AN: Check the first chapter for disclaimers

Next day Helen got the answer to the question of what happened when one looked at a reflection of the Basilisk's eyes. Apparently Mrs. Norris, Filch's cat, was not dead, but instead was petrified. Lockhart had deliberately made a fool of himself to get as much information out of Dumbledore as possible. It was the reason she was letting him give her a shoulder and arm massage right now, after giving him a dose of Cruciatus of course. It turned out that the Petrification could only be reversed using a Mandrake Restorative Draught which could only be made using fully mature Mandrakes. Dumbledore didn't know who the instigator was, nor did he know how the attack was carried out. Helen believed the first part but refused to believe that Dumbledore didn't know about the Basilisk.

Helen didn't know what he was playing at, especially with the school growing their own Mandrakes, however, it would take half a year before the drought would be ready. It seemed to Helen that the Headmaster was suppressing the information from spreading out. Ulterior motive or just trying to protect his reputation? Helen thought the latter, but she couldn't be sure.

But for now, this didn't change her plan. Helen still intended to watch and wait from a distance. She already had Hermione out of Gryffindor dormitory where the real instigator resided. She had put a detection ward at the entrance of her oval which would notify her as soon as an unauthorized person entered her domain.

The Quidditch season was beginning soon, and Robert had started torturing them with almost daily training seasons. This explained the massage she was receiving right now. Helen wanted to have more, but was still slightly uncomfortable with Lockhart's presence despite having him completely under her control. Maybe she would indulge in him after her first match.

Speaking of the first match, the first match of the season would see the Lions and the Snakes play off, this would be an excellent opportunity to analyze the performance of the new Nimbus brooms. Her teammates had guessed that both the teams would be running on different strategies as the Gryffindor's would try to prolong the game to score as many goals as possible whereas the Slytherins would go with an aggressive in-your-face gameplay to both break Gryffs momentum and to allow Draco some breathing room to quickly catch the snitch by keeping the attention of the opposition beaters on the rest of the players.

Deciding that she was relaxed enough now, Helen got up, struck Lockhart's chest with a fire whip, patted his head and left for dinner. During dinner Luna joined her and thus Colin joined them as well. She called Hermione to join her too and soon they were chatting away, while having delicious food.

XXXXX

Their prediction was correct and the first game of the season panned out exactly as the team in blue had thought. The Gryffindor chaser line-up came forward wave after wave, scoring plenty of goals. The Slytherins tried to break up play by any means possible and went on a quick counter whenever opportunity arrived, scoring several goals themselves utilizing their superior speed. This led to the Weasley twins focusing completely on protecting the foxes, as the three chasers were dubbed by the commentator, which left Malfoy completely free to find and catch the Snitch easily using his much faster broom. The final score was 220-130 in favor of Slytherin.

However, they did learn a lot about the new Nimbus broom from that match. While the broom was certainly very fast, it had an inherent flaw. Due to its slightly longer shape, it was much more difficult to maneuver into a different direction and it was downright impossible to make continuous tight turns on it. This actually made it a poor broom for the seeker position, especially when the Snitch was trying its best to evade. Malfoy got lucky in this match as the Snitch flew in a straight line this time around, but he would find it difficult to catch one in any other scenario.

They started practicing for longer hours after the match, intending to win by a huge margin so they could carry a big lead right from the start. Helen had started her usual flirting with Cedric to make him spill their team strategy, despite the fact that it wasn't needed as they already knew that the only way Hufflepuff could win this game was if Cedric caught the Snitch early in the match. Nonetheless, they had fun together and Helen even squeezed out a wager from him. If he caught the Snitch, she would spend a whole weekend wearing Hufflepuff colors and would have all her meals at Hufflepuff table during that weekend. If Helen caught the Snitch, Cedric would do the same but with Ravenclaw colors.

The matchday arrived and the game started with an aggressive attacking approach from the Ravenclaw chaser trio. Their strategy was somewhat similar to that of Gryffindor's but for an altogether different reason. Within fifteen minutes they had established a 60-0 lead, with Morag scoring four of their goals. The Hufflepuff were trying to block Helen whenever she went for a dive, and she realized their plan was to give Cedric the opportunity to find the Snitch unhindered as quickly as possible by blocking her moves.

She turned their plan on its head by making several feints and pulling almost all of their players with her, leaving the rest of her team free reign on the opposition goal. Soon, just after the 30 minute mark they had already established a 160-0 lead, making the Snitch catch redundant to the result.

