Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the Harry Potter books. I do however own Jessica and the plot.
A/N: holy Jesus. I am so ashamed of myself. I cannot believe that it really took me this long to finish this chapter. I honestly am so mad at myself. It's not like I had writers block; I knew exactly where I was going with this chapter. *headdesk* I'm so sorry. I hope you guys can forgive me and I hope you guys like it. Please review and please don't hate me.
Tomorrow
And I wanna believe you,
When you tell me that it'll be ok,
Ya I try to believe you,
But I don't
When you say that it's gonna be,
It always turns out to be a different way,
I try to believe you,
Not today, today, today, today, today...
I don't know how to feel,
tomorrow, tomorrow,
I don't know what to say,
tomorrow, tomorrow
Is a different day
-Avril Lavigne
Hermione's POV
"Why are we just standing here? Why aren't we doing anything?" I shouted at the group of adults in Dumbledore's office. Amongst them were Tonks, Lupin, all of the Weasely's excluding Percy and Charlie, Professor McGonagall, Mad-Eye Moody, those of us who had just come from the dance, and Dumbledore himself.
"We can't risk it," Harry growled, his hands clenched into tight fists. He seemed to be glaring at nothing in particular. "We can't risk it when we have everything to lose."
"Are we sure it was the work of You-Know-Who?" Luna asked.
"The Dark Mark was hovering above the café," Tonks said darkly, not happy about her being questioned.
"Frankly, I'm surprised he ordered his people to attack a bunch of Muggles," said Lupin. Moody grunted his agreement.
"It seems he's getting bored," Dumbledore said quietly. Everyone fell silent for a moment. They were probably imagining the idea of Voldemort being bored and the damage it could cause. A random attack on Muggles would prove this. It seemed completely random. And if Voldemort was attacking randomly, then he was a threat to everyone, magical or non-magical. But it wasn't random. I'm sure of it.
"It wasn't random," I whispered, trying to build up the fierceness I had before.
"What do you mean, Miss Granger?" McGonagall questioned.
"They were looking for a non magical, American friend of mine. I've been Owling her on and off," I said slowly, thinking about such a stupid mistake. I knew both sides were intercepting owls left and right, but it had never occurred to me that mine could be taken down; it hadn't been real to me. Until now. Now when my best friends' life was in danger. She could be dead for anybody knew.
"You've been Owling a non-magical girl? A Muggle?" Arthur said, shock filling his voice.
"I've never told her anything about magic. Once when I was a little girl I showed her my wand, but she thought I made it up. She's a year older then I, so she wrote it off as imagination."
"I cannot believe-" I cut off Molly, looking straight at Dumbledore.
"I've Owled her twice since she's been here. I suspect they watched my owl the first time, saw it went to a Muggle, and intercepted it the next time they saw it," I took a deep breath and looked around the room, "I never revealed us or what we do, but she knows there is a war. She doesn't know what kind of war, but she knows its there. Although I've never really told her about magic, she has her suspicions," I said, putting my hand in the pocket of my robes, holding her note in my hand, willing myself to draw strength from her words, her wisdom. "She's truly wise beyond her age."
All of a sudden the loud sound announcing someone Apparating resonated throughout the room; the pop echoed so loudly it made me instinctively grab Ron's hand and raise my wand toward the sound. So did the rest of the people in the room; all on edge and cautious immediately.
When the sound finally ended and the shape became the figure of a person, I was able to place specific features to the person.
The girl was wearing black skinny jeans, a black spaghetti strap, and a black jumper with the sleeves rolled up above her elbows. She had distinct defensive wounds on her forearms. There was blood staining her clothes and hands. Her brown hair, also stained slightly red with blood, was falling all around her face, and her bangs were stuck to her forehead with sweat. She stiffly held a wand out in front of her; her hand seemed to be shaking.
Her eyes snapped up, but they were extremely unfocused, as if she were still spinning from Apparating. Her eyes. They were unmistakable. Golden brown surrounded her pupils and a ring of blue surrounded the brown. The most distinguishable thing about her eyes were the simple flecks of green that were dotted randomly in her brown. And her eyes brought out her freckles which were spread around her under her eyes and on her nose.
It could never forget the face of my childhood.
"Jessica?" I shouted, retracting my hand from Ron's and taking a couple steps forward.
Then her body hunched over and the entire content of her stomach made a violent appearance.
Jessica's POV
"Jessica?"
