September 17, 1993
"Vaughn, is that your family's owl?" Blaise asked, tapping Vaughn on the shoulder roughly.
Before glancing up, Vaughn was about to answer in the negative, but recognizing the writing on the letter the owl held she changed her answer, "It's possible." She took the letter from the owl, which promptly began picking at the half-eaten orange on her plate, and read the first two sentences before folding the letter and standing, "It's from my family, I'd rather read it in private. Niv, you go to the owlery." She rubbed the owl's head affectionately and walked out of the Great Hall.
Vaughn walked up to the second floor girl's bathroom to read the letter, it was close to her first class (charms) anyway. She unfolded the letter again and began reading her sister's handwriting:
Dear Vaughn,
This is our owl, Niv, that Ferret bought for us so we could communicate.
I went to your orphanage, that place is terrible, it's too stuffy to be livable. Anyway, I am now your legal guardian, and we're working on setting up a room for you at the house. So I guess I'll be picking you up at King's Cross in June.
I didn't believe that magic was real at first, but apparently Ferret is a squib (she said you'd know what that is) and she convinced me that magic was real enough. She's actually related to a family called the Weasleys, she says there should be four or five of them at Hogwarts now.
Well, I want to know more about what's been going on with you, so please write back describing your friends, teachers, classes, etc.
-Lynnete
Vaughn sighed, happy that she was out of that stupid orphanage, but nervous about living with people she hadn't seen in five people. And what would she tell her friends? The idea came to her swiftly, but instead of smiling, she put on a sad face, faked some tears, and made it to Flitwick's class at the bell. Only three people on staff knew she was an orphan, McGonagall, Snape and Dumbledore. They would be confused by her act, but she would tell Snape the reason, and he would understand. Vaughn refused to talk during charms, and at lunch went to the common room, where she waited by the fire.
It was ten minutes into lunch that Draco walked into the common room and sat next to her, "Harper said he saw you crying during Charms."
Vaughn wiped one of her fake tears from her eyes, "I was."
"It was the letter wasn't it?" Draco asked, taking her hand in his to try to comfort her, "What did it say?"
"My parents died," She said looking into the fire, "My parents have been sick for years, and mother died two weeks ago, the next morning my father had been found after he killed himself."
Draco believed it and gaped for a minute as he tried to imagine her situation, "Sorry."
"Don't apologize," Vaughn said bitterly, "You didn't kill them."
"I don't know what to say then," He said, and Vaughn leaned against his shoulder, then he put an arm around her. He sighed, "So, where will you be living now?"
"My cousin Bridget, her boyfriend Nigel, and their friend Lynette. They live just outside of London." Vaughn answered.
"Wizards?" Draco asked.
"No, my cousin is a squib relative of the Weasleys, and the other two are muggles." Vaughn corrected.
"You're joking, right?" Vaughn shook her head, "That sucks."
"What sucks is they chose to tell me a week after my parents died so they would have a home for me." Vaughn argued.
September 24, 1993
Remus watched as over the last week Vaughn grew less and less mournful, seeming to accept her parents' deaths, which Remus found odd. He could of sworn that her and Lynn's parents had been dead for years, which is why they had been split up. The again, the comment she had made about not telling anyone she was a muggleborn seemed to imply she didn't want anyone to know.
It was that Remus realized that Vaughn was putting on the act to explain why she would be picked up by family when school was over. Remus thought about all that he had seen her do, and was surprised by the lengths that she had gone to keep her secret, "Well, it's obvious why that girl's a Slytherin." He said quietly to himself.
October 31, 1993
"I hate you all," Vaughn said as she got up from the breakfast table, all five of her friends were going to Hogsmeade today.
"If we could, we'd sneak you in but…" Vaughn heard Draco trail off as she left the Great Hall. She was tired of hearing them talk about the village of Hogsmeade and decided to try and find something to do to make them jealous.
However, an hour later, Vaughn found herself wandering around a nearly empty castle, nearly bored to tears. She reached the fourth floor staircase and time stopped, and the sepia tone surrounded her again. Vaughn groaned, and time began speeding past her, and she watched in amazement as students moved through her as if she were a ghost. The sun went down, and she felt time stop. Vaughn looked around the staircase, and saw a piece of paper on the ground, she tried to pick it up, but it fell through her hands.
A noise behind her made her jump, a big black dog was staring at her, and knowing her luck with animals, she backed up the stairs. However the dog stopped at the paper and sniffed it before taking a step back. Then the dog morphed into a human, a man to be exact. He looked like a homeless man, wild hair, unshaven face, dirty clothes, but he looked like he may have once been handsome. The man picked up the scrap of paper and began making his way up the stairs quickly.
