disclaimer: I own what JKR doesn't
On the week before Halloween, I went up to my room, feeling miserable. It was the day that my parents had been killed by Voldemort, 14 years ago.
I found that Hermione was the only other one in our room. She was laying down on her bed, fully dressed, with the curtains open. She seemed to be deep in thought, so I sat down on my bed quietly, trying not to disturb her.
After a minute she looked up at me, and said "Oh, hi Hannah. I was just thinking about my mum. Sometimes I miss living like a muggle, and I miss my parents. Do you know what I mean?"
"Yeah." I said. "I miss my parents a lot."
"What did they think about you getting accepted into Hogwarts?" she asked.
"Mmm, what?" I asked, not liking where this conversation was going.
"What did they think about you getting accepted into Hogwarts?" she asked again.
"It was predicted that I would go to Hogwarts in my fifth year." I said, evasively.
"Who predicted it?" Hermione asked.
"A divinator." I said.
"Duh." Hermione said. "What divinator?"
"A relative." I said.
"Boy or girl?" she asked.
"Girl." I said.
"How is she related to you?" Hermione pressed.
"My mother." I said.
"What's her name?" Hermione asked.
"Why do you want to know?" I asked.
"Just curious." she said. "Why are you always so secretive?"
"I'm not secretive." I said.
"Then why won't you just answer my questions?" she asked.
"Today is not the best day to be asking me about my parents." I said.
"Why?" Hermione asked, sounding less irritated.
I took a deep breath, and then started. "Fourteen years ago today, Voldemort killed both of my parents." I said, laying down on my bed.
"I'm sorry." Hermione said. "I had no idea..."
I didn't say anything to Hermione for a minute, and then continued. "Remember when I told you I lived near my school?"
"Yes." Hermione said.
"I live at my school." I said. "It is a school and an orphanage. My mother knew Voldemort was going to kill them. She Apparated me to the orphanage when he was politely knocking on our back door."
"I think I'm going to spend the night in the Shrieking Shack. I don't want to run in to anyone else and start yelling at them. I'll be fine in the morning."
"Ok." Hermione said. "Do you have enough food for dinner up there?"
"Yeah." I said. "I'll see you in the morning."
"Bye." Hermione said.
A week later, in Halloween morning, I woke up to find myself in a bad mood, very similar to the mood I was in on my parents' death anniversary, but this time it was the death anniversary of James and Lily. When I remembered that today was the day that Lily had said I was supposed to look into my crystal ball, I told Hermione that I was going to be in the Shrieking Shack all day. By this time she had learned not to ask me many questions.
I was grateful that she let me go without saying anything besides "See you later. If you want to talk then..."
I made sure I had my crystal ball (that wasn't cursed) and all my other divination stuff. I disappeared under the invisibility cloak, and didn't take it off until I was safely in the tunnel.
When I reached the Shrieking Shack, I fixed myself a glass of water, and then set up my stuff. After ten minutes of preparation, I looked into the crystal ball.
I heard what I assumed was Lily's voice. 'Hannah, I didn't want you to find out, but after you put two and two together in your third year, I realized that you needed to know. Remember that spell that Elizabeth put into the letter, where you can see all of us, and when you and Harry wanted to swim. At the end of it, Your mother predicts the exact day of their death. She knew it would be sometime that week, and we had almost all of the preparations ready, but when Harry said 'Swim tomowow' she was shocked into instinctive divination, and predicted that it would be the next day.'
'James told her to turn the spell off, he didn't want you to hear or see what we did next. We sat back down. We made the final preparations. You know that the plan was to have Voldemort kill James. James was going to die to defend Harry, and then Voldemort would try to kill Harry. The curse would rebound upon Voldemort, and then I would be free to finish Voldemort off. We had agreed on that plan. James was ready to sacrifice himself, for the good of the future world. We understood that there was no way around it.'
'Your mother wrote the letter to the orphanage director, saying that I would pick you up on the day after Halloween. Everything was ready. We saw no flaws. Then, Dumbledore Apparated into the room. He said that Voldemort was after us. He expected us to be horrified, but Elizabeth started laughing. To this day, Dumbledore has no idea why she said No kidding!'
'James and Elizabeth had known since birth that Voldemort would be after them. You know about Gryffindor, and all of that. Before James even agreed to date me, he told me everything, and all the danger. Elizabeth had made a prediction that our son would save the world. She did an alternate future spell to see what the world would be like if I didn't marry James. She told me nothing of her prediction until I told her that I loved James, and was going to marry him. When she was assured that I was going to go ahead with it, she told me that I had made the right decision.'
'When Dumbledore suggested the Fidelus Charm, Elizabeth asked him to come back when she called for him. She looked into her crystal ball, and to her great dismay saw that Voldemort had gotten a team of Seers together, to change the future. Most of it seemed to have been directed at Dumbledore, and Peter Pettigrew. Your mother wanted to go kill Voldemort then and there, but it was all she could do to save the situation without killing herself. The future changing spells of Voldemort's Seers were great in number. Elizabeth estimated that it had taken about 100 Seers to do all that damage.'
'Elizabeth changed a lot of the spells, with help from James. The most she could do was to make Harry survive. She and James combined could not save me, unless Harry died. They gave me a choice. As if I would save my life instead of the life of my baby. They knew without asking what I would choose, and it had nothing to do with divination.'