As my stomach gave a final heave I felt someone pull my hair out from my face so I wouldn't get vomit in it.
"God, how do you people do that?" I said, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. A hand rubbed my back.
"You okay?" I closed my eyes, still hunched over my puke spot, and took a deep breath. I straightened up and nodded.
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay. Thanks Mi." I turned around and enveloped her in a grateful hug. She pulled back and smiled at me with concerned eyes. Just like my mom would've, she pulled hair out of my eyes and placed it behind my ear.
"You ready to talk to us?" My eyebrows furrowed. Us? Finally I looked around the room only to see that we weren't the only people in the room. I was in a large room with a considerably big amount of people, enough people to fill the room. My eyes drifted around from face to face until they rested on a man, very old in age with a long silver beard and glasses resting gently against his nose. Somehow his presence seemed to make the room lighter, like someone had turned off the gravity. His presence held the very essence of magic.
"What just happened?" I asked him. Hermione waved her wand over the mess my stomach created, then began pulling her fingers through my hair, which no doubt had some type of barf in it.
"If I'm not mistaken," began the man, "you just Apparated."
"What is Apparating?"
"It's magically being able to transport from one place to another." I nodded. "Why don't you sit?" he said. He waved his wand in the air and conjured a chair that happened to match the room well and offered it to me. I glanced at Hermione, who gave me an encouraging smile, then I walked the short distance to the chair and sat down, crossing my legs.
"Thank you." Everyone in the room was silently scrutinizing me, staring at me.
"Are you a witch?" One of them asked rather bluntly.
"Tonks," the man next to her said, his voice in warning, taking her hand in his.
"What? Everyone's wondering it. How else could she have Apparated in?" she said in annoyance to the man, but took his hand none-the-less.
"She's not a witch. She's a Muggle." said Hermione, coming to my rescue.
"The how did she do it?" one of the red-headed identical twins asked. Normally I would've stepped in and said something along the lines of, 'I'm right here. You don't have I pretend I'm not', but I didn't. I still wasn't very sure as to what I was going to say about the entire situation. Truthfully, I don't even really know what happened in this first place. All I knew was that I needed to keep the boy secret. As long as they didn't know who he was he wouldn't get hurt. Maybe, if I told them everything I know, and just kept the way he looked out of it then I wouldn't have to lie.
Something told me that, even if I tried to lie to this people, they'd know. There was something powerful about the group of people surrounding me. I took a deep breath and began to cross my arms when I was prodded with the wand I was still holding in my hand. I took it in both of my hands, watching it closely, as if it would disappear.
"Where did you get that wand, Miss. Miller?" the old man asked me.
"It was a mans…" I said, realizing I didn't know his name. I took small notice that I never told the old wizard my name.
"Did he have a mark on his arm that looked like this?" he asked, conjuring a serpent that had twisted itself into a 8-like shape. I shook my head.
"Not on the man. But on the woman." I said, shivering with the fresh memory of the woman stabbing the other with the crazed glint in her eyes.
"What woman?" I closed my eyes, forcing myself to remember her face.
"She has wild, dark eyes. Almost black. And her hair was black and curly, it curled all the way down to her waist."
"Bellatrix," a boy said, staring gravely at the floor. The blond girl next to him grabbed his hand and rubbed his arm. He looked down at her, gave her a half-hearted smile, and squeezed her hand. I couldn't help but smile at the sweet gesture.
"That's Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood." Hermione said. I smiled and nodded.
"All of the red-heads? They're all Weasely's." she started from the tallest and worked her way down. "Arthur Weasely, the father; Molly Weasely, the mother; Bill Weasely, he works for the Ministry." I gave her a confused look. "I'll explain later." I laughed.
"Okay."
"And next to Bill are Fred and George Weasely, the identical twins. They own a joke shop in Hogsmeade."
"How do you tell them apart?"
"Don't worry about it, you won't really have to. There's never a time when there's one without the other." I snickered and nodded for her to continue. "Next to them is Ron."
"The Ron?" I asked her, smirking at him. He felt me staring at him because he glanced over at me. When he caught my eyes he immediately became fidgety under my gaze.