At this point there was a timeout called when a Bludger seemed to be targeting only Helen. Madam Hooch quickly determined it was jinxed and had it replaced and the match restarted.

From this point onwards, Helen changed her strategy and started to closely mark Cedric. The Snitch finally showed up 20 minutes later, where both the Seekers gave chase. Cedric actually had a better chance to catch the Snitch, until a mishit from one of his Beaters caused him to take a Bludger on his shoulder and caused him to waver from his path and Helen took the opportunity to snatch the Snitch. Ravenclaw ended up winning the match 360-10, taking a very strong lead for the cup..

XXXXX

Later that evening, Helen was alone relaxing in a bath in the Room of Requirement, when she was disturbed by a pop. She immediately had her wand pointed at the source, still a bit jumpy from Lockhart's detention. When she realised the new presence was only Dobby, she relaxed back under the bubbles, "Hello Dobby, what are you doing here?"

"Great Helen Potter lied to Dobby! She said she wouldn't go to Hogwarts, but she is here!" Dobby cried desperately.

Thinking quickly, Helen replied, "Well, Dobby, I wasn't going to come, but then I researched a bit about the plot and found out what it really was. You see, the plot was about a monster being released in Hogwarts. I was quite relieved when I found out about this monster. That is because, even if it wanted to, this monster cannot harm me. It's just not possible."

Of course this was a bit of a lie, despite her rituals the Basilisks venom would certainly kill her. However, the effect would be delayed enough due to her rituals for her to recover her small vial of Phoenix tears.

"So Helen Potter wasn't in danger?" Dobby asked in a trembling voice.

"Well, not from the monster at least," Helen replied.

Dobby let out a wail and started banging his head on the lip of the bathtub, shrieking "Bad Dobby! Bad Dobby!" over and over again. Bewildered, Helen quickly snatched him up by the scruff of his neck and held him close so he couldn't harm himself. As he tried to punch himself in the face, she sharply snapped an order at him "Dobby stop!"

He stopped and went limp, hanging from her hand and sobbing miserably.

"Why did you try to punish yourself this time?"

In between the sobbing and sniffling she got a few words, 'jinx' and 'Bludger' being two of them and understood what had happened. At first she was annoyed, but then got contemplative as she thought about how to solve this issue. After thinking about it for a while, she got an idea and got up to act on it, ignoring Dobby who was now covering his eyes to 'protect the Great Helen Potter's modesty'.

Later that night, the Malfoy family elf popped into Hogwarts again. This time he was in the Slytherin boy's dormitory where he heard Young Master Malfoy calling him, who immediately gave him a handkerchief, saying the words "You are no longer a Malfoy Elf."

Dobby never noticed how the Young Master's, now Ex-Young Master's, voice was a bit monotone or how his eyes had a glassy look to them, because Dobby was busy gazing at the Handkerchief as if it was the Holy Grail. So distracted he was that he didn't even hear a whispered 'Obliviate' from behind Ex-Young Master.

Dobby popped into Hogwarts for the third time that night, when he heard Great Helen Potter calling him. Dobby's night became even better when she asked him to become her elf, though he was slightly disappointed when, after he became Great Helen Potter's elf, her first order was to never try to save her again unless she asked first.

XXXXX

Apart from Hermione, Luna had also started to hang around with the second year Ravenclaws, which meant Colin was usually there as well. They had more or less lived in the second year oval, making it slightly crowded but with a warm friendly environment. That weekend, Cedric was also with them, as per the bet he had lost last week. Helen had actually planned a picnic with him as a sort of a date, but the rain had played havoc with her plans. They had all been hanging around in the Oval since the morning and now it was approaching lunch time.

The group descended to the Great hall for lunch and they decided to give Helen and Cedric a semblance of privacy by sitting some distance from them. Cedric was wearing a deep blue sweater over a beige shirt and black slacks, as per the terms of the bet. He looked quite scrumptious in Helen's opinion. After lunch, the rest of the group went back to the Ravenclaw tower while they both decided to explore the castle.

Cedric showed her the location of the prefect's bathroom, where she commented on his intentions of getting her out of her clothes and wet, causing him to stutter and catch up to her as she skipped away. They explored some more and she showed him Fluffy's room on the third floor. He tried to retaliate for her earlier comment, by playfully questioning the witch's intentions of leading an innocent boy to a dark abandoned room. She turned the statement on its head by leaning towards him and pecking him on his lips.