'They were able to make it so that James would be able to try to get a shot in at Voldemort. They made it so that he would have a chance, but they could not secure anything. Elizabeth then Saw the part about Sirius and Pettigrew. She was astonished, and ready to kill that sorry excuse for a rat. The most she could do, was to make sure Sirius was able to escape from Azkaban. The dark Seers had had it so that Sirius would get the dementor's kiss. That was avoided. She was able to make Remus get a job at Hogwarts in Harry's third year, so that there would be a chance for Peter to be caught. She was unable to secure more than a slim chance.'
'There was nothing she could do about us switching Secret Keepers. She tried to tell us, but she almost killed herself, and she still had more Seeing to do, and she still had much to change. She saved the life of Neville Longbottom, as a favor to Billy, as a favor to Frank.'
'She went back to the fight at Godric's Hallow, to try to do more. Voldemort's Seer team had had it so that Pettigrew would take Harry after we were dead, and then kill him. I remember her sighing, and asking how many times she would have to save him. She fixed it so that he would live with Petunia. I was horrified, but there was no way to get him to the orphanage you would be at, so I knew better than to complain. Elizabeth continued to save Harry. She saved him from not being able to go to Hogwarts, then she saved his life in his first year, she stopped Quirrel from getting the Sorcerer's Stone, she saved Harry, Hermione Granger, and Ginny Weasley from the Basilisk in his second year, she saved Sirius in Harry's third year, and she saved Harry in his fourth year. There was nothing she could do about the Diggory boy, and she did an alternate future spell to See if she should do anything about Voldemort. There is a reason she didn't, that I can not tell you.'
'Then she did an alternate future spell to See if she should try to warn us about Pettigrew. She Saw that if she did, she would die, and it still wouldn't work. She also Saw that right before Voldemort killed her, she would hit him once with Avada Kedavra, and if she wasn't there to do that, Voldemort would be able to kill Harry, in which case, the world would be doomed. Not to mention that she would have wasted all her energy on saving Harry's life so many times, and then to let him die? She couldn't do that, and for nothing.'
'She looked into her crystal ball a moment later, and saw that Voldemort's Seers were making it so you wouldn't go to Hogwarts. With 100 Seers against 1, all she could do was to get you to be a transfer student in your fifth year. Then she used all the strength she could spare to stop Voldemort's Seers from changing the future.'
'By know she was worried that she was getting a little to close to the dark arts for comfort. We assured her that everything she was doing was light magic, and that even by getting you to Hogwarts she saved lives, because if you were never at Hogwarts, you couldn't participate in the final battle, and Voldemort would be able to kill many more people.'
'Then James helped her put the rest of Voldemort's Seers out of commission, and there was nothing left we could do. James did transfer a lot of his and our thoughts and memories into a diary, quite similar to the one Voldemort made when he was in school, although we left out all the dark magic and controlling power. The only thing is, there are some bad memories and things in there too. We put it in our vault at Gringotts. Harry won't even be able to see it until he is 17.'
'After Elizabeth and James had done so much future changing, Elizabeth was so weak she was about to pass out, probably for a month. Billy and I brewed a reviving potion for her, a will-strengthening potion, and an energy potion. She sill looked incredibly pale after the potions had taken effect, and said she couldn't See a thing in her crystal ball. That meant that she had almost no power left.'
'James was never a Seer, but because of his blood, he could change the future by his actions. Elizabeth said that she remembered Seeing in the crystal ball when she was fighting Voldemort was that she was incredibly pale. She also said Harry survived the curse Voldemort threw at him, but he didn't look too good. James thought that if he gave Elizabeth some of his power, she would be able to throw a more powerful killing curse at Voldemort, and it would have more effect. He said he knew that the chance Elizabeth had given him of being able to hit Voldemort was incredibly slim, and she would make better use of his power than he would.'
'Elizabeth was inclined to agree. She didn't want to come off conceited, but she knew that they had to do what was best for the most people, pride, family values, and what they wanted as individuals aside. Power transferring spells are dark magic, but as much as neither of them wanted to do it, they did. Dark magic, used for good, becomes light magic, and amplifies the results. James and Elizabeth found that out. Dark magic such as that had never before been used for a good reason, and had any of us had more time to live, we would have written books about it. Elizabeth had full strength after that.'
'When no-one could think of anything else to do, Elizabeth told Dumbledore to come back. Dumbledore came, and sat down to talk with the Potters. Elizabeth used all the strength she could muster to try to tell them not to use Pettigrew, or to tell Dumbledore that they were going to use Pettigrew, but it was still the work of 100 Seers against 1. There was nothing she could do.'
'You know the rest, Hannah dear.' Lily concluded. 'It is, quite literally, history. I wish I could stay and chat, but I was only allowed to come for long enough to tell you about this whole mess. I hope you no longer think that James and I messed up, and remember-your mother saved the world. Be proud of her, and when Voldemort is finally dead, you will no longer have to keep these secrets. You can shout to the world that you are a Potter. Be proud Hannah, and tell Harry when the time is right. You will know.'
When Lily had gone, I stared into space for about an hour, thinking. Her story explained a lot. I felt bad for telling Professor Lupin that Lily and James had messed up. It seemed like so long ago that I had talked to him on the train, first coming to Hogwarts. It had only really been about two months. I resolved to tell Professor Lupin at least a little of what Lily had told me. Some of the things that got better might make him appreciate the good things more, and knowing about how much damage Voldemort had done would be good for him. More people needed to oppose Voldemort, and less people needed to fear him.
