I'll Fight For You
By Hazelmist/Summerskies
Disclaimer: I can't even afford to buy myself notebooks and have to resort to writing my stories on paper plates and paper bags. So don't sue me because everything (with the exception of the insane plot and some of the weird characters or crazier characteristics of the known characters) belong to J.K Rowling.
COMPLETE SUMMARY: FEEL FREE TO SKIP OVER (ITS DIVIDED INTO PARTS 1-10, 10-20, 20-29 and 30-34 TO MAKE IT EASIER)
Summary of 1-10: Lily flashes back to the start of her sixth year. On September 1st, Lily's best friend Grace Adams and Grace's cousin James Potter show up at her house to unexpectedly take Lily back with them to Grace's house. Grace receives a letter informing her that her house was attacked and her family murdered. The Wizarding World goes into lockdown trapping Lily, James and Grace at her home. Then the floo opens back up but Lily is left behind and attacked by Death Eaters who come looking for presumably Gracie. James comes back to rescue her and takes her to his home. Lily and James encounter a mysterious child who turns out to be Gracie's mother who's body was never located and survived the attack but at the price of her memory and a curse that left her a child. They return to school and the child that Grace tries to smuggle in is left with James's parents, who realize it's Hope and try to help restore her memory and body.
Summary of 10-20: Lily is not allowed to return home for fear of endangering her family since her house was attacked. She goes to spend Christmas at the Potters house. The crazy Ravenclaw Ophelia reveals that she thinks Hope's coffin is empty (which it was) and that she is still alive (which she is). Grace believes her, and drags Lily, James, and Sirius into the family mausoleum to check and see if it's true. Lily finds a body in it but not Hope's. Lily and Sirius disturb the tomb with their presence and awaken a statue that tries to kill them and leaves them trapped until Hope, now in teenage form and still living at the Potter house with only half her memories, lets them out after receiving an owl from Tiffany who was contacted through Remus's mirror. They find out Remus is a werewolf. Death Eaters attack at the annual yule tide ball and kill Tiffany's father. Lily and James once again encounter Hope, this time as a teenager and one that reveals her true identity. The Potters realize Lily and James have stumbled upon their secret and decide to send Hope to Hogwarts where she will be safer and be more apt to retrieve the necessary memories, under the protection of Dumbledore and Lily and James. Lily and James share their first kiss under some mistletoe. James's mother discovers them in another interesting position and jumps to the conclusion that they are sleeping together. James doesn't argue with his mother and reveals to Lily that he and Grace had to tell her that she was promised to James in order to allow her to stay with them for the Holidays. Lily is furious and gets upset with Gracie when she finally corners her in a compartment. The compartment is attacked and Lily is nearly killed.
Summary of 20-29: Ophelia and her friend Rohan save Lily's life and she wakes up in the hospital wing nearly two weeks later with Hope watching over her under James's strict instructions. James and Lily have another encounter in which they snog but Lily refuses to go out with him for what seems like the last time. Lily sneaks out of the hospital wing and hears Alice trying to convince Grace to help her hook up Tiffany with James. Grace discovers Lily eavesdropping and explains everything to her, how the Death Eaters are wreaking havoc in the world and how they targeted her parents because of their outspokenness and the fact that her mother was in possession of a deadly secret concerning the location of a powerful weapon the Death Eaters want, and that this secret was passed onto James's mother. Frank alerts them that the Minister of Magic is being chosen and Slytherins and Gryffindors alike watch as Tiffany's despicable mother announces that their hated room mate, Debbie McLaggen's father was chosen for Minister, a choice that the Slytherins are thrilled with. A fight ensues between Gryffindors and Slytherins when Tiffany attacks Debbie when Zambini dumps her for Debbie. Lily takes the injured Tiffany's wand but is disarmed in the attack by Rohan and Ophelia trying to break up the fight. She's stunned and loses consciousness. Lily wakes up in the hospital wing again and fights with James because she hears he comforted Tiffany and she's secretly jealous. Rohan and Ophelia visit and Hope is introduced as Hannah Smith. Professor Binns is found dead, and Hope thinks she murdered him because she gave him an overdose of her dreamless sleeping potion. James invites Lily to a broomcloset and Binn's ghost insists on teaching forever. Rumors spread. Rohan gets Lily and Hope released from the hospital wing and offers to tutor Lily. Grace hears rumor that Lily and Rohan are dating. Lily misunderstands and announces to the entire common room that she doesn't like James right after she figures out that she does in fact fancy him. James asks Tiffany out in front of Lily. Grace drags Lily to McLaggen's party in the Slytherin Common Room in an effort to get back at James. Sirius figures out who Hope is. Grace doesn't like "Hannah" at all. Lily nearly gets raped by Slytherins Wilkes and Mulciber. Zabini, who turns out to be James (with polyjuice), rescues her and reveals his real identity after she beats him up. Sirius and Grace join them and Lily helps them prank the Slytherins by making it look like Zabini, Wilkes, and ugly Slytherin girl Selwynn slept together. Grace confesses that she wants to shag Sirius when she's drunk. Tiffany and James are officially together.
