The days passed quickly. With the excuse of teaching Flora and Felipe all about the laws of the Ministry, Hermione had managed to take a leave of absence at work to help with her friends "training". Nobody was better suited for doing this than her, since she worked in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Furthermore, the minister personally believed that it’d be nice to keep an eye on the footsteps of Voldemort's heir. So, neither Hermione’s nor Harry’s absences from work were questioned even if they didn’t systematically report back on work.

Flora and Hermione now "popped in" at the school library every day, despite Harry’s fears that his friend was equipping Flora with too much. Actually, despite Ginny’s protests, he too was doing the same. So now Ginny truly believed that Hermione had really been bewitched, as Flora was now her favorite subject.

What Ginny couldn’t understand was that teaching magic to Flora was really magical - as Hermione stated after much thought- because Flora’s ability to learn was extraordinary. Besides, the Brazilian witch was very interested in everything and extremely dedicated to learning.

In those daily visits to the library, they borrowed and returned books and
more books. Back at Flora’s house, they practiced for hours together.

Hermione had set up a program with the basic topics that she believed were important to an adult witch. Hannah also took part in Flora’s training, especially when it came to the preparation of potions and in magical plants’ care, as it was a skill that she’d acquired from her husband.

Flora was a disaster as a caretaker of plants, but excelled in the preparation of potions. That made her teachers often feel sorry, because their former teacher, Severus Snape, had died without having had the opportunity to teach her. They even believed that his customary bad mood would have vanished before so bright a student.

Flora’s evenings were very pleasant in the company of her two friends. Though Felipe’s presence was becoming lesser and lesser to these classes or Girls Club as he used to kid, he practiced a lot in his shop. Hogsmeade’s residents eagerly taught him spells in exchange for computing classes.

Aberforth, the owner of the pub next door, and a very old man, who could barely move his twisted fingers on the keyboard, was one of his most dedicated students. He had already created his own blog, called the Old Headless Hog (meaning that the head of the hog had been chopped off which now hung on top of the door of his pub) and, who, in turn, taught Felipe how to conjure a Patronus. For that, Felipe had to recall a happy memory, and this was easy for him as his life was good enough, which helped him make his Patronus very bright. His difficulty, though, was to choose which among his happy memories the strongest one was. Despite this “difficulty”, his patronus, a huge condor, was so perfect that one could see every detail on its feathers.

Soon after lunch on a rainy day, an owl arrived with a message from Harry Potter. The note it brought informed her that because of the break, he would be coming in an hour to take her to the office of the Headmistress of the
school.

Flora’s heart pounded. She was afraid of what she would be seeing there, but as always, her curiosity surpassed her fear. Felipe was apologetic for not being able to go with them.

“I’ve promised Ab to help him with the improvement of the graph of his blog. Neville’s coming too; he also has off this afternoon. Then we’ll stop by Ab’s who is going to cook for us, Neville once had said that Ab’s food is unforgettable, but I couldn’t understand if he was being sarcastic or was really praising him. Anyways, it’s a program for boys only and I’m sure that it’s going to be fun.” Felipe replied enthusiastically.

Flora raised an eyebrow. Felipe went on:

“Don’t worry. We won’t do anything obscene. I'm even going to take Yan as he doesn’t have any classes this afternoon. Now that he has discovered wizard chess, he won’t rest till he finds a partner naughtier than him. He plays for the simple pleasure of seeing the pieces massacring each other.”

“So, old Ab has made a blog?” Flora asked.

“Didn’t I tell you? It’s a huge success among the school’s former students.”

Flora smiled.

“I'm off, darling. I need to open the store. Take care, my love.”

Felipe left Flora alone at home. She sent a message via mobile to Hermione, who was one of the few witches keen on using technology, informing her that they couldn’t have classes that afternoon. She stopped by Hannah’s and informed her too. She did not tell them the reason, as if the meeting with Harry was secret. Once she was finished with her housework, she sat on a rocking chair in the back porch to read a spell book. She was so absorbed in reading that she did not even see him coming. After rounding the house, Harry stood before her, dropping a shadow on her. She was suddenly startled, but then smiled and got up from her chair to greet him with a kiss on his cheek. Harry became a little embarrassed with her demonstration of affection. She apologized and explained to him that it was usual in Brazil.

Flora offered him juice; he accepted it. Afterward they walked along the road that went till the school gates:

“Today I’ll show you one of Dumbledore’s old memories. It dates back to the day he met Voldemort at the orphanage. Dumbledore paid them a visit to explain that the boy had been selected for a scholarship in a boarding school. I think you'll have a good idea about who Tom Riddle was since childhood.”

