Chapter 2 The Call for Initiation The body of Dumbledore was kept on a table at the center of the hall. There were mourners all over the hall. As Harry entered, many of them shifted or whispered to one another. His companions were drawing questioning looks from the crowd though they remained oblivious to it. Once they reached Dumbledore’s corpse, the woman waved her hand and conjured a small ring of assorted blossoms. Those were the most beautiful flowers Harry has seen in his life and a soothing and overpowering fragrance emanated from the wreath that she placed near Dumbledore’s feet. Dumbledore was dressed in blue robes sprinkled with silver stars his wizard hat was turned inside out and placed on his chest. He was wearing the sorting hat instead on his head. The Hogwarts emblem was encrusted on all the four draping that flowed from the four sides of the table. He seemed to have a benign smile. The woman bent over his body as if to take a better look at his face. From the angle concealed to everyone else, Harry notices a slight switch of her hands. Then she raised and left to one of the tables to sit with Harry. Ron, Hermione and Ginny were huddled together and they moved up a bit to make space for harry and his guests. Harry explained all the things that happened from the moment he got up and introduced the woman to his friends. Hermione smiled at his mispronunciation as the woman corrected him. Then Hermione asked “Is this the first temple of the goddess lore?” she has studied about the temples that were originally schools of eastern magic in India, Nepal and Tibet. “The Sowbarnika Mandiram is the oldest of them all and said to have been founded by Dattatreya the first guru of Indian applicable magic himself. Isn’t it?” she asked in one breath as if reciting from memory. Ma Ujwala was smiled and replied “you are more knowledgeable than many grown-ups of your community Ms. Granger! And I wonder if you can accompany harry to our ashram as well.” Hermione looked pleased and said “If Professor Mc Gonagall and the order members allow harry then we will accompany him for sure if you permit us Ma’m.” “Call me ‘ma’ as that is the traditional way of addressing. And Ginny must come along with harry for certain practices require his soul mate to participate along with him. So you are welcome too!” said Ma to Ginny as she blushed a deep scarlet being mentioned as Harry’s “Soul mate.” Ginny replied in a voice with hidden happiness as she felt it inappropriate to be happy in mourning. “Sure. But you need to speak to my mom and dad for me and Ron to come with you.” Then Ma Ujwala closed her eyes as if listening to something and got up saying “Our guru is on his way.” and left to the entrance of the great hall with harry and the others in her wake. Swami Dheeranandha came into the hall to be greeted by Ma and others. Harry wondered how she knew of his arrival precisely without any visible mode of communication and decided that it must be one of the mind wave communication methods that he knew existed but never witnessed before. The swami was accompanied by Professor Mc Gonagall and some other order members, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley among them. Minerva was holding a similar envelope like the one harry received in the morning and understood that it must be her letter from Dumbledore. The silent group went to the table where Dumbledore lay and the swami conjured wreath from the air and placed it above the colored circlet that Ma Ujwala has kept. The crowd gasped as the two garlands mingled and intertwined. The fragrance increased as a soft music flowed from the flowers. “Madam Mc Gonagall! Please ensure that these wreaths are kept inside his tomb. The music will be heard by all those he loved whenever they visit his tomb.” said the swami. Many witches in the crowd sobbed and even Minerva took her hand kerchief to dab her leaking eyes. All of them walked out of the hall and reached the headmaster’s office.