Chapter Text
The birth of Dion Specter was quite an event. The problem, or perhaps salvation, was that no one knew. There was no person on earth who knew of her existence except for her parents.
Meirlus and Victoria Specter.
…
Meirlus, a tall, rough man, came from southwestern Europe.
His tanned skin and brown hair were not common in London. Angular face, wide nose, and a prominent mustache. At the age of eleven he entered Hogwarts the school of witchcraft and wizardry as a son of wizards. During his years at school, he met Victoria. A pallid girl of the strangest. Thin, blonde and with freckles on her nose. Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, Meirlus and Victoria, two suns in darkness. They made a beautiful couple. Victoria was the daughter of Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts. A man respected by many, tall, thin with blue eyes and light brown hair.
Once the seventh grade ended, Meirlus and Victoria ran away together. Victoria wanted to live her life away from her father because of their broken father-daughter relationship.
Her mother died when she was very young, and she grew up alone with him.
Years later, the couple consummated marriage and had a beautiful and delicate daughter. Chocolate eyes and hair like her father, but with her mother's ivory skin. They called her Dion Specter. Everything was perfect, there were just the three of them in their house in Edinburgh. They lived the first months of Dion in complete tranquility.
Dion was very sleepy and did not give them a problem in the middle of the night which made her a little angel. Her big, attentive eyes watched the affection her parents gave her, and she felt arguably the happiest baby ever. But happiness is not eternal and Meirlus and Victoria realized it in the worst possible way. Near Dion's first birthday, an unexpected visitor appeared on their doorstep. A tall, thin man in a jet robe. His whole appearance screamed trouble from miles away. They recognized him right away, the famous Dark Lord or Voldemort if you were brave enough to pronounce it. When he appeared, Victoria had just put Dion to bed in her crib, but when she heard Meirlus' screams, she had time to hide her.
She joined her husband and together they tried to fight Voldemort. The fighting did not last long. Meirlus and Victoria were powerful, but having Dion in the other room they could not unleash their full power leaving them at a distinct disadvantage. Voldemort had appeared for the purpose of getting the heiress of Dumbledore's powers.
Meirlus died watching Victoria's unconscious body being taken away. When Voldemort managed to get Albus Dumbledore's daughter in his possession, he cast a spell on the house. An explosion of power erupted in the room, but Voldemort did not get to see what happened next. The red glow of the spell was absorbed by Dion's small body without leaving a glimpse on the outside. That night the house got a chilling silence.
Meirlus’s corpse lay on the living room floor while Dion slept peacefully in her stuffy crib. Her deep sleep saved her own life.
Only one person witnessed how the spell disappeared as soon as it reached the house and that was Severus Snape. A wizard with shoulder-length black hair, hooked nose, and sallow skin. He observed the entire encounter from a considerable distance and at no time prevented the death of Meirlus or the capture of Victoria. He had studied with them at Hogwarts, he knew they didn't deserve what happened to them, but he didn't flinch. When the spell exploded, he was going to leave too, but one last glance made him stop. Were his eyes deceiving him? He decided to go into the house to inspect the cause and after a few minutes, he discovered Dion's sleepy body. Her hair was no longer brown, gradually adopting the same red as the spell. A blood red far from looking natural.
Her delicate body emitted a powerful aura and Snape soon knew that it wasn't just because she was descended from Dumbledore's powers. Voldemort captured the wrong person.
Victoria knew her fate and so she hid her in the cradle in the hope that Voldemort would not notice her existence. Snape could not leave the baby there, he had to warn of the events that took place during the last minutes. Warn Dumbledore.
That he did. Later, Dumbledore, accompanied by a woman, appeared on the porch of the house. Due to the passing of the years, Dumbledore was already very old judging by his silver hair and beard which reached down to his waist. He wore a long robe and a maroon cloak that brushed the ground covering his boots. The woman next to him looked somewhat younger.
Upright posture with a worried countenance, black hair pulled back in a bun and square-rimmed glasses. She wore clothes like his, but her cloak was emerald. They approached Snape who was waiting for them at the door frame with a bundle of blankets in his arms.
