eagle was gone.

Attuoria shrugged. "Probably enjoying his life out in the forest. Doesn't really matter, he was too big anyways."

She had settled a deal with her eagle so that while it could fly wherever it wanted, it had to return to her at least once everyday just in case she needed anything. After all, she set the bird free from the shop, so she needed it to return her the favour.

"Oh," Hagrid said, looking slightly disappointed. "But no worries, Harry's got his owl for the both of you. See yeh soon, both of yeh."

The train pulled out of the station, and Attuoria sat down next to Harry, the two of them holding large packages on their laps. People gave them weird stares, but neither of them were bothered by it. Too much had happened in one day and both of them were still recovering from the overwhelming amount of information.

After a minute or so of silence, Harry spoke up.

"So what is your name?" He asked curiously. "You never told me or Hagrid."

Attuoria was unsure what to say. She spent eleven years yearning to visit the mortal realm, yet she never came up with a human name for herself. It was a lack of preparation on her behalf.

"You do have a name, don't you?" Harry pressed on, eager to talk to her now that Hagrid is gone.

"Er, yeah, of course," Attuoria said, frowning at her own words. "It's just difficult to translate to English."

Technically that wasn't a lie, because language in the spiritual dimension was completely different to English, and there was no way to translate between the two.

"Oh. But you're going to need an English name, you know." Harry reminded her kindly, and she could sense that he was genuinely looking out for her. "Maybe give yourself a random name?"

"I thought about that," said Attuoria with a sigh. "But nothing seems right."

"Well does your name have a meaning in your native language?"

Harry's question set off a lightbulb in Attuoria's head. Yes, her name had a meaning. As a Nightmare Demon, she was assigned a name based on an inborn trait.

"My name means 'to observe'." Attuoria said, satisfied with the sound of it. She earned her name from her tendency to observe everything, which is a trait not many demons had, and she was quite proud of it. "But I can't exactly call myself 'observe'."

Harry nodded in understanding. "But if we're going to hang out for the next month before school starts, I need to know what to call you."

Attuoria took out her Hogwarts letter and stared at it. It was her name, written in unrecognisable letters and symbols. It looked nothing like English.

"I'll think about it." She said truthfully. It needed to at least sound like a name, and it had to be something that she would recognise and respond to. She didn't want to use commonplace English names, because it would make her feel awkward and out of place. She didn't want to force herself to sound like an authentic, average human being, because she's not.

The rest of the ride was quiet. Harry occasionally asked Attuoria a few questions, but for the majority, both of them sat in silence, contemplating the life ahead of them. When the train finally arrived at the station in Surrey, Harry took Attuoria over to Mrs Figg's house.

They rang the doorbell and waited for a few seconds. The door creaked open slowly and the pungent smell of cabbages immediately flooded Attuoria's nostrils. It wasn't exactly the most pleasant smell.

"You see what I mean?" Harry whispered, scrunching up his nose. Attuoria nodded, frowning.

An old lady wearing a pink dressing gown appeared at the door, a hairnet over her frizzy grey hair. She had a pair of checkered slippers on her feet. A small gray cat peeked out from between her legs.

The moment her eyes landed on the young girl in front of her, she gave her a toothy grin. "Ah, you must be Attuoria. I've been waiting a long time." She said, opening the door wider to allow them in.

Attuoria stood frozen on the spot at her doorstep. What did she just call me?

"Well come on in," said the woman, beckoning into the house.

Harry seemed to realise Attuoria's shock and came to her assistance. "Sorry Mrs Figg, she's not from here. What did you say her name was again?" he asked, giving Attuoria a small smile.

"Her name?" Mrs Figg said with a frown, looking at the girl. "Attuoria. Didn't you guys spend the day together?"

"A-Attuoria?" Attuoria stuttered, feeling the name roll of her tongue. "That's my name?"

"Ah-tor-ia. Attuoria." Harry repeated, staring at her. "That's quite an interesting name."

Mrs Figg looked more confused than ever. "Does this girl not know her own name? Or did I read it wrong in Dumbledore's letter? But I'm positive that's how you pronounce it. Should I ask her?" Mrs Figg's thoughts rang out loud and clear in Attuoria's mind.

Dumbledore wrote my name in English in a letter? Then my name must be Attuoria, Attuoria thought to herself. She cleared her throat, getting Mrs Figg's attention.

"Erhm, yeah, Dumbledore, I mean, Professor Dumbledore might have mentioned that I'm not from here, so I've been trying to adjust and everything." Attuoria quickly made an excuse, hoping it was believable.

Mrs Figg gave her a light smile. "Yes, of course, no worries. And Harry, thank you for bringing her over. Would you like to come in for some tea?"

Attuoria glanced back at Harry, who was already edging away from the door, looking as if he'd much rather go home. Attuoria didn't blame him. The cabbage smell was less than inviting.

Not wanting him to be any more uncomfortable than he already was, Attuoria tried to help the situation. "I think Harry's aunt and uncle probably want him home. After all, he's been out the whole day." She told Mrs Figg, watching Harry give her a grateful look.

"Oh yes, the Dursleys must be waiting. Well then it was nice seeing you, Harry, hopefully you'll come to visit more often now that Attuoria's here."