I spent the next few hours in the Shrieking Shack, and then, around three, I went back to Hogwarts. I left all my divination things there. Since it was Saturday, I had no idea of where to find Professor Lupin. It wasn't a Hogsmead weekend, so what would he do? I decided to try his office first, to see if he might be there. When he wasn't, I was out of ideas. Then, I remembered the Marauder's Map. I summoned it, and when it got to me, I was astonished to see that Professor Lupin was standing right behind me. I whirled around, and he smiled at me.
"Hi!" I said. "I just summoned the map to find you, and I saw you standing right behind me! How long have you been there?"
"Oh, about two minutes." He said. "I was looking for you. Hermione told me that you went to the Shrieking Shack this morning. I was about to go check on you."
"I'm fine." I said. "It's the Halloween of my fifth year, remember?"
"Oh, that's right." He said. "Let's continue this conversation in my office, shall we?"
"Good idea." I said. "I don't want to be overheard."
When we got to his office, and had sat down, Professor Lupin asked, "So, are you going to tell me anything?"
"Yes." I said. "I know it will help you. It helped me a lot. I thought things were bad, but they could have been a lot worse. Let me start at the beginning..."
When I was done telling him everything that Lily had told me, Professor Lupin just stared at me. After about ten minutes, he spoke.
"I never knew Elizabeth had that power." He said. "And I didn't know that stuff about the dark arts either. I want to kill Pettigrew, and Voldemort. I can't imagine how it would feel to know something like that, about Pettigrew betraying Lily and James, and not be able to do anything about it. I would have died."
"That was the danger." I said. "She couldn't use all her power to tell them, or she would die, and Voldemort might not attack the Potters, but he would continue to kill other families. Without my mother to do future changing spells, and to warn the Auror teams, and with Voldemort still at large, because he wasn't killed by Harry, he would have taken over the world, and killed anybody that stood a chance against him. James and Lily wanted it that way, Lily told me. She said that they knew they had to do what was best for the most people. Her brother and his wife, or half the world. They had to do it. It must have been torture. In fact, Lily told me that it was torture for Mother."
"Your right, Hannah." Professor Lupin sighed. "You nearly always are. I owe Elizabeth so much. She saved Harry, you, the world, Sirius, and even me."
"I won't argue with that," I said. "but you didn't need saving half as much as the rest of us."
"I stayed a little bit out of the picture for awhile." he said. "James and Sirius thought I was the spy, for the dark side. I was really a spy for the light side, but not much trusted. Dumbledore trusted me, but none of my partners did. I was often discouraged, so I didn't talk about it much. I didn't want to dump my problems on my friends, but me not talking to them as much as I used to probably made them suspicious of me."
"It was a messed up world we were living in. I believed that Sirius was guilty for a while. Funny, Sirius and James trusted each other, and Pettigrew, but not me. I trusted James and Pettigrew, but not Sirius. We didn't trust the innocent, except for James, who was in the center of all this, and he couldn't possibly have been on the dark side, but we all trusted the person guilty of the crime."
"If I get my hands on rat boy," I said. "I will personally make sure he does not get away." "Do you know all that he did?"
"I know he sold Lily and James to Voldemort." he said. "But it sounds as if he did more."
"Besides the blatantly obvious being Lily and James' Secret Keeper, and telling Voldemort exactly where to find them, he passed information to Voldemort for about three years before that. When he was at Hogwarts, he found out that my mother was a Potter. She wasn't killed just for being a Seer on the light side, she was killed for being a Potter. He sold my parents to Voldemort. We can only hope he doesn't know about me."
"He also framed Sirius, and abused your trust in him every way imaginable. Anything, and everything he knew about you, he used against you. James thought of becoming animagi so that they could keep you company when you were a werewolf. Later, he used that talent that he wouldn't have acquired without you, James, and Sirius to sicc Voldemort after you, James, and Sirius."
"Me?" Lupin asked. "Voldemort never came after me."
"If he had not met his downfall in Harry," I said. "you would have been killed the next night. My mother Saw it, in one of her alternate future spells. Wormtail told Voldemort that you were a spy for the light side, and friends with the Potters and their families. Besides for him selling my mother, father, aunt, uncle, and cousin to Voldemort, Peter Pettigrew put the Cruciatus Curse on me for ten minutes when I was six months old." I said.
"I only went out of the house once before I was at the orphanage." I said. When I was six months old, my parents disguised themselves and took me to a muggle movie. They didn't think any dark wizards would be at a muggle move, but Voldemort's Seers ruin a lot of things. They had done some instinctive divination, and told Wormtail to be at that movie, and when it was over to torture the first baby he saw."
"Naturally, that was me. He stunned my parents from behind, and then tortured me for ten minutes. My parents were able to overcome the stunning when they heard me screaming. Aurors do that. They stunned and tied Pettigrew, disguised themselves, and then Apparated everyone to Dumbledore's office, being careful not to let Wormtail know who they were. Pettigrew convinced everyone that he had the Imperius curse put on him. He was taught how to resist it, and then sent home.
