Disclaimer: Still not mine . . . .(if it was, I would be living in a castle in Scottland; darn the bad luck!)

A/N: Thanks KRP for pointing out my mistake last chapter (I fixed it). My beta just got back from being out of town and didn't see it before I posted.

Chapter 14: Pain and Pity

Emma was walking past the defense class as the students filtered out. "Emma!" She heard Cedric call out and grab her arm. "What's going on? You alright?" He asked worriedly.

"I'm fine. Why are you worried?" Emma asked.

"We all figured it was another attack. I am always worried I'll find out you're petrified," He said. Emma squeezed his arm reassuringly.

Emma walked to the common room and waited for everyone to filter in. She could sense everyone's confusion over what happened. She didn't want to be the one to tell the Weasley's what happened; she wasn't suicidal. Eventually McGonnagal came in and announced that the heir of Slytherin had taken Ginny into the chamber and that all the students would be leaving in the morning. In the blink of an eye, everyone felt sorrow, pity, and shock and these feelings flooded over Emma making her feel a little nauseous. The twins, Ron, and Harry sat in a corner and no one bothered them. Percy sent an owl to his parents, and then went to his room. Emma followed him.

"Percy?" She said through the door but there was no answer. "I know you are there. You can't hide from me." When she didn't get any answer she took a deep breath to brace herself against his emotions and opened the door.

She found Percy lying down on his bed.

"It is not your fault." She said.

"How can you say that! Iy is entirely my fault. I am the oldest here. It IS my fault that she was taken. I should have protected her." He said.

"You did what you could. She is not herself. . ."

"And I couldn't help her with that either."

"You tried, I tried, the twins tried, her friends tried, Percy. She didn't want help. You are not to blame. You are a wonderful older brother, and your parents know this."

"They will blame me. I don't blame them. I blame myself."

Emma sat on the bed next to him. He just stared up at his curtains. "Percy, listen, no one has been able to stop the Heir. Why do you think you could? You could have done nothing against him. The Heir would only have taken you or petrified you."

"Better if it had been me. First Penelope and now Ginny. How I made Prefect I don't know."

"Now is NOT the time for a pity party! Percy listen to yourself. Now is the time to be strong for your family."

"My mother wrote to me not a week ago reminding me to look after Ginny," He said.

"You didn't fail her. You did the best you could"

"Which still got her stolen and . . .Kil . . ." He couldn't finish the sentence.

"That is jumping to conclusions. Now listen here-You will stop this. I will let you wallow in self pity for just a bit more, but you need to pull yourself together and then help your mother and father when they arrive. I am sure they will be here soon." Emma said, losing patience as his self-hatred and sorrow started to eat away at her. "They will need you now Percy. Remember what I said," and she made her voicerepeat everything she said to him resound in his head.

Just then Oliver knocked. "Perce? Hey Emma." He said. "You look as bad as him" He said.

"I'm going to go now."

"The twins went to their room-do you think you could look after them? They could certainly use you right now. I thin Lee is afraid of saying the wrong thing."

"Aren't you?" She snapped although she already knew the answer to that question.

He shrugged. "I guess, but I knew you were already up here knocking some sense into him"

"Yeah, It's safe after Emma takes the hard edge off," she said as she walked out the door. Oliver watched her leave "Emma-I . . ." He realized he couldn't say he didn't mean it. He did wait until Emma had calmed him down. "It's just-you always know what to say"

"Don't worry about comforting me. Just talk to Percy," she said and went in search of the twins.

Great. Double the trouble. Double the emotions, double the sorrow and everything else Emma thought and dreaded going in. She knocked but didn't hear anything. She knew they were in there even if they were pretending not to be. She opened the door.

"Go away," Fred growled.

"Heard you were in here," she said and sat on Lee's bed.

"What are you doing Emma?" Fred asked.

"Didn't even know you knew where our dorms were," George said.

"You guys are more like Percy than you think."They were curious what she meant by that, but they didn't' say anything.

"You both are wonderful brothers. You really are." she said and let them just sit in silence for awhile. She looked out the window and tried to let the scenery calm the influx of emotions.

After awhile she said softly, "It is natural to worry about her, you know. You just can't let yourselves hate yourselves."

"We should have done something more"

"We should have protected her."

"You did what big brothers are suppose to do. You loved Ginny and you did what you could for her. When she was upset, you tried to cheer her up. You couldn't have known she was in danger. If you had known, you would have done everything in your power to protect her."

They sat in silence for awhile more. Finally Emma felt they were okay enough to leave.

"Thanks Emma," George said.

"We don't want pity which is what everyone else feels around us," Fred added.

"Believe me, I know. I also know you will be fine," Emma said and left. When she came back down the stairs Lee looked up but didn't' go up yet, not sure if the twins wanted to be with anyone else right now. Emma went straight to her dormnot noticing Ron and Harry were missing; sheflopped onto her bed completely exhausted.

"Hey Pippin. Why Ginny? Oh, Pip. The things I saw. I should have just went into her head and saw that this was happening." Emma said. Pippin meowed and gave her a concerned look.

"I know, now is not the time to give in to emotions. Too many emotions," Emma said and dozed off. Pippin curled up reassuringly next to her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It wasn't long tillshe was summoned to the Headmaster's office. She got herself ready and went there. To her surprise she could sense Dumbledore on the other side of the door as the statue moved up.

"Ah, Miss O'Neill, such a pleasure to see you. Chocolate Frog?" He asked She took one after the afternoon she had. "I was told you saw Ginny Weasley was taken into the chamber. What can you tell me, so I know what to tell her parents when they arrive shortly."

"She has not been right all year, sir. I have been worried about her, and tried to help her, but she pushed everyone away. I think I should have been more forceful"

"No, you have morals with your skills, Emma. It is what makes you use your talents wisely. I think you know as well as I do, that if you just start using your skills against your better judgements and boundaries, than what people would fear of you would come to be true." He said kindly.

"Thank you professor." Emma said, happy he understood at least her self-imposed restrictions. "What I saw this afternoon, sir. Ginny wrote the message with her own blood, but she wasn't herself, sir. There was someone else in her, sir."

"Possessed?" He asked.

"Yes, sir. I can not tell you who, though, sir. The memory was to vague. All I know is that something was not right with her."

"Thank you Emma. You may go, If I am not mistaken I interrupted your nap. I took the liberty of having Professor Snape make a draught for your health-all the turbulent emotions." he said.

"Thank you sir."

"This is why the school and ministry requires empaths to notify the ministry and headmaster." He said with a twinkle in his eyes.

"I know that sir."

" I suspected you did, so I shall not be the one to inform them of your conditions" He said with a benign smile. "Now, I have some grave matters to attend to."

Emma went back and she walked through the common room and no one bothered her. She fell asleep immediately.