Summary of 30-34: Grace is jealous of "Hannah's" closeness with Sirius. Tiffany confesses she needs James and fancies him a lot. Lily lies and says she doesn't. Lily meets Rohan and Ophelia in the library. Rohan gets bitten by Sirius's book and Ophelia explains that it's a defensive jinx to prevent people from opening it. Lily agrees to go to Hogsmeade with Rohan. Remus reveals that the book belongs to Zabini and that James and Sirius nicked it from the Slytherin dormitories thinking they could use it to cheat. Taking Ophelia's advice, Lily decides to keep the book. A jealous Grace continues to fight with her mother, almost discovering her true identity. Hope thinks Grace is Mark's daughter, but not her own, and remembers seeing Ophelia before. Lily freaks out on the ice, and reveals to James that she lied when she told him she didn't care for him. Sirius sleds into the couple and hits a tree. James retrieves the Cupid Cruiser and kidnaps Lily, taking her on a wild sleigh ride. Tiffany reminds Lily of the date she had with Rohan that she forgot about. James is jealous. Lily is very late but with Tiffany's help and advice she succeeds in winning Rohan over and having a good time. The Marauders start hassling her. Remus and Lily discuss James's feelings for her and Remus attempts to give love advice. Alice and Frank finally get together with a little push from Lily. Grace knocks over the banshee's dressing table and a spyglass disguised as a mirror is found among McLaggen's precious possessions. James and Lily try to make each other jealous with Tiffany and Rohan. James turns Rohan into a dragon. Lily agrees to be Rohan's girlfriend and then runs into James. James apologizes. Lily refuses to forgive him, but they snog. Lily leaves James, deciding that it's wrong and she can't hurt Rohan and Tiffany. Two months later Lily has a nightmare about the mausoleum and speaks to James for the first time. James confesses that the healer in charge of Hope's case was killed and they might know where she is. Rohan tells Lily he loves her, Lily tells Grace and Hope that she doesn't love him. Grace gets her sandwich stolen by a familiar mutt and gives chase. Lily and Hope find the dog surrounded by the Slytherin quidditch team and Lily frees the dog. Grace comes to her rescue, and a fight breaks out. Hope and Wilkes duel and Hope's disguise vanishes, revealing her true identity to everyone present. Wilkes casts a deadly curse on Grace. Grace is alive but barely, suffering from the effects of a curse that causes pain and raises the body temperature to impossible heights as organs boil. Wilkes wants the location of the weapon. Hope tells Wilkes that Grace has it and the curse's worse effects are reversed but she needs a healer to stay alive and Lily is sent in search of one. She runs across Sirius in dog form and realizes he's an animigus. They get James and Rohan (who is practically a healer) and Lily takes Rohan to see Wilkes and Grace. Once Grace is stabilized Wilkes attempts to kidnap Grace and Rohan but Hope bargains for twenty four hours to track down the rest of the memories to find the weapon for him. Lily tries to help them escape, but Rohan reveals that Wilkes will kill Grace unless they go with him. They vanish and James arrives to comfort Lily. Hope and Lily go to talk to Professor Dumbledore.
Summary of the last chapter: Lily and Hope make a trip to Dumbledore's office and after Lily attempts to disguise Hope as Grace in order to keep the whole incident quiet until they can bring back Grace and Rohan. James startles them and Lily realizes that she's in the Mens Room. Hope reveals that she doesn't know where the weapon is or her memories, and Lily recalls that Grace saw Hope pass the information onto James's mother months ago. Hope decides to make a floocall to Heather and James and Lily must stage a diversion to vacate the staff room so that Hope can communicate with her by fireplace. James and Lily get caught coming out of the bathroom, McLaggen thinks they're snogging in the loo, Tiffany comes to their defense and beats the crap out of the banshee. Lily and James drop an atomic dungbomb in another hallway and James is impressed. Lily finds she enjoys breaking the rules. Hope arrives at the end only to spoil the moment and announce that she was too late and that the Death Eaters had already gotten to Heather.
