We were all in the Room of Requirement with Lily, Remus, James, and Sirius all waiting for me to fill them in on what happened during my fifth year.
"Okay well you know about those books from my dimension, and because of those I knew where the Rom of Requirement was."
The Marauders groaned, "That's cheating!" James accused.
I smirked at him, "And the kitchens." More groans.
"Moving on. I used the Room of Requirement to make that map I showed you before, remember it?" They nodded. "And you saw that map of the entirety of Hogwarts–including all of the secret passageways. That was the map I used to make mine.
"Nothing else exciting happened that summer, and before I knew it the school year was starting.
"If you think you were nervous as a first year try doing it with the grandparents of your favorite book characters."
They looked at me with confusion, "What do you mean?" Sirius asked.
"Well yeah. The book took place in the 1990's, so the people I went to school with 'last'," I brought up my hands and made air quotes, "year were your parents" I probably shouldn't say this but they need to know, "and Tom Riddle."
It took a moment for that to sink in, but instead of exploding like I thought they would they just looked at me uncomprehendingly.
"Tom Riddle." Nothing. "Oh my God, you don't know Voldemorts real name?"
That did it. "What do you mean Voldemort?"
"Well yeah! You didn't think he was born with the name Voldemort did you?" I gave Sirius an expectant look.
"Well no I just…never really thought of it."
"Yes well, as I said, I went to school with all of your parents, Voldemort, and his first group of Death Eaters, and Minerva."
"No way!" "Minerva?" "Minnie?!" "Professor Mcgonagall?"
"The very same. She was my best friend throughout my whole year at Hogwarts. Hagrid too actually."
"Hagrid?!" They all yelled his name at the same time.
"Indeed. Now where was I…? Oh okay so at the Welcoming Feast Dippet introduced me–I was a Gryffindor of course. They sorted me up in his office when I first got to the castle. I vividly remember your father," I sent James an accusing look, "giving me a wolf whistle."
James looked mortified, Sirius actually looked rather angry, and both Lily and Remus were amused.
"I also met Minerva and Hagrid that night. Minerva was a sixth year prefect, and Hagrid was a third year." I paused as I tried to remember everything about that year. I took out another memory and put it into the pensieve. "I was roommates with Augusta Rookwood–now Longbottom–and a muggle-born named Annabelle.
"So that was my first night. What happened the next day…" I trailed off in thought as I tried to think of what had taken place. When I remembered I snapped my fingers, "Oh yeah! I found Charlus pinning Dolohov against a wall! Being the kind soul that I am I disarmed them both and proceeded to give them a stern talking to.
"When that didn't work I took hold of their ears and twisted them. I sent Charlus away and proceeded to drag Dolohov down to the dungeons and into the Slytherin common room where I returned him to Riddle." I decided to add that memory.
"I believe that was the day I ended up being Riddle's potions partner." That confession was met with groans and a look of pity from Lily. I held up a hand, "Hey now he was actually a brilliant student. Like top of every class brilliant. And let's not forget that he wasn't Voldemort yet so he wasn't so bad…at that moment, but we'll get to that later!" I rushed to finish when I saw the anger growing in all of their eyes.
"Okay and then what happened…?" If I didn't have sugh a good memory this conversation would be really short…actually that might not have been so bad. "Nothing to interesting happened for a while until the basilisk started attacking."
"Basilisk?!" I thought they were all going to have a heart attack.
"Yeah I was–what was I doing?–I was teaching myself the Patronus charm here in the Room, and when I left I heard a voice in the walls. On that same floor I found that Annabelle had been petrified by the basilisk." Lily and the three Marauders all gasped.
"My feelings exactly. So I sent my Patronus to–I believe it was Slughorn–because I wasn't going to show up for class. After I sent off the Patronus I picked Annabelle up and carried her to the hospital wing."
"Wait pause," we all looked at Remus, "You can do the Patronus charm?"
I nodded with a smile, "Yeah you wanna see?" All four of them nodded and I pointed my wand at the air above our table. I searched for the perfect memory, and I thought of the surprise party they had all thrown me. My lips quirked into a smile, "Expecto Patronum."
A silvery mist shot out of my wand, and it continued until a large corporeal wolf was standing in the air above the table. They watched it in awe as it ran around the room, looking for danger, but when it found none it slowly disappeared.
