Hello all, it's been two years and I was cleaning out all of my files and I stumbled on to this story. I want to apologize to anyone who has ever had to read this story. However, I did have a few chapters that I never ever posted, and I feel like my past self would have wanted me to post it. So here you are with the final chapters for this story.
That night Jem sat in the common room after a double herbology lesson.
She had thought that her outburst at lunch would have made people more afraid to talk to her, but the students were only more intrigued.
She was sitting on the couch after being dragged there by Oliver. Hermione sat on one side and Oliver sat on the other, while James was sitting on the chair next to them. The Gryffindors asked endless questions, to which they got no answers.
Jem's irritation began to grow and James seemed to notice.
"Why don't we take a walk?" he suggested. Jem didn't want to go anywhere with James but she needed to escape. She could feel her magic building up and momentarily panicked when she realized that she would need to 'explode' soon. She made a note to talk to Draco about it.
Their walk ended up taking them to the astronomy tower. Jem gazed upon the grounds of Hogwarts and watched the gamekeeper feed a few hippogriffs.
"It'll settle down, you know," James commented. Jem looked at him.
"The whispers, the stares, the question. Soon you'll be old news," he joked.
"I guess." Jem was too tired to try to be sassy and defiant.
They stood in silence for a few minutes before heading back to the common room.
That night, for the first night in a long time, she was asleep before her head hit the pillow. The day hadn't been physically exhausting, but it had been emotional. Emotions were hard for Jem, because of her magic. She had to constantly keep everything in check, otherwise she would explode.
The next morning she headed to Transfiguration with the rest of the Gryffindors. As always, she took a seat at the back of the room.
McGonagall swept into the room and began passing out small vases.
"Last week we worked on vanishing needles. This week, we shall work on vases." She continued to talk about tips on pronunciation and wand movements.
She reached Jem's desk and paused.
"I am not naive enough to think that you want to be here," McGonagall said. Jem waited to see where she was going with this. "However, you are a student of Hogwarts and of my house. It is my job to help you learn, and it is your job to let me. So, keeping that in mind, please perform the vanishing spell on your vase."
Jem waved her wand without breaking eye contact with the professor and her vase vanished. The professor showed no signs of being impressed and motioned for Jem to follow her. McGonagall led her and her father to a back room where there were many very large objects. A giant chess piece, a stone life-sized elephant, a tree, and a teacup that could have fit 15 people sat in front of the trio.
"You can work on vanishing these," McGonagall instructed with a devilish smile. Jem momentarily considered recruiting her, before remembering her father's rants about how none of the Hogwarts staff would budge in their loyalty to the light.
Jem looked at James as the Hogwarts professor left, and he gestured for her to get started. Jem rolled her eyes and set to work. It was hard; her father hadn't bothered with doing unthinking, repetitive, strenuous tasks like this. She got bored really quickly and sighed as the giant chess piece finally vanished.
James smiled and looked impressed. "That was fast," he commented, "But I could do it faster." Jem raised her eyebrows. There was no way- except maybe he could. This was purely a tedious task, which required stamina. Jem had stamina, but hers wasn't any better than most Aurors. The reason she won her fights was because of her skill and her cunning, not her pure magical strength. Yes, she could do very powerful spells that were above the reach of most wizards, but James was a good Auror and it was very possible that he could do a vanishing spell faster than her.
"You don't believe me," James stated. "How about a race?"
Jem nodded. She turned towards the elephant as James turned towards the teacup.
"On three, two-" Jem had already started. The head of her elephant began to fade as the teacup's handle disappeared. Jem pushed herself faster, determined not to be beat by the person who was set on making her his daughter.
James vanished the rest of his teacup just as Jem vanished the rest of her elephant.
"A draw then?" James asked, smirking. Jem rolled her eyes and nodded.
She turned to the tree and prepared to vanish it. All of a sudden, she felt her magic rumble. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She fought to control the wild strains of magic weaving in and out of her. Letting it go now would destroy all of Hogwarts, and that would waste too much magical blood. Her magic eventually complied, and she opened her eyes.
"Are you alright?" James looked concerned.
"Fine," she said curtly.
"Are you sure? I cou-"
"I'm fine, and even if I wasn't, there'd be nothing you could do," Jem snapped.
"Okay..." Jem was already ignoring him, focusing on vanishing the tree.
McGonagall walked backed into the room as the tree ceased to exist.
"Very good. By Friday, I want an essay on the history of the vanishing charm," said McGonagall.
"And why would I do that?" Jem asked innocently.