A/N: Sorry guys I know it's been a long time. Almost a year! EEK! Between school and work and just real life in general this year was INSANELY BUSY. I can't tell you the amount of times that I tried to start this chapter and then guiltily returned to finish an essay that I was supposed to be writing instead. For those of you that read this story, thank you. I'm still in love with it and with all of you. Since it is summer and I'm still unsuccessfully job hunting I hope that I will be able to write more. Unfortunately this chapter is pretty short and contains a lot of flashbacks, but the next one will be better.
Chapter 36: Do You Remember?
"You know," I whisper, pressing closer to James and running one of my hands slowly up his chest. "Sometimes I wish I could break all the rules."
"What's stopping you?" James asks, his eyes darkening as my hand gently traces his jaw line. I lean toward him, overwhelmed by James and the reaction that only he can create within me. All those rules, all those reasons: reputations, trust, loyalty, friendships, suddenly everything that once seemed so important is millions of miles away and utterly meaningless. Because it's James, and it always has been.
"I'm not sure anymore," I admit so softly that I don't even know if James hears me.
"James! Lily!" the voice comes from a long way off and every ounce of my being is telling me to ignore it. But the outside world calls to us in the form of Hope.
"How'd you like our diversion?"
"Great, it was great I'm sure," Hope says distractedly.
"You didn't get caught, did you?"
"No, no, nothing like that, but James I went to see your mother," she tells us, pausing to take a breath.
"And?" James grabs her shoulder, compelling her to look up at him. It's then that we see the deep sadness, and the wild anxious fear traced all over her weary beaten face, and all at once I remember that this isn't some prank that Wilkes is playing with us but the lives of two innocent students, one of whom happens to be my best friend.
"You were right Lily, she had it," Hope confirms. I don't feel any relief though, because Hope looks worse off than when she went to see Heather.
"She had it?" I echo quietly.
"Yes, she did, but I was too late," Hope whispers sadly, hopelessly pressing a hand to her forehead as James's face goes ghostly pale and all of the blood freezes over in my veins. "The Death Eaters… They got to her first."
Time seems to stand still for a moment and images of a beautiful dark haired woman with warm hazel eyes flashes through my mind. I see her racing down the steps to embrace James, worriedly fussing over Gracie, generously welcoming me into her home and family, gently healing the bruises on my throat, and finally grinning mischievously at James and I after she caught us together in a rather suggestive position.
I watch as shadows pass over James's face as he tries to process the devastating discovery Hope just made and I tentatively rest my hand on his shoulder. James in turn wraps his arm around my waist to steady himself.
"Is – Is she alive?" he asks desperately, gradually tightening his hold on me as his anxiety heightens. I move my hand from his shoulder, rubbing his back consolingly and focusing my entire attention on James so that I almost miss Hope's answer.
"Yes."
"Is she alright?" James queries anxiously.
"She will be," Hope reassures him, forcing a smile and wrapping a comforting arm around his other shoulder. "She's at St. Mungo's with your father right now, recovering."
"She's okay though, right?" he asks again.
"Danny's convinced that they'll allow her to go home in a few days."
James relaxes and sags against me, and I breathe a sigh of relief as I clutch him to me. It's bad enough that Grace and Rohan are in danger. I don't think James or I could have handled yet another loss.
"What happened?"
"Your father received an anonymous tip off right before the attack. He immediately went home to check on your mum and found three Death Eaters in the house. He caught them by surprise and they apparated out of there leaving your mother alive and only injured. Your dad got her to St. Mungos right away and I'm sure that in a few days she'll be back on her feet and on her way home," Hope explains forcing far too much enthusiasm for James's sake. I have a feeling that she's not exactly telling the whole story and may have softened the real horrors of it.
James apparently doesn't believe it either because after watching his Aunt closely for a moment, he demands,
"I want to see her."
"I don't think that would be a good idea…" Hope says gently, but there's an underlying firmness in her tone that warns him not to mess with her.
"I need to make sure she's alright." James shakes her off, pushing us both away from him.
"But James…"
"I have to go to St. Mungos," he cuts me off, brushing past me and heading back in the direction of the staff room and the location of the nearest floo fireplace that could transport him to St. Mungos and his mother.
