But she stared in amazement as a large bird with crimson feathers swooshed out of the fire and soared up and over their heads, crooning several long and beautiful musical notes from its beak before coming to rest on Dumbledore's shoulder.
...
"Then if you would kindly like to take hold of one of Fawkes' tail-feathers," Dumbledore replied, taking a gentle grip on one of the long, gloriously golden feathers that trailed down behind the majestic bird so far they almost reached the ground.
Wendy hesitated, but she still felt reassured in Dumbledore's company so she moved slowly forwards and laid her hand gently on one of the feathers. It was warm to the touch and she seemed to feel that warmth spreading through her entire body as the bird cocked its head to give her a quizzical look. Its eyes gleamed and Wendy knew that these was an intelligent creature just by looking at it.
But suddenly she was surrounded by fire that whipped up from seemingly nowhere and engulfed both her and Dumbledore. Wendy looked around sharply but she felt no different than before - the fire was not burning at her. And a couple of seconds later the fire vanished and all three of them were standing in a large, circular room with the walls covered in portraits and bookshelves. There were tables everywhere covered in strange objects Wendy couldn't even begin to guess at, many of which were made of silver and some of which were giving off wisps of smoke.
"Wow…" Wendy murmured as she let go of Fawkes and looked around. "That was amazing. Was that some kind of teleportation magic?"
"Phoenixes have many incredible abilities," Dumbledore merely chuckled as Fawkes hopped onto a nearby perch.
"I've never seen a phoenix before," murmured Wendy in awe, reaching out tentatively to touch Fawkes feathers, which the bird seemed to like as it trilled happily and rubbed the back of its head against Wendy's hand. "I've heard of them back home but… I'd always heard they were huge, destructive creatures. Nothing like this."
"Indeed? Well, I have never heard of a phoenix being described as such myself," Dumbledore raised silver-haired brow. "But something tells me, child, that you are more than just lost. And that what would seem commonplace to many of the magic-users around here, would seem almost totally alien to you."
Wendy looked up at him with big eyes. "How do you know that?" she asked.
"I must apologise to you," Dumbledore replied simply as he strode over to his desk and sat in his chair, interlocking his fingers. "You may consider what I did out on the Quidditch pitch as an invasion of privacy, but I used a technique known as Legilimency on you and on the boys. I do not usually do that sort of thing without permission either, but I take the safety of my students extremely seriously and I had to make sure you were not a threat."
"What's Legilimency?" Wendy asked.
"It's a magical ability for navigating through the mind of another person," Dumbledore replied. "If you are well-versed in it, as I am, you can use it to ascertain whether someone is telling the truth to you or not, as I did out on the pitch. Ordinarily I am afraid those boys would have had to have been punished for their actions out there, and especially for lying to me, but under the circumstances I thought it would be best forgotten.
However, Legilimency can also be used to rummage through a person's thoughts, their emotions and their memories. I was not attempting to do this with you, but when I had a look I could sense that you are quite unlike anything that I have ever encountered before. But I could tell you were not a threat and that you were telling the truth. Other than that, I know nothing about you. I was just making educated guesses."
"Oh… okay," Wendy nodded.
"You are not upset? Some people would be," Dumbledore remarked.
"No, I'm okay with it," Wendy smiled simply. "I understand you were just doing what you thought was best and you didn't go too far. I think Master Makarov would have done something similar if he could do that. He takes our safety very seriously too."
"Indeed?" Dumbledore replied. "Well he sounds like my kind of man."
"Oh yeah… I shouldn't be talking like you would know what I'm saying," Wendy giggled sheepishly.
"Then perhaps you can enlighten me," Dumbledore replied.
"Well… it's… a very long story," Wendy murmured. "And I don't know… if you'll believe it or not."
"I will believe it, if it is true," Dumbledore replied. "But perhaps, if it truly is so complicated, we can save time. This time I shall ask for permission to use Legilimency on you and look into your mind. It will most likely be much faster than telling your story via word of mouth."
"Oh…" Wendy hesitated. "You… want to look through my memories?"
"If that is alright with you."
"Well… I suppose you would believe me more if you did that but… um… what if there's something I…" she poked her fingers together embarrassedly, thinking about various times things nobody would be comfortable with another person seeing such as being in the bath.
"It would be quite simple to prevent me from seeing anything you did not wish me to. All you have to do is picture a wall in your mind surrounding all the memories you don't wish for me to see. If I come up against that wall in my search I will respect it and not try to delve any further in."