"Because I told you to, and if you don't-"
"What are you going to do, give me detention? Expulsion? Take house points? Please do, actually," Jem mocked the professor.
"For your disrespect I place you on the Gryffindor quidditch team as seeker," McGonagall smirked.
"What?" Jem didn't understand.
"You clearly have no house pride, so I must teach you to have some. And as it is, I am in desperate need of a seeker," McGonagall explained.
"You realize that you won't be able to win any games," Jem said, knowing full well that she would never catch the snitch if it meant Gryffindor would win. .
"Actually, for every game Gryffindor wins because of you catching the snitch, you will get to spend one hour in the restricted section of the library." The professor laughed internally as Jem's eyes lit up.
Jem knew that there was a whole section of books that her father hadn't even read in there. Of course, there wouldn't be anything too dark in there, with Dumbledore running the school. Still, there was bounds of information waiting to be discovered.
"Alright," she agreed.
"There's a practice tonight, so I suggest you get yourself a broom." McGonagall chuckled and swept out of the room.
"Do you need one?" James asked, his eyes glowing at the thought of his daughter playing Quidditch.
"No, I've got one."
That night she waited in the Entrance Hall. James waited with her, confused about why she wasn't going to practice, and where her broom was.
A blonde walked up from the dungeons, carrying a long package.
"You're late," Jem scolded.
"Your father was laughing about you playing Quidditch, supposedly, at least that's what my father said," Draco explained.
"He doesn't think I can play?" Jem asked.
"Erm..." Draco didn't know what to say.
"Well, he'll see," Jem said defiantly.
"Have you ever played before?" Draco asked, knowing full well that she hadn't.
Jem just rolled her eyes and stalked out the door to the Quidditch pitch.
"Alright for those of you who have not heard, we have a new Seeker," a tall girl was saying.
"This is Al- erm, Jem," she continued.
"Hi," a pair of twins said in unison.
"Meet Fred, George, Alicia, Katie, Cormac, and myself, Angelina," the tall girl said again.
"We're the beaters," the twins said.
"Chaser," Alicia said.
"Chaser," Katie repeated.
"Keeper," Cormac said with a smirk.
"Chaser and captain," Angelina finished.
Jem nodded.
"Alright, we're going to do some drills. I'll release this and you can find it. Once you've done that, go down to the bottom of the hoops on that side," Angelina instructed. "Then I'll give you some skills to practice."
With that practice began.
Jem hopped on her broom and slowly rose to the sky. It had been awhile and she relished the feel of the wind in her hair. Of course, she preferred to fly without a broom, but that was a secret she was trying to hold on to.
Her eyes scanned the pitch and quickly spotted the Snitch. She took off like a bullet, and weaved between her new teammates.
"Potter!" Angelina yelled in anger, "What do you think..." she trailed off when she saw Jem dismount at the bottom of the hoops.
"I'm impressed, and I don't say that often," complimented Angelina.
"What else can you do, Flash?" asked George, half of his voice filled with humor, and half with awe.
Without answering, Jem took off on her broom. She knew she was showing off, but she couldn't help it. She was euphoric at being in the air again.
Down on the ground, James was watching his daughter zoom around the sky with pride filling his eyes. She was doing tricks, flips, and loops, just like he had done when he was in school. He sucked in a breath as she dived to the ground, and he watched her pull straight back up 2 metres from the ground.
"Wow," Alicia breathed. James looked over to the rest of the team, and almost growled at the look McLaggen was giving his daughter.
Jem landed her broom, and the team burst into applause.
"There's no way we'll lose this year!" Angelina exclaimed.
"You're incredible," McLaggen said with a smile on his face that made everyone uncomfortable. Jem glared at him and turned to face James. His heart soared when she gave him a small smile.
"I think that's it for today," Angelina dismissed them all.
As they headed to the locker rooms, James said, "You're a natural, who taught you?"
"No one, I used to sneak out." She paused like she was debating telling him something, and said, "He didn't like games much, especially ones that wasted energy."
James' good mood plummeted. He wished so desperately that he could give his daughter the childhood that she deserved. It was all he could think about as he went to bed that night, and something he knew he would never get off his mind.
Jem was sitting in the back of the library Wednesday afternoon, browsing, when she sensed Draco and her other friends come up behind her.
"Hey," she said.
"How did this happen?" Pansy asked.
"Dumbledore," Jem relayed the story.
"Shouldn't've your father let you stay home after you got home so that you could rest?" Draco asked, "I mean isn't that why you got caught?"
Jem turned cold, "Are you questioning him?"
"No, no, I just thought he would take better care of you," Draco said, knowing he was treading on thin ice.
