Okay, so in the last chapter, Fred didn't really die! It was just a nightmare. Haha I just thought I'd clear that up. Nikki was dreaming and then Alana woke her up.

-Em

(Nikki's POV)

I sat in Dumbledore's office, my feet tapping on the ground, as he strolled across the large room. He had called me, much to my dismay, during the feast to come down to here. Don't get me wrong, who wouldn't love extracting themselves from dozens of fellow classmates whose eyes were anxiously set on you.

"Professor?" I shyly uttered after a couple uncomfortable minutes of total silence.

"Yes, Nicole?"

"May I ask a question? If t-that is okay with you of c-course!" He chuckled and threw me a half-grin.

"Quite alright my child."

"OK. Um… well, why am I here? Did I do something wrong? I mean, I don't exactly remember doing anything. Not that I'm stupid and can't remember things. Or that I even do bad things in the first place, I mean, that would just be terrible and affect my grades and hard wor-" I started to do my whole talk-when-under-pressure thing, and I only stopped myself once Dumbledore cut me off.

"Nicole, or shall I call you Nikki, whichever you prefer, you are not in trouble, actually, quite the opposite!"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I was doing a bit of meandering around the castle in the wee hours of the night, and I came across a room. It was rather large, and held numerous vials of memories."

"Memories?"

"Yes, memories. For a pensieve. I do believe you are familiar with memories, seeing as how your aunt works in the ministry."

"Oh… I mean, yes she is. Just, how am I relevant to this."

"Patience, my Nikki." Sure, right, like I'm going to be patient.

He sat up from the chair he had sat in minutes ago, then strode over, closing the small space between his desk and me. Ever so gently, his hand clasped my shoulder, leading me out the door.

"Sir, where are we going?" I asked questionably, secretly hoping to return to the common room. I was in a crabby mood after getting water poured on me, but knew that this must be nervous if Dumbledore called me in at only breakfast.

"To the new room I told you about. It seems there was an important memory, and if this means what I think it does, well… lets just say this could be bad for everyone, especially you."

What the heck? Did my mom marry Voldemort behind my back or something? I stopped in my tracks and it's a mystery how I kept my legs from collapsing. Dumbledore's voice was vaguely heard over the thump-thump-thump of my heard and the pounding blood in my ears.

"Nikki… Nicole? Are you okay?"

I snapped out of my head and found my voice after I clearing it several times.

"Umm… yes." Dumbledore nodded his head before placing his hand on my back lightly and leading me again through the twisting tunnels under the castles. I was a good twenty minutes before we reached a small, worn door. I realized why it took a while for Dumbledore himself to locate it. The door was almost invisible, and I had to squint my eyes to see that the sharp cut of the wood was separate from the wall. The door opened with a loud creek before Dumbledore held it open, expectantly, gesturing to the dark inside chamber. I looked behind me reluctantly, where I could hear the faint chatter of students as they headed to the potions classroom ten minutes away. I looked away and climbed through.

The chamber was a tremendous oval and looked like a library containing books at first sight. But upon closer expection, the "books" weren't books at all, but vials upon vials filled to the brim with small shiny liquids. There was pink, purple, blue, green, orange, and yellow vials all arranged in a square.

"Here it is." Dumbledore's voice shook me out of my trance, and I suddenly remembered why I was here in the first place. He gestured to a chair that I took gratefully, as he lit a fire in the large fire pit I had looked over.

"Quite interesting, is it not?" he said after placing himself in a squishy armchair and peering over at me from under his half-moon spectacles. "Anyway, I brought you here for a reason. It was here I found a memory, a memory that could change the future of the wizarding community." He hold up a tiny pink vial filled with a shiny hair-like string. "Are you ready?"

Bloody hell.