"I was in pretty bad shape, but Fawkes came over to me and cried all over me. I was drenched in Phoenix tears by the time Fawkes was done, and by some miracle, I was good as new. Dumbledore had no clue why Fawkes would cry for someone he didn't know. I think he got a little bit suspicious toward the end."
"My mother only figured out that Pettigrew was lying on the night before she was killed. The last page of my letter is about everything traitorous he has done."
"Oh my." Lupin said. "He put the Cruciatus Curse on a defenseless baby?"
"I was not defenseless." I said. "I put the leg locker curse on my mother when I was two days old. She wouldn't let me hold her wand."
"Well!" Professor Lupin said. "I can see why, if you did the leg locker curse without a wand, what were you going to do with a wand?"
"I think Mother said I wanted to apparate us home. We were in a wizard hospital, because Mother had been doing so many future changing spells that she was rather weak after having a baby."
Lupin started laughing. "Ok, ok, I take it back! You weren't a defenseless baby."
"Thank you." I said.
"Did Dumbledore know your parents?" Lupin asked.
"Um, you could say that." I said evasively. "I'd better go see what Hermione is doing. I spent the night in the Shrieking Shack last week, and after today she might be getting worried."
"Good idea." Lupin said. "If I didn't know better, I'd be worried about you too."
"Bye." I said.
When I got to our dorm, I was startled to see Hermione sitting on her bed, and staring at my letter, which was laying on my bed.
"Hello!" I said.
"Hi." Hermione answered.
I sat down on my bed, and picked up my letter.
"What's that?" Hermione asked.
"A big, blank, book." I said. "Would you like to see it?"
Hermione took my book from my outstretched hand, and started flipping through it.
"You can try revealing spells on it, if you want." I said. "It won't work."
Hermione got her wand out, and said "Revelo!" Nothing happened.
She rubbed it with a red eraser. Nothing happened.
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." Nothing happened.
"I solemnly swear that I am up to a lot of good." Nothing happened.
"I solemnly swear that I want to read this." Nothing happened.
"I solemnly swear that Hannah said I could try to read this. Nothing happened.
"I told you it wouldn't work." I said.
"Is there anything I could say to make it readable?" Hermione asked.
"Nothing light magic." I said. "If you want to experiment with the dark arts..."
"You're kidding, right?" Hermione asked, sounding worried.
"Of course!" I said. "I don't know the spell, even if I did want to do it. If I wanted you to be able to read it, there is another way, which would be almost as bad as dark magic, and really stupid. The only good way for you to know what it says, would be for me to simply read it to you, which I doubt that I will ever do, and if I did it would be after my seventh year."
"So in other words, forget about it and worry about the feast?" Hermione asked, smiling.
"Exactly!" I said. "How long until it starts?"
"About an hour." Hermione answered.
"Wow!" I said. "I was talking to Professor Lupin for longer than I thought!"
"Oh, yeah." Hermione said. "I forgot to tell you that he asked where you were. Is it ok that I told him?"
"Yes." I said. "You can always tell Professor Lupin, or Professor McGonogall, if she asks."
"Ok." Hermione said. "Did he go get you?"
"No." I said. "I came back and looked for him because I wanted to talk to him."
"Oh." Hermione said. "I was worried about you, being gone two weeks in a row."
"You know why I left last week." I said. "Do you know why I left today?"
"No." Hermione said.
"It was for a reason similar to last week, but I was also doing some divination today."
"O-kayyyy." Hermione said slowly.
I had the feeling that I had managed to totally confuse her, so I changed the subject.
"I'm going to owl Lydia." I said, knowing she would ask who Lydia was.
Sure enough-"Who's Lydia?"
"My adopted sister." I said. "Not really, but on everyone's 14th birthday, they draw a name out of a hat. The name of every child under five is in there, and whoever's name you draw becomes your adopted brother or sister. You spend a lot of time with that person, and take care of them. I got Lydia, and at that time she was just a new born."
"Her mother had dropped her off at daycare one day, and never come back for her. The person that ran the daycare brought her to the orphanage. For about a year after that, Lydia would scream every time someone left her, until she realized that they would come back. Just when she got over her phobia, I had to leave. She was really attached to me, and Mrs. Tweedy, the orphanage director, was scared that she would have a relapse. I am supposed to go back over the holidays, and some other weekends. I will probably go back next weekend, so I have to owl Mrs. Tweedy. The full moon is on Tuesday, so it shouldn't be a problem."
After I had written my letter, Rainbow (my owl) flew into the room through an open window. Hermione gasped when she saw a big multicolored owl fly in.
"Hello rainbow." I said. "Take this letter to Mrs. Tweedy, but fly past Lydia first. After you deliver the letter, go back to Lydia and play with her."
After Rainbow had left, I said to Hermione "Owls are almost as smart as snakes."
"Snakes?" Hermione said. "I don't like snakes."
"Really?" I asked. I stuck my head under my bed to see if my snake was there. He was, so I pulled him out. "Hermione, meet Jupiter, my snake."
Jupiter turned to me and said "What is her name?"
"Sorry." I said in Parseltongue. "This is my friend Hermione."
Hermione looked at me, her mouth hanging open.
"You're a parselmouth?" she asked.
"Yep." I said. "I think it's time for the feast now."
The feast was wonderful, and at the end there was a show of how the Bloody Baron got bloody. It seemed that Dumbledore had spent the last few years convincing him to do it, and finally he gave in. After the feast, everyone went straight to bed and fell fast asleep.