"At first it was an eagle, but it changed…" my voice trailed off as I stared into space.
"Danielle?"
I blinked and sent Lily a reassuring smile, but it felt more like a grimace, "It changed over winter break. I was out Christmas shopping in Diagon Alley, and when I was done I asked Hatty to bring everything I had bought to the castle. I flooed to Hogsmead, and while I was buying some candy from Honeydukes, Grindelwalds men attacked."
All four of them knew exactly who Grindelwald was, and they gasped audibly.
"I rushed out of the store and hid in a nearby alley. I was going to send a Patronus to Dumbledore, but I was worried Slughorn would see it and recognize it. You see I had snuck out of the castle for this trip, and I was wearing a hood to hide my face.
"With all of the chaos I decided it didn't matter and sent the Patronus to warn Dumbledore.
"After that I left the alley and helped some woman who was being subjected to the Cruciatus curse. From then on I just ran around throwing spells left and right and that's when I saw–" a lump formed in my throat and I made brief eye contact with Remus before looking away, "–I saw one of Grindelwalds lackeys throw a Crucio at some little girl.
"I didn't think twice as I threw myself in front of the spell, I just did it. I clenched my teeth shut so I wouldn't scream. I um," I sniffled and wiped at my eyes–motioning for Sirius to stay seated but he ignored me and wrapped his arms around me in a comforting hug.
"So I was learning occlumency throughout the year, right? So I put up the strongest shield that I could so I was able to turn around and aim my wand at him. I used Reducto, but–but my wand had been aiming right at his face and–and I watched as his face blew apart!" I dissolved into hysterical sobs.
I didn't even notice as Sirius pulled me along until he was sitting in his chair with me curled up in his lap. My face was buried in his neck as I tried to get my crying under control. Basil helped by flicking her tongue at my cheek and tasting my tears.
"That was what we had been talking about in the library." Lily, James, and Sirius looked over at Remus. "She told me about protecting the girl and then she broke down–the same with you guys in the common room–but I didn't know about…the other part."
They grew silent when I pulled my face away from Sirius' neck and tried to get out of his lap. His grip was strong though, and he wouldn't let me up. "Come on Sirius I have to finish." He reluctantly let go of me and I took my original stance.
"Um," my voice was still shaky so I cleared my throat. "I hid the girl in an alley and walked into the street. All of the fighting was dying down and I thought it was over until a voice sounded throughout Hogsmead." I have a bitter laugh, "Just my luck that Grindelwald sees my heroic act."
The other four wisely stayed silent and I continued my tale, "He wanted me to join him, but I refused of course. I made Basil–who was with me throughout this entire thing–get down from my shoulders and hide somewhere, and that was when I sent the first spell.
"I knew right from the start that I was going to lose–Grindelwald knew it too–but without any Aurors or Dumbledore nobody else had the balls to go against him.
"Our duel wasn't really much of a duel. It was mostly him shooting spells at me while I did my best to dodge, so it came as no surprise when he finally hit me with an expelliarmus.
"I knew he was going to kill me, and you know what? I was okay with that." Both Lily and Sirius exclaimed "No!" but I ignored them. "I looked Grindelwald in the eye as the tip of his wand glowed green, but instead of saying those damning words he shouted in pain."
I smiled as the others looked at me in confusion, and scratched Basil under her chin. "Basil had come out of hiding and bit him on the leg, effectively distracting him."
Lily and Remus smiled while the other two boys broke out in cheers. Sirius pointed at Basil, "I knew I liked her!"
Chuckling under my breath I continued, "Grindelwald pointed his wand at Basil and would have killed her as well, but I couldn't let that happen, so I raised my arm towards him and used expelliarmus, and I disarmed him."
Now they were giving me confused looks, "I thought you had been disarmed."
"And I was," I agreed with James, "but I am able to use wandless magic. Not a lot of course. Only small things, but I can do it."
Their confusion was replaced by amazement, "You can do wandless magic?" Lily seemed ecstatic.
"As I said only small things. Anything to big and I'll feel exhausted. Now," flicking my wrist a familiar wand shot into my left hand. I leaned forward and placed my elbow on the table, "this is–or was–Grindelwalds wand," and with that I set it on the table.
