Athena's Gift

That night, I had another dream. Oh, joy.

This time, I appeared in some kind of office. It had all kinds of weird stuff in it, but it was late at night, so it was too dark to tell what much of it was.

There was an old woman in a black cloak, holding a candle next to a portrait of an old bearded man. She seemed to be in mid-conversation with the painting.

“But what if these rumors are true?” she asked the portrait in a british accent.

Did she think the portrait was alive?

The man in the portrait actually responded, which caught me off guard.

“Then we may have a very mysterious and very powerful witch or wizard among us,” he said, also in a british accent.

Witches? Wizards? Is this one of those role-playing games?

“How would this even be possible?” she asked. “After all these years, you would think that someone would have found out before now!”

“Magic never ceases to amaze us, Professor. It may be astonishing that such a thing has remained hidden from us for so long. But now that we are aware, we must act. We must know how to keep this new power from harming our existence. We do not know the nature of this person, now do we?”

“That is true, Dumbledore, but what would we do? Where would we start?”

“If this rumor is indeed true, I am sure this person would find you, in time. Now, Headmistress McGonagall, I assume you have work to attend to?”

She nodded. “Yes, I suppose I do. Goodnight, Dumbledore.”

She walked over to her desk, set the candle next to her, and sat down. Then she noticed me.

“What are you doing out of bed? Students cannot be out of bed after curfew, need I remind you!” The she squinted her eyes at me. “Are you even a student here?”

“Uh... I don’t even know where here is,” I replied.

“Here is Hogwarts.”

“What’s a hogwart?”

“Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!”

“...And where’s that?”

“Who are you? How did you get here?”

“Uh...”

“And is that an American accent?”

“Okay, obviously, we have too many questions for each other, so let’s clear this up now. You know that there are... things... that ordinary mortals don’t know about, right?”

“Well, yes.”

“Then we can both explain what we know beyond mortal knowledge. I’ll start. So, do you know about those old Greek myths? They’re not myth. I am a demigod, a son of a mortal and a Greek god; in my case, Athena. Now you.”

“Um... well, there are witches and wizards all around us, capable of using magic by casting spells, brewing potions, and so on. I am Minerva McGonagall; headmistress of Hogwarts, school of witchcraft and wizardry.”

Minerva... That name rang a bell.

“Well, I think that we both have a lot to learn from each other.”

“Clearly. But how are you here now?”

“Demigods can have dreams that show us something important that is happening somewhere else. But I don't think you should be able to actually see me right now.”

“Very peculiar. If you are shown important events, how would this meeting be important to you?”

“That seems to be the million-dollar question of the night.”

“Did you see my conversation with the portrait?”

“Uh, yeah, some of it. But I don’t see how this is relevant.”

“Magic paintings can talk, as well as resemble the person whom they are modeled after. Anyways, we had been discussing a rumor that has recently begun to spread through the magic community. Some believe that a very powerful young witch or wizard may someday soon appear, with powers beyond the understanding or control of anyone else in the magic community. Are you sure that you are nothing more than a... demigod, was it?”

“I think so...”

As soon as I had said that, I felt a hand on my shoulder slowly beginning to pull me back. Everything around me began to flicker and fade.

“What is happening?” McGonagall asked.

“I think my time here is up,” I said, my voice sounding more and more muffled.

“If this meeting is indeed important, remember it!”

I woke up immediately after she had said that.

Malcolm had shaken me awake. “Morning, Sleeping Beauty,” he said. “You overslept. It’s time for breakfast.”

Notes