On the week before Halloween, I went up to my room, feeling miserable. It was the day that my parents had been killed by Voldemort, 14 years ago.
I found that Hermione was the only other one in our room. She was laying down on her bed, fully dressed, with the curtains open. She seemed to be deep in thought, so I sat down on my bed quietly, trying not to disturb her.
After a minute she looked up at me, and said "Oh, hi Hannah. I was just thinking about my mum. Sometimes I miss living like a muggle, and I miss my parents. Do you know what I mean?"
"Yeah." I said. "I miss my parents a lot."
"What did they think about you getting accepted into Hogwarts?" she asked.
"Mmm, what?" I asked, not liking where this conversation was going.
"What did they think about you getting accepted into Hogwarts?" she asked again.
"It was predicted that I would go to Hogwarts in my fifth year." I said, evasively.
"Who predicted it?" Hermione asked.
"A divinator." I said.
"Duh." Hermione said. "What divinator?"
"A relative." I said.
"Boy or girl?" she asked.
"Girl." I said.
"How is she related to you?" Hermione pressed.
"My mother." I said.
"What's her name?" Hermione asked.
"Why do you want to know?" I asked.
"Just curious." she said. "Why are you always so secretive?"
"I'm not secretive." I said.
"Then why won't you just answer my questions?" she asked.
"Today is not the best day to be asking me about my parents." I said.
"Why?" Hermione asked, sounding less irritated.
I took a deep breath, and then started. "Fourteen years ago today, Voldemort killed both of my parents." I said, laying down on my bed.
"I'm sorry." Hermione said. "I had no idea..."
I didn't say anything to Hermione for a minute, and then continued. "Remember when I told you I lived near my school?"
"Yes." Hermione said.
"I live at my school." I said. "It is a school and an orphanage. My mother knew Voldemort was going to kill them. She Apparated me to the orphanage when he was politely knocking on our back door."
"I think I'm going to spend the night in the Shrieking Shack. I don't want to run in to anyone else and start yelling at them. I'll be fine in the morning."
"Ok." Hermione said. "Do you have enough food for dinner up there?"
"Yeah." I said. "I'll see you in the morning."
"Bye." Hermione said.
A week later, in Halloween morning, I woke up to find myself in a bad mood, very similar to the mood I was in on my parents' death anniversary, but this time it was the death anniversary of James and Lily. When I remembered that today was the day that Lily had said I was supposed to look into my crystal ball, I told Hermione that I was going to be in the Shrieking Shack all day. By this time she had learned not to ask me many questions.
I was grateful that she let me go without saying anything besides "See you later. If you want to talk then..."
I made sure I had my crystal ball (that wasn't cursed) and all my other divination stuff. I disappeared under the invisibility cloak, and didn't take it off until I was safely in the tunnel.
When I reached the Shrieking Shack, I fixed myself a glass of water, and then set up my stuff. After ten minutes of preparation, I looked into the crystal ball.
I heard what I assumed was Lily's voice. 'Hannah, I didn't want you to find out, but after you put two and two together in your third year, I realized that you needed to know. Remember that spell that Elizabeth put into the letter, where you can see all of us, and when you and Harry wanted to swim. At the end of it, Your mother predicts the exact day of their death. She knew it would be sometime that week, and we had almost all of the preparations ready, but when Harry said 'Swim tomowow' she was shocked into instinctive divination, and predicted that it would be the next day.'
'James told her to turn the spell off, he didn't want you to hear or see what we did next. We sat back down. We made the final preparations. You know that the plan was to have Voldemort kill James. James was going to die to defend Harry, and then Voldemort would try to kill Harry. The curse would rebound upon Voldemort, and then I would be free to finish Voldemort off. We had agreed on that plan. James was ready to sacrifice himself, for the good of the future world. We understood that there was no way around it.'
'Your mother wrote the letter to the orphanage director, saying that I would pick you up on the day after Halloween. Everything was ready. We saw no flaws. Then, Dumbledore Apparated into the room. He said that Voldemort was after us. He expected us to be horrified, but Elizabeth started laughing. To this day, Dumbledore has no idea why she said No kidding!'
'James and Elizabeth had known since birth that Voldemort would be after them. You know about Gryffindor, and all of that. Before James even agreed to date me, he told me everything, and all the danger. Elizabeth had made a prediction that our son would save the world. She did an alternate future spell to see what the world would be like if I didn't marry James. She told me nothing of her prediction until I told her that I loved James, and was going to marry him. When she was assured that I was going to go ahead with it, she told me that I had made the right decision.'
'When Dumbledore suggested the Fidelus Charm, Elizabeth asked him to come back when she called for him. She looked into her crystal ball, and to her great dismay saw that Voldemort had gotten a team of Seers together, to change the future. Most of it seemed to have been directed at Dumbledore, and Peter Pettigrew. Your mother wanted to go kill Voldemort then and there, but it was all she could do to save the situation without killing herself. The future changing spells of Voldemort's Seers were great in number. Elizabeth estimated that it had taken about 100 Seers to do all that damage.'
'Elizabeth changed a lot of the spells, with help from James. The most she could do was to make Harry survive. She and James combined could not save me, unless Harry died. They gave me a choice. As if I would save my life instead of the life of my baby. They knew without asking what I would choose, and it had nothing to do with divination.'