"And you can do that right after we get Grace back."
James stops in his tracks at the sound of Grace's name. He hesitates, glancing back at his Aunt and then me. I can understand why James feels he needs to go to right this very instant but with less than twenty-two hours left on the clock Grace, Rohan and the lost memories need every precious second of our time. I turn my back on James, even though it pains me to do so, and join Hope.
"How are we going to do that?" James demands to know, still torn between going to see his mother and waiting around for Hope's memories that probably will never surface.
"I'll explain, but not here, James," Hope says, shaking her head and lowering her voice significantly. "Anyone could be listening."
James and I both realize that she's right. There's no doubt in my mind that Wilkes is a Deatheater and who knows how many other fledgling Deatheaters could be lurking in our midst. James takes one last look over his shoulder and then, sighing, he crosses the hall and beckons for us to follow. Wordlessly we retrace our steps, heading back to where James and I set off the dungbomb only fifteen minutes ago but what already seems like another lifetime. Instead of going down this particular hallway, which is probably swarming with professors seeking us, James redirects us down another corridor and another, until he abruptly stops beside a ruby red tapestry of that mythical beast known as a griffin that I had never taken the time to notice before now. James looks around and then sweeps it aside, ushering me and Hope inside of the archway that materializes at a touch of his hand. A secret passageway!
"This will take us directly back to the Gryffindor Tower," he whispers, letting the tapestry flap shut behind us, plunging us into darkness. He lights his wand, revealing the bottom of a stone spiral staircase that looks as if it's seen better days and explains why most students wouldn't opt to take this path even if they did know about it.
James senses my hesitation and seizes my hand, dragging me along behind him before I can protest.
"It's safe," he reassures us as we start climbing the wobbling stones that must have made a great staircase hundreds of years ago. "And the only other people that know about this passageway are Sirius, Remus and Peter."
He waits until we reach a landing of some sort, where the staircase seems to stop with one particularly large flat slab of stone before continuing to ascend in spiral formation once more, and then motions for us to sit. He lights one of the torches on the wall and then squats down on the landing, patting the seat beside him. There's just enough space for James and I to sit closely side by side. Hope opts to sit on the step below us, with her back against the wall so she can face us.
"We can talk here," he informs us and wasting no time at all, he immediately launches right back into the conversation that Hope had halted. "Our only hope was to find those missing memories. Lily told us that Grace saw you pass the memory onto my mother. You just confirmed it but the Death Eaters got to her before you could."
"Yes, they did. But they didn't have time to destroy her though or her memories because your father got there in time. Heather was able to give me what she had, but now we must deal with the fact that the Death Eaters have that information as well."
"So, you got it!" I exclaim as hope surges through me.
Hope nods but doesn't look very excited.
"All we have to do now is beat the Death Eaters to it, right?"
"It's a bit more difficult than that, I'm afraid," she sighs, running her hands through her hair. "Even if we did know the true location of the weapon."
"But I thought you just said that you got the memory from my mum," James reminds her.
"I did and it's not the right one."
"I don't understand." I frown.
"Of course you don't and hopefully the Death Eaters won't understand either. Like I said earlier, I knew that trusting someone in my immediate family with the memory, especially another Moon, would be far too dangerous and risky. In the case that they would come after me and find the memories missing, the first person they would look to next would be probably my sister Heather."
"But Gracie insists that she saw you pass your memory onto James's mum!" I recall, remembering vividly that day in the alcove when Gracie had shared with me everything she knew about her family's involvement with the hidden unnamable weapon that the Deatheaters were so intent on getting their hands on.
"And she did," Hope says, lowering her eyes to her hands and concentrating on them as if they have the answer to our tragic dilemma. Even in the flickering torchlight I can still see the one hand that's scarred that even Madam Pomfrey and the best healers at St. Mungos had never quite been able to heal.
"But I didn't give Heather the real location of the weapon. I gave her a false memory. She was only a decoy to temporarily throw the Deatheaters off the trail," Hope reveals.
James and I exchange a shocked look.
"But if you don't know where it is than how do you know it's not the real location?" I ask, puzzled.
"Wait." James leans forward to get a better look at her face. "Do you remember where it is?"
A minute ticks by in silence, and then another as James and I wait in anticipation for Hope to say something or at least lift her head out of the shadows. And then finally, when I don't think that I can stand it any longer, her voice breaks the silence.
