The dreams had started again.

She was in a strange house, being held by an old woman who was trembling in fear and panic. "Patrick, where are you?" the woman asked nervously. She shifted Danielle to her other arm and stroked her hair. "Patrick?" she called again, her voice high-pitched. "Where are—"

There was a loud crash and the door swung open, slamming loudly against the wall. Danielle began to cry, burying her face into the woman's shoulder.

"Stay where you are!" a harsh male voice commanded. There was a flash of light and the woman screamed. "Leave us alone!" she shrieked.

"Don't speak until you're spoken to, you filthy Muggle!" the man ordered. There was a bang and the woman yelled again. Danielle cried harder. "Get the baby to shut up, Selwyn," he muttered. Suddenly, her howls stopped. She tried as hard as she could to scream, but no sound came out.

"What do you want from us?" the woman asked, her voice shaking as she retreated into the back corner, keeping a firm grip on Danielle. "Where's Patrick?"

There was a short laugh. "Your husband is still alive, don't worry. He won't be for much longer, however. If you give us the correct information you might be allowed to see him one last time."

"I have no information!" the woman screeched, ignoring Danielle's violent struggles to escape. "You have the wrong people!"

"Where did you get the baby from, then?" the first man demanded. "Why is it magical but you aren't?"

"She's my granddaughter," the woman sobbed, slumping to the floor. Danielle turned her head and caught a glimpse of two black-robed men advancing upon them. "Please—her parents sent her here, to Paris—"

"What is your name?" Selwyn asked.

"Matilda," she said breathlessly. "Matilda Richardson."

"Not your married name," the first man hissed. "Your birth name."

But she was silent and refused to answer.

"Look, Yaxley, a stubborn Muggle," Selwyn said mockingly. "Just like mules, they are—Crucio!"

There was a flash of red light and the woman was on the floor, screaming. Danielle fell out of her arms, silent tears running down her face. She got clumsily to her feet and tried to run, but Yaxley flicked his wand lazily and she went flying back into the wall. "Stupid baby," he muttered.

"Your birth name!" Selwyn was yelling at the woman. He lifted his wand and Matilda slumped onto the ground, tears streaming down her face. "Or would you like this done the hard way? Believe me, there's more where that came from!"

"It was Stubbs," she choked out, lifting her head from the floor. "Matilda Stubbs."

The two men exchanged a glance. "It's her," Yaxley muttered. "Go bring the other Muggle in and we'll finish here quickly."

Selwyn nodded and left. Yaxley kept his wand trained on Matilda, who didn't seem about to move anytime soon. She was crying hysterically. "Elizabeth," she sobbed. "Oh, Lizzie, I'm sorry. I tried to keep her safe!"

"What is the baby's name?" Yaxley asked menacingly. "You better tell me the truth, or you know what will happen."

"Danielle Elizabeth Bailey," Matilda sobbed. "I promised to keep her safe. Don't hurt her, please!"

"Your daughter is Elizabeth Bailey and your son-in-law is Robert Bailey. They are still in England, correct?"

Matilda nodded.

Yaxley sneered. "Then I might as well tell you that your grandson William is dead. He was killed yesterday."

"No!" she gasped. "What about—"

"They escaped," Yaxley said. "But you haven't, and their second child hasn't." He shifted his gaze to Danielle. "I understand dear Elizabeth is expecting her third child. But with luck, she soon won't be any longer. It will be like, as you Muggles say, killing two birds with one stone. Convenient, isn't it?"

"You're a vile, twisted man," Matilda hissed. "This is all because Elizabeth is a witch, isn't it?"

"Partly," Yaxley agreed. "She and her husband are Mudbloods, the scum of the wizarding world. They might have escaped though, if it hadn't been that the Dark Lord personally ordered your entire family's slaughter. Your brother was the first to go, wasn't he? He had the honor of being killed by the Dark Lord personally—"

"Shut up," Matilda hissed. "Just shut up!"

Yaxley's face darkened and he took a step toward her, but was thwarted by the reappearance of Selwyn, dragging an old man behind him. "Patrick Richardson, as requested," he said, shoving the man in Matilda's direction. He was gagged and his hands were tied behind his back.

"Patrick!" Matilda gasped, attempting to sit up. "Oh God—what did they do to you?"

The man's anxious eyes were darting back and forth between her and Danielle. He seemed to be trying to talk through his gag.

"There, I think that was a happy enough reunion, don't you?" Yaxley asked. He raised his wand.