"…Um… okay, I guess I can do that," Wendy nodded, squaring her shoulders slightly. "Alright. Let's do it."
"Splendid," Dumbledore smiled. "Have you got the wall pictured?"
"Mmm-hmm," Wendy nodded, closing her eyes to try and concentrate on the mental wall.
"Then I shall begin," Dumbledore replied leaning forward to focus his eyes on Wendy like they were lasers and murmuring aloud this time, "Focus on all the things you want me to know, if you can. Legilimens."
Instantly both Wendy and Dumbledore found themselves practically immersed in constantly shifting images as if they were standing on the sidelines and watching what was going on. There was Wendy as a tiny little girl staring up at the colossal white form of Grandine the Sky Dragon, a sight which made present Wendy's heart ache slightly.
"But why would you want me to learn Dragon Slayer magic?" Little Wendy asked. "I don't want to fight any Dragons."
"Dragon Slayers are not called that because they slay Dragons although they did indeed do so in ancient times," Grandine's kindly voice seemed to roll over them. "They merely know how to use the same magic as Dragons, and Dragon magic is the most effective against another Dragon. And I would like to see you learn how to use the same magic as me."
The scene suddenly shifted, and Wendy was wondering through the woods, crying her eyes out. "Grandine!" she wailed. "Where are you, Grandine!"
Present Wendy felt her heard pang again, realising this must be right after Grandine had suddenly disappeared for no apparent reason, on the same day as Igneel and Metalicana. She watched her younger self staring up at the sky hoping for Grandine to appear there, only for nothing to come… until suddenly the bushes rustled and a young boy with blue hair, a strange tattoo over the right side of his face and a backpack with a staff emerged in front of her.
It was the young Mystogan - the Edolas version of Jellal before he went by the name of Mystogan.
"What's the matter?" he asked.
"She's gone!" Wendy sniffed.
"What?"
"She disappeared!" Wendy wailed before running to Mystogan and grabbing him in a hug, wailing into his shirt as he tentatively held her, not quite sure what to do with her. But then the scene shifted again to see the two of them standing together in the rain.
"No! I wanna come with you!" Little Wendy protested.
"You can't! It'll be dangerous if you come."
"But why? I don't want to leave you, Jellal!"
"If you head past this forest, there's a guild. They'll take care of you there."
"No!"
And this was how it went, as it cycled through scene after scene rapidly, so much so that Wendy felt like she was on some kind of rollercoaster that depicted her life. She watched Roubaul telling her she was now in a guild, watched Charla being born from the egg she found, watched as she heard that an alliance had been made between four guilds to help defeat Oracion Seis and learned that fellow Dragon Slayer, Natsu Dragneel, would be part of the company and therefore immediately volunteered so she could meet him.
She watched as she resurrected Jellal, thinking he was the same one she knew, and the battle to stop Nirvana during which she launched her first ever offensive Dragon Slayer attack. She watched as Roubaul revealed how he had created the guild just for her before passing on and how in her grief, Erza invited her to join Fairy Tail. She watched meeting Mira and Gajeel and the others for the first time.
She watched learning the truth about Mystogan and the fight against the Kingdom of Edolas to save the Exceed and the rest of her guild. She watched herself being partnered with Mest for the S-Class exam, learning about Zeref, the battles against Azuma, Zancrow, Bluenote and eventually Hades.
Then came the crucial part where she watched once again as Acnologia attacked the island, and how the Master tried to hold him off before his guild attacked the Dragon anyway, only to be powerless against him despite having four Dragon Slayers with them at the time. She watched as they joined hands and how everything went black just as Acnologia fired upon them.
She watched as she woke up to find only the three Exceed with her and how she met Mavis, who explained what had happened and how they had landed in an alternate universe. She watched as they set out and encountered the wild dragons, only to be separated from the group during this attack. She watched meeting the merpeople and how they had carried her upriver to meet Dumbledore himself.
The visions stopped right up until the point where she met Luna at the boathouse and suddenly Wendy was back in her own body. She opened her eyes to see Dumbledore staring at her, knowing that he had seen every single thing that she herself had just seen.
She got the impression that disbelief was not an expression that appeared on his face very often. But it was there now, for sure.
"Well now…" Dumbledore said eventually. "What in the world am I going to do with you now?"
...
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