"No." Hope shakes her head, raising her eyes at last. Her confused gaze moves past him and then past me, moving upward and finally stopping on something just above our heads, and then suddenly the clouded expression clears, replaced with one of understanding.
"But I know who does," she whispers with a thin lipped smile that doesn't quite reach her eyes that are still fixated on something just behind and above us. "And she's right here."
I freeze and James goes rigid beside me. Now that I'm looking for it, I can sense it now. There's someone else among us. Someone who had silently tracked us through the corridors and waited until the three of us had disappeared behind the tapestry before quietly slipping in behind us and making her ascent. And now I could see it. The slight shadow just behind Hope at the curve of the stairs, that Hope must have noticed and been studying when she was intently concentrating on her hands.
"Why don't you show yourself?" Hope suggests, finally turning around to face the shadow.
I gasp aloud and James's jaw drops as my Ravenclaw friend, Ophelia Kenny Lovegood emerges from the darkness and steps into the circle of torchlight.
"What are you doing here?" I ask when I finally find my tongue again because Ophelia is the very last person that I would expect to find in this position. But we already know the answer to that question. Clearly she was trying to eavesdrop on our conversation, but the question was why?
"Where is he?" she asks, completely ignoring my question.
"Who?" James looks puzzled.
"Where is he?" she repeats, addressing me and only me for the second time with the slightest note of hysteria in her normally calming voice.
And that's when I get it. The only reason why she tracked us is because she's looking for her missing best friend, Rohan Corner. Ophelia had been studying with him in the library when James told him that I needed him. Obviously, he hadn't come back. No one but James, Sirius, Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey knew what had happened between Wilkes, Grace, Hope, Rohan and I. Of course there were several members of the Slytherin quidditch team that probably knew that Grace had been hurt or possibly even killed and that "Hannah Smith" had undergone a very unusual change, maybe some of them had even noticed in all the chaos that it was Hope Adams rising from the dead. But if Gracie did die and if those Slytherins admitted to being there, they could be expelled and possibly even brought to the Ministry for trial. So our secret was safe… for now.
"Where's Rohan?" she demands to know, snapping me back to the present.
"I don't know," I answer honestly.
"Tell me where he is."
"I'm sorry Ophelia, but I really don't know," I apologize, wishing I could give her a better answer.
But Ophelia's anxiety for her friend is so carefully hidden behind the mask of serenity that she always wears that I don't recognize the warning signs until it's too late. She's a powerful and brilliant witch and when she doesn't have the time or patience to wait around for a better answer, she doesn't. With a flick of her wrist she's disarmed us and has all three of our wands in our hands before we can even think of reacting.
"You'll get them back as soon as I get the truth, because I know that all three of you are lying to me." She tucks them inside her Ravenclaw robe just beneath the prefect badge that she always wears upside down because she claims it's a symbol of good will, before rounding on James. "James, you were the last one to speak with Rohan. You took him out of the library because Lily wanted him for something and it was important. Where did you take him and what did you do to him? And don't lie to me. I know that you dropped that stack of books on his head earlier."
James's face flushes and he looks ashamed of himself.
"I'm sorry," he mumbles and he really does look like he is for once.
"You can apologize to Rohan later, once you tell me where he is."
"We don't know," James echoes my earlier response.
"You're lying," Ophelia observes, and now I can see where she's channeling her anxiety. She already knows something's gone wrong and that something bad has happened to her best friend that's out of her control, but she's blindly taking it out on us. And if we're not careful…
"No, you don't understand-" James protests.
Ophelia raises her wand and points it at him, and in a flash I'm lunging forward, seizing her wrist in midair and sending the spell awry. A crater forms in the wall, where the spell finally hits.
"Stop!" I tell her.
And she does, now that she sees what she would've done had she hit her mark. Slowly she lowers her arm and I let go of her, knowing that it won't be necessary anymore. She has her emotions under control now. Or at least I think she does. It's so difficult to tell when it comes to crazy Ophelia.
She had no right to take away our wands like that and to try to hurt James, but she does have a right to the truth about the whereabouts of her best friend. I owe her that, especially since it is my fault she'll probably never see him again and I know what it's like, seeing as my best friend was taken as well.
So I take a deep breath and tell her everything that happened in the past few hours.
When I finish, Ophelia leans back against the wall in silence for a long moment, hiding behind that serene calm mask that she had perfected. It's impossible to read her. But I'm hoping that now that I've finally told her the truth and that we were basically telling the truth all along that she won't explode again.