'They were able to make it so that James would be able to try to get a shot in at Voldemort. They made it so that he would have a chance, but they could not secure anything. Elizabeth then Saw the part about Sirius and Pettigrew. She was astonished, and ready to kill that sorry excuse for a rat. The most she could do, was to make sure Sirius was able to escape from Azkaban. The dark Seers had had it so that Sirius would get the dementor's kiss. That was avoided. She was able to make Remus get a job at Hogwarts in Harry's third year, so that there would be a chance for Peter to be caught. She was unable to secure more than a slim chance.'
'There was nothing she could do about us switching Secret Keepers. She tried to tell us, but she almost killed herself, and she still had more Seeing to do, and she still had much to change. She saved the life of Neville Longbottom, as a favor to Billy, as a favor to Frank.'
'She went back to the fight at Godric's Hallow, to try to do more. Voldemort's Seer team had had it so that Pettigrew would take Harry after we were dead, and then kill him. I remember her sighing, and asking how many times she would have to save him. She fixed it so that he would live with Petunia. I was horrified, but there was no way to get him to the orphanage you would be at, so I knew better than to complain. Elizabeth continued to save Harry. She saved him from not being able to go to Hogwarts, then she saved his life in his first year, she stopped Quirrel from getting the Sorcerer's Stone, she saved Harry, Hermione Granger, and Ginny Weasley from the Basilisk in his second year, she saved Sirius in Harry's third year, and she saved Harry in his fourth year. There was nothing she could do about the Diggory boy, and she did an alternate future spell to See if she should do anything about Voldemort. There is a reason she didn't, that I can not tell you.'
'Then she did an alternate future spell to See if she should try to warn us about Pettigrew. She Saw that if she did, she would die, and it still wouldn't work. She also Saw that right before Voldemort killed her, she would hit him once with Avada Kedavra, and if she wasn't there to do that, Voldemort would be able to kill Harry, in which case, the world would be doomed. Not to mention that she would have wasted all her energy on saving Harry's life so many times, and then to let him die? She couldn't do that, and for nothing.'
'She looked into her crystal ball a moment later, and saw that Voldemort's Seers were making it so you wouldn't go to Hogwarts. With 100 Seers against 1, all she could do was to get you to be a transfer student in your fifth year. Then she used all the strength she could spare to stop Voldemort's Seers from changing the future.'
'By know she was worried that she was getting a little to close to the dark arts for comfort. We assured her that everything she was doing was light magic, and that even by getting you to Hogwarts she saved lives, because if you were never at Hogwarts, you couldn't participate in the final battle, and Voldemort would be able to kill many more people.'
'Then James helped her put the rest of Voldemort's Seers out of commission, and there was nothing left we could do. James did transfer a lot of his and our thoughts and memories into a diary, quite similar to the one Voldemort made when he was in school, although we left out all the dark magic and controlling power. The only thing is, there are some bad memories and things in there too. We put it in our vault at Gringotts. Harry won't even be able to see it until he is 17.'
'After Elizabeth and James had done so much future changing, Elizabeth was so weak she was about to pass out, probably for a month. Billy and I brewed a reviving potion for her, a will-strengthening potion, and an energy potion. She sill looked incredibly pale after the potions had taken effect, and said she couldn't See a thing in her crystal ball. That meant that she had almost no power left.'
'James was never a Seer, but because of his blood, he could change the future by his actions. Elizabeth said that she remembered Seeing in the crystal ball when she was fighting Voldemort was that she was incredibly pale. She also said Harry survived the curse Voldemort threw at him, but he didn't look too good. James thought that if he gave Elizabeth some of his power, she would be able to throw a more powerful killing curse at Voldemort, and it would have more effect. He said he knew that the chance Elizabeth had given him of being able to hit Voldemort was incredibly slim, and she would make better use of his power than he would.'
'Elizabeth was inclined to agree. She didn't want to come off conceited, but she knew that they had to do what was best for the most people, pride, family values, and what they wanted as individuals aside. Power transferring spells are dark magic, but as much as neither of them wanted to do it, they did. Dark magic, used for good, becomes light magic, and amplifies the results. James and Elizabeth found that out. Dark magic such as that had never before been used for a good reason, and had any of us had more time to live, we would have written books about it. Elizabeth had full strength after that.'
'When no-one could think of anything else to do, Elizabeth told Dumbledore to come back. Dumbledore came, and sat down to talk with the Potters. Elizabeth used all the strength she could muster to try to tell them not to use Pettigrew, or to tell Dumbledore that they were going to use Pettigrew, but it was still the work of 100 Seers against 1. There was nothing she could do.'
'You know the rest, Hannah dear.' Lily concluded. 'It is, quite literally, history. I wish I could stay and chat, but I was only allowed to come for long enough to tell you about this whole mess. I hope you no longer think that James and I messed up, and remember-your mother saved the world. Be proud of her, and when Voldemort is finally dead, you will no longer have to keep these secrets. You can shout to the world that you are a Potter. Be proud Hannah, and tell Harry when the time is right. You will know.'
When Lily had gone, I stared into space for about an hour, thinking. Her story explained a lot. I felt bad for telling Professor Lupin that Lily and James had messed up. It seemed like so long ago that I had talked to him on the train, first coming to Hogwarts. It had only really been about two months. I resolved to tell Professor Lupin at least a little of what Lily had told me. Some of the things that got better might make him appreciate the good things more, and knowing about how much damage Voldemort had done would be good for him. More people needed to oppose Voldemort, and less people needed to fear him.