Sirius was first to snatch the wand off of the table and he ran his hands over it, taking special care to examine the entire thing before passing it along. While each of them examined the wand I took my own to my temple and extracted an extremely long strand to add to the pensieve.
When Lily was finished with the wand she handed it to me. She also seemed to realize my rings were still with her and she passed those over too.
I returned the Elder wand to its sheath and out my rings on their appropriate finger. "So not much else happened–oh shoot!" They all jumped at my outburst, "I didn't make Riddle a birthday cake this year!"
I blinked blankly at the incredulous looks I received, "What?"
"Don't worry about it Balto." Lily sank into her seat with a tired sigh.
"Moving on. The next interesting thing would have been when Minerva taught me how to fly my broom–which started out as a total disaster, but it ended pretty well."
James and Sirius cracked up upon hearing how I had jumped as hard as I could instead of doing a gentle kick-off. But as I started describing in detail the events that took place Sirius seemed to grow more and more distressed. Especially when I told him that I was shooting towards the ground and pulled out of the dive just before I became a bloody pancake. James had just laughed the whole time and claimed I pulled of the greatest Wronski Feint.
"But what was probably the most terrifying thing that happened that year was when I was going down to dinner and tripped over another petrified body," the atmosphere grew depressed at the reminder of the basilisk, "Minerva found me hovering over his body, and we were both wondering what to do about him when a loud hissing echoed down the hallway."
Lily and the Marauders all held their breath as they prepared for the worst, "The basilisk had been nearby when we found the body and I guess she heard us because her large sixty foot frame slid out from behind an opening in the wall."
"Holy shit, sixty feet?!" Sirius exclaimed.
I nodded, "I told Minerva not to look back in case she was killed and I grabbed onto her arm and we booked it to the Great Hall. We had almost made it too, until Minerva ended up tripping.
"I wasn't about to leave her there so I pulled her up and we burst into the Great Hall. I knew the basilisk was still chasing after us so I closed the door. Just in time for the basilisk to ram into the door.
"This was where Minerva threw me under the bus and told everyone in the Hall that I was the only one to see the basilisk," James and Sirius snorted, "and the both of us went up to the Headmasters office to tell all of the teachers everything that had happened.
"Afterwards Dumbledore escorted Minerva and I to our common room and we both went up to go to bed, but oh no," I rolled my eyes at myself, "I just couldn't go to bed.
"I asked Hatty to see if there were any Slytherins in the common room, and when she came back she told me that seven boys–one being Riddle–were by the common room fireplace.
"I used my map to sneak out of the common room and I made my way down to the dungeons. I stayed inside of the passageways because I didn't want the caretaker to find me.
"I made it to the common room where Riddle and all of his Death Eater friends were sitting in front of the fire. I then took my book, and repeatedly hit Riddle over the head with it."
My declaration caused the four of them to dissolve into laughter. I chuckled along with them, and waited for them to finish laughing before continuing, "I only hit him because he was the one who was telling the basilisk to attack all of the muggleborns in the castle.
"Of course they would never let me go so easily and they forced me to sit on the couch. Riddles been trying to interrogate me the entire year, and this was his opportunity. Not to mention he wanted to know about the secret passageway I had entered through.
"He used a spell to keep me stuck to the couch," Lily glared while the Marauders all growled. Remus was much more terrifying considering he was a werewolf. "He hadn't counted on me being able to use wandless magic to get away, so when the moment presented itself I punched him in the jaw and vaulted over the couch where I called for Hatty to bring me back to the common room."
It took a total of bout three seconds before all four of them cheered, and congratulated me for punching Voldemort in the face. After getting four high-fives Sirius grew stern, "If I ever see Voldemort I'm going to give him a piece of my mind."
I gave him a smile, "One night I decided to go out and wander the grounds. Don't ask me why because I don't remember." Yeah I do. I was testing out my animagus, "I ended up in the Forbidden Forest where I found a clearing occupied by a herd of white horses." This piece of information confused them because there were no white horses on Hogwarts grounds.
"As it turned out those horses were actually unicorns."
A gasp sounded from my left and I looked at Lily to see she had amazement written all over her features, "Really? Actual unicorns?"