"The one and only." Hermione muttered then continued. "Next to him is Harry Potter." I turned my gaze to Harry, but he was already watching me. It took me a moment to realize he wasn't watching me, but was watching the wand in my hand. I glanced down at the wand which was resting in my hands which were in my lap. I took a deep breath and stood up. I felt the adults the room turn to me and scrutinize my every move and I walked the short distance to Harry. His eyes flicked to meet mine as I stepped in front of him, holding the wand with both hands in front of me in a non-threatening way.
"I've heard a lot about you. And I know that you're a big part of this war. I know that this is an extremely difficult time for you. I don't know the details but I know that you're going to have to do something big to save a lot of people. Even though I'm not apart of your world I want to… bridge the gap in a way. I want to offer you anything I can do. For you, for your world, and for Hermione. Everything she's told me about you…" I smiled, "Your like a brother to her. You've been there for her when I couldn't be. Thank you." I held out the wand to him. "I know this can do things that I can't." Before giving him the wand, I turned around to face the adults. "I didn't preform magic if any of you were wondering. Someone else did. He saved my life. I can't tell you who he is, because if I did he would die. He can't die. He's a good person whose on the wrong side of the tracks. He'll come around, but until then I'm keeping his identity a secret whether any of you like it or not." I turned back to Harry. "I saw you watching the wand. You can have it; I don't need it." I said, handing the wand over to him. Our fingers brushed for a moment and I smiled at him. He smiled back, but a small redhead inched closer to him.
"Hi." I grinned at her, "I'm Jessica Miller. You must be Ginny. Hermione's told me a lot about you." I said, holding my hand out at her, trying to make peace. She already seemed to not like me.
"Hi. I've heard some about you as well. It's nice to finally meet you." she said, apprehensively watching my hand. I glanced down at my hand, expecting her to take it, when in finally noticed the blood. I looked down at the front of my shirt. Blood. I touched my hair. Dry with more blood. My hands began to shake and my breathing began to speed up.
Hermione came up behind me and guided me back to the chair by my shoulders with shaky legs. She gently pushed me down to sit in the chair. One of the women came up to me, looked me in the eyes, and said, "Neville, Luna. Go get Madam Pomfrey. She still looks sick."
"It's the blood." Hermione said. "She doesn't like blood." I dug my nails into the leather of the armrest.
"Is this your blood?" the woman asked. I swallowed the bile that began to rise in my throat and shook my head.
"Whose is it?" A man asked, limping his way toward me. His fake eye twisting and writhing in it's socket. I froze.
"Erm… Jessica, Mad-Eye Moody and Professor McGonagall." I nodded.
"Uhm… a guy. Him and a friend of his… Bellatrix? Is that what he called her? Neville?" I asked Hermione. She nodded. "She ordered two guys to kill me. They took me to the kitchen and one of them… he… he tried to rape me." Professor McGonagall touched my hand and watched me sympathetically. "I… I kneed him and I started to run away but I knew I'd either have to fight or die because if I ran… where would I go? So I grabbed a knife a stabbed one of the guys in the back. He died." I said, hanging my head.
"What happened to the other man?" she asked. I took a breath and looked back into her dark eyes.
"The other man used magic on me. I guess… he said Crucio and I just… it started to hurt. Everywhere." I whispered.
"It's okay Jess, we know what that is. You don't have to explain it." I nodded.
"Then he stopped and seemed to be listening to a voice in his head-" Harry spoke up.
"The Mark. That's how they communicate. Through The Mark." I nodded as if I understood.
"Then what?" the professor asked me.
"Then he left… how I did."
"He Disapparated." Hermione supplied.
"Right. He Disapparated. Then the man that saved me came. I almost killed him too. He's lucky he can move fast." I said, mainly to myself.
"Are you sure you won't tell us about the man who saved you?" The old man asked. His voice held such power and authority that I shivered. Magic literally rolled off of him in waves.
"I'm sorry but no. I can't. Not yet. And I must ask you to respect that." I said quietly, comparing my voice to the power timbre that came from the old man with the long, grey beard. There was absolutely no comparison.
"I will, Miss Miller." he said. A woman rushed into the room with Neville and Luna trailing behind her.
"What happened to her?" she asked, then he question quickly changed to, "Is she a Muggle?"
"Muggle?" I asked Hermione.
"Non-magical human." Madam Pomfrey stared at Hermione incredulously then turned her gaze to the powerful man.
"Dumbledore! You can't possibly be allowing this!" she said.
"She's been dragged into the middle of the War and quite frankly she's had a foot in both worlds for years now, whether she knew it or not." He gave me a small smile. Madam Pomfrey frowned but stepped forward to examine me. Professor McGonagall moved out of her way as she waved her wand over me.
