That first year with Arber meant that I grew incredibly close to my uncle. I don’t think that anyone else could have come close in my eyes. He was my idol, my inspiration. I knew he could be tough but I don’t think I realised just how tough he could be. But I knew it was always for a good reason. He taught me to think laterally. During the holidays we would return to Knockturn Alley to eliminate the risk of anyone finding me.

The next school year I went back to Arber. My powers were getting stronger, especially my metamorphmagus powers. It became increasingly difficult to control everything. My hair was a mess. By the Christmas holidays I was roaming the forest and the lake much to my uncle’s disgust. I had already fallen in the lake and he wasn’t ready for me to go in again. Last year I had been a little too adventurous because I had seen so many people skating on the ice. I had never seen ice before and didn’t realise that you could go too far. I went to the centre of the lake, slipped and went straight through the ice. I was fortunate the mermaids grabbed me and pulled me to the top. I was lucky. Sometimes it is a case of sink or swim. I think I had a case of this. If I hadn’t had been a metamorphmagus to begin with I would never have transfigured into a mermaid and may not be telling you today. That one event made my powers develop faster than before and possibly made me the transfigurist I am today.

I became friends with a wonderful snake too. People are often afraid of snakes especially in the Forest, which by now I didn’t find scary, forbidden or anything. To me she was a creature to talk to. Pure and simple. Apparently, she was venomous, one of the most venomous in the forest but I didn’t think of her in that way. To me she was beautiful she had a different way of looking at the world, and this taught me an important lesson. The way that the trees speak is long beautiful and phrased in such a way that to many it must seem like a riddle. Snakes on the other hand speak a lot sharper. It is crisp and to the point.

Eventually, inevitably, I was discovered. Perhaps because you become lazy or because rumours have a habit of spreading. Hagrid was the first human to discover me, well part human. He was so loyal to Dumbledore that he had no choice but to tell him. I felt as though I had let my uncle down. Did my uncle get punished? I don’t know. He was hiding a seven-year-old child in the school grounds, there must have been some repercussions surely! I do remember them coming to see me. I think it was to prove that Hagrid was telling the truth. I can remember Professor McGonagall’s reaction to my hair. Long, dark and knotted with a decoration of leaves. One swish of her wand and it was tied up. That was the end of me living with Arber however it was by no means the end to our relationship.