Vaughn followed the man up to the seventh floor and down a corridor to the side of the hall. She regretted not being able to hear as she watched the man argue with a portrait before he finally pulled out a wand and cast a hasty curse at the painting. It was an action that Vaughn could tell was done without a second thought, almost as if it was an instinct. The man instantly realized what he had done wrong as some sort of commotion seemed to be happening with the portraits throughout the floor. Vaughn watched the man morph back into the big black down and disappear around the corner.
As time stopped again, Vaughn braced herself to travel back to the stairs, but the time of day shifted back to mid-morning and colors returned without her moving. She looked around, a little confused as to where she was.
"What are you doing here, Milthorpe?" Weaselette said from behind her, and Vaughn looked to the red head glaring at her in front of the portrait she'd just seen destroyed by the strange man. She suddenly realized what it might have been.
"This is the entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room, isn't it?" Vaughn said looking at the portrait, ignoring how odd the question was.
"Don't get any ideas, Milthorpe. Now what are you doing here?" Ginny said, moving to block Vaughn's view of the portrait.
"Excuse me, I've got to go find a teacher. It's an emergency." Vaughn said rushing back to the stairs. She had to find a teacher, she barely even registered what she had figured out in favor of devoting her full attention to finding a teacher. She finally found McGonagall on the first floor coming out of her office and flagged her down.
"What is it, Ms. Milthorpe?" She asked almost impatiently.
"Someone's going to break into Hogwarts, tonight." Vaughn told her quickly.
McGonagall almost laughed at her, "I assure you Ms. Milthorpe, the school is being guarded by dementors and some of the most powerful wards in the wizarding world. No one could break into Hogwarts."
Vaughn blocked her way as she turned to leave, "I don't care how safe you think it is, I had a vision of a man breaking into Hogwarts." McGonagall stopped to listen, but didn't seem to take her serious, "I think it was Sirius Black, he was in the form of a dog, and then turned into a human to try to give this portrait of a fat lady a password to try to get into the Gryffindor Common Room."
Vaughn would have found the look of surprise on McGonagall's face amusing in any other situation, "I don't know how you know where the Gryffindor Common Room is, but that isn't important. Now, how would Black be able to give the portrait a password."
Vaughn stopped her from walking away for a second time, "He picked up a slip of paper that a student dropped, it must have had the password on it."
"That's enough of this," McGonagall said sharply, "We have wards, dementors, and Dumbledore, no one is breaking in, and none of my Gryffindors would be foolish enough to write down the password. Now I suggest you find something better to do than making up stories."
Vaughn walked her walk away, and considered going to Snape. She then realized he would either have the same reaction as McGonagall, or believe her only to be criticized by McGonagall for believing her. She spent the rest of the day reading books about magic that used fire as a way of killing and time and entertaining herself at the same time. Not overly educational, but she now knew the spells to make over thirty different types of flames. In fact, she used one of them to help set up for the Halloween party: a green flame that would stand ten feet high and not spread, but was only about forty degrees Fahrenheit, so it was a pretty cold flame.
Vaughn ignored her friends during the Halloween Party, as they switched between apologizing for being so excited to go without her and talking about how cool Hogsmeade was. Draco apparently was attacked by Potter, who had snuck in under an invisibility cloak. Apparently, McGonagall had believed that story. This day was just getting better and better. After the party, Vaughn finally re-entered conversation with her friends and talked for the hour until curfew, when Vaughn stood to leave.
"Oh, by the way," Vaughn turned back to say, "Don't get too comfortable in bed."
The five gave her an odd look, Draco asked, "And why is that?"
"McGonagall said it's impossible," Vaughn shrugged, "But I think we might be woken up later tonight."
Sure enough, at thirty minutes to midnight, Vaughn heard some shuffling outside the curtains and slipped on her robe to go to the common room. The boys were just waking up, and Snape looked glad to see her, "Go wake up the other girls."
Vaughn did so quickly, and soon the entire house was standing in the common room, and Snape announced that there was a break in, and we would be spending the night in the Great Hall with the rest of the school as the school was searched. There were small groans, but the Slytherins walked obediently to the Great Hall where they found Dumbledore transfiguring hideous purple sleeping bags for the students in various pyjamas (Vaughn chuckled when she saw a fourth year Hufflepuff wearing footie pyjamas).
"It's probably just to not look biased," A Ravenclaw said, "It would look bad if he made all of them a house color and it would take too long to conjure the right number for each house."
