When I wasn't working on the Sanctuary I was working on my mind magic. I couldn't have any weaknesses if I'm going to go to such a dangerous school. I had one large weakness when it came to mind magic, my dark memories. Currently they were all locked up tightly in and underground cave in the middle of my mental forest protected by a dragon.

I need to face them and sort them otherwise they could be used against me. I settled in to meditate and slowly made my way through my mindscape into the forest. I tried to calm my nerves as I walked to the cave and climbed down past the dragon.

Reaching the cave I took a deep breath then unlocked the chain on the cage door. I was immediately pulled into the memories.

I was six and Uncle Vernon was pouring hot bacon grease on my hands over the sink as punishment for spilling some on the floor

I was two and locked in my cupboard starving as I could hear the Dursleys celebrating Christmas

I was eight spending my first night out on the streets curled up in an alley under an awning to avoid the rain

Two weeks after that getting beaten by other street kids for a loaf of bread I had stolen

I was five and Uncle Vernon was teaching me a new punishment where he forced his penis into my mouth and made me suck

I was three and thrown into my cupboard covered in blood with several broken bones

I was seven and left outside overnight in the snow to turn blue and get sick

I was six and Vernon took his punishment to a new level forcing himself inside of me for his pleasure

I was four and feeling the pain of a whip for the first time

More and more memories swarmed me and I pushed them away in a panic coming out of my trance.

It took many more sessions before I was able to even begin sorting the memories and placing them. It hurt even more to review the memories than it had to experience them to begin with. Now I knew what all Vernon had done to me and how he should have been arrested and punished for his crimes. I spent many nights crying over the innocence I hadn't even known id lost years ago until now.

Slowly over many weeks I began to come to terms with what had happened and started to heal. I used psychology and self-help books to help me understand and find healthy ways to cope.

Thankfully working on the Sanctuary really helped me. It was a distraction where I was doing something useful and helping the animals. Seeing the baby animals of many species play and grow together peacefully, when in the wild they would be killing each other, brought me hope and helped me feel better.

It was amazing to see baby unicorns playing and cuddling with hellhounds. I made it very clear that none of the animals at the Sanctuary were allowed to harm each other. I was raising them all together with the help of some of my grown animal friends. It was hard work at times keeping up with all of them and I ended up getting a house elf to help with feeding them all.

The elf I bought through Gemdigger had been abused and tossed out by her previous owners. I gave her a new name, for which she was grateful as the old one was horrible, no really it was literally Horrible. She became Stella and with some help became a healthy size and weight. She was thrilled to be working with the animals and not be in any danger.

I discovered through Stella that many house elves are abused by their masters. With her help I started bonding with other house elves that had been cast out and bought some others from the more abusive masters. Soon I had twenty six elves working for me on my various properties. Most of them had to be forced to take time to rest and heal before they began working.

I made them all get nice uniforms, which they picked out; instead of the rags they usually had to wear. I issued a standing order that none of them are allowed to punish themselves or each other. I couldn't get them to call me Clarissa no matter how hard I tried but I did get them down to 'Mistress' instead of my whole title.

With their help I was able to keep all of my properties clean and the animals received more attention. I kept having to come up with new tasks for the elves to do so they wouldn't get bored. They fixed up anything that needed repair on any of my properties including the Perrell Castle in Russia which I had forgotten about.

I bought an old abandoned manor in London and had them fix it up. I wasn't sure what for yet but something told me the property would be useful in the future.

A few of them I asked to sneak into orphanages at night and clean them without being noticed. I also had them keep their pantries stocked. I knew the changes would be noticed but doubted they'd complain about the help.

Two of the elves had worked for potions masters and learned how to brew. After I gave them some extra lessons I had them brewing battle and healing potions to stock up on just in case.

One of them created a catalog of all of the books in my library. I had her then scope out book stores to pick up anything I didn't have in the Magical world. For the muggle world I had her grab mail catalogs and order anything interesting or important. By the end of the second month my bookcases were full. I had some of the books I had already been through, a few thousand, moved to the Pendragon castle library and had her keep looking for more.

It was a busy few months leading up to the start of the school year and I was excited to start a new adventure and learn new things.