I spent the next few hours in the Shrieking Shack, and then, around three, I went back to Hogwarts. I left all my divination things there. Since it was Saturday, I had no idea of where to find Professor Lupin. It wasn't a Hogsmead weekend, so what would he do? I decided to try his office first, to see if he might be there. When he wasn't, I was out of ideas. Then, I remembered the Marauder's Map. I summoned it, and when it got to me, I was astonished to see that Professor Lupin was standing right behind me. I whirled around, and he smiled at me.
"Hi!" I said. "I just summoned the map to find you, and I saw you standing right behind me! How long have you been there?"
"Oh, about two minutes." He said. "I was looking for you. Hermione told me that you went to the Shrieking Shack this morning. I was about to go check on you."
"I'm fine." I said. "It's the Halloween of my fifth year, remember?"
"Oh, that's right." He said. "Let's continue this conversation in my office, shall we?"
"Good idea." I said. "I don't want to be overheard."
When we got to his office, and had sat down, Professor Lupin asked, "So, are you going to tell me anything?"
"Yes." I said. "I know it will help you. It helped me a lot. I thought things were bad, but they could have been a lot worse. Let me start at the beginning..."
When I was done telling him everything that Lily had told me, Professor Lupin just stared at me. After about ten minutes, he spoke.
"I never knew Elizabeth had that power." He said. "And I didn't know that stuff about the dark arts either. I want to kill Pettigrew, and Voldemort. I can't imagine how it would feel to know something like that, about Pettigrew betraying Lily and James, and not be able to do anything about it. I would have died."
"That was the danger." I said. "She couldn't use all her power to tell them, or she would die, and Voldemort might not attack the Potters, but he would continue to kill other families. Without my mother to do future changing spells, and to warn the Auror teams, and with Voldemort still at large, because he wasn't killed by Harry, he would have taken over the world, and killed anybody that stood a chance against him. James and Lily wanted it that way, Lily told me. She said that they knew they had to do what was best for the most people. Her brother and his wife, or half the world. They had to do it. It must have been torture. In fact, Lily told me that it was torture for Mother."
"Your right, Hannah." Professor Lupin sighed. "You nearly always are. I owe Elizabeth so much. She saved Harry, you, the world, Sirius, and even me."
"I won't argue with that," I said. "but you didn't need saving half as much as the rest of us."
"I stayed a little bit out of the picture for awhile." he said. "James and Sirius thought I was the spy, for the dark side. I was really a spy for the light side, but not much trusted. Dumbledore trusted me, but none of my partners did. I was often discouraged, so I didn't talk about it much. I didn't want to dump my problems on my friends, but me not talking to them as much as I used to probably made them suspicious of me."
"It was a messed up world we were living in. I believed that Sirius was guilty for a while. Funny, Sirius and James trusted each other, and Pettigrew, but not me. I trusted James and Pettigrew, but not Sirius. We didn't trust the innocent, except for James, who was in the center of all this, and he couldn't possibly have been on the dark side, but we all trusted the person guilty of the crime."
"If I get my hands on rat boy," I said. "I will personally make sure he does not get away." "Do you know all that he did?"
"I know he sold Lily and James to Voldemort." he said. "But it sounds as if he did more."
"Besides the blatantly obvious being Lily and James' Secret Keeper, and telling Voldemort exactly where to find them, he passed information to Voldemort for about three years before that. When he was at Hogwarts, he found out that my mother was a Potter. She wasn't killed just for being a Seer on the light side, she was killed for being a Potter. He sold my parents to Voldemort. We can only hope he doesn't know about me."
"He also framed Sirius, and abused your trust in him every way imaginable. Anything, and everything he knew about you, he used against you. James thought of becoming animagi so that they could keep you company when you were a werewolf. Later, he used that talent that he wouldn't have acquired without you, James, and Sirius to sicc Voldemort after you, James, and Sirius."
"Me?" Lupin asked. "Voldemort never came after me."
"If he had not met his downfall in Harry," I said. "you would have been killed the next night. My mother Saw it, in one of her alternate future spells. Wormtail told Voldemort that you were a spy for the light side, and friends with the Potters and their families. Besides for him selling my mother, father, aunt, uncle, and cousin to Voldemort, Peter Pettigrew put the Cruciatus Curse on me for ten minutes when I was six months old." I said.
"I only went out of the house once before I was at the orphanage." I said. When I was six months old, my parents disguised themselves and took me to a muggle movie. They didn't think any dark wizards would be at a muggle move, but Voldemort's Seers ruin a lot of things. They had done some instinctive divination, and told Wormtail to be at that movie, and when it was over to torture the first baby he saw."
"Naturally, that was me. He stunned my parents from behind, and then tortured me for ten minutes. My parents were able to overcome the stunning when they heard me screaming. Aurors do that. They stunned and tied Pettigrew, disguised themselves, and then Apparated everyone to Dumbledore's office, being careful not to let Wormtail know who they were. Pettigrew convinced everyone that he had the Imperius curse put on him. He was taught how to resist it, and then sent home.
"I was in pretty bad shape, but Fawkes came over to me and cried all over me. I was drenched in Phoenix tears by the time Fawkes was done, and by some miracle, I was good as new. Dumbledore had no clue why Fawkes would cry for someone he didn't know. I think he got a little bit suspicious toward the end."