"I don't need to be taken care of," she hissed. She was angry, and she was trying to ignore the fact that somewhere deep inside of her, she felt the same way Draco did.
"He's only trying to be nice," Millie protested.
"Who are we, Gryffindors?" Jem asked.
"No, but you are," Theo said.
"That was not my choice!" Jem hissed. She felt her magic stir and she took a deep breath to keep it in check. Draco paled as he realized what was going on.
"Go to the Come and Go room to explode. It's on the seventh floor. Walk past the portrait three time-" he tried to help.
"I don't need your help!" Jem couldn't contain her anger. The thing was, she didn't know why she was angry.
"I know," Draco said, and he looked down as he remembered his place. Jem hated it when he did that. She loved to be respected, but not by her friends, not like that.
"Do any of you have something to say?"
They all shook their heads, looking at the floor, and Jem had an uneasy feeling growing in her stomach.
"Jem," she heard James call.
"You better go, you don't want things to get worse," Theo suggested. Jem nodded and walked off. She couldn't shake the feeling that something had changed between her and her friends.
"Hey you okay?" James asked.
Jem stormed past him.
James looked at her in confusion, wondering what had made her so angry in a library.
He trailed after her as she stomped off, and followed her as she went up to the seventh floor. At one point she walked back and forth three times and a door appeared. She disappeared inside and before he could follow, the door was gone.
James tried to fight the panic that was rising inside of him. She was gone. She could be escaping and he wouldn't be able to follow her. He slumped against the wall and decided to wait before calling for help.
Suddenly he felt the wall tremble. It was only the slightest bit, but the castle was years old. He knew from his time at Hogwarts that it was nearly impossible for the walls to shake because when he and Sirius had sent explosives off in Filch's office, the walls didn't have a dent, and the only thing that had happened was that a desk had been scattered around the room.
The place where the door had been glowed slightly and James could have sworn that he saw faint smoke come out of it.
The walls stopped shaking and the door reappeared. Before he could enter it, Jem stepped out, looking tired and calmer than he had ever seen her. She shut the door but before it closed, he saw a room full of fire and destruction.
"What...?" James didn't even know what to ask.
"Just needed to let off a little steam," Jem said. She left without any more explanation and headed straight to the Gryffindor common room. She went straight up to her bedroom, leaving James to sit in the common room by himself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jem laid on her bed and breathed deeply. Her magic had really gone wild. Once she let it go, she had had no control. At first it was exhilarating, but after awhile, Jem wasn't sure it would ever stop. It started to physically hurt, and Jem had cried out in fear.
The wind whirred around her. She felt the heat of fires and her blood roared in her ears. She had felt objects be conjured and then thrown around the room. Lightning cracked around her and thunder boomed. Cracks appeared in the ceiling and walls, and the floors were scorched.
She had shut her eyes and put her hands over her hears while she crouched down to the ground.
She had never felt this much loss of control. It had been terrifying.
When her magic settled, she found herself in a room of fire and destruction. She felt calmer though, and she didn't have to hold her magic down anymore.
She was exhausted and quickly fell asleep.
Jem woke up to the sound of a tapping on the window. A black owl fluttered outside of the window in the twinkly sky. Jem looked at the clock and saw that it read 1:07 a.m. She crept to the bird, and opened the window, hoping the cool air wouldn't wake the other girls. She untied the letter from its foot, and watched as it flew away.
Gem of Darkness, The letter started in parseltongue.
It has been a while since we have had a chance to speak. I would expected you to be home by now. But you have been distracted, haven't you? What is this I hear of you playing Quidditch? No matter, I have come up with a plan. It does not please me, but it is the best that you will be able to pull off. Wait until you go home on Christmas break, and escape at the train station. I doubt they will let you ride the train, unless they trust you. Perhaps they will even give you information.
Do not fail me,
The Dark Lord.
Jem's face flushed as she read all of the hidden reprimands. She deserved them, she had been distracted. It hurt her that she would not be able to pull off a grand escape. She reread the last two sentences and grimaced, seeing the hidden meaning in her father's words.
She could imagine him whispering in her ear, "Make friends, be a Gryffindor, be the Golden Girl that they expect you to be."
Jem stashed the letter in her pillowcase and climbed back into bed.
The stares persisted as Jem walked into breakfast the next morning. However, Jem was surprised to discover that they weren't all for her. As she sat down at the end of the Gryffindor table, she noticed what the others clearly already had: there was an empty seat at the teachers' table. Lupin, the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, was missing. Lily was too, and James was sitting there looking nervous.