“I guess you've heard the news by now,” Snape was the first to speak. “Victoria Specter was captured by the Dark Lord and her husband Meirlus killed.”
The woman bowed her head regretfully letting Dumbledore answer.
“Voldemort craves power and taking Victoria that was what one could say my successor. He found her even when she left London and got her in the end.”
Dumbledore did not let his discomfort be seen if he felt any and that did not sit too well with the two present. How could he act like this because of the disappearance of his own daughter?
“There is something else. Something no one had counted on,” Snape undid the blankets he was carrying, revealing a baby. The woman put a hand to her chest and gasped in surprise. “They had a baby. The Dark Lord did not discover it thanks to Victoria hiding her in time, but that's not all. Mysteriously, she absorbed a spell conjured by the Dark Lord before leaving. A powerful one.”
None said anything, stunned by the existence of the girl and the feats performed from such a young age.
“Who-you-know must not know the existence of the girl. We would condemn her to a miserable life if he didn't kill her as soon as he saw her,” the woman spoke for the first time since they appeared. She did not take her eyes off the baby, and she was restless, playing with the fabric of her cloak. “We should take her to Hogwarts as soon as possible.”
“Let's not rush, Professor McGonagall. School is no place for a baby,” Dumbledore refuted her words almost instantly to which she snorted.
“You can't be serious, Professor. You are her family. You already disowned Victoria, don't do it with her again,” Professor McGonagall would not sit idly by at his decision. Not this time.
“If I may add. With the right training, she can become an extraordinary witch. I haven't seen anyone absorb a spell like she did, least of all at her age,” it didn't take long for Snape to side with McGonagall.
Deep down he felt guilty for not preventing what happened to the girl's parents and wanted to do this for her. His words seemed to somehow convince Dumbledore, and he sighed resignedly.
“You're both right. We will take her to Hogwarts, and she will grow up there. She will study magic with the rest of the wizards and witches of her year and hopefully she will have no more encounters with Voldemort.”
All already decided, they went to search the house in case they left something. They didn't find many significant things. Paintings, framed photos, and a lot of happiness in every corner of the house. Nearing the end of the inspection, Snape found a trapdoor in the bedroom with Dion still in his arms. It had no lock, there was just a strange symbol. It was protected with magic. A root spell, only members of the same family could activate the trapdoor.
Dumbledore managed to open it with ease and McGonagall bent down to get the contents out. It was a wooden box decorated with golden details. When she opened it, she found an envelope on top of many papers. No address or signature. She passed it on to Dumbledore as she didn't think she should read it first. The director tore the envelope taking out a letter. He decided to read it aloud already knowing that they would find out and thus saved himself from telling everything again.
"Dear Dion,
If you are reading this, it is very likely that I’m no longer in this world. There are things you don't know about our family yet, but don't doubt something. Your father and I love you more than anything in this world. You brought us immense happiness and we hope we had time to show you. You are the most powerful witch there is, let no one tell you otherwise. Trust your instincts, my child. You will see that everything will end well in the end. Stay with Dad if he's still with you and if that's not the case, show this letter to Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts. I hope that with you he knows how to act. I wish you the best, you deserve it.
A kiss, Mom."
Once he finished reading the letter, he kept it in his tunic. The three looked at each other and then laid their eyes on Dion as if she were going to tell them the solution to their problems.
The rest of the papers in the box were medical certificates, bank accounts and reports on Dion. It would seem as if Victoria knew her fate and that of her daughter long before she was even born. They left everything to her care so that nothing was needed when she grew up. McGonagall kept the rest of the papers so nothing would happen to them and secured them in her robe.
“We'd better leave here before the Muggles arrive, principal,” Snape was getting impatient because of the time they have been in the house. The fight was already an hour ago, they will soon come because of the noises. The fact that the house is away from the rest gave them more time, but it was running out.
“Wait a minute, Meirlus deserves to be buried at least,” with Professor McGonagall's words, they begin with work. Using their wands, they bury Meirlus and create a beautiful tombstone next to his grave. So, Dion will have a place to visit her father. As soon as they finish, they begin their journey to Hogwarts where Dion will spend her entire life until she graduates.