"I'm so sorry Ophelia," I apologize again. She looks down at me with that same blank expression and the words pour out of me before I can stop them.
"It's my fault," I whisper. "Rohan never would have been involved if it hadn't been for me."
"Your fault?" Ophelia echoes.
"He loved me," I confess. "I was only thinking of how to save Gracie. I should have stopped him." But I know that even if I did it over, I wouldn't have stopped him. And Ophelia knows it too. She knows how much he loved me and she knew right from the start that I didn't love him, not in that way, and that I never would. But does she know that over the past two months Rohan had become someone that I did care for and one of my closest friends?
"You couldn't have stopped him, Lily," Ophelia contradicts me. "He may be a Ravenclaw but that doesn't mean he isn't brave. You're right, he probably wouldn't have been drawn in to the fray as quickly if he hadn't started dating you, but Rohan believes in saving lives and he hates the Deatheaters just as much as you do. He lost his grandfather to Deatheaters if you remember."
"Sure, he probably was quicker to jump into the fire because he loved you, but eventually we're all going to end up there. It's only a matter of time. At some point we're all going to be faced with that decision and forced to choose a side to fight for whether we like it or not. Rohan made his decision long before you entered the picture. You have to understand that Lily. It's not your fault…"
I breathe a sigh of relief, realizing that she does understand more than I ever expected and that she never blamed me for falling in love with James and not her best friend.
"It's not your fault," Ophelia repeats and then suddenly the serene mask crumbles as her eyes move to Hope. "It's mine."
James tenses beside me and I wonder if she's about to lose it again. Ophelia has slid down the wall into a sitting position on the step just below Hope. Her face is hidden in her hands, behind the curtain of her long blonde hair. Even in the shadows I can see that her shoulders are trembling and it seems that she's finally broken down into tears. It's a shocking sight for me. Ophelia's always been so calm and collected even in the worst crises, but I guess everyone has their breaking point and Ophelia had finally reached hers.
She lifts her head and I realize that she's not crying, she's laughing hysterically.
"It's mine! It's my fault!" she laughs wildly. She throws back her head and her crazed laughter echoes through the stone staircase, chilling me to the bone. Hope is still watching her with that same tight smile that doesn't quite reach her eyes. When Ophelia meets her eyes again, there's irony and bitterness in both of their expressions as if they've just come to some unspoken realization. Ophelia's laughter quickly dies away and I see that her face glitters in the torchlight. She is crying and there's a silent apology in those tears.
"You have it," Hope says at last. It's not a question.
Ophelia smiles bitterly through her tears.
"No, way!" James is incredulous but I kick him, telling him to shut up.
The wheels in my head are churning as I glance between the two women sitting on the staircase below us. A whisper of a memory stirs in the back of my mind. Hadn't it been Ophelia who recognized that the coffin was empty and that Hope wasn't dead? Wasn't it Ophelia that told Gracie and had set this whole thing in motion back in December?
But there was more to it than that… First of all how could she have known?
I flash back to the first meeting between Ophelia and Hope just a few months ago in the infirmary. Ophelia had been staring at Hope for hours in an unsettling manner, until she was finally introduced after I woke up.
"Hello Lily," Ophelia smiles at me briefly, and then her eyes immediately return to Hope. "And you must be Grace's -"
"Roommate," I interrupt her, before she can do any damage. "She's our new roommate, right H- I mean-"
"Hannah Smith," Hope lies smoothly, smiling and sticking out a hand. Ophelia accepts it, clutching it between both of her pale hands.
"I've been waiting to meet you for a long time."
"Have we met?" Hope asks, suddenly losing her smile.
"Not formally," Ophelia says cryptically.
She recognized her instantly, even in her disguise. We all chalked it up to Ophelia's weirdness and strange intuitiveness, but later Hope confessed to me that she remembered having seen Ophelia after the attack and her disastrous transformation into a six year old.
"The last thing I remember I was sixteen, home on my winter holiday and my brother Harry was dying and I couldn't save him. But before he took his last breath he told me something…"
"What?" I ask curiously.
"That's what's so strange. My memories just stop. It's like there's a block there or something. I can't make myself go past it. When I try to go beyond that point I find myself back at that day when I woke up in the body of my six-year-old self with Ophelia hovering over me."
"Ophelia?" I interrupt her, thoroughly perplexed as to how her name suddenly came up.