"My mother only figured out that Pettigrew was lying on the night before she was killed. The last page of my letter is about everything traitorous he has done."
"Oh my." Lupin said. "He put the Cruciatus Curse on a defenseless baby?"
"I was not defenseless." I said. "I put the leg locker curse on my mother when I was two days old. She wouldn't let me hold her wand."
"Well!" Professor Lupin said. "I can see why, if you did the leg locker curse without a wand, what were you going to do with a wand?"
"I think Mother said I wanted to apparate us home. We were in a wizard hospital, because Mother had been doing so many future changing spells that she was rather weak after having a baby."
Lupin started laughing. "Ok, ok, I take it back! You weren't a defenseless baby."
"Thank you." I said.
"Did Dumbledore know your parents?" Lupin asked.
"Um, you could say that." I said evasively. "I'd better go see what Hermione is doing. I spent the night in the Shrieking Shack last week, and after today she might be getting worried."
"Good idea." Lupin said. "If I didn't know better, I'd be worried about you too."
"Bye." I said.
When I got to our dorm, I was startled to see Hermione sitting on her bed, and staring at my letter, which was laying on my bed.
"Hello!" I said.
"Hi." Hermione answered.
I sat down on my bed, and picked up my letter.
"What's that?" Hermione asked.
"A big, blank, book." I said. "Would you like to see it?"
Hermione took my book from my outstretched hand, and started flipping through it.
"You can try revealing spells on it, if you want." I said. "It won't work."
Hermione got her wand out, and said "Revelo!" Nothing happened.
She rubbed it with a red eraser. Nothing happened.
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." Nothing happened.
"I solemnly swear that I am up to a lot of good." Nothing happened.
"I solemnly swear that I want to read this." Nothing happened.
"I solemnly swear that Hannah said I could try to read this. Nothing happened.
"I told you it wouldn't work." I said.
"Is there anything I could say to make it readable?" Hermione asked.
"Nothing light magic." I said. "If you want to experiment with the dark arts..."
"You're kidding, right?" Hermione asked, sounding worried.
"Of course!" I said. "I don't know the spell, even if I did want to do it. If I wanted you to be able to read it, there is another way, which would be almost as bad as dark magic, and really stupid. The only good way for you to know what it says, would be for me to simply read it to you, which I doubt that I will ever do, and if I did it would be after my seventh year."
"So in other words, forget about it and worry about the feast?" Hermione asked, smiling.
"Exactly!" I said. "How long until it starts?"
"About an hour." Hermione answered.
"Wow!" I said. "I was talking to Professor Lupin for longer than I thought!"
"Oh, yeah." Hermione said. "I forgot to tell you that he asked where you were. Is it ok that I told him?"
"Yes." I said. "You can always tell Professor Lupin, or Professor McGonogall, if she asks."
"Ok." Hermione said. "Did he go get you?"
"No." I said. "I came back and looked for him because I wanted to talk to him."
"Oh." Hermione said. "I was worried about you, being gone two weeks in a row."
"You know why I left last week." I said. "Do you know why I left today?"
"No." Hermione said.
"It was for a reason similar to last week, but I was also doing some divination today."
"O-kayyyy." Hermione said slowly.
I had the feeling that I had managed to totally confuse her, so I changed the subject.
"I'm going to owl Lydia." I said, knowing she would ask who Lydia was.
Sure enough-"Who's Lydia?"
"My adopted sister." I said. "Not really, but on everyone's 14th birthday, they draw a name out of a hat. The name of every child under five is in there, and whoever's name you draw becomes your adopted brother or sister. You spend a lot of time with that person, and take care of them. I got Lydia, and at that time she was just a new born."
"Her mother had dropped her off at daycare one day, and never come back for her. The person that ran the daycare brought her to the orphanage. For about a year after that, Lydia would scream every time someone left her, until she realized that they would come back. Just when she got over her phobia, I had to leave. She was really attached to me, and Mrs. Tweedy, the orphanage director, was scared that she would have a relapse. I am supposed to go back over the holidays, and some other weekends. I will probably go back next weekend, so I have to owl Mrs. Tweedy. The full moon is on Tuesday, so it shouldn't be a problem."
After I had written my letter, Rainbow (my owl) flew into the room through an open window. Hermione gasped when she saw a big multicolored owl fly in.
"Hello rainbow." I said. "Take this letter to Mrs. Tweedy, but fly past Lydia first. After you deliver the letter, go back to Lydia and play with her."
After Rainbow had left, I said to Hermione "Owls are almost as smart as snakes."
"Snakes?" Hermione said. "I don't like snakes."
"Really?" I asked. I stuck my head under my bed to see if my snake was there. He was, so I pulled him out. "Hermione, meet Jupiter, my snake."
Jupiter turned to me and said "What is her name?"
"Sorry." I said in Parseltongue. "This is my friend Hermione."
Hermione looked at me, her mouth hanging open.
"You're a parselmouth?" she asked.
"Yep." I said. "I think it's time for the feast now."
The feast was wonderful, and at the end there was a show of how the Bloody Baron got bloody. It seemed that Dumbledore had spent the last few years convincing him to do it, and finally he gave in. After the feast, everyone went straight to bed and fell fast asleep.