"That should clarify my intentions," she spoke huskily while looking into his eyes from under her lashes. He was awestruck, but didn't move away so she leaned into him again and kissed him properly, with her hands in his soft hair keeping him to herself. In turn, he slowly wrapped his arms around her and started kissing back. For the next half an hour they exchanged kisses and sweet nothings at any isolated place they found.

They were on the first floor right now and decided it was time to return to the tower. Before moving though, Helen turned to him with a serious expression on her face, making him subconsciously feel apprehensive.

"Before we make 'us' official, I want to discuss something with you."

"Ok," he replied carefully.

"I'm never dishonest to myself, so I know exactly who I am and what I am. What I am is not monogamous." Helen said calmly. He continued to look at her without any expression, so she continued.

"What I'm telling you is that if we get together, I'll still be with other people as well, apart from you. Both boys and girls." His eyes widened at that and got a far away look. Correctly assuming what he was thinking, she playfully smacked him on top of his head and said, "Focus Cedric."

He smiled sheepishly and nodded to continue.

"I'm telling you this before we get involved because I really like you, Cedric, and I want to be honest with you about this. If this is a deal-breaker for you, then this is your out. I'll let you go with no hard feelings involved," she finished calmly and waited for him to respond.

He continued staring at her for a while, making her think that he was going to take the out she had given him. After a long time, he closed his eyes and sighed, leaning his head against her's.

"I like you too Helen. Too much in fact. Enough to accept you as you are. So no, you are not getting rid of me so easily. I'd like to be with you, to be your boyfriend, if that is acceptable to you." He drew back and looked into her eyes, awaiting her reply.

She didn't say anything, instead, she gave him a sweet smile and leaned in to give him the best kiss of his life. Before they left though, Cedric asked if he could join her whenever she was with a girl, earning himself another smack on the head. They finally left the abandoned classroom and started making their way back to the Ravenclaw tower while holding each other's hands.

However, they didn't even make it to the staircase as right in the middle of the corridor Justin Finch-Fletchley was lying on the floor, rigid and cold, a look of shock frozen on his face, his eyes staring blankly at the ceiling. And that wasn't all. Next to him was another figure, the strangest sight Helen had ever seen. It was Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor ghost, no longer pearly-white and transparent, but black and smoky, floating immobile and horizontal, six inches off the floor. His head was half off and his face wore an expression of shock identical to Justin's.

They stood there in shock at what they were seeing when suddenly a door right next to them opened with a bang and Peeves the Poltergeist came shooting out.

"Why, it's pretty witty Potter! And Handsome Diggory!" cackled Peeves, knocking Cedric back as he bounced past him. "What are they up to? Were they kis-"

Peeves stopped, halfway through a midair somersault. Upside down, he spotted Justin and Nearly Headless Nick. He flipped the right way up, filled his lungs and screamed, "ATTACK! ATTACK! ANOTHER ATTACK! NO MORTAL OR GHOST IS SAFE! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! ATTAAAACK!"

Immediately, rushing footsteps were heard which were soon revealed to be Professor MccGonagall and a few Hufflepuff students. Soon, the corridor was crowded and Professor McGonagall took control of the situation and sent everyone back to their respective common rooms.

Justin was carried up to the hospital wing by Professor Flitwick and Professor Sinistra of the Astronomy department, but nobody seemed to know what to do for Nearly Headless Nick. In the end, Professor McGonagall conjured a large fan out of thin air, which she gave to a prefect with instructions to waft Nearly Headless Nick up the stairs.

Finally, she turned to Helen and Cedric and curtly ordered them to follow her. She led them to the Headmaster's office, gave the password to the ugly stone gargoyle and led them up on the spiral staircase into the Headmaster's office.

Dumbledore was sitting behind his desk and Helen saw Professor Snape standing in a shadowy corner. Fawkes, Dumbledore's Phoenix, was resting on a golden perch right next to the window and looked like it was nearing its burning day. They came to a stop right in front of the desk and Professor McGonagall took one of the seats at the desk after turning it around to look at them.

Dumbledore was considering them, looking somber, tips of his long fingers together in front of them. He finally opened his mouth.

"I'd like to ask you both, whether there is anything you'd like to tell me," he said gently. "Anything at all."