"Not Danielle!" Matilda pleaded before he could cast the spell. "Whatever you do, please don't kill her! She's magical! Isn't that what you want?"

Selwyn laughed, raising his wand as well. "Her parents are Mudbloods. Therefore, she is nothing more than a Muggle in my opinion. But we will save her for last."

Danielle curled up into a ball and screamed, still silently, for her parents.

"Avada Kedavra!" the two men yelled in unison. There was the brightest flash of light yet, a green radiance that lit up the entire room for a split second.

Then all she heard was laughter.

"ASHFORD, SHUT UP!"

Danielle sat bolt upright, sweat pouring off of her. The terrified screams of Matilda Stubbs still echoed around the dormitory.

"What the hell are you playing at?" Olive shouted. "If you don't stop this, I'm going to go to the Headmaster and ask him to move you!"

Danielle was not recovered yet enough to speak. She looked over at Alyssa, who stared back with wide eyes. "You sounded like you were being murdered, Clara," she said. "None of us could wake you up. It was scary."

"What was I screaming?" Danielle asked hoarsely.

"Don't kill her," Alyssa replied, looking shaken. "Clara—"

"I'm going back to bed," she said abruptly. With a flick of her wand, she drew the curtains back around her bed and then cast a Silencing Charm, just in case she began screaming again.

That had been the worst dream of all. For the past week, Danielle had been haunted in her sleep by flashes of memories from her childhood. Tonight, however, all the pieces had come together to form one nightmare.

Danielle shut her eyes again, but she knew sleep would not come so easily. Sluggishly, her mind was beginning to fit pieces of the puzzle together. There was much she still didn't know, and she had only a warped version of the true answer.

One thing was clear, though: as soon as morning came, she would go straight to the Owlery and write to Billy Stubbs.

Surprisingly, Danielle got maybe a half hour of dreamless sleep before she woke up for good. Once she'd checked that her Silencing Charm was still functioning, she got dressed and then quickly stole out of the room.

It had been a week since she'd learned about Riddle's curse. In fact, it had been a week since she'd even seen him. According to Dippet, he was "very ill" and no one was allowed to go and visit. As a result, many rumors were now flying all around the school, most of them having to do with Danielle. She could barely walk down the hallway without people scurrying away or hiding, since the majority of the students now believed that she had somehow cursed Riddle and was more than happy to do the same to them.

Under normal circumstances, alienation by ninety-nine percent of the school would have bothered Danielle, but she had more pressing things to worry about. She knew for sure now she had changed the future. Dumbledore had told her as much, and the past little while had confirmed it. She felt terrible every time he spoke to her. Even though he had reassured her that it would have been impossible to somehow not affect the future, she still knew it was her fault. The twinkle had all but disappeared from his eyes now and there was no spark or energy in his lessons now; instead he was grim and visibly exhausted. Danielle knew he was working as hard as he possibly could to undo what she had done. Sometimes she wondered whether he oughtn't to have just locked her up in a room for the duration of her stay in the past, with no social contact whatsoever. It would have been better for all concerned.

Tears pricked at Danielle's eyes as she made her way towards the Owlery. It seemed as if she'd cried more in the past four and a half months than she had in her entire life. Crying won't solve anything, she tried to tell herself firmly. So why couldn't she stop the tears?

Luckily, no one was up yet at that ungodly hour, so Danielle was left to cry in peace inside the Owlery. The owls called softly over her head and swooped around, ignoring her presence.

When she was finished, she took a deep, shaky breath. She hated what she'd been reduced to. She hated everything. She hated everyone. She hated herself.

As if reminding her of her original purpose, a large barn owl landed beside her and hooted loudly. Danielle reached out a hand to stroke its head, feeling an odd sense of comfort. Were animals her only friends now? Even Alyssa and Dylan were acting strangely.

She got to her feet, wiping her eyes, and pulled a quill and piece of parchment out of her pocket. The owl watched her intently as she scrawled a quick letter to Billy:

Hello, Billy! Sorry I haven't written to you until now—everything has just been so busy with school starting again. How are you?

I have a quick question to ask: You once mentioned that you had a younger sister, but that you'd never met her and you didn't know where she was. What was her name? I'd be really interested to know. (An explanation will hopefully follow.)

Say hello to Mrs Cole for me!

Clara

There were inkblots smudged all over the paper from her hasty writing, but it was still legible. Danielle folded up the letter and held out her arm for the owl to fly up onto. "I want this delivered to Billy Stubbs, at Vauxhall Orphanage in London. Get his reply as soon as you can, OK? I promise I'll give you plenty of treats."

