Everyone I am sooooo sorry that I haven't updated in ages, my life has been really busy lately, but I only have a week of school left then I am on my holidays, so I will be writing loads to make up, I promise.

I wanted to say thank you to xSyNyStErX, XxBookXxWormXx and brooke.h16 for your input with my Patronus problem, and to make sure everyone knows that I'm still open for suggestions.

So thanks again, and enjoy the chapter ^_^

Chapter 11

(A few weeks into the new term)

Rachel knew something was wrong. Everywhere she went someone came with her, she was never alone, in fact she hadn't been able to have a lesson with Professor McGonagall because they refused to leave her side. It was getting slightly annoying. The girls accompanied her to their dorm, everyone went with her to lessons, in fact the only person who wasn't with her constantly was Remus, due to him being in the hospital wing. Rachel was worried to say the least. Did everyone think something was wrong with her, did they think she was dying and that was why they spent every moment with her? Rachel was fed up, however she knew someone who could give her a straight answer.

Late on night, Rachel awoke to the sound of snoring in her dorm room. She glanced out of the window and saw the sun was rising in the sky. She smiled to herself nobody but her would be awake. She slipped out of her bed, her feet resting on the cold floor. She reached under her duvet and pulled out her fluffy socks, before having a thought.

'If I don't get back in time, do I really want the whole school to see me in my pj's and fluffy socks?' Rachel knew the answer and so she quickly and quietly slipped into her uniform and pulled on her comfy flat shoes, which she used for school. Silently she reached for her hairbrush and band, and pulled her hair into a plait. She stopped suddenly as she heard Maddy moan in her sleep. The girl turned over and was swept back into her deep sleep with a snore. Rachel stifled a chuckle to herself, as she slipped out of the dorm and quietly out of the common room.

A couple of the portraits looked at her as she slipped along the corridors; they whispered to themselves, Rachel ignored them. She continued down her chosen path, until she reached her destination; the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey was no where to be seen, so Rachel slipped silently over to Remus's bed. The young boy was wide awake.

"Hey."

"Rachel? Shouldn't you be asleep?" Rachel shrugged of Remus's question and replaced it with one of her own.

"How are you feeling?"

"Not too bad, Madam Pomfrey's going to check me out in the morning, and if everything's ok I can leave this morning."

"That's good." Rachel went silent. Remus shifted uncomfortably.

"Is something wrong?" He asked her.

"Why is everyone following me everywhere? It's so annoying, the only time I'm alone is when I got to the loo!" Remus chuckled.

"I thought you would have clocked them by now." Rachel stared at him. Remus sighed.

"They're worried when you kept disappearing so much at the beginning of the term, it was just like last term, so they decided to stick as close to you as possible to try and find out what was wrong." Rachel leaned back into her seat.

"So that's why I feel like they've been giving me the Spanish Inquisition these past few days. Lily has been questioning me at every available point." Remus chuckled.

"Hang on, why didn't someone just ask me why I kept disappearing? Surely that would have been easier?" Remus looked at Rachel.

"Would you have given us the true answer?" Rachel thought for a moment before replying.

"Probably not; it's complicated though." Remus turned his head.

"Rachel, we all really care about you, we just want to know that you're ok."

Rachel's POV

I suddenly felt really guilty. I should have told everyone the truth from the beginning. In fact McGonagall had asked me on more than one occasion if I was going to tell everyone about my powers. I knew then what I should do.

"Remus I'm so sorry. I've been really stupid, I should have told you guys everything from the beginning, I'll set everything right though, I promise." Remus smiled.

Later that afternoon after classes had finished, and I had been followed everywhere, luckily I had managed to get back to the Gryffindor tower before the others noticed I was missing, I had asked everyone if we could go for a walk to the hospital wing to pick up Remus before we went to the Black Lake. Remus was waiting for us in the arch way.

"They let you out then?" Remus chuckled; Tonks reached into her pocket and pulled out a bar of chocolate which she passed to him. He smiled, she smiled back. Lily moved her head to face mine; she motioned towards Remus and Tonks and winked. I guessed it wouldn't be long before Alice and Frank were the only couple in our group.

"Ok," We were sitting by the Black Lake, and I knew that it was time to come clean. "I know that you guys have been worried about me, which is why you aren't leaving me alone." Everyone except Remus looked a bit sheepish. I continued.

"And I just wanted to say that although it is a kind thought, I don't need you guys to be with me at every second of every day." I took a deep breath before continuing.

"And I think that it's maybe time I came clean to you all. I know you've only been following me because of my lessons with Professor McGonagall."

Everyone stared at Remus.

"What?" He stared back.

"You told her!" James cried in disbelief.

"She had a right to know why the only time to herself she is getting at the moment is when she goes to the toilet!" Tonks couldn't help but giggle, a giggle which earnt her a glare from my twin. She stopped pretty much instantly.

"Guys don't take it out on Remus, I made him tell me. If it's any consolation he did resist at first." Remus knew I was lying, but he didn't seem too bothered. The others looked around catching each others eyes. It was Alice who spoke first.

"Ok then, why have you been seeing Professor McGonagall in private since the being of our first year?"

"She's been helping me. You all remember what happened on the train don't you?"

"What, I thought you just tripped up Malfoy?"

"Tonks what are you on about?" Sirius asked. I quickly explained the situation in which I found myself tripping up Lucius Malfoy.

"I meant the first time I rode the Hogwarts express." I knew an explanation would be needed for Tonks's benefit.