Students began settling down, and when Vaughn was just about to crawl into the sleeping bag, McGonagall walked up to her, and Vaughn smirked, "I told you so."
She wasn't in the mood for Slytherin snarkiness, "Yes, you did. Now come with me Ms. Milthorpe."
Vaughn dutifully followed McGonagall to a group of teachers, since some were already trying to find the intruder. Vaughn caught Snape's eyes and seemed to know he was upset that she hadn't come to him, no matter how foolish she thought telling him was. Dumbledore looked almost unnerved by the situation as he looked to her, "I heard you had a vision of this happening. Can you tell me who you saw break in, how they did it, and how they got the password to Gryffindor?"
"Like I told Professor McGonagall earlier, it was Sirius Black. Though when I first saw him he was in the form of a large black dog." Vaughn replied, "I didn't see how he got in, I… found him on the fourth floor."
"Found him?" Sprout asked, having just been told that she was a Seer, "What does that mean?"
"I stepped on to the fourth floor stairs, just wandering around, and was pulled into a vision. It was weird though, I've never walked while I was having a vision before." Vaughn said, aiming the last part at herself.
"What do you mean you moved?" Trelawney asked, somewhat reminding Vaughn of Lockhart in the way she pretended to know everything, "When one enters a state of vision, they do not move."
"I didn't know it was possible. If that's true then, will you explain how I came into my vision on the fourth floor, and came out of it in front of the Gryffindor Common room on the seventh floor?" Vaughn challenged.
"You must have not remembered where you were before the vision correctly." Trelawney said, ignoring the glare she was getting from McGonagall.
Dumbledore looked to Vaughn again, "Did you See how he got the password to Gryffindor?"
"He found it," Vaughn answered, "Apparently one of the Gryffindors wrote down the password and dropped it. He picked it up and almost ran to Gryffindor."
"My students would never be stupid enough to write down the password." McGonagall argued.
"What about Longbottom?" Snape asked, and McGonagall opened her mouth to argue, but she couldn't find the words to make a defense for Neville Longbottom.
Dumbledore calmly walked to a nearby group of Gryffindors attempting to eavesdrop and brought back Longbottom. He had a grave look on his face, "Mr. Longbottom, did you write down the password to your house in order to remember it?"
"Yeah, but I couldn't find it tonight, Ginny had to let me-" He stopped mid sentence, "This is all my fault isn't it?"
Yes, Vaughn thought, but McGonagall told him it wasn't entirely his fault, but he wouldn't be told the password for a month, and then sent him back to bed.
"As for you Ms. Milthorpe, I thank you for your help, and excuse you to get some sleep." Dumledore said and Vaughn nodded before going back to the bright purple sleeping bag between Draco and Pansy.
Draco wasn't asleep, but he had obviously been fighting off sleep. The other Slytherins hadn't really been awake, so had easily fallen back to sleep. Draco mouthed, 'You had a vision of this?'
'Yeah,' Vaughn replied, realizing that the two teachers patrolling the room wouldn't appreciate them talking.
'Everything okay?'
'Yeah,' Vaughn said, 'Go to sleep,'
Draco rolled his eyes before closing them and going to sleep. Vaughn wasn't going to get to sleep that easy though, she stayed awake, closing her eyes when the teachers got too close. It was at about three in the morning that she heard the teachers talking about having finished searching the building, they found nothing. It was only then that Vaughn allowed herself to go to sleep. At about eight people started waking up, and the entire school was awake and buzzing with curious students as the tables were returned and breakfast was served.
"So, I hear that Vaughn knows exactly what happened," Blaise said over breakfast, watching her with curious eyes.
Vaughn watched as soon she had the ten eyes of her friends looking at her expectantly, and she sighed, "Fine, I'll tell you. Sirius Black broke into kill Potter, but the portrait hole wouldn't let him though, so he shredded the picture."
"Wait, he actually knew where the Gryffindor Common Room is?" Pansy asked.
"Of course he would, he was a Gryffindor himself," Draco said and glared when everyone looked at him, "I'm not proud of it, but he was my mother's cousin. Disgrace to the family, the only thing he ever did right was killing all those muggles."
It was quiet for a moment before Vince nudged Draco's arm and pointed to the Gryffindor table, than the staff table. Half the teachers looked ready to pounce if anyone so much as got a little too close to Potter with a wand drawn. The six of them groaned in unison. Gregg shook his head, "Precious Potter steals attention again."
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(A/N: I think only a couple people are still reading this. Sad.)
