Chapter 61... Enjoy!
It was pitch dark, and there was a pin-drop silence. And then there was a loud crack and 2 human figures could be seen at the end of the street. They were giggling and the sound of their footsteps could be heard clearly from a distance away. The moment she heard and saw the young pair, she felt a quaking in her boots and rushed back inside the house.
"... should've seen his face when she caught the snitch..." said the male voice laughing out loud.
"He looked so mad," came the reply of the girl beside him.
As the pair walked closer and closer towards the house, fear grew higher and higher inside her. None of this made any sense.
The twins were half drunk, and their steps were unsteady. And suddenly, Jane stopped.
"John..." she whispered.
"What?" asked John, still half-giggling.
"Why is our door ajar?" she asked, pointing towards their house. John could see that the door was open.
"I don't know," he replied, sobering up slightly.
"Someone's inside, maybe a thief?" asked Jane and pulled out her wand from her back pocket, and gestured for John to do the same. They walked slowly towards their house with their wands pointing in front of them.
"Whoever's inside, come out slowly, hands in the air and we won't hurt you," shouted Jane. They stood silent for a few seconds, but they couldn't hear any footsteps. They slowly walked up to the door and pushed it open completely.
"Lumos," whispered the twins. They walked in slowly, trying not to make any sound with their footsteps. However, the moment they walked in, John felt something hit his back, like a strong gust of wind, and he fell face-first on the ground, with a thud.
Jane had gotten a look at the intruder. Before the intruder could do anything, Jane hit her with a stunning spell, and the intruder fell to the ground. John got up holding his head in his hands.
"John… you okay?" asked Jane.
"Yeah," replied John, rubbing his forehead.
{ The year is 2022... A few years before John & Jane travel back in time }
Jane had her wand pointed at the intruder and walked towards her. But before Jane could say anything, the intruder got on her knees and started crying.
"Give… me… my son back," she sobbed. Jane glanced at John and moved towards the intruder.
"Your son?" asked Jane.
"He'll kill him… I need to stop him," came the quavering voice of the intruder.
"Who will kill your son? Who are you?" asked Jane. Jane got down on her knees, getting face to face with the intruder.
"You-Know-Who," replied the intruder and fell back to the ground unconscious. Jane tried to wake her up, but she didn't move.
"We should call the Aurors," said John.
"No," replied Jane.
"What do you mean? She just broke into our house," remarked John looking puzzled.
"She was scared… She is looking for her son. We can't just call the Aurors without knowing more," replied Jane.
"You do realize that we are friends with the Minister for Magic. All we would have to do is to tell Aunt Hermione, and she'll take care of this. And if she does have a son who's missing, then she'll get help for that as well," retorted John.
"We can't call Aunt Hermione for help. Have you gone mad? She's the Minister for Magic. She'd have enough on her plate as it is," retorted back Jane. "We can't trouble her for trivial matters, John," she added with a chuckle.
"Right, what do you suggest we do?" asked John.
"It's well past midnight now. We'll help our stranger into one of our rooms, and we'll try to help her in the morning," replied Jane.
"You've got to be joking. We're not going to help a thief… What if she kills us in our sleep? We don't even know if she was lying," retorted John, looking stunned.
"She wasn't lying, John... I read her, she wasn't lying... she was scared," replied Jane.
John gave a look of disgust to Jane, but they finally came to an agreement. They carried the intruder to a spare room and helped her onto the bed. John gave a final look to the intruder before the twins left the room. She had bruises on her face, and on her hands. Bruises that looked pretty fresh. She looked young, about the same age as them. If he had to make a guess, he'd have said, "early to mid-20s". He noticed how pretty she looked, but wiped the thought immediately off his mind.
As the twins came out of the room, John stopped Jane.
"What happened?" she asked.
"Did you look at her bruises? They look fresh to me," remarked John. "If we are going to help her, we might as well do it properly," he added.
Jane gave a slight grin, and replied, "I'll get the first aid."