"The first time I rode the Hogwarts express Lucius Malfoy managed to get me extremely angry by calling me a freak. I saw red, and before I knew what had happened I had produced a white light from my mind, which kinda caused him to fall backwards in the opposite direction." Tonks stared at me open mouthed.

"Wow, I knew you were clever, but that's amazing, how did you do it?"

"That's the thing, I don't know. I thought something was wrong with me; it also made me remember a time when I was really young, and I managed to do the exact same thing."

"When was that?" Lily asked.

"Primary school, some girl was picking on me and I just got really mad."

"You didn't tell me." Lily looked sad; I'd never made her upset before, well not intentionally.

"Lils, I didn't want you know because I knew you'd flip and tell mum and dad. I thought that something was wrong with me, and when it never happened again I forgot about it." This seemed to make her feel a bit better, but I knew I had betrayed her trust. I went over and hugged her tighter than I had ever hugged her before. I caught her off guard and she almost fell over it had not been for James who had been sitting behind her. He quickly jumped up and grabbed her shoulders. With her body more stable she hugged back.

"I'm so sorry Lils, I didn't want you to worry, you mean too much to me." She smiled and let go.

"You mean the world to me too Rach." Sitting back down again she flashed James a bright smile, he blushed; I laughed.

"Anyway, when I got here I knew that I needed to tell someone about what happened thinking that if I was ill, then this place seemed to be able to help me more than anything at home could. If anything it seemed more normal to be able to tell someone here I can make a light appear with my mind." That got a laugh. It made me feel better; I knew I could carry on and tell my secret.

"I spoke to Professor Dumbledore about and he gave me a book to read; Myths and Legends through time." That caused a look of recognition over everyone except Tonks. She still sat opened mouthed staring.

"I read the book, and it mentioned a prophecy about a girl called Potens. According to the description in the book I look exactly like her, which I'm guessing is why Dumbledore was so happy I was going to come to Hogwarts." Remus looked like he remembered the conversation we had had with Hagrid on our first day.

"The prophecy is a bit long winded, so I won't go into to much detail, but basically Potens was this really powerful witch who was only like 18 and yet she could do more magic than the whole magical village she lived in." I heard Alice gasp.

"Anyway, long story short there was this big battle and she was killed by a General from the opposite army. He was a bit insane from what I read, and he believed that magical and non-magical people shouldn't live together unless those who are magical submit to his ideas that Muggles were better than magical folk. Potens refused to believe this, and that caused the war. On her death bed she said that one day her powers would return in the body a young witch, and she would lead the magical folk to rebel against those who hated magic."

"Wow." James said. "And Dumbledore believes this is you?"

"Yes." James laughed. Lily hit him.
"That's not funny mate." Sirius said. I smiled a 'thank you' before turning to face James head on.

"Perhaps you like a demonstration?" That wiped the smile off his face.

"I'm ok."

"No come on James, you thought she was lying." Remus said sarcastically. James didn't know what to do. I laughed.

"It's ok; I don't need to use you as target." I scouted the area and spotted tree stump about 6 ft away.

"See that tree stump over there," I said pointing.
"Watch it closely." I concentrated hard on the stump as Professor McGonagall had told me to, and silently I muttered a spell. My wand lit up and the spell flew from its tip, hitting the stump and disintegrating it. The other stared at me.

"Believe me now James?" He blushed scarlet, which cause the others to fall about in a fit of laughter.

"If I say yes, will you all stop laughing?"

"No" came Frank's reply.

It was well over 3 minutes before anyone could sit up again without laughing.

"Anyway, I've been seeing McGonagall privately because she has been teaching me to control my magic. I don't want another accident like what happened on the train. If people knew what I could do, then I could never be normal. I know with magic I'm never going to be normal, but at least I can be normal-ish if I kept the magic under control."

"Why couldn't you just tell us that in the first place?" Severus asked.

"I didn't want to worry anyone." I spoke flat out.

(A few days later)

Nobody's POV

It had been a few days since Rachel had told her friends about her powers. She found herself sitting in Professor McGonagall's classroom one afternoon.

"So you finally managed to get your friends to stop following you?" McGonagall asked, sipping her tea. Rachel sipped at hers, she hadn't actually ever drunk tea before but she thought she had better be polite when Professor McGonagall asked. It wasn't as bad as she thought it would be.

"Yes, I told them everything." Professor McGonagall looked up at Rachel, her eyebrows slightly raised.

"I realised that it was silly of me to not tell my friends, they care about me and they only want to help me. Plus with them knowing the secret, I don't have to hide things from the anymore, and I hate not being able to tell Lily everything."

"Is she the only person you hate not being able to tell everything to?" Rachel looked confused. Professor McGonagall was sounding a little like a gossiping teenager.

"Didn't you want to tell Severus Snape everything when you found out?" Rachel blushed a little; Professor McGonagall smiled.

"Yes I did," said Rachel finding her voice again. "Only because I know he's my friend, and he would have helped me." Professor McGonagall smiled. Although she wasn't a teenager herself anymore, she could sense that deep down, Rachel and Severus had more than just a friendship between them, even if they didn't know it yet.

A little shorter than my other chapters, but its ready to be posted. Again I'm so sorry that it has been such a long time since I posted, my life has been really hectic lately, just to remind people again that I am still open to taking suggestions for Patronus'es, so far I have the following,

Tonks and Remus – Wolves

Lily and James – Doe and Stag

Sirius – Dog

Frank and Alice – Lion and Lioness (thank you to brooke.h16 for the suggestion) However I still need a Patronus for Maddy, Severus and Rachel, so any suggestions will be greatly received.

Anyway enough of my ramblings enjoy the chapter and please leave a little review, thanks.

Beth