Before Helen could reply negatively, Cedric panicked and spilled the beans on their whereabouts and their activities since lunch. All through the tale Helen felt like facepalming, especially when she noticed the amused expression on McGonagall's and Dumbledore's faces. Snape's expression was a weird combination of both a scowl and amusement.

"...and then Peeves was there making the racket, soon after which you arrived, Professor McGonagall." Cedric finished and promptly blushed after noticing the teacher's expression. Dumbledore turned to her and asked gently, "Would you like to add anything, Helen?" Helen shook her head, fighting the blush that was trying to rise on her face.

"Well then, it appears that you were just at the wrong place at the wrong time. You can leave then, off you go." Dumbledore waved them out. They quickly moved towards the door but before they could leave, Dumbledore gave them some parting words, "Oh, by the way, Congratulations!"

Helen lost the battle against her blush and bolted for the door, quickly followed by Cedric.

XXXXX

As the door closed behind the embarrassed teens, Snape's scowl intensified, "You shouldn't congratulate them, she is too young to date!" He ignored his own voice in his head calling him 'hypocrite'.

"Well, normally, I would have agreed with you Severus, but Miss Potter seems more than mature enough to me to decide such things on her own. Besides, Mr Diggory is certainly not a bad choice for a partner." Minerva said.

"She could certainly do better and he's too old," he spoke barely above a whisper, trying to ignore the voice saying 'someone like you?' or 'you aren't?' in his head.

"I agree with Minerva and I think what Helen does in her private life is her choice alone. Though, I am a bit concerned about her physical maturity. I might be old and my eyesight might not be what it used to be, but to me Helen looked almost as old as Mr Diggory." Dumbledore stated, putting it like a question like he normally did whenever he wanted others to tell him their opinions.

"Well, maybe she's an early bloomer," Minerva replied with a shrug.

"Lily was," Snape added softly, with a longing look in his eyes, as he remembered those happier days of his life.

"Even so," Dumbledore pressed, "An early bloomer still wouldn't grow that fast. I think she may have accelerated her growth a bit using magic."

"Even if she did, what can we do about it? She didn't harm anyone or herself, as far as we know, and it got through her puberty quickly." Minerva replied and then added under her breath, "Merlin knows I would have done the same if I had known how to do so."

Dumbledore hid his amusement at that last comment, which he was sure Minerva didn't want others to hear. He sighed then and supposed that Minerva was right. It was a harmless act, and he doubted that anyone who knew any of the several methods to achieve such a thing wouldn't use it to shorten that awkward period of their life. He himself certainly wouldn't have minded it back when he was young.

Meanwhile, Severus continued to brood as his mind kept altering the images of Lily and Helen in his head, before forcing himself to focus as the conversation shifted to the current threat.

XXXXX

Helen and Cedric had dashed upstairs and entered a crowded common room, where rumors had already spread about what happened. After fielding questions for half an hour, they finally made their way to the oval and collapsed in a love-seat. Helen then proceeded to scold Cedric about blabbing their personal details in front of three professors, while completely embarrassing her.

Ten minutes later when she judged he had been scolded enough, she crawled into his arms for comfort and closeness, resting her head on his chest. This was how their friends found them when they entered the room, with Luna promptly wishing them Congratulations for their new relationship. This obviously led to another set of questions being flung at them and they answered these ones with many blushes on their behalf and giggles from the girls present.

Helen noticed that Hermione didn't ask any questions and neither did she participate in the girly gossip that commenced after the questions. Another person who wasn't happy was Colin, he scowled at Cedric cutely whenever he thought no one was watching.

Soon after, Hermione left for their bedroom while Luna engaged Colin in a game of exploding snap. Judging that Colin would be fine for now, she exchanged a significant look with Cedric and nodded towards her bedroom. A look of understanding appeared on his face and he nodded back. Helen got up and went to her room after exchanging another look, this time with Padma.

She entered without knocking and locked the door behind her. As she expected, Hermione was crying in the bed, which she tried to cover up as soon as she entered. Helen joined her in the bed and took the girl in her arms and turned her face around so that they were facing each other. She gently cleaned up Hermione's face and called her name.

When she didn't look at her, she gently but firmly held her face in her hands and ordered, still in a gentle voice, "Look at me."

Hermione looked at her with eyes that were again starting to fill up with tears. Helen then slowly leaned forward, while maintaining eye contact. Hermione's eyes widened as soon as she realized what Helen intended to do and she stilted. Helen then rapidly closed the distance and softly placed her lips on Hermione's and kissed her. She continued to kiss her for a few more seconds before pulling back to look at the girl.