They went along the path talking about the similarities and differences of their childhood, considering they both had been brought up by Muggle families. The marked contrast between them was that her upbringing had been extremely happy and immersed in love, his in turn was full of privations of all kinds. The talk flowed quite freely between them, as if they were old friends, siblings; or rather lovers.

Once they got there, they met Professor McGonagall near her office. She said that she’d leave them alone because of an appointment.

They walked past the gargoyle guarding the spiral staircase that led to her office. When they got there, Flora got very tense and held Harry's hand. Seeing that, he asked her whether she wanted to continue. She said that she did and that she’d decide what to do only after having experienced it.

Harry quickly greeted the past Hogwarts Headmasters and Headmistress painted in the pictures that hung from the wall. Nevertheless, he silently paused for a moment in front of Dumbledore’s portrait. By his side, motionless, Flora silently followed the movements in the paintings. Then from a cupboard that looked like an old cabinet, he took the Pensieve together with a little bottle full of a pearly liquid. He turned it on the stone basin and the substance expanded, it was fluid like water, although it was not wet at all. It was something between a gas and a liquid. He signaled for her to “plunge” her face in it. It sounded strange to her, but she did as asked. She immediately felt as if she was falling into another dimension. Harry materialized next to her soon afterwards.

They followed a man in strange clothes till the gate of the orphanage. It was an austere building, apparently uninhabited, since one could not hear any sound from outside that indicated there were children in there.

The gentleman talked to the woman responsible for the place. She was surprised, since no one ever had come looking for the boy. She also hinted that the young lad had a bizarre behavior, but she was not clear about it, though; probably for being afraid nobody would take him away.

Flora saw the meeting between the boy and the gentleman that according to Harry, was the young Dumbledore. Flora noted that even then, Tom Riddle didn’t have much moral sense and enjoyed pestering other children and animals; besides he used to commit petty thefts. After seeing all that, Flora and he came back from their dive in the Pensieve.

They left the office in silence. Harry was aware of her need to think all that over. The experience might have cracked her childhood dreams about her father being originally an innocent boy led astray by lack of love and understanding. But those were Harry’s thoughts. But instead, after seeing her father as a beautiful boy with features very similar to hers as well as her children, Flora felt an even greater compassion for him. When she finally managed to speak, they were outside the castle, heading towards Hagrid’s hut – Harry had warned her that he wanted to stop by to see his old friend

“Poor thing!” Flora sighed.

“Poor thing? I can’t believe my ears!”

“You see, Harry. At that age we still can’t say one is a psychopath. Of course, his behavior is unacceptable, but I have treated many similar ones in many years of practice... I keep on thinking that if he’d had the same opportunity as me, or a proper treatment, he might have had a different life.”

“You are truly amazing. I don’t know what to say.”

Harry was angry with what he had heard. He did not say anything. They arrived at the hut and Hagrid helped smoothen things between them. Hagrid commented about his last class by talking about Hippogriffs and other very exotic animals. He also told them how much he had talked to Lia and Lily, who were inseparable now and seemed extremely interested in the dealing of magical creatures:

“It’d be no surprise if Lia turned up with a dragon's egg in your house, Flora... Actually, I’ve incubated one myself. Despite being a docile animal, it became difficult to live with the fires it breathed out.” Hagrid laughed. “By the way, Flora, I am going to the Hog's Head. Aberforth has invited me. He said your husband would be there too. And Neville too. It’s gonna be a time for boys only. Hope you don’t mind me stealing your Harry.”

Throwing her head back, Flora laughed to disguise Hagrid’s embarrassing suggestion that Harry somehow could be hers. She replied back saying that it would not be a problem.

Hagrid said that it was already time for him to go, so he could walk with them to the village. When they arrived in front of the bar, Harry left Hagrid there and said that he would walk Flora home.

They got at her home very quickly. He looked into her eyes and asked:

“How can you naively find an explanation for everything?”

“I’ve been like that since I was a child... Seriously, Harry. I don’t want to see anything else about my father. I've seen enough, and I already have my explanations. I’d like to know a little more about the Gaunts, but I don’t think you have anything about them, do you?”

“I don’t, but Dumbledore left a bottle of memories he got from a ministry official who had once investigated the Gaunts.”

“Investigate? Were they also against the good-costumes?”

“Sort of. In fact they were fairly primitive... You'll see. Can I come back tomorrow?”

“If it doesn’t disturb your routine much, yes you definitely can.”

“Well, then see you tomorrow. Now I have to get going to that boys-only show.”

Flora kissed him on the cheek. He blushed again. She simply commented that he would get used to it.