"Of course, I could never place her until I met her in the Infirmary that day. It's been bothering me for a while, but I finally pieced it together a few days ago. Everything's still a bit fuzzy, but she must have brought me to Heather and Danny, or maybe that's just my first memory of her at the funeral."
Again when I shared Hope's odd confession with James, we chalked it up to Ophelia's unique character. But now I'm wondering if perhaps Ophelia knew more than she was letting on all along. Maybe Ophelia knows everything. But why?
"You have the memory," Hope whispers again.
"Took you long enough," Ophelia chuckles darkly. "Now it might be too late."
"You could've told me."
"During the first three months your mind was in no condition to bear the truth," Ophelia reminds her.
"But later…"
"You're being watched. There's spies throughout the Ministry, St. Mungos and Hogwarts. No one can be trusted. But I did as much as I possibly could without endangering you or myself."
"Like what?" James butts in.
Ophelia looks over at us for the first time. She blinks at him as if it should be the most obvious thing in the world.
"How do you think Hope got to your home after her own was destroyed? I brought her there. Who told Grace that her mother wasn't dead? I did."
"That still doesn't explain-"
"I'm not finished," Ophelia interrupts James, turning back to Hope.
"You ask why I didn't tell you where the weapon was, I couldn't. You blocked your own memories and put a block on me as well. I wasn't allowed to tell anyone the full truth especially not you. But I did my best to pass it on to you, through someone else." She turns and looks right at me.
"Me?" I gape at her.
Ophelia nods.
"And now it's time for you to connect the dots because I've given you everything you need, Lily. Now you just need to piece it together."
James and Hope are now looking at me too as if it's up to me to save the world. I realize with a sinking heart that it is up to me because the block's still in place and Ophelia really can't tell them. So I have to, because she supposedly gave me all the puzzle pieces. But the only thing I can conclude from this mess is that I'm really puzzled and that Ophelia's crazy. Why on earth did Hope even entrust her with the memories in the first place? But I digress and I'm wasting precious time. It's up to me to save my best friend and my boyfriend and I have no idea how to do it.
I couldn't remember Ophelia having given me anything except bad advice. First she told my best friend to go hunting for her mother's dead body in a bloody mausoleum where I almost got murdered by a statue. And then she told me to hang on to some stupid book that bit people that the Marauders had nicked from the Slytherin dormitories. Despite the numerous defensive jinxes on it and the rumor that Wilkes and some other Slytherin had torn apart the library looking for it, An Extensive History of Mythical Wizarding Weaponry had turned out to be a worthless book filled with fantastical legends surrounding powerful ancient magical weapons that probably didn't exist. These stories were like something right out of the Quibbler. For instance, there was this one story about some magical knight and his sword whose magical properties were so powerful that no one would even speak of it's name. But the last wielder Godric Gryffindor supposedly put the knight into an enchanted sleep in the halls of the dead until he could be commanded by a new master, who would be ruler of both the muggle and magical world and –
I bolt upright. Gracie had told me that the weapon that Hope was hiding was so powerful that it would make the wielder master of the muggle and magical world and everyone refused to speak its name by unspoken agreement. And Hope's brother Harry, the last owner that had been murdered for this weapon whose location he'd refused to give up, hadn't Hope and Gracie told me that Harry been a collector of magical artifacts, especially those belonging to the Hogwarts founders? It was probably just a crazy far-fetched coincidence, but seeing as I had no other leads, there was only one thing left to do.
"I need to go back to my dormitory. There's something I need to look up," I tell them, as my heart starts to beat faster in my chest. What if I'm wrong?
James jumps to his feet and helps me up.
"Come on," he urges, climbing the staircase with me in tow. "The Gryffindor Tower is right up these stairs."
Hope and Ophelia struggle to keep up with the breakneck pace James has set. By the time James drags me to the top, I'm out of breath and they're far behind. James shoves aside a second tapestry and yanks me around a corner. Suddenly we're standing in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady and outside of the Gryffindor Common Room.
"Pewter Rocks!"
The portrait swings open and we smack right into James's girlfriend Tiffany Crowley and Remus Lupin.
"James!"
"Lily!"
I pause only for a moment to catch my breath.
"James, I need to talk to you," Tiffany whispers, snagging his sleeve.
"Not now, Tiff."
"James, it's important –"
"Later!" James shoves past her and reaches for my hand at the same moment that Hope, Ophelia and Sirius Black tumble into the common room behind us.
