Henry finally got a good look at the present as it stopped in front of him, floating in mid-air.
"No way!"
Clare POV
If someone asked Clare about her early years, she would say her life hadn't always been easy.
She was born and grew up in the slums of London during the 50's, where life was hard. Now, after twenty years, she wouldn't be able to recall much of life before Hogwarts, but there were some things she remembered vividly.
The damp mattress where her older sister and younger brother slept together, the squalid building where they lived with 4 other families, the poor sanitation, and the constant pests.
The pangs of hunger that never went away as her sibling fought to eat whatever scraps were available to them.
The never-ending yelling and screaming when her parents fought, and she remembered the heavy and fragile silence that pressed down on her; she remembered being too afraid to speak in fear that she might say something that would start a new fight.
That's what she remembered most from her childhood.
Her life changed when she received a letter.
One afternoon, she was lying curled up on her bed, with a palm print on her cheek and fresh tears sliding down her face. She hadn't bothered to wipe them; she knew that it would be of no use, they would start again.
She had preferred staring at the bugs crawling on the walls instead. The pests didn't bother her anymore.
A knock on the wooden shutter disturbed her out of her daydreams. She turned around to see an owl with a letter clutched in its talons. She stared at the owl, thinking she had finally started hallucinating things because of the hunger and pain.
After staring at the owl and it staring back for what felt like hours, she finally decided to get whatever it was over with.
That letter had undoubtedly changed her life. She also had clarity about why unexplainable things happened around her, which often got her into trouble.
A couple of days later, a professor had arrived in their settlement to take her to Diagon Alley.
Luckily, she was granted funds for supplies such as robes, books, a wand, and she didn't have to pay tuition as it was covered by the Ministry of Magic.
Her parents had asked the professor if Hogwarts could also take in her siblings; the professor said, unfortunately, they weren't magical like her.
She didn't blame her parents at all for trying to send their kids off; she didn't wish this kind of life on anyone. If her siblings could avoid this kind of life by coming with her, she was all for it.
When the time came to go to Hogwarts, no one saw her off; her parents were too busy working, and her siblings, who were unable to accompany her alone, had stayed at home, helping around the house and scrounging for food.
She kept her eyes open on the train for the whole 9 hours in favor of taking everything in; she had never seen the highlands.
So, she stared at the scenery as it passed by, and at other students as they too passed by.
She took note of how they spoke and behaved. She watched, she listened, and learned.
After arriving at Hogwarts, being amazed by the castle, and walking into the Great Hall, she was once again in awe of magic.
It was from then on that she came to the conclusion that magic would be how she would change her state of poverty, her life of suffering, and unending pain and hunger.
The hat debated whether to place her in Slytherin or Ravenclaw. In the end, her need for knowledge had won out over her ambition as great as it was.
She knew knowledge was power, and power meant being strong enough not be hurt anymore.
It took her quite a while to adjust to Hogwarts; she had trouble reading and writing because she had never been taught, nor had she attended any school before.
She was glad that almost everyone seemed to be on the same page when it came to magic atleast.
While the first couple of years had their ups and downs, things started to change around her 4th year.
The hate for Muggleborn that simmered below the surface seemed to be fanned. Terms like Mud-blood started to be heard again, and were used under whispered breaths.
Even so, she kept her head down in the house of bookworms, and she spent most of her time either in her room, studying, or in the library doing much the same.
Because of the fervor, reverence, and dedication she showed toward magic, by the end of her 3rd year, she was already ahead of many of her classmates.
To her, magic was a privilege and the only path she had if she wanted to change herself and the lives of her family. She wanted to learn as much as she could while she still had the opportunity, so she practiced and learned with all her heart and mind.
While she still had to go back home during summer breaks, she didn't care about the dampness, the hunger, and the pests anymore, for she had magic to look forward to at the end of summer.
Things on the Muggle side started to get better as well. The nation was slowly recovering from the war, and so was her home. The slums were being torn down, and 'charity' affordable, government-funded housing was being built to deal with poverty. Jobs were increasing as stability rose.
While the rooms were still small, they were living a little cleaner.
She had also found answers to many of the mundane problems plaguing her household.
The answer, of course, lay in magic, more specifically, runes and potions.
There was a rune or potion for almost every single wand spell created.
If there existed a spell, then there was probably a counterpart for it in the form of runes or a potion.
For the dampness and the pests, she carved three runes into a piece of copper plate she had transfigured in school. It wasn't a permanent change, but it was more than enough to last a year until she could replace them again.
The first rune regulated temperature and humidity.
The second cleared the filth and the dust.
The last rune warded against bugs and pests.
It was a significant improvement from their previous living condition.
Another thing she had done during school time was use her knowledge of potions and runes to make a little extra money; she sold minor enchanted items and common potions to her classmates and to the nearby town of Hogsmead.
She only made a little money, but it was more than enough for what she had planned.
She took her handful of galleons to the goblins and traded them for Muggle currency. They were more than happy to take her gold and gave her a fair price in return.
That was another day she could still recall vividly, even after so many years. She never thought she would see a goblin smile.
She guessed all it took for them to be happy was for someone to throw gold in their faces, and she did just that, afterall Muggle currency hardly mattered to the goblins.
If it weren't for the ministry regulating them to exchange Muggle currency for galleons to help new Muggleborn students, they wouldn't even carry pounds.
Any exchange that happened usually resulted in them losing money, and when they saw a rare opportunity to make the reverse transaction, they jumped at it and gave her more than a fair price.
With the money she got from the goblins, she went into a Muggle market after drinking a cheap aging potion she made of extra leftover ingredients. It would only last a couple of hours, but it was enough for her.
She bought more than enough grain, meat, and milk to last a year.
She planned to use the methods that wizards and witches used to preserve food.
Since she couldn't use her wand due to the underage restriction. She found an alternative solution of using a combination of runes and a potion to give it a similar effect to a stasis charm.
It was nowhere near as potent as the wanded charm, but she estimated it would last a little more than a year, which was enough for her replace it the next time she came home.
She first took the metal box, and she expanded it with the undetectable extension charm. She then layered the metal box with runes, which, combined with some potions, would provide the same effect as stasis charms, only less potent.
She put all the food she bought into the box and doused it with the complimentary potion she brewed.
While the potion was uncommon, it wasn't hard to brew, expensive, or even a rare recipe to find.
She only had a little difficulty getting the ingredients because wizards and witches didn't rely on this particular potion when there was a better and quicker alternative, but it was perfect for her.
She had also carved runes into the box that would dispense the food as a daily ration, because while you didn't need a wand to use the box, you would need a little magic to open the box and take out the food.
Since no one in her house could do magic, she thought about this little workaround.
It had worked perfectly; her family was starting to recover.
The fights happened much less frequently, her siblings started laughing, and they had hope for the first time in their lives.
The constant pang of hunger and hollow stomachs no longer became the reason of divide between them, and she thanked magic for it.