I nodded and held out my wrist to reveal the unicorn hairs that I had tied around my wrist. "I watched them for Merlin knows how long, and at one point a wolf had tried to attack the herd." Lily gasped in fright, but I waved away her concerns, "I chased it off and the head unicorn have me a couple of his hairs."
"The unicorn gave you the hairs? Do you know how rare that is?" Lily asked me.
"Yes I did. I've also heard from Snape how useful they can be for potions." James and Sirius growled at the name of their rival.
"After he gave me the hairs he pressed the tip of his horn against my forehead," I pressed my finger against the middle of my forehead, "and–according to Hagrid–blessed me."
Lily gasped as she looked at my forehead, "Its beautiful."
The Marauders looked between her and my forehead in confusion and I decided to explain to them, "The blessing left behind a silvery mark on my forehead that apparently only certain people can see." I touched my forehead again and by Lily's slight frown I knew it disappeared.
I told them about how I made my way back to the castle where I was promptly attacked by two Slytherins. Sirius had looked about ready to attack someone himself, but I quickly reassured him and everyone else that the blessing the unicorn had given me protected me from their spells.
When I informed them that Hagrid was the one who saved me they all made a mental note to go and have tea with the half-giant. Those thoughts were quickly second guessed when they found out Hagrid was keeping a baby acromantula in the castle.
"Thats really it I suppose. Except for the fact that the basilisk killed Myrtle and then kidnapped me." I almost expected them to all have a heart attack after that declaration. Sirius even got out of his chair and ran his hands over my body to reassure himself that I was okay.
"So I was brought down to the Chamber of Secrets where the basilisk told me I would be a good mate for Riddle." This got snorts of laughter out of the five of them, but Sirius tightened his grip around me.
"Apparently she planned to keep me down there until Riddle found us, but instead I accio'ed her eyes and ran for my life," more laughs. "You laugh now, but try standing in my shoes. I was all alone going up against a sixty foot basilisk that could have easily killed me."
Sirius–who had his arms wrapped around my waist–tightened his grip until I almost couldn't breathe. I tapped his arms and thankfully he loosened his hold, but he didn't let go.
"So as I was running around and shooting useless spells at the basilisk, I called Hatty to bring me the Sorting Hat." This garnered looks of confusion and I explained, "In my dimensions book the main character had defeated the basilisk by using the sword of Gryffindor which is found in the Sorting Hat."
They all gave me wide eyed looks and I nodded, "So I did the same thing. I asked the Hat for the sword, and after a brief argument he gave it to me.
"I then used it to cut through the basilisk a jaw, and then stab her through the eye." Taking my wand I extracted the memory. That one might be easier to see then explain.
"I left the Chamber and went to the Great Hall to give Dippet the Hat and sword, before I fainted."
Sirius made a noise of alarm before dragging me back to his chair where he could trap me in his lap. I decided to stay in his rather comfortable lap as I finished up my story.
"The year ended with Hagrid getting blamed for the attacks," cries of outrage and complaint rose, but I talked over them, "and Riddle and I were given awards for special services to the school."
"That's yours!?"
I picked my head up from Sirius' shoulder and gave James a questioning stare. "There's a plaque in the trophy case that says its for Danielle Abby. We always joked about how the award was really for you, they just got the last name wrong."
I chuckled, "Well it really is mine." I laid my head back on Sirius' shoulder, "That was also when Dippet informed me I would be going to live with Riddle at an orphanage."
"He lived in an orphanage?" Remus asked.
I nodded, "Yes he did. It wasn't anything new. It was actually rather easy considering I grew up in one. And of course every orphanage has to have that one kid who bullies everyone else. This particular kid was fighting against Riddle, and because you can't use magic outside of school Riddle was defenseless.
"That was when I stepped in and used my wand," I lifted my left arm where the Elder wand was hidden, "to blast him away. I didn't get in trouble for it because this wand doesn't have a trace on it.
"After that I took Riddle out to Diagon Alley where I bought him a snake now known as Nagini."
Four looks of betrayal were shot at me and I held my hands up in defense, "He was gonna steal her anyway, so you know what? I went the legal route.