Once the twins were done cleaning the wounds, they came out of the intruder's room.
"It's late, and I'm sleepy," said Jane as they came out of the room.
"Yeah… so am I," replied John. They went to their rooms and dozed off immediately.
John was the first one to wake up the following morning. He woke up with a headache and a hangover.
"Ugh... the Gods are punishing me for my indulgences," he sighed as he clutched his head. And then he remembered the intruder for the previous night.
For some reason, it felt like a half-remembered dream. He got up from his bed and made his way towards the spare room where the intruder was there. He opened the door and saw her fast asleep. He quietly made his way out and towards the kitchen to get something to eat.
A few minutes had passed. He was biting into his sandwich when he heard footsteps. He went out of the kitchen and saw the intruder standing still, looking around, confused.
"Uh... Hi! Good Morning!" greeted John apprehensively.
"Where am I? Who are..." she began but stopped mid-question. John could see a drastic change in the intruder's expression. From one of confusion, it had turned to what he could only describe as fear.
"No need to be afraid," remarked John instantly.
But the intruder remained silent.
"Do you remember anything from last night?" he asked. He waited for a response but got none.
"My sister and I came home last night and found you inside our house. You then said something about your son. Who are you? Do you need any help?" asked John. But it felt like he was talking to a statue. He got absolutely no response from the intruder. She was standing still and looked rattled. He waited for a few minutes.
Something had obviously spooked her, but he had no idea what to do further. He left her standing in the hall and went inside the kitchen to get her something to eat.
When he came back, he found the intruder looking around the hall, at the different photo frames, and posters hanging on the wall. He handed her a plate and only after a few seconds of looking up and down, she took the plate from him.
She sat down on a couch and ate the food quietly.
John stood near her awkwardly for a minute or so and finally decided to wake his sister up.
"Jane… wake up," called out John as he entered her room. After a few seconds of calling her name, she woke up.
"Let me sleep for a few more minutes," she said angrily.
"You need to wake up now," replied John. "Our intruder isn't talking," he added. At those words, Jane woke up brightly.
"I'm so sorry, I completely forgot," replied Jane and got up.
The twins made their way to the hall a few minutes later and found the intruder staring at the walls.
"Has she said anything?" asked Jane.
"Absolutely nothing," replied John.
"Hi, I am Jane," said Jane and held out her hand. But the intruder left her hanging.
"Do you remember anything from last night?" she asked. Like John, Jane failed to get a reply.
"Last night, you were crying and asked us about your son. We… We don't know who you are, or who your son is. But we can help you find him," added Jane.
There was no change in the blank expression of the intruder. So, Jane continued, "if you want our help, you need to tell us who you are, and give us more details about yourself."
After continually failing to get any response from the intruder, John finally lost his patience.
"Jane… we should call the Aurors," he said. At that very instant, the intruder spoke up for the first time.
"No… No Aurors," she remarked.
"Why? Why do you not want the Aurors?" asked John. But they got no response from the intruder for that.
The twins left the intruder alone in the hall and went inside Jane's room.
"I'm telling you, there's something off about her. Why would she stop us from calling the Aurors?" remarked John.
"I don't know, John... She seems decent and she's obviously a decent witch," replied Jane.
"And how could you possibly know that?" retorted John.
"Well, she had you on the floor... without a wand, might I add... And," replied Jane and paused.
"And?"
"And she is capable of occlumency," she added.
John gave her an exasperated look.
"Look," began Jane. "Her son is missing... So, she'll obviously do something to rectify that. Let's give her some space," she said and glanced at John.
"Have you gone mental? Give her some space? For how long?" asked John. But Jane had no response ready for that. She knew that John was correct. That there was nothing better they could do, but something inside her told her to wait a little bit longer.
A few hours went by, but the twins didn't do anything significant that day, since their complete focus was on the intruder. She didn't do much. She just sat on the couch and stared at the walls.