Hermione had closed her eyes and her lips were slightly parted as if she was trying to imprint the kiss permanently to her memory. She slowly opened her eyes and looked at Helen. There were many questions in her eyes, but before she could ask them, Helen started speaking.

"Before Cedric and I officially started our relationship we had a talk. In this talk, I told him something about myself, something I'm going to tell you as well. I'm bisexual and strictly non-monogamous. I told him if he wants to date me, he will have to accept that I'll have other people in my life with whom I'll be involved as well, both boys and girls. I gave him an out with no hard feelings then, if he couldn't accept that. He obviously refused considering he's officially my boyfriend now." Helen concluded, "Does that answer all your questions?"

Hermione thought about it for a moment and nodded meekly.

Helen continued, "I've known about your attraction towards me for a while now and I like you as well." Hermione's eyes widened again as a blush started forming on her cheeks.

"I've been open about my attraction to you, Hermione. Or did you think I would get naked in front of anyone?" Helen smirked, causing Hermione to blush deeper. "I've been waiting for you to be ready to be in a relationship before making any advances. I thought you weren't ready for that, but that is not something I can decide, that is for you to decide. Whenever you decide you are ready, I'll welcome you with open arms and a kiss."

A thoughtful look passed acrossHermione's face and after a while she spoke up, "I know I'm not ready yet, but after seeing you with Cedric I thought my chance was gone forever. Now that I know that's not the case and that you are willing to wait for me, I'll take my time and will come to you as soon as I'm ready. I know that I like you, more than that even, but I'll not rush in now to make a mess of the situation. When I'll come to you, I'll finally be ready." She finished strongly, with clear determination.

Helen hugged her tightly and gave Hermione another peck on the lips, "That's all I ask."

XXXXX

Ever since Lockhart's detention incident, Helen had been planning on some simple enchanted jewelry. Today, she finally had the time to complete that task. She was in the Room of Requirement, along with Padma, and they had brought the left earring of all the earring sets they had with them. Helen was going to enchant them to detect potions and poisons in their food and drink.

Due to the ritual they had done, they had become virtually immune to such things, but an unforeseen consequence of it was that they could not detect if someone tried to poison them, at least not without detection charms. Thus, Helen was going to enchant all their left earrings to detect it for them. Now, whenever their food or drinks had a mind-altering potion such as love or loyalty potion, the earring would grow hot, and whenever there was a poison, it would become cold and send minor vibrations.

It wasn't limited to just food stuff only. It would work even for aerosol forms, such as the cologne Lockhart had worn that night as well as on any drinks. Helen was saving the right earrings for other useful enchantments and had only used the left ones so as to not cause confusion between different signals from different enchantments.

XXXXX

The winter holidays were upon them. Their trunks were packed and their bellies full with the last meal they would have in this calendar year at Hogwarts. Apart from a handful of students, everyone was going back for the winter holidays, especially with the Chamber of Secrets open, few wanted to brave an empty Hogwarts. Helen was going back to Bones' Manor and would stay there for the entirety of the vacation.

Lockhart contacts had come through and he got invited to the Minister's annual Yule ball, where he would appear with Helen as his plus one. He was going to pick her up from the Bones' Manor for the event and would return her back after the event.

Right now, her group of friends were chatting excitedly about holidays and guessing what gifts they would be getting. Helen was concentrating on an advanced chemistry book, where she thought she had finally found a suitable material for her communication hub. The solution was simple enough, as she had already determined that the material should be similar to a wand. The answer she had come to was Charcoal. She was going to order some of the stuff to experiment with when she got back to Hogwarts. She finally closed the book, satisfied with her work and joined the chatting group.

Later, back in the Bones' Manor, Amelia asked if Helen wanted her Occlumency barriers checked, Helen had consented and brought forward only the impenetrable shields in her mind, dropping the more advanced decoy memories and traps on the outside of the shields. Amelia tested her shields and declared them to be formidable when she couldn't find any fault in them.

Soon, Yule arrived and Helen spent most of the late afternoon getting ready for the ministry ball. Amelia was also invited due to her position of head of DMLE, though Susan was not. Usually only of-age or about to be of-age heirs of the noble families were invited to such events, so Helen having snaked her way in was a bit unusual. Mostly, the invitees included members of the Wizengamot, high level ministry officials, noble families and their heirs as well as various influential members of the magical community. Helen wanted to go just for this reason so she could start making important contacts that would be useful for her later on.

