Eleven year old Drusilla carefully copied the assigned Bible verses in her best handwriting. Her father was very displeased. She'd been dreaming again.

She was cursed. That was why she'd spent the morning on her knees in prayer and now spent the afternoon copying verse rather than playing croquet with her sisters and cousins in the back garden.

The dream the night before had been horrible in a way she couldn't quite understand. She'd woken up sobbing and when her father had finally gotten it out of her what the dream had been he'd been furious, as it was another one of those dreams. The ones that happened more often than not.

It was different in the fact that Drusilla herself had been in the dream, she rarely dreamt of herself, only others and usually horrors, like the dream she had of the mine collapsing the year before and all those poor men being crushed to death.

The dream shot to the front of her mind once again, pushing away the Bible in front of her eyes that she was supposed to be concentrating on.

A scarlet train and an auburn haired boy about in very strange her own age holding out his hand and introducing himself as Albus. Other bits and peices of herself and Albus, a wedding, five children, and both of them very, very old celebrating Christmas in a castle that was also a school. Then the dream had switched to a white-blonde haired man in strange clothes and a long leather coat driving a strange black carriage that had no horses in front of it and it was going ever so fast. He called her his Dark Princess.

Both parts of the dream strange and frightning and she didn't know why but both seemed heart breaking.

No, she musn't think of that awful dream both parts of it full of magic and strange impossible things that didn't exist. Her father was right, the dreams were a curse, the devil's work.

"Hooo!"

Drusilla gasped and dropped her pen, ink leaving a large blotch on the page, she would have to start all over. She stared fearfully wide eyed at the bird on her desk. It dropped a letter in front of her.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry the seal on the back said.

She shook with sheer terror and gasped for breath. "No, no, no. I'm not a witch! I'm not!"

Leave Me BE!! was scrawled on the back of the letter. "Take that back to the devil who sent you I want no part of it!" Drusilla shouted at the bird thrusting the unopened letter at it.

The bird hooted softly, sadly, then took the letter in it's beak and flew from Drusilla's bedroom window.

"I'm not a witch. I'm not evil. I'm not!" Drusilla whispered brokenly struggling not to cry and restarted copying the verse her father had assigned as punishment for another of the devil-sent dreams.

~*~

"Post for you, Albus!" Elinor Dumbledore called cheerfully as her eleven year old son made his way into the kitchen.

"I've been accepted to Hogwarts," Albus sighed.

"Aren't you excited, luv?"

Albus nodded. "She's not coming, though, mother." his normally mischeivious blue eyes totally devoid of their sparkle.

"Who's not coming?"

Albus shook his head. Not quite able to explain his dream of the black haired girl and the life they might have had...he wasn't much interested in romantic tales at just barely eleven, but he also knew that it would never happen now and for some reason that left him very sad. "It doesn't matter."

Elinor frowned slightly and felt her son's forehead.

"I'm fine, just a funny dream. What's for breakfast?"