Even John hadn't looked at the walls in the house in all his time there, as much as the intruder had in just a few hours. There were photos of the twins, from their younger days to the present. There were photos of their parents, them with their Aunt Hermione. There were posters of the quidditch team they supported, 'The Chudley Cannons'. There was a clock, one that didn't tell time, but told where the twins were. At the moment, the dials for the twins, both pointed at 'Home'. There was a calendar, a Wi-Fi router and a mirror too. The moment John's eyes fell on the Wi-Fi router, a thought came to his mind.
He walked towards the intruder and asked, "Do you have a mobile phone?"
This question had stumped the intruder. It became obvious to John from the expression on the intruder's face that she had no idea what a "mobile phone" was.
"Of course, you don't... How would you know about muggle technology," he sighed.
The day went by like that. The twins noticed that the intruder ate very little, but they didn't do anything about it. She went to sleep pretty soon after that. A few minutes later, John handed Jane a glass of wine and sat beside her.
"Are you going to tell me to call the Aurors again?" asked Jane as she took the glass from John's hands.
"Actually, no. I am just confused. I mean, look at her," he said and handed Jane his phone. There was a photo of the intruder on the screen.
"You took her photo?" asked Jane curiously.
"Well, she has no idea what a mobile phone is. I don't think she even knew I took her pic," replied John. Jane stared at the picture. The look of sadness and helplessness was obvious on the intruder's face.
"I have no idea what we should do," said Jane, slowly handing John back his phone.
"Neither do I," replied John. "If at all her son is missing, what is she doing here? Why did… does she think we have her son? Why hasn't she uttered a word since the morning? Why doesn't she want the Aurors to be involved? This is just bizarre," he finished. There was silence between the twins, one that lasted well over a few minutes.
And then Jane spoke, "Yesterday when she was crying, I asked her who was after her son. She didn't say a name though. Just insinuated that I knew."
"Jane, I think enough is enough. Tomorrow, we'll talk to her again. And if she doesn't have anything to say, we'll call the Aurors," replied John.
The twins barely had any sleep that night.
And the same could be said for the intruder. She lay awake for hours. It was easy for her to fake being asleep. In all fairness, the twins had not bothered her at all. If anything, she actually liked the twins. But there was something else on her mind. To be more accurate, there were many other things on her mind. Least of all was her son. In the past 24 hours, she had gone through a range of emotions, a few adrenaline rushes and most of all, she had felt the ultimate pain of losing her husband, that too at the hands of betrayal.
She wanted to scream... scream so loudly, that the whole country would wake up. She had rarely felt helpless in her life, but at that moment, that was exactly how she felt. And to top it all off, she knew her time was almost up. There was something warm and good about the twins, but even good people had their threshold, and she knew that.
As the thoughts in her head swirled, she felt her eyes close. It felt like only an instant had passed when she woke up the following morning. She felt much better than she had done the previous night.
A few minutes later, the intruder walked out of her room, and into the hall. She hesitated for a moment, but after realizing that there was no movement in the house, she walked boldly into the kitchen and made herself a cup of tea. She sat down on the same couch she did the day before and stared at the photo frame on the table while sipping her tea. There was something wholesome about the smile on the faces of the people in the photo. Unlike wizard photographs that had people moving in them, this one had all of them stationary. The photo had the twins sitting on either side of someone who looked like their father. The father had red hair similar to hers, though he looked extremely tall. She could easily the resemblance between the father and the son, in their facial features, in their smiles. She assumed that the daughter took her mother's features. Just as she was admiring the photo, she heard footsteps, and she immediately stiffened. From the other side of the hall, walked Jane, who had clearly just woken up. The moment Jane saw the intruder, she froze on the spot.
Jane instinctively froze on making eye contact with the intruder. But there was something different about her that day. Unlike the day before, the intruder didn't flinch on seeing Jane. After a few seconds of remaining stationary, Jane walked forward towards the intruder.