"She's a medic. She uses her wand to look over your entire body, examine you internally and externally. Then she's able to make a diagnosis and make the correct potion to heal you."
"Wow. It's like all of the muggle medicine shoved into a wand. It does everything minus the bulk." I said stupidly.
"Basically." Hermione said, humor clear in her voice.
"Well," said the medic. "she has some small cuts and a couple bruises which could be fixed easily. Other then that I would suggest a long shower and a lot of sleep. I can get the potion to fix her cuts right now." she began to walk away, but I stopped her.
"No, no. It's okay. I don't need it. Save it for someone who does. I've had to deal with scrapes and bruises my whole life. I think I'll be okay this time too."
"You sure, Jess?" Hermione asked. I nodded.
"Yeah. I think my most pressing issue is the blood. I just need a shower." Madam Pomfrey looked put out, glared at me for a moment then left the room.
"Miss Granger, do you mind if Miss Miller stays with you for the time being?"
"Of course not Professor Dumbledore, it's not a problem at all." she said, rubbing my shoulders.
When Hermione and I were all but shoved out of the room by Professor McGonagall she walked us to the Gryffindor portrait in comfortable silence. The woman in the portrait appraised me with horror in her eyes.
"My goodness dear! What happened to you!" I was about to answer when Hermione took over for me instead.
"She got in the middle of a confrontation with Death Eaters." her eyes widened even more.
"And lived? A Muggle? Merlin! Deary, you are lucky to be alive!" she told me. "How did you make it out alive?"
"Well not bloodlessly, obviously." I said quietly, my voice giving off a slight sarcastic tone. The woman nodded her head vigorously.
"I know how you feel sweetheart. I once came into contact with Sirius Black! Horrible thing he was." Her eyes seemed to glaze over with the memory, shivered, then focused back on the girls in front of her. Hermione murmured the password and the woman opened the portrait, welcoming us to the very empty Gryffindor common room.
"Who is Sirius Black?" I asked while we slowly walked up the stairs to her room.
"Harry's Godfather. He died last year." I paused.
"Godfather? But… she just said he… he was a horrible thing. She think's he's evil. Isn't Harry your world-"
"The Wizarding world's." she corrected. I took a breath a nodded.
"The Wizarding world's salvation?" I finished. She nodded.
"Yes. No one understood what happened with Sirius. He was a good person who wanted to protect Harry and warn him from impending danger from Voldemort. But when the time came he gave his life to protect Harry. He was a truly amazing and good man." I nodded and began walking again.
"I have two questions."
"Then ask them."
"But I have a feeling both of the answers are equally important."
"Try me."
"Wizarding world? Honestly Hermione, I feel like I'm in some far away place that never existed." We finished walking up the steps and stopped in front of a lone door. Hermione took out the wand she had showed me those many years ago. Now instead of looking brand new and exciting it looked old, worn, used, and chipped.
"Dorothy, your not in Kansas anymore," she said with a smile on her face. She pointed her wand at her door as she muttered some incantation. I watched as her door seemed to be stripped of invisible shields. Then she looked at me, smirked as she said, "It's good your not a witch. You would've used this to your own selfish advantage." Then she touched her wand to her doorknob and whispered, "Alohomora." something inside the knob clicked and the door cracked open with a small squeak.
"Like magic." I whispered. "Wow. It's real. All of it is real. And it's been hiding under our noses all this time. This is amazing." I said, my eyes brighter then they had been all day. She smiled.
"Magic does that to you." she pushed the door open and let me in. Her room was simple, much like her. She had books and parchment spread out all over the room in a organized disaster. Although I could never make sense of her mess she had a place for everything. That's how she had always been. It was comforting to know that, in the mist of so much change, that at least one thing had remained the same.
"Hey maybe I can show you some more magic tonight if your up to it." I quickly shed my shirt as soon as she closed and locked the door. I opened the door to the bathroom and cracked it as I kicked off my flats, pulled off my sticky jeans, and tossed my bra and panties on the floor with them.
"I don't know Mi. I'm tired and I kinda just want to sleep right now but there's still blood on me so I have to take a shower…" I trailed off. She made understanding noises from the other side of the door.
"No problem." I turned on the shower and walked in when it was just the right temperature. I let the warm water wash the remaining blood from my hands and chest.