"What the hell happened?" Sirius explodes, going straight for James. "Where'd you go and where is Gracie? Is she alright-" Hope reaches up and claps her hand over his mouth. If the entire school gets wind of this information before we get to Wilkes, Grace and Rohan will both be dead. Thankfully there's only a few students that opted to stay inside on this gorgeous day. And of course there's Remus and Tiffany…
"What's going on?" Tiffany asks, frowning. "Grace looks perfectly fine to me," she adds, eyeing Hope suspiciously. I completely forgot that I had disguised Hope once again, this time to look like a carbon copy of her daughter.
"Nothing," I answer. "Nothing at all. I just forgot something in the dormitory. I'll be right back," I reassure Hope, Ophelia and James and then I fly up the steps to my dormitory.
As soon as I slam the door shut behind me, I throw open my trunk and start pawing through it. Clothes, books and dungbombs go flying across the room as I frantically dig through my trunk in search of that one elusive book that I'm almost certain contains a description of the unnameable weapon that we're looking for. But as my fingernails scrape the bottom of my trunk, I realize that it's not here. I sink back on my heels, wondering where else it could possibly be.
"What are you looking for?"
"A book," I answer, unthinkingly as I desperately try to remember what I did with the stupid book.
"This one?"
I spin around and find myself face to face with my despicable roommate, the banshee. Debbie McLaggen picks up the book that she'd been reading and holds it up for me to see.
It's the one that I'm looking for.
Shit. I've never seen Debbie read anything other than Witch Weekly or Teen Witch and even then, those magazines mostly consist of flashy advertisements and moving photographs. I'm not even sure if she can spell her own name. Something's wrong with this picture.
"Let me take a look at it," I say, holding out my hand. I only need a moment to flip to the page and skim it and then she can keep it forever.
Debbie pretends to think it over, tapping her bandaged chin. Clearly, she's still recovering from her last encounter with Tiffany Crowley a few hours ago.
"Hmm…" Her plastic smile – the one that I'm sure has been plastered on her face since the day she was born – reappears and she shakes her head. "No, I'm reading it."
"Debbie, that's my –"
"No, it's the library's book," she reminds me, stroking the letter H that's magically branded into a corner of the spine.
"But I took it out –"
"No, my Dante did," she corrects me. "And you stole it from him."
It takes me a moment before I remember that her Slytherin boyfriend Zabini does in fact have a first name. But when I do realize who she's talking about, a chill runs down my spine.
"I know what you're looking for, Lily," she giggles and winks at me in order to let me know that we're not simply discussing the book anymore. "But you won't find it, because I've got the key." She points to the book in her lap.
And now I realize that Ophelia is right. There are spies everywhere. And one of them had been planted in our dormitory right from the start.
A/N: Sorry I know it's a short chapter and that a lot of it is basically plot summary and flashbacks but I'm just so excited to finally have completed a chapter after so long! I promise the next chapter will be better. Thanks to everyone that reviewed. I can't tell you how much it means to me! Thanks especially MrsHellman, D, Barbara Manatee – In the Flesh, ElCullen, DarkWiccanPrincess, TabithaChristine, vidia, Iratze, Malice is in Wonderland, sugar hiccup, bubble, LexingtonAveryPotter, Bee, Mimimi213, Irish Girl Xx, Alla, bravecandygirl, Rrue, MaytheMagicBeWithYou, ClearWater4Ever, NeverQuitDreaming, komgneh, WinterLizzy, crazyelf22, EroticHaywire, EvilFaerie17, RaeGurk, lovefrog159, JustCallMeDollface, Bubblelove1234, gitgit, Cherrysinger, DimondMoon, call-me-bee, alwaysalice, Simplyyinsanee, S.K. Greene, 814, Jaliy, Alex507, Tracy-Lovin'TwilightN'HPotter, , Vampires and Penguins, Rob-girl, NEVERMORE DARKNESS, An Aspiring Author, WhiteCamellia, TheFifthCharmedOne, Jessiquie, Loonynamelass, LoveGee, IloveJames, Princessita, oceanlover14, Trisana Sarrasri, xXthenextbookwormXx, Lenners, callmeGreen-Eyes, Reneesmee-worththefight, bella245, PatronusCharmBabe and Sarahrules336. I'm so so sorry for the long delay but life takes over. Now that I don't have school to worry about I hope that I'm able to finish this story by the end of the summer and I intend to update as soon as possible.