"How are you doing?" asked Jane. The intruder remained silent for a few moments, but she finally spoke up.
"I uh..." she cleared her throat and continued, "I am doing okay," replied the intruder. The intruder gave a soft smile and Jane returned the same.
"I apologize for my behaviour the other night and yesterday," added the intruder. Jane was taken aback after hearing the intruder utter 2 sentences together, and also by the fact that she seemed much more open and calm.
"It's alright," replied Jane awkwardly. "We can help you find your son," she added.
"I don't think you can. He's far away from me now, and there's nothing that can be done about it," replied the intruder. The sudden change in the tone of the intruder's voice threw Jane off. But she was even more surprised by how normal the intruder looked.
"I know that you're in shock, but don't worry. My brother and I.. are capable enough to help you out in whatever we can. Plus, we have an extended family of wizards and witches. All we would need to do is make one phone call, and they'll be here in an instant," replied Jane in her most reassuring voice.
Just that instant, Jane's eyes fell on the clock that was hanging on the wall behind the couch where the intruder was sitting. It had John's needle in 'travelling' status. She was surprised by the fact that John was travelling somewhere early in the morning.
"Did you see John today?" asked Jane.
"No, I haven't seen him today," replied the intruder. Only a few seconds would have passed when they heard the sound of the needle move from 'travelling' to 'home'.
The moment Jane saw that she got up and made her way to the entrance. The moment she reached, she could see 2 tall figures walking towards the house. The one on the right was obviously her brother. And it only took her a moment to recognize who was with him. It was none other than Uncle Black.
"Uncle Black," squealed Jane as she threw herself at Sirius, and gave him a big hug. Sirius returned the favour.
"Oh, my favourite twin… It's so good to see you," exclaimed Sirius.
"Favourite?" questioned John immediately.
"I am kidding… I love you both equally," replied Sirius and kissed the twins on their forehead and pulled them together for another hug.
"What a surprise, I wasn't expecting to see you today," said Jane.
"Neither was I, darling. You have your brother to thank," replied Sirius.
"John?" asked Jane, surprised. But it suddenly dawned on her, what John had done. "No… No, you didn't," she added, dismayed.
"Yes, I did," replied John.
"Yes, he did," added Sirius. "Now that I'm here, let's talk to your intruder," added Sirius. "And, come on kids… Intruder? Seriously? You don't even know her name?" remarked Sirius disgusted. The twins stared at each other and then at Sirius. But to their relief, Sirius burst out laughing.
"Relax J & J. Uncle Padfoot is here," said Sirius and walked through the entrance followed by the twins.
The intruder had heard the laughter from the conversations happening outside the house. A 3rd voice in the laughter meant John had brought someone with him. So, when she heard their footsteps coming in through the door, she got up and stood facing the door.
She was mentally preparing herself, either to be thrown out of the house or to be handed over to the Aurors. She would have preferred to be thrown out, for she wouldn't have had any answers to the questions that the Aurors would have.
But, no amount of mental preparation could have helped for what was to come. The intruder saw the twins come in through the door along with a man, who looked in his 60s.
The moment she saw his face, the expression on her face turned. She was in utter shock. This couldn't be possible.
Sirius walked in through the door and his eyes fell on the intruder. The moment he saw her, he froze.
The twins walked past Sirius and only stopped a few steps later when they saw the look on the faces of both, the intruder and their Uncle Black.
"Uncle Padfoot," called out John.
"You... you look like... you look like someone I used to know," remarked Sirius, with a broken voice. Sirius walked closer towards the intruder.
The closer he got, the worse he felt at the bottom of his stomach. She had the same hair, her facial expressions were identical. And her eyes...
"Lily?" called out Sirius in a low yearning voice.
"Sirius?" retorted Lily, slowly.
PS - Did you like this chapter? Did you expect this? Hope this one hit where it should have...
Welcome to a whole new set of chapters, comprising "5th year" worth of story... Until the next one, Ciao!