"Of course it didn't really matter because Grindelwalds men attacked the Alley." Sirius' grip tightened, "I actually wanted to get away from all of the fighting, but Riddle dragged me towards it." A growl sounded in my ear and I hit Sirius in the chest. "He dragged me into a side alley and we began arguing about whether or not to stay or go, when I saw none other than Charlus Potter dueling against one of Grindelwalds men.
"Why he was there I will never know, but I did know that he was losing. I ran from the alley we had been hiding in so I could help him out, but as soon as I started running the lackey threw three spells at him. He dodged the first two but the last one was going to hit him.
"The sickly green color of the spell was enough to give away what the spell was. Charlus knew what the spell was too, but he wasn't able to dodge it."
I took a deep breath before continuing, "I knew that he was your father James, and if he died then you would never be born. I couldn't let that happen, and so I pushed Charlus out of the way. After that it was just a flash of green and I was surrounded my darkness."
Sirius had buried his face into my hair and was taking deep, measured breaths. In the beginning he hadn't believed anything I had been saying (none of them did), but as my story gained more detail, and I gave them evidence, they slowly excepted everything I was saying and became wrapped up in my stories. Only now did they wish none of it was real–Sirius especially.
"How," Remus clears his throat to get rid of the thick quality of his voice, "how come you're alive right now?"
Sirius brought his face from my head, "Does it matter?" His voice was also thick with emotion but nobody said anything.
"He has a good reason to ask me Sirius." I placed a hand on his chest and kissed his neck while he pressed his face back into my hair.
"I was continuously surrounded by darkness and I waited for something–anything–to happen, when a creepy voice told me to open my eyes.
"It freaked me out so bad that my eyes did open, and it turns out they had been closed. I looked around me and saw everything was just white, and a white fog curled up from the ground and came up to my waist.
"The only color in the entire place was the large black cloaked figure who was just standing in front of me, and he seemed to find my fear funny. So he gave a bone rattling laugh.
"It never told me who he was or where we were. He just gestured at the fog beneath him and it darkened as it formed a scythe. That was enough to inform me that I was looking at Death."
At this point Sirius was holding onto me so tightly I wouldn't be surprised if he never let me go.
"He brought me into what I assumed to be his office where he told me that he was the reason for my transportation from one dimension to the other. He says he did it out of boredom, but I don't want to believe that. I mean he's Death, he has a lot more important things to do than take some fifteen year old girl and stick her into another dimension."
I shook my head but moved on, "He also told me that when I died in both dimensions my bodies dissolved away, and took any memory of my existence went with it."
James gaped at me, "How could he do that?!"
"He's Death. He can do anything I suppose."
Lily gave me a searching look, "If any memory of you went with it, then does that mean everyone you knew forgot about you?"
I hesitated, but that was all the confirmation she needed, "Oh Merlin."
"Death gave me the option of actually dying and moving on, or he could send me back to this world but in a different time. Obviously I chose to come back, and apparently Death thought it would be funny to transport me by using lightning, so the next thing I know is the feeling of being electrocuted before passing out and waking up in Lily's house." I extracted another long memory and added it to the pensieve.
I tried getting out of Sirius' lap, but his iron grip wouldn't budge. I grunted and grabbed his arms to try and pry them from around my waist. I sent Remus a pleading glance because I knew if anyone could help me it would be him.
He sighed and got up from his chair so he could help me out of Sirius' desperate hold. It took a while but eventually I was able to slip out of his arms and stand next to Lily.
Sirius struggled against Remus' hold, but he gave up and ran his eyes over my body as if to make sure I was still there.
"I put the memories into the pensieve in case I still needed to convince you. From the looks of things I didn't need to, but if you'd like to look than you can go right ahead."
I started walking away from the table when Lily spoke up from behind me, "What about you?"
"I'm exhausted, and besides," five beds suddenly appeared in the Room and I was heading right towards one of them, "I've already lived through those memories once. I don't want to do it again."
I removed my robe and set it on the floor next to the bed, along with both of my wands and their holsters. Basil slithered down from my shoulders and curled up in front of the fire instead of in the bed.
Pushing away the covers I sat on the edge of the bed and kicked off my shoes before bringing my legs up onto the bed and snuggling underneath the covers for a much appreciated rest.
AN: This one wasn't as bad I think.