Entry for "Care of Magical Creatures" at "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Challenges and Assignments)"

Unicorns are gentle creatures, pure of heart and full of magic. To slay a unicorn is a terrible act, because it destroys the most innocent and precious of lives.

Write about a character that is innocent or pure. Alternately, write about Ariana Dumbledore.

Your minimum is 500 words and your maximum is 2,000 words.

I hope you all like it and I am looking forward to read your reviews :)

It was a beautiful summer day, the birds were tweeting joyfully and the sweet scent of flowers lay in the warm air.

The sun was shining brightly on a garden, surrounded by high bushes, in the small village Godric's Hollow, which was mostly unaware of the girl sitting in the deep grass near a tree. She was wearing a white lace dress, her brown hair was neatly combed, flowing over her shoulders and her slim fingers were restlessly picking wild flowers that grew all around her.

She seemed to be in her own little world, her dreamy gaze only focused on the nature as she finished the flower crown she had been braiding and placed it on her hair.

Ariana sighed as she looked down at her empty hands, her mouth twitched into a little pout. It had only taken her an hour to finish the crown, even though she had worked very slow on purpose, and now she did not knew what she should do.

Albus had allowed her to go into the garden during his absence, but only after having her promise that she would stay silent, invisible to the outside world, hidden behind the high green walls.

Suddenly, Ariana heard the sound of footsteps on the dry grass and she turned her head, her slender body tensing in alert, but she relaxed as she recognised the young man as her brothers friend Gellert.

It had taken her some time to trust Gellert, even though she knew that Albus did – she just had this fear deep inside of her soul, the fear of being hurt by strangers. She reacted suspicious to everyone she did not know, feeling the need to shut herself away and protect herself, but fortunately, they rarely had any visitors at all and if they had, Ariana was sent to her room.

But she knew that Gellert would not hurt her, never. She could tell this just from looking into his blue eyes.

To Gellert, she was like a doe, easy to scare, something he had to approach with great caution, but still something fascinating in its innocence, its pure beauty.

"Albus is not home yet so I thought I could keep your company for a while. Are you playing princess?" Gellert asked as he sat down opposite to her in the grass, a small grin on his face as he gestured towards the crown of flowers sitting on her hair.

"Don't be ridiculous, Gellert, I am not a little girl any more, even though Albus still acts like I am one. I was only trying to entertain myself," Ariana answered, her gaze following a butterfly in the air before turning her focus back to him.

"It looks very pretty."

Gellert matched her smile as the pale skin of her cheeks blushed, finding her shy attitude absolutely lovely.

"I... I could make you one too!" Ariana exclaimed, grabbing the next flower she saw, but Gellert gently touched her hand to hold her back.

"I don't think I am the flower type, Ariana."

She chuckled before she jumped to her feet, ripping branches of ivy from the tendril that was wreathed around the nearby tree. He watched her in silence as her fingers set to work, every movement being certain and steady.

In this moment, Gellert forgot what Albus had told him about her, that she was unstable, had no control over her temper, that she was still a child in her mind, even though she was already maturing to a young woman. He had been around one time as Ariana's temper had been dangerously close to letting her magic break out and he had been shocked how hard it had been for Aberforth to comfort his little sister.

But all he saw right now was a beautiful, calm girl that enjoyed a wonderful summer day in the garden of her home. There was nothing odd about her, about the way she acted, the way she talked to him.

He was ripped from his thoughts as he felt something on his head and upon seeing Ariana sitting back down he realised that she must have finished his own crown in the intermediate time.

"How do I look?" Gellert asked, admiring the twinkle in her eyes as she looked at him.

"Marvellous. Now we can play king and queen, just like the others always do. I don't quite know how this game works, but we will surely figure it out."

Gellert felt a lump in his throat as he realised that there was a reason why Ariana did not know how to play this easy children's game – because she had never seen any other people her age since that horrible incident.

She was lonely.

Spending every day with no one around except for her mother and recently, only her brothers, had to be horrible. Surely she had been listening to the children playing on the other side of the high hedges, longing to be able to run around with them, to enjoy this day just as any other person did.

Hatred on the muggles that had caused this uncontrollable state, her loneliness, pulsed through his veins.

He would form a world in which she would not have to hide, she would be safe wherever she decided to go – the world would be hers and no one would ever dare to touch her, to call her a freak.

"We will find a way," Gellert answered, hiding his dark thoughts from Ariana, and took her hand to press his lips to her knuckles, relishing her innocent chuckle as he whispered:"My-lady."