"Hey, 'Mione?" she walked in.
"Yeah?"
"Can I ask you my second question?" I listened as she turned on the sink.
"Of course." I took a moment to listen as she began to brush her teeth.
"…who is Voldemort?" I listened as she paused in her tooth brushing, then spit in the sink and rinse her mouth. She walked over to the toilet, put down the lid and unceremoniously sat on it.
"He is a horrible person who enjoys killing muggles, half bloods, and mudbloods because he believes their blood is tainted and they does deserve to practice magic. He used to be like me and Harry and Ron. He was a teenager who didn't really understand his magic until Dumbledore found him. At the time his name was Tom Riddle. And then… he got mixed up with dark magic. He became obsessed with it. Then, once he learned everything he could, he wanted to take over the Wizarding world then force all the muggles and witches and wizards with "tainted" blood become slaves to them. The only reason that hasn't happened is because of Harry Potter. When Voldemort attempted to kill Harry, it didn't work. He tried, believe me. But Harry, an infant, was a stronger and more powerful then the Dark Lord. Ever since then everyone in the Wizarding world knew that Harry would have to be the one to take down the Dark Lord; to kill him." I turned off the water. I cracked the sliding glass to grab a towel.
"How does Harry deal with it? All of the pressure."
"I think he deals with it as best as he can. a lot of people have died already, and those people haunt Harry everyday, but he knows that all of this, all of the waiting, will be worthwhile." I stepped out of the shower, the towel wrapped tightly around me. Hermione had some pajama's in her hand.
"Do you think that, when the time comes, he'll be able to kill him?" Hermione's eyes wavered in uncertainty, but she remained silent. The silence was all the answer that I need though.
Hermione didn't know if Harry would be able to take Voldemort's life because he's never been forced with the decision or had to hold someone's life in his hands. I knew. I had experienced it first hand.
I took a good at her for the first time since the summer, which was months ago. Hermione had her hair in an intricate braid with deep purple crystals scattered in her hair. She was also wearing the same purple color on her clothes. Her clothes were much different then the dresses that were seen in America, but whatever they were, they were beautiful on her and hugged her body perfectly. She wore small purple heels on her feet. I smiled, Hermione never wore heels.
"Your wearing heels."
"Your not." she paused, "I'm going to let you change."
"Not going to tell me?"
"Tomorrow." she said, smiling.
Hermione left the room for me to dress, and once I was, I found a second bed next to the bed Hermione was relaxing on. I could've sworn there was only one bed when I walked in. I stood in the doorway of the bathroom for a second too long, staring at the second bed, because Hermione began to try and explain herself.
"I transfigured-"
"I don't want to know." I said, cutting her off. I didn't have the capacity in my brain to hold this much. Everything was so new to me. The magic, the war, Voldemort. Everything was new and it was terrifying. But the only topic that was at the forefront of my mind was Harry.
I laid down in the bed and curled up into a comfortable ball and began thinking about today. The horror of actually holding someone's life in your hands, knowing that you could take it away with a quick stab or the muttering of the correct words in Harry's case. After your force yourself past the horror and you do what you must, you are all of a sudden filled with dread as you watch and feel the life that you just stole drift away from it's person. It was the worst feeling I had ever felt. And, despite what everyone believes, a 17 year old boy will not be able to push past himself and kill someone without a second thought.
A tear ran down my face and the shock began to wear off. I took a life today. I didn't even know the man's name and I took everything away from him. Rape or no rape I had no right to play God. And here I was, doing just that. And that scared me. Did it make me less human? Did I deserve to live?
If I were left to my own devices and I were to answer these questions I would have said, 'No, you don't deserve to live.' and 'yes, it does make you less human. It's not in human nature to kill another part of your race. It's not your choice.'
That was, if I were left to my own devices and if I were to answer these questions. I wasn't. I didn't have to time think because just at that moment Hermione came next to me and wrapped my up in her comforting arms.
"You did what you had to do. If you didn't you would be dead. And if you were dead I don't know what'd I'd do without you, Jess. I need you. More then you know. More then you could even possibly understand. I love you."
And with that, my tears flowed freely and I cried myself to sleep. A sleep which was haunted by a life that I had taken… and I didn't even know his name.
And I waited for tomorrow.
A/N: so please review. Trust me, Jessica, Hermione, and Draco have so much to say. They apologize on my behalf! Please? Thank you.