"Yep, I'll come hang out with Attuoria every day!" Harry said, flashing a quick smile before quickly walking away from the house, visibly exhaling heavily from holding in his breath at the front door.

Mrs Figg and Attuoria watched as Harry disappeared from view. The two of them then entered the house, and Attuoria realised that there was not just one, but four cats in total. Photos of cats were all over the walls of the living room, as well as in picture frames above the fireplace and on multiple shelves.

Attuoria was distracted by a distant sound of something being sprayed. Mrs Figg was holding a bottle of air freshener and aggressively shooting the misty liquid all over the living room.

"My goodness, this cabbage smell is absolutely vile," Mrs Figgs cursed, coughing when the air freshener got in her mouth.

"Dumbledore says I've got to make sure Harry doesn't enjoy coming over to my place, so everytime I hear he's about to come, I make this cabbage soup because it smells so disgusting. I know he hates it." She explained to Attuoria, waving her arms around before taking a deep breath.

"Ugh, I can still smell it. But I suppose it's better now."

She finally put down the air freshener and turned around to look at Attuoria, who was standing near the door with all her newly-bought belongings in her arms, looking confused.

"Let's get you settled." Mr. Figg brought Attuoria to a spare bedroom in the house and let her place her belongings there.

After she noticed that the young girl didn't have anything with her apart from her Hogwarts school supplies, she took her shopping, buying her all the basic necessities such as clothes and toiletries.

It was at one of the clothing shops that Attuoria got her first good look at herself. Mrs Figg let her choose what to get, and Attuoria gravitated towards bright colours. While the spiritual dimension was dark and empty, everything in the mortal realm was bright. The colors attracted her for the same reason she was attracted to the knowledge of humans - novelty.

There were mirrors all around the shop, and people held their clothes up to themselves and posed in front of it, looking at their reflection. Attuoria walked up to one of them and stared at herself. Her human form.

She had straight, dark hair that stopped halfway down her back. Her hair was shiny, parted down the middle, slightly covering the two sides of her face. Her eyes weren't big, she noticed, they were slightly slanted upwards in an almond-like shape.

And her irises were white.

Eyes widening at the sight, Attuoria quickly blinked and when she opened her eyes again, her irises were a dark shade of brown, so dark that it almost looked black.

It must've been a trick of the light, Attuoria thought to herself, shaking away the image of her human self with white eyes.

As for the rest of her body, she had landed in the mortal realm as an 11-year-old. Not surprising, considering that when she entered the mortal realm, she had placed herself into Dudley Dursley's dream. Dudley was eleven years old himself, so she assumed his age.

However, Attuoria's near two-centuries old mind was now living within the mind of a child. She supposed there could be advantages to that.

She was also quite thin, although not as thin as Harry. The blue dress that the lady at Madam Malkins gave her was quite a good fit.

Through the mirror, she noticed that there was a girl at the other side of the shop watching her with an unidentifiable look in her eyes. The girl was quite short, with blonde hair and a pudgy-looking face. Wanting to know what she was thinking, Attuoria turned around and met with the girl's gaze.

Immediately, the young girl's thoughts floated into Attuoria's mind.

"She's so pretty: tall, skinny, dark hair - she looks like a princess. Like Snow White! I wish I looked like a princess."

Attuoria turned back around to look at her reflection in the mirror. She had no idea of human beauty standards, but from the girl's thoughts, she knew she had won the lottery of looks when she gained human form.

***

Attuoria spent the rest of the month before school reading through all the books she had bought at Diagon Alley, infiltrating the minds of Mrs Figg's cats, and hanging out with Harry in the small neighborhood park near his house.

Her English proficiency level was around the same level as a senior literature major in college, which allowed her to read all her textbooks through at least two times each. Mrs Figgs had a few extra in her house as well that she quickly read through. After reading A History of Magic four times, she now had quite a good understanding of the wizarding world that she was about to enter.

Her Philippine Eagle came back to visit her every afternoon, as per their deal. Usually, she would be sitting out on the swings with Harry when the tall bird would fly over and land on top of one of the playground equipment.

The eagle soon realised that Attuoria could read its mind, and the two of them began communicating. Attuoria would say something in English, and the bird would give its reply to her in his mind. The bird only ever talked about the animals it ate during the day, so Attuoria often told him to leave as soon as he was done.

She also managed to settle a name for the eagle: Eylense. Attuoria originally came up with that as a joke to mock the name Harry chose for his owl: Hedwig. Hedwig sounded like "head, wig", and Attuoria couldn't believe that Harry named his owl after a body part and an accessory.

So one day, she called her eagle "Eylense", which sounded like "eye, lense". Harry thought the name was funny, and Attuoria told him that it's exactly what she thinks about the name "Hedwig". But surprisingly, the eagle agreed on the name, so it stuck.

Attuoria and Harry grew quite close over the month of August. Harry never really had a friend until Attuoria, so it felt nice not to be called a freak for once. Attuoria was just glad to have a fellow human being around to help her out, as the whole mortal realm situation was still confusing her.

Together with Harry, they came up with a believable human profile for Attuoria. She never told him about her real identity as a Nightmare demon, but saying that she "wasn't from here" was already adequate enough to stop people from asking questions. Harry thought she was from some faraway cult in Romania that spoke dead Latin languages. Attuoria wasn't sure what to tell him.