Ron and Hermione sat down across from her. "Hey," Ron greeted her, showing his trademark stupidity. "What's going on?"
"Oh come on, Ron, use your eyes." Hermione rolled hers and helped herself to a platter of bacon.
"What? It's just a question," Ron protested. "Merlin's beard, what's gotten into you this morning?"
Jem was not amused. "Didn't anyone teach you to ask before invading someone's personal space?" she said, lifting an eyebrow.
"Not much of that where I come from," Ron replied. He gestured to the crowded table. "Besides, there isn't much left, is there?"
"Well, of course there isn't much in your home," Jem said, smirking. "I've heard of the Weasleys. I heard you lot are a bunch of poor, dingy old traitors with as much gold as brains. Which is to say, none."
The tips of Ron's ears grew bright red. Jem grinned in satisfaction at the sight. Then she remembered that she was supposed to be making friends. She quickly added, "Although, you're not all what you seem, the twins are cool."
Ron's blush dimmed a little, and he calmed down. Jem turned to talk to the said twins about quidditch.
She was talking to Fred and George about all of the maneuvers they wanted her to try in practice when the owls came flying in.
As the newspapers dropped, gasps were heard all around the hall.
Jem leaned over to read off of Oliver's paper.
ATTACK ON DIAGON ALLEY!
Yesterday afternoon Death Eaters committed a terrible attack on Diagon Alley, leaving 20 dead, 10 in critical condition, and 30 others injured...
Jem looked at the faces of the students and felt her stomach tighten in a knot. She looked over at her friends at the Slytherin table, and to her surprise, they looked positively sick. She narrowed her eyes. They were the next generation of Death Eaters. They had to be tougher than this.
As she saw faces start to turn to her, she put on a cold mask and ducked her head down. No doubt, her plan for making friends would be down the drain now.
As they trudged to their classes, Jem heard Oliver ask James, "Are Mom and Remus okay?"
"Mom's fine," James said.
"And Remus?" Oliver prompted.
"He-" James' voice broke, "We'll talk about it later."
"No, Dad! If he's hurt I should get to see him!" Oliver yelled, almost hysterically.
Jem glanced around the hall and saw that it was empty as all of the students had gone to their class.
Watching their conversation, Jem thought back to a time when she had had the same conversation with her father. She loved him, but she would never forgive him for what he had done.
"Oliver-" James started.
"Let him," Jem cut in.
"You don't get to decide that," James said, trying to stay calm.
"No I don't," Jem said, "But I do know what it feels like when you don't get to say goodbye. If he is as bad as you think he is, you don't want Oliver to live the rest of his life resenting you for not letting him say goodbye. Trust me."
Jem felt weird sticking up for Oliver, but she also felt strangely good about it.
"Alright fine, but you'll have to come with us." Jem nodded.
The group headed to the nearest fireplace, and Jem fought down the worry that she felt for Remus, someone she didn't even know.
They popped out of the fireplace in Saint Mungo's and immediately headed for the ICU. They passed rooms full of injured people, and Jem's stomach tied into a bigger knot.
The people in those rooms were hurt by her father. The people that she longed to be were the ones hurting the people in this hospital. A few months ago she wouldn't have thought twice. Now, she knew their children and they weren't just faces. They were faces with names and families, they were faces full of pain, that they, that she had caused.
James sped up when he saw Lily and Sirius down the hall.
"How is he?" James asked.
"Stable, they got most of the silver out," Sirius explained.
"What's wrong with him?" Oliver asked.
"Uncle Moony got hit by a lot of silver knives, and being a werewolf..." Oliver and Jem got the picture.
"Is he going to be alright?" Oliver asked, panicking.
"He's doing a lot better, but he will be in the hospital for awhile," Lily soothed.
"Can I see him?" James nodded and ushered him into the room. The door closed and Jem stood awkwardly in the hall with Sirius and Lily.
"Did you want to see him?" Lily asked. Jem shook her head.
"Oliver will probably stay the rest of the day, so do you want to go back?" Lily asked.
"Am I even allowed to, without a supervisor?" Jem asked.
"I'll come with you," Sirius offered.
Jem raised her eyebrow as Lily asked, "Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I need to get out of this hospital," Sirius said, "Plus, I need to bond with my favorite goddaughter."
Jem growled.
"I wish I could say that your bark is worse than your bite, but I don't think that's true," Sirius joked nervously.
"You're right," Jem agreed. She turned and made her way back down the hallway, letting Sirius trail behind her.
That's it, that's the end. I didn't proof read this, the last time it was read was about two years ago. I hope you enjoyed!