Chapter 4: Alice and Jacob

The next night Hagrid left to return to Hogwarts to finish up some game keeper business; so Isabella was left under the care of Hannah and Neville. Neville took a liking to Isabella; he said that she reminded him of old friend but he didn't elaborate on it for Isabella. She companied them for dinner every night; Isabella loved Hannah's, or as Isabella like to call her Madame Hannah's, cooking. It was much better than the piles of muck her Aunt Doris gave her.

"This is delicious, Madame H." said Isabella one night at dinner.

"Why thank you, Isabella." said Hannah.

"Brilliant as always…" Neville's voice was trailing off.

"Neville, dear," Hannah put her hand onto his shoulder. "Are you all right?"

"Yes, peachy, just peachy…" said Neville, he got up and walked upstairs to his and Hannah's loft over the Leaky Cauldron.

"Is he alright?" asked Isabella.

"He's fine, probably just has something on his mind." said Hannah. "So Hagrid gave you the owl for your birthday right?"

"Yes, it's July 3rd."

"Ah, well happy belated birthday; have you decided a name yet?"

Isabella looked at the small, gray owl. "I know it's a girl, so I think I'll name her Athena."

Isabella's owl, or Athena, snapped her beck in agreement.

"Oh, isn't that pretty, I guess she likes it too."

"It is the name of the Greek god of wisdom, her pet was an owl and it was also like her symbol; so if you saw an owl watching over you then it meant that you had been blissed with wisdom."

"Hmm… quite the little scholar, aren't we?"

"Madame Hannah," Isabella began after a long pause.

"Yes?"

"I was wondering if you could tell me about my parents and how they died…"

"Alice and Jacob Evans dead? Rubbish!" said Hannah. "No, no dear, they are just M.I.A."

"Why would they be missing in action?" asked Isabella.

Hannah sighed.

"I guess I'm going to have to start from the beginning: at Hogwarts, your mother and father were two years younger than Neville and I. Neville was familiar with your mother since she was in Gryffindor like Neville, while your father was in Ravenclaw; but since they were younger than us, I regret to say I didn't know them as well. Though Neville told me that they butted heads a lot, your father was a bit of a prankster and your mother was miss studious. "But the first time I met them was during the Battle of Hogwarts. All the students who were underage were told to evacuate the castle, but your parents were prescient. They both snuck back into the castle to fight of the Death Eaters."

"Death Eaters?" asked Isabella. "Aren't they the wizards who worked for Lord Voldemort, right? I read about them in this book in Flourish and Blotts; a book by a witch by the name Hermione Granger."

"Before she changed her name." muttered Hannah. "Yes, that's exactly what they were, you-know-who's followers. Anyway, your mother teamed up with me as we fought against a Death Eater; I thought we were goners as he blasted us to the ground and he raised his wand about to cast the worst curse a wizard can use when this blot of red sparks knocks him off his feet. It was your father, he helped me up then your mother and I could tell when they first looked into each other's eyes that they were a match made in heaven. After the Battle of Hogwarts, they began to see each other and they fell so deeply in love; and after Hogwarts they only waited six months before they got married. Oh I have a picture here-"

Hannah stood up and ran over to a table against the wall and picked up a picture.

"Sorry about the quality, it was taken over 15 years ago." said Hannah as she handed Isabella the picture.

There was her mother and her father smiling back at her, dancing to some unknown music. Alice Evans was beautiful in her wedding gown; her deep red hair stayed in prefect curls as Isabella's father, Jacob, spun her around. Jacob was a tall man, very thin, yet he was very built. Isabella looked so much like her mother, but then she had her father's bright green eyes, not her mother's bright blue eyes. Then as she looked closer, she noticed her uncle, and probably her grandparents on her mother's side, smiling at her parents.

"You- you were there?" asked Isabella.

"No, unfortunately I wasn't able to make it; but some friends of ours sent it to Neville and I." said Hannah. "After the wedding, Jacob and Alice joined the Order-"

"What is this Order?"

"The Order of the Phoenix was founded by the greatest head master of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore. Its original purpose was to defeat he-who-must-not-be-named; but after he was defeated the Order changed its purpose to rounding up the Death Eaters." explained Hannah. "Your parents were one of the most brilliant witch and wizard pair I'd ever seen.

"You're parents had dueled some of the most skilled Death Eaters that escaped, and they managed to come out of the battle without a single scratch. But that night they went missing, oh my, it was a rare accession for them not to win. I believe that they were too worried about your safety then their own; they left their guard down to protect you."

Isabella tried to sallow the lump that had just formed in her throat, was she really the reason way her parents were missing or worse: dead?

"So how did they go… missing?" asked Isabella, she stroke the picture. "I mean, what happened to them, exactly?"

"Well, it's quite complex." said Hannah. "Even I have a hard time really understanding it. You see, what the theory seems to be is that it was a failed attempt at creating a new spell by combining two."

"It's so horrible that it had to happen to them." said Isabella. A tear rolled down her cheeks.

"Don't worry darling." said Hannah. "There is something I can show you that will help your confidence a little."

"What?" sniffed Isabella.

"I'll be right back." said Hannah, she returned a few moments later with a piece of parchment in her hands. "Read this."

"What is this?" asked Isabella. She began to read the names:

Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Neville Longbottom, Ginny Weasley, Luna Lovegood, George Weasley…

The list went on and on, and then Isabella found the names of her parents:

…Alice Bradley, Jacob Evans…

"Wh-why are you showing this to me?" asked Isabella.

"This is the list of names of Dumbledore's Army, it was like the student version of the Order." explained Hannah. "Your parents joined while they were at school. You know what is so special about this piece of paper."

"It had a lot of famous signatures?"

Hannah laughed. "No, it's bewitched. Let's say if someone with their name written on this lists betrays the group, they'll be hexed and there is another special quality on the list."

Isabella's ears perked up.

"The list only shows certain members of the D.A." said Hannah.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, it only shows the one that are alive." said Hannah.

"What?"

"That's right, your parent are alive, but we just don't know what happened to them." explained Hannah. "We have the best of the best tracking down various leads to try and find your parents."

"Do you think that maybe one day, I'll find them?" asked Isabella.

"I don't want to get your hopes up but I think that it is very possible." said Hannah.

"Thank you." mouthed Isabella as she hugged Hannah. "Can I keep this picture?"

"Yeah, and I'll see if I can find anymore pictures of them lying around." said Hannah. "I'll put together a little scrap book together."

"Sounds great." said Isabella. "I think I'm going to head to bed."

"Night."

"Night."

Isabella went upstairs to her room and she examined all her school supplies. She now was the owner of a wand, a cauldron, an owl, and many, many spell books.

She sat down on her bed, was this all happening to her? Was she actually staying in a wizard tavern, in a secret wizard community, because she was about to go to a wizarding school because she was a witch? It was all so surreal! Could she handle it all?

Then she ran her fingers over her wand and then she decided. She was going to do this; she was going to devote the next seven years of her life to study to become the brightest and top witch to ever walk the halls of Hogwarts. Then she was going to find her parents and bring them back home. Back home to her.

Thank you all for reading, I know that this was a pretty short chapter, but it's a really important one just like the next chapter so I hope you like it and please review :D

~rachel 3