So instead, Susan was helping Helen get ready for the event. Several hours later, they both stood in front of a huge mirror to admire the fruits of their hard-work. Helen was dressed in an elegant floor length Lace Chiffon dress. It had an illusion bodice, back and sleeves, which had red roses sewn on it to match the color of the dress and enhance the illusion of coverage. The material at the front of the dress was overlapped to look somewhat like a simple Celtic knot and below it, from her waist downwards, the dress flared a bit till it reached the floor.

To compliment the dress, Helen was wearing simple dangling diamond earrings and a thin diamond bracelet on her left wrist. She would be carrying a silver clutch with her and her short heels were also silver. Her hair was up, done in a messy undone bun with several strategically placed strands coming down on either side of her face. They had spelled her hair to be a slightly different shade, so now it looked Burgundy instead of Mahogany. Susan had applied subtle make-up to enhance Helen's natural beauty. For a change, the make-up was done in such a way as to not bring out her eyes but to make them appear darker instead. The only thing not subtle was her lipstick, which matched her dress.

Several minutes later, when they were still admiring her beauty in the mirror, Amelia arrived to check on them.

"Oh, my!" she exclaimed, looking at Helen, "Well, we know where everyone's attention will be tonight. You look sensational, Helen."

Helen twirled around to face Amelia, her dress flaring out a bit and smiled at the woman, "Thanks, Amelia."

She looked over at the older women and frowned. She had done her hair, which was above her head in an elegant bun, but apart from that she was still in her casual clothes.

On inquiring, Amelia replied, "I'll arrive as late as possible without appearing to be rude. I tend to avoid such events but since I was invited, I'll attend, but for as short a period as possible."

Helen nodded, as Amelia continued, "Anyway, the reason I came up was to inform you that your 'date' is here.", Amelia explained, completely ignoring the other girl in the room.

Susan gushed again, for the thirty seventh time, not that anyone was counting, "I still can't believe you got invited by Gilderoy Lockhart to the ministry ball. Do you know how lucky you are?"

"Yeah, I know." Helen replied, faking her own excitement. After giving herself another once-over at the mirror, she grabbed her clutch and went to the drawing room, where Lockhart was waiting. He looked quite dashing in his modern looking robes, something that could easily be passed as a muggle formal long coat, which ended at the knee, had ruby encrusted buttons from neck to waist and had silver embroidery at the cuffs and hem. His trousers and shoes were black as well and he had tucked a handkerchief in his breast pocket that matched her dress. The top of the collar and the cuffs that were peeking out showed that his shirt was pearly white.

His face lit up as soon as he saw her but at one look from her he quickly adjusted his expression. After some small talk they left early for the ball, stating that they were meeting a few of his acquaintances before the event. It wasn't true but it was a good excuse.

The real reason was that Helen wanted to sneak into a certain department and an invitation to a ministry ball was the perfect way to bypass the security. They arrived at the atrium of the ministry and were quickly cleared by the security after showing them their invitation. The ball was being held at a hall on level five which also had the Department of International Magical Cooperation.

They waited for an empty elevator to arrive and got in. As soon as the doors closed, Helen pulled out her Invisibility Cloak and covered both of them under it. Lockhart had to stoop a bit to avoid his feet showing, but he did so without complaining, as if he didn't have a choice. Soon they arrived at level nine, the department of mysteries, and made their way to the entrance chamber.

Upon entering, as soon as they closed the door behind them, the walls started rotating and came to a stop after a few seconds, making it impossible to identify which door led to where. Helen, however, knew how the room worked based on the memories of Voldemort, who in turn was informed by his death eater Augustus Rookwood.

Lockhart, at Helen's direction, spoke in a clear voice, "Hall of Prophecy."

Helen didn't want to speak in case they had installed a recording device in the chamber since the time of Rookwood, that was one of the reasons she had brought Lockhart with her. The other was to offer him as Scapegoat if things went south, after triggering the safety switch she had installed in his mind. On hearing a particular phrase, Lockhart would lose all of his memories, literally all of them, turning him into a baby, mentally at least.