The barn owl hooted once in reply as if it had understood every word, and gracefully swooped out of the window. Danielle watched it until it was a mere speck in the distance, feeling panic seize around her heart. She both needed and dreaded Billy's answer.

On her way back to the Slytherin common room, Danielle was nearly run over by Myrtle Pratt, whom she'd barely seen since before Christmas. "Hello, Myrtle," she said, surprised, as the younger girl sprinted past her.

"C—Clara!" Myrtle yelped. Danielle noticed her brown eyes were wide with fright and her glasses were falling off. "You have to help me!"

"What's wrong?" Danielle asked, confused.

"I—I woke up in the bathroom and I don't know how I got there and there's a—a thing in there!"

"What? What thing?" Danielle demanded. "Which bathroom?"

"The second-floor girls' one where you found me once before! Something was in there. It was hissing and it slithered!" Myrtle seemed very close to fainting.

"Go back to your dormitory," Danielle ordered at once, pulling out her wand.

"Huh?"

"Get back to your dormitory, Myrtle!"

"Don't go there alone, Clara!" the Ravenclaw urged, grabbing Danielle's sleeve. "Get a teacher or—"

Her words went unheard, however, as Danielle was already running towards the staircase. "Come back!" Myrtle called, jogging after her.

As soon as she got to the second floor, Danielle knew something was wrong. A large puddle of water glistened on the ground outside of the bathroom, reflecting her scared outline back at her. "Protego!" she murmured. "Didn't I tell you to go back to your dormitory, Myrtle?"

"I'm coming with you," the other girl said, pale but fierce.

"Then you have to stay behind me at all times, and keep your wand out," Danielle ordered, feeling her Shield Charm expand to cover Myrtle as well.

The water sloshed beneath their feet as they crept closer toward the bathroom. Danielle was poised for any sign of an attack, though she knew exactly what would happen.

By the time they had reached the bathroom, the puddle was now knee-deep. Several of the sinks had broken and were gushing water. Danielle strained her ears, but could not hear any hissing or slithering noises.

From behind her, Myrtle squeaked. "Look!" she cried, pointing at something to their right. Danielle turned and saw that in the place of one of the basins, there was now a large black chasm.

"Now I want you to go and get a professor," the Prefect instructed. "Dumbledore if you can. Go!"

With a nervous glance back at Danielle, Myrtle turned and splashed out of the room, screaming "HELP!" as she went.

So this was it. Riddle had opened the Chamber of Secrets. Danielle sloshed over to the tunnel entrance and peered down into the abyss. It was pitch-black and probably filthy. Riddle was down there right now, giving the basilisk instructions on exactly who to kill first. How had he escaped from the hospital wing?

"It was not that hard," a familiar voice said from behind her. Danielle spun around to see Riddle himself leaning against one of the sinks, where he had certainly not been before. "All I needed was a diversion. It was rather grand, too. I quite regret that you were not able to witness it."

His eyes were bright red; she could see that from this distance. The curse was controlling him—at least for now. Was the "real" Tom in there, watching helplessly as this unfolded? Or had he been entirely swallowed by…whatever was in control?

"I knew you would come running as soon as poor Miss Pratt found you," Riddle continued. He sloshed through the water towards Danielle, a self-satisfied smirk on his face. "My plan worked perfectly."

"Dumbledore's coming, you know," Danielle said, her voice wavering. "You won't be able to—"

"He will not come fast enough, little girl," Riddle laughed. He was still walking towards her. "By then, I shall be safely hidden in the Chamber—and who knows where you will be?"

Something knocked Danielle's wand out of her hand. It clattered to the ground, where the current proceeded to wash it down the tunnel entrance. "What say you, though, Clara? How about we go get your wand, first?" Riddle asked lightly, stopping right behind her. "Would you like that?"

"Get away from me," Danielle said, though she knew any resistance was futile.

Riddle wrapped his arms firmly around her waist, pulling her to him. "I will make sure the basilisk does not hurt you," he said, as his mouth brushed across her ear. "In fact, I will make sure anyone does not hurt you, my dear Clara."

"Go—" Danielle began, but Riddle lightly brushed his fingers across her mouth to stop her.

"Hush," he said. "There will be time for talking later."

Before she could struggle away, he moved over to the Chamber entrance and readjusted his grip on her before he let them plunge down into the abyss.