The walls rotated again and came to a stop after a few seconds. They moved to the door straight ahead and entered inside, finding themselves in a vast, cold chamber with a ceiling as high as a cathedral. It was filled with row upon row of towering shelves. On these shelves were hundreds of small, dusty, glass orbs, each with a yellowed and dusty label affixed below. Candle-brackets set at intervals along the shelves held blue-flame candles.

Since the prophecies were ordered chronologically, they moved to the last shelf and started moving backwards till they arrived in the right year, 1980. They were in row ninety seven, and quickly started inspecting the labels. Soon Helen found one labeled:

S. P. T. to A. P. W. B. D.

Dark Lord

and (?) Helen Potter

Helen slowly and carefully touched the orb. When nothing happened she picked it up and gazed at it. After a moment she let a trickle of magic flow from her fingers into the orb and suddenly a sort of memory entered her mind.

The memory showed a disheveled woman with large glasses, which Helen shockingly realized was Sybill Trelawney, the Divination teacher at Hogwarts. She seemed to be in a trance when she suddenly started speaking in a haunty voice:

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark her as his equal, but she will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..."

Helen stood still, her mind working fast trying to interpret and analyze the wordings of the prophecy. She stood there for several minutes, before a victorious smirk slowly appeared on her face.

She was about to smash the orb when an idea came to her. She pulled out her secondary wand and waved it at the orb, concentrating. She removed the bits Voldemort had not heard and placed the orb back in its position. Then she, along with her pet, swiftly exited the place and reached the ball hall just as the party was starting.

Lockhart did what he was told to do admirably, in Helen's honest opinion. While he didn't have many contacts in the Wizengamot, he did have a lot of them in other circles. He introduced Helen to Barnabas Cuffe, the editor in chief of The Daily Prophet and Rita Skeeter, their chief reporter, who was Cuffe's plus one. They gave a few words for tomorrow's edition and moved on to meet the main radio presenter of The Wizarding Wireless Network (WWN). After him they met a few Quidditch stars, another author who wrote household books, and several ladies of various houses, who were fans of Lockhart's work and he used the opportunity to help Helen make acquaintance with them.

Helen also met with Lords Greengrass, Davis and Abbott who had introduced her to several of their fellow lords. Soon, the dance started and Helen twirled with Lockhart for a few songs, before the Minister of Magic himself asked to cut in, wanting to get to know the girl who lived. Cornelius Fudge, Helen realized within a few minutes, was a bit dim-witted but with fair political acumen to recognize opportunities whenever they arrived and to grab them with both hands. Like, for example, the presence of the girl who lived at the party he was hosting. After dancing a couple of songs with him, Helen was sure she had left a more than positive impression on the man.

After the party ended, Lockhart had escorted her back to Bones' Manor where Helen told him that he had done a praiseworthy job. His face had lit up at that and Helen imagined if he had a tail, it would be wagging to and fro.

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On new year's eve, Amelia hosted an informal party of friends at the Manor. Most of Helen's and Susan's friends were invited as were their parents. Helen was dressed in a crisp Muslin dress with geometrical patterns that ended at her mid-thigh. The dress had a modest sweetheart neckline with shoulder straps which left her arms bare and was almost completely backless apart from a inch thick strip that connected the shoulder straps back to the dress under her arms. She had drop shaped dangling diamond earrings and a twisted gold and diamond bracelet on her left wrist. To complement the dress, she was wearing deadly five inch beige pumps that had small diamonds studded on the straps.

Madam Malkins, who was a friend of Amelia, complimented Helen on seeing the dress and had asked about her knowledge of muggle clothing. Fifteen minutes later, she and Helen had tentatively agreed to collaborate to launch a modern clothing line aimed to bring the fashionable designs for the muggle world to the magical one. Helen had indicated that she would ask Lockhart to join forces with them, to work on the man's line.

After mingling with everyone, the younger party-goers had separated from the older ones and had their own separate party which was a lot wilder. When the clock struck midnight, Helen welcomed the new year kissing Cedric, with a lot of loud cheering and wolf-whistling. Later that night when the guests had left, Helen kissed Hermione as well, who along with Hannah, was staying with them till the start of new term.

Please R&R.

Thank you 1saaa, for cleaning up my messes and making this readable for our dear readers.

Yule ball dress: search "Elegant Lace Chiffon Christmas Party Dresses" on goo gle, you'll find it.

New year's eve dress: you tube video: "New Year's Party Dresses Inspiration - DIY Project